Fire Service Tenure: Wayne J . Martin began his Fire Service career as a volunteer Firefighter in Franklin Square, New York, in 1972. He currently serves as the Deputy Director of Planning for the Greater Naples Fire Rescue District (GNFD) in Collier County, Florida. Career Journey: Wayne has served as a Volunteer Firefighter and Ambulance Administrator for the Franklin Square, Munson Fire Department on Long Island, New York, and the Golden Gate Fire Association in Naples, Florida. He began his paid career as a Firefighter with the City of Naples Fire Department in 1975. He rose through the ranks and in 1982 became the City Fire Marshal. In 1988, he was selected as the Fire Chief for the East Naples Fire District. In 1993, Wayne was selected as the Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director for the City of Oviedo, Florida, eventually retiring in 2004. He re-entered an active fire service career in 2013 as the Operations Manager for the Isles of Capri Fire District, Collier County, Florida. In 2015, he was selected as the Deputy Director of Planning for the Greater Naples Fire Rescue District. He has served as President of the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association and Florida State Firefighters Association. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration from Eckerd College and a Master’s Degree in Executive Fire Service Leadership from Grand Canyon University. Form of Government: The Greater Naples Fire Rescue District is an independent fire district created by the Florida Legislature. The merged District of Golden Gate and East Naples Fire Districts took place in 2014. Isles of Capri Fire Rescue was merged into GNFD and officially annexed into the District in August 2016. The District began management of the Ochopee Fire Control District on November 1, 2016. The Fire Chief reports directly to the eight- member Board of Fire Commissioners and serves as the District Manager and Chief Executive Officer. Source of Funding for Jurisdiction: The majority of the funding for the District comes from property tax dollars. The current millage is 1.5 mills per $1,000.00 of assessed value. The District has an annual budget of over $30 million dollars per year. Other sources of revenue include impact fees and user fees for fire inspections of new and existing buildings. Population Served / Square Miles: The district serves over 154,000 citizens in approximately 1,514 square miles, including approximately 200 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Mexico and 105 miles of interstate highway. Composition of Organization: Command staff includes the Fire Chief, and six Section Managers including Finance, Logistics, Operations, Planning, and Investigations. District Equipment: The District has approximately 100 pieces of rolling stock. They include 12 front-line engines, two ladder trucks, one air and light squad, one Heavy Rescue, five water tenders, and, ten wildland apparatus, and two rescue fire boats. Call Summary: The District responds to over 19,000 each year. What is the most challenging issue facing your district today?: The most challenging issue facing the District today is stretching the dollars. The growth in Southwest Florida is expected to continue over the next several years, therefore requiring more fire stations, equipment, and personnel. Leadership Style: Wayne works hard to be inclusive and promotes follow-up and accountability. What are the planning challenges that you see facing the fire district today? From the planning viewpoint, vision and insight are needed to meet the future needs of the District. As a newly created Fire District, GNFD is a new ground floor organization. Working through the merger and management of four fire districts included different colored apparatus, different training procedures, different uniforms, different pay scales, and different culture. GNFD biggest challenge is the collaboration to infuse great cultures that existed into one organization. Explain the structure of your Section and how it is implemented: The Planning Section is a part of a NIMS compliant organization. The Planning Section Deputy Director reports directly to Command (Fire Chief). The Planning Section is responsible for Strategic Plan updates and implementation, governing documents promulgation, Center for Public Safety Excellence Accreditation, ISO, research, and development. Do you have a close working relationship with your neighboring departments and other public safety agencies? The District has mutual aid, automatic-aid, and inter-local agreements with neighboring agencies including the City of Naples, North Collier, Marco Island, and Immokalee. What action has your department taken to comply with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) doctrine? The District promotes the use of the National Incident Management System on a daily basis, including administrative operations and on all emergency responses. How has FD changed during your career? Safety is on the top of the list today. Reduction of heart attacks and cancer. The District provides Life Scan assessments for better firefighter health. We must train-train-train and consider all Line of Duty Deaths as unacceptable. What is most challenging issue facing fire service today? The fire service must meet the need of the new generation and the new generation must understand where we have come from. What is the one thing you would change in the fire service if you could? We need to be the best we can be. What is the future of the fire service? The future of the fire service will be doing more with less. At one time public safety was sacred and would not be cut from a budget. We all saw that change in the recession. We as a fire service are being asked the hard questions and must provide detailed analysis for our requests. We must provide proper justification and documentation to our Commissioners and Councils. TIn order to make the best decisions for the public they serve, we must provide them with the data they require, need, and deserve. FLORIDA FIRE SERVICE May 2017 28 Meetthe Section Chief Wayne J Martin, MS, EFO, Deputy Director of Planning Section Greater Naples Fire Rescue District