BI fire department adopts 3-year strategic plan

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, January 21, 2026

The Bainbridge Island Fire Department Board of Commissioners adopted a new three-year strategic plan as part of its Jan. 14 meeting.

The strategic plan has 10 strategic priorities, including: match response capability to address identified risk and demand, facilitate employee development to improve performance and job satisfaction, and strengthen the health, wellness, and well-being of members through a mind-body-family approach, per the plan.

“The strategic priorities are intended to basically be the guiding strategic principles, as kind of an umbrella over everything that we undertake over the next three years, and then the strategic goals, those are specific things that were identified throughout the strategic planning process that we had been working on over the past year, and each one of those strategic goals falls under one or more of the strategic priorities,” BIFD fire chief Jared Moravec said. “In addition…each one of those goals are also supportive of my vision of the department moving forward.”

The strategic plan also ranks 10 goals from high to low priority. Moravec said all goals have some level of public impact and benefit to the community, adding, “the focus areas were used as part of the development process to keep relevant topics and program areas organized as we developed the strategic priorities and goals,” Moravec said.

“So the exciting part about the process is that now that we have the plan adopted, staff will be able to start moving forward and working on each of the strategic goals that are identified. So the next steps that we’ll be working on are to start laying out and working on the tactical objectives for each strategic goal, and start getting those things cast out and be able to make progress,” the chief said.

Following direction from the board, the volunteer program will be covered under everyday business and program updates instead of being part of the strategic planning efforts, Moravec said. No changes to the volunteer program have occurred.

BIFD plans for work to begin on all goals at some level in 2026, per the plan. The plan also includes quarterly progress reports to the board of commissioners starting in April, and allows the board to see progress and be able to ask questions and make course corrections as needed, Moravec said.

The department received delivery of a new brush truck last fall, and the department is working on adding equipment and building out a training curriculum for the new apparatus. BIFD hasn’t yet announced an entry into service, per the chief. BIFD responded to 3,781 calls in 2025, including both EMS and fire responses, the second-highest year for call volume in the department’s history. In 2024, the department responded to 3,913 calls for service.