Ladies and Gentlemen:
I want to share historical milestones District #4 has reached. I do this reflecting on my tenure as Chairman of its Board and since hiring Fire Chief Kenneth Moore in December of 2016. In context, fire districts and departments are the only governmental agencies whose primary duties are to protect and preserve both life and property.
In June of 2018, we received a Class 1 rating from the Professional Insurance Association of Louisiana. The rating translates in to lower rates to insure dwellings in our District. Importantly, this was the first time since the District was formed. We were also the first District St. Tammany Parish to get that rating! Our Class 1 was maintained in 2023 at our next rating evaluation. In fact, we scored higher than the 100 available points in rating criteria.
In June of 2021, we received the honor of International Accreditation. This means District practices, procedures, governance, and leadership met or exceeded international standards. Only Districts #4 and #1 have been awarded accreditation in St. Tammany Parish.
Our Class 1 Rating together with Accreditation put us in rare company. There are only a handful of fire districts in the whole state that are recognized to perform at the level we do.
Beyond that, we supplemented our capabilities to protect the lives of our fire fighters and the public we serve by adding a Fire Training Tower. The State Fire Marshall states our training facilities are the most suitable in this State. To further show this, many area departments and districts pay to use our facilities for training of their personnel to offset our costs.
In addition, we are building two new fire stations each equipped with necessary fire apparatus and ambulances. These stations will address the rapid expansion of personal and business property and population in our District. Station locations will proportionately reduce response times!
Finally, we have received nine consecutive years of clean financial audits from both an independent and Legislative Auditor. This means, they found no weaknesses in our financial procedures, accounting practices, and record keeping. Again, firsts in District history! This reflects competent financial practices. Without them, we could not have funded the two new stations.
These are only a few of our accomplishments. Others include reduced response times, lower use of sick leave, fewer absences, the capabilities to repair our equipment in-house, and less use of overtime. All of this was only possible because of the sophisticated business people who sit on our Board, their choice of correct priorities, with Chief Moore’s guidance, his direction and overall leadership, and the support and execution of priorities by his staff and our courageous firefighters.
Respectfully,
Wm. H. Dobson, LPI
Chairman, Board of Commissioners
St. Tammany Parish Fire District #4
