"The gap between the current reality and the department's aspirations for itself is wide," the study said. "Bold action is needed to communicate that the department is shifting to a new organizational and operational paradigm."
To that end, the study envisions a department that is leaner, more efficient, and more integrated - potentially saving the city more than $11 million a year.
The department could achieve these goals through a number of initiatives - privatizing many services, eliminating some positions, instituting fines for nuisance calls.
The 289-page report bores down to such detail as to question whether the department needs to employ a full-time mail clerk.
But on perhaps the most contentious issue of all - the deployment of fire companies - the study does not recommend any radical changes to the city's network of fire stations.
The city closed seven fire companies in 2009, and has been "browning out" others on a rotating basis. The firefighters' union has criticized the moves as pure budget slashing that jeopardizes public safety.
The study provides three scenarios in which efficiencies could be achieved with the shifting of equipment. One scenario recommends merging one station and moving two others; the other scenarios suggest no station changes.
The study, conducted by Berkshire Advisors, an Ohio-based consultant group, said the need for brownouts would be eliminated if the city followed the study's recommendations.
The apparent linchpin of the strategy would be beefing up the role and number of paramedics, many of whom now suffer from low morale and feel "exhausted and defeated."
The study says paramedics should be cross-trained as firefighters and should be available to assist "fire suppression needs."
