In everything that we do we have certain motivating factors that push us in certain directions. Whatever that factor is, a reward, a good paying job or just the satisfaction of helping make this world a better place, it is important that we always remember what we wish our end result to be.
In politics, I once figured I would use this office as Mayor as a springboard to the State Legislature or other higher office. I have always enjoyed helping others and believed that being a servant elected leader was the way for me to do that. As I have held office, I learned that there are many ways to serve my fellow citizens; including making the city I serve more prepared to face and recover from disasters. This desire to protect our city has become one of my motivating factors.
With disasters being a low probability event, some have questioned why I spend so much time working on emergency management. First I do not see disasters as a “what if” question but as a “when”. Since taking office in 2004, our city has been involved in five Presidentially Declared Disasters, three additional flooding events and numerous wind storms. Over this past decade we can add multiple earthquakes, additional storms and issues such as hazardous material spills. Our city faces disasters on a somewhat regular basis. I want to make sure that our city, and our citizens and businesses are prepared to face, survive and quickly recover from any type of disaster, natural or manmade.
As part of our emergency preparedness planning we have created the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan or CEMP. This document outlines the overall direction of our efforts and establishes certain requirements for the city to include in its preparedness efforts including changes in federal policy. Among these requirements are compliance with NIMS, established by Homeland Security Presidential Directives; a Training and Exercise Plan and most recently requirements to integrate citizen and business preparedness. As Pacific is a small city with limited resources, we had to be creative in how we accomplished these efforts.
When I first started taking emergency management training, it was to learn the skills needed to write our CEMP. As was seen with BP’s Gulf Oil Spill plan, you cannot just take a template, change a few names and call it good. I had to learn how a plan worked, how you plan for and respond to various threats and most of all what make the difference in saving people’s lives and property. This is why I applied for and took several classes including the IEMC (Integrated Emergency Management classes) at FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute(EMI). But writing our plan was only a small part of what we needed to do. The requirements for getting training and participation in exercises extended beyond just me.
When President Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directives 5 and 8 he created the requirements for jurisdictions to meet the requirements of the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Included in those requirements is minimal training in Incident Command or ICS by all parties that may be involved in emergency response. ICS is the command and management system, originally designed by Wildland fire but now used across this nation by all responders. The problem is how can we cost effectively provide this required training to our staff and citizens with our limited resources. This is why I took the Train the Trainer program at EMI and became an ICS instructor. Since taking that class our city has provided free classes on ICS 100 and 200 as well as assisted in other training programs in our region. But Incident Command is not the only type of training needed to prepare our city.
Our city is also required to have a regular training and exercise plan that is strategic, encompasses our CEMP and truly builds upon our capabilities as a community. Again, I looked at our city’s resources and decided that our best bet was for me to take the classes needed to write, conduct and evaluate disaster exercises. FEMA’s Master Exercise Practioner (MEP) program was the answer. This program first requires participants to take three specific online courses and the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Protocol (HSEEP) course and then apply to the MEP program at EMI. I was accepted and participated in Series 11, one of the first elected officials to ever complete this course. The MEP program contains three week long classes at EMI with more than 200 hours of homework designing proficiency demonstration projects in between. Since graduating from this program, city staff members have participated in workshops, tabletop exercises and unfortunately real events that have taken the place of requirements for functional exercises. We have been able to meet the requirements in spite of the limited resources we have because we have been able to do so much more in house.
Finally as we move into a phase of increased participation by our citizens, it is important that we have training and exercises for them as well. This is why I am participating in the Master Trainer Program at EMI. This is a series of six classes, five of which are resident classes, and completion of a Practicum that demonstrates an understanding and proficiency in developing training programs. This is not just teaching programs that are currently out there such as ICS and CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams), but looking at performance gaps, identifying training needs and designing of programs to close those gaps and fill those needs. Even in this, I have chosen to not take the easy way out for my practicum, and have been developing a training program that may end up with national implications. Training of elected officials and other policy group members in what they need to do to prepare their jurisdictions. The impact of this locally is that working with the new Citizen Advisory board I am putting together on Emergency Management, we will be able to assess training gaps in our community and design programs to address those needs, specific to our capabilities.
Other courses I have taken including the Enhanced Unified Command Class at Texas A&M, and the Hazard Assessment and Response Management Class at the Center for Domestic Preparedness are more to gain a better understanding of skill sets needed and include them in our planning. All of these courses are funded by the Department of Homeland Security and do not cost local tax payers other than for a participant meal ticket. These programs are available for responders, staff and elected officials across this nation to go to. All they need to do is apply themselves and take the time to take the prerequisites and attend the programs. We have sent our Deputy Emergency Operations Manager to EMI for an IEMC class and we are sending our Public Information Officer (PIO) this summer for an advanced PIO training. I would love to see some of our City Council take the time to attend as well, but have not seen the interest to date. Hopefully that may change this year.
So now that you understand what motivates me, to dedicate so much of my life in this type of training, you will better understand what I am trying to accomplish. I want our city to have a well written plan that not only outlines what we need to do to respond to a disaster but also guides our efforts to train our citizens and staff. I want our training and exercise programs to not only meet the minimal requirements of federal laws, but also defendable as they are appropriately designed and taught. What I truly wish to see though is that other elected officials follow in my footsteps, take the time to attend these classes and build the skills they need to respond to disasters. If when I leave office, all I am remembered for is preparing our city and our citizens to face disaster then my time and efforts will have been a success. Because that is what my motivating factors are.
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