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Fide splendet et scientia JANUARY 13, 2016
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VOTERS’ GUIDE SECTION C
Police Chief Wayne Nero and Fire Chief John Sullivan The Publisher and staff of the Advocate are pleased to recognize the contributions and successes of the leaders of our city’s first response programs. Fire Chief John Sullivan and Police Chief Wayne Nero made tremendous and noteworthy strides in 2015 toward making Georgetown a premier provider and a standard to be imitated.
Refusing Mediocrity
After personally knocking
on doors and promoting the $29 million bond that would facilitate the construction of Georgetown’s Safety Center on D.B. Wood Drive, Chief Nero was thrust into the role of project manager about a quarter of the way through construction. His contracting skills certainly weren’t why the city hired him, but as he has proven every day since he arrived in town, he chooses to be proactive and extraordinary no matter what he’s doing. For the latter part of a year, Nero simultaneously ran the department, during many 18hour days, while overseeing the build and all the appointments that make the center the envy of Texas. The Safety Center became the center of operations last Spring and had its official ribbon cutting in July to much fanfare. “When I took the job, I knew the city was going to move forward with what would allow us to become a more contempo-
Trust is Not a Negotiable Trait
rary agency,” Nero says. “Considering the growth pattern we were in, we could not have adapted given the department facilities and environment at the time.” While the Safety Center is certainly a jewel in Georgetown’s crown, it is also just an outward sign of a new evolution to a premier law enforcement agency. Nero has brought much more to the culture and image of the department. “We tout excellence and a new facility ensures that,” he says. “But what I’m most excited about is seeing the next generation of Georgetown leadership take their posts. The real change is in our Vision, Mission and Core Values, which everyone contributed to and has ownership in. We had to imagine our city with 150,000 people in it, and decide what our department had to look like to accommodate it.” When he started the job, the broad focus was to take the tactical skills and competency of the department to an even higher level. Part of that evolution included pay
F
See Police Chief, p. 7
ire Chief John Sullivan spent the better part of 2015 focusing on the city’s transition to our own EMS program. In just his second year at the helm, it was a bold (i.e., not universally popular) move at first and very forward thinking, but one based on sound experience and a definite need. The result is a contemporary system that is more responsive; literally in faster arrival times, and figuratively because the department continues to reach out to the community for input. Sullivan said, “My first year was a matter of listening, learning and understanding why things happen the way they do—inside and outside the organization.” The Chief did not want to take much credit and instead heaped great praise on the members of the department who went over and above to make it all possible. “Inside I wanted to address our purpose,” Sullivan said. “Many firefighters respond to
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calls, but thanks to decades of fire code improvements, we don’t fight a lot of fire. Much of what we do is medical, and we want to be able to provide a full complement of care, with the right equipment and the right training. I merely started the conversation ‘Why do we do it this way?’” He began by looking at every call from the instant a person dials 9-1-1. Sullivan himself was a “secret shopper” once because he came upon an emergent incident and called 9-1-1 himself. “Every medical call was assessed by a Georgetown dispatcher who then transferred to the appropriate county call center, which then called the appropriate response center to dispatch personnel. The caller had to repeat the critical information several times, all of which delayed the arrival time.” Georgetown assumed responsibility and met with communications staff for professional training to develop the skills for emergency medical dispatch. “It was a good outcome,” the Chief says. “Instead of 2-3 minute delays
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See Fire Chief, p. 7
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