Frank Babinec was hired as the City Manager for the City of Coral Springs in December of 2019. Prior to that, he served as the Chief of the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department from February of 2014 to December of 2019. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Leadership and earned an MBA in Public Administration.
Battalion Chief Christopher Bator began his career in 1996 as a Firefighter Paramedic with the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department and in that time has risen to the rank of Battalion Chief assigned to the Safety and Health Division. Battalion Chief Bator serves as the department’s Health & Safety Officer, Instructor, and Chair of the Safety and Health Committee for the Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department.
Chief Bator has an AS degree in EMS and is a State of Florida Certified Live Fire Instructor, Instructor 2, Fire Officer 3, and Safety Officer. Chief Bator also received his Fire Officer Designation from the Center of Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) and is a graduate of the National Fire Academy Safety Program Operations.
Chief Bator is the President and co-founder of the Florida Firefighters Safety and Health Collaborative (FFSHC). As Program Director for the FFSHC, Chief Bator ensures the five regions in the state of Florida all work efficiently in the areas of: Firefighter cancer prevention, health and fitness, mental wellness, and firefighter safety.
Chief Bator and the FFSHC team have appeared in many print publications and were also highlighted on Ret. Captain Jeff Dill’s Fire Engineering Radio show, Safety and Health week website www.safetyandhealthweek.com, and Chief Billy Goldfeder’s www.firefighterclosecalls.com.
Chief Bator has published articles in Florida Fire Service Magazine in Nov 2016 and June 2017, Fire Engineering in 2018 highlighting the collaborative effort on both Firefighter Cancer, Safety Stand Down and the Clean Cab Concept. He has worked on several research projects related to firefighter safety and health in conjunction with Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami.
In 2016, Chief Bator received the Fire Chiefs Association of Broward County Supervisor of the Year Award; in 2017 he and the FFSHC team were the recipients of the Fire Chiefs Association of Broward County Mike Murphy Innovator of the Year Award, and in 2019 they were awarded the Congressional Fire Service Senator Paul S. Sarbanes Fire Service Safety Leadership Award.
Public speaking engagements include teaching at the Fire Department level for local area departments, state and national conferences, Safety Stand Downs, and presentations at collaborative events. Specific events include: Broward County EMS Coalition 2016, Florida Fire Chiefs Association Safety and Health Conference 2016 & 2017, Florida Fire Chiefs Association Executive Development Conference 2017, as well as the Firefighter Cancer Initiative at University of Miami, Florida Fire Chiefs Association Fire Rescue East Conference, Florida Fire Chiefs Association Executive Planning Conference, Center for Public Safety Excellence, EMS World Conference in 2017, Pierce Annual Sales Conference in 2018, State of Florida Mental Health Symposium in 2018, FEMSA/FAMA Annual Conference in 2018, Orange County Fire Authority Behavioral Health Conference in 2018, Fire Rescue International in 2018, Rosecrance Florian Symposium in 2019, San Diego Regional Conference in 2019, and the Sylvester Cancer Center National Firefighter Cancer Symposium in 2019/2020.