Conduct and Lead Statewide Fire Service Assessment. The awarded Contractor shall conduct and lead the above identified assessment in collaboration with SFM and other Minnesota fire service stakeholders. At a minimum, the assessment must include the following components as identified by the Minnesota Legislature: a macro-level review and analysis of incidents; incident types; response metrics; geographical distribution; life, safety, and property damage impacts; and trend projection analysis, benchmarked against national standards and best practices, including those of the National Fire Protection Association; an analysis of the number of fire departments and types of staffing in Minnesota compared to other states regionally and nationally, including staff response by time of day and day of the week; an analysis of the available data sets to determine what data is incomplete, inaccurate, or missing to make informed decisions in the future; an analysis of the effective response force of firefighters across the state, identifying any trends and patterns impacting the delivery of fire and life safety services; an analysis of the training, certification, and licensing of Minnesota firefighters, including initial and annual training, officers, inspectors, investigators, and specialty disciplines such as technical rescue and hazardous materials; an analysis of the recruitment and retention of fire department staff including volunteer, paid-on-call, part-time, contract, and full-time firefighters; a macro-level evaluation of fire department equipment, including personal protective equipment, apparatus equipment, communications equipment, and infrastructure, benchmarked against national standards and best practices, including those of the National Fire Protection Association; and a macro-level evaluation of the funding for firefighting services in Minnesota and how it compares to other states.
