Building Collaborative Preparedness

1
Building Collaborative Preparedness (aka,
Herding Cats in the Wild West) National Homeland
Security Conference June 2015
Scott Kellar Homeland Security Coordinator North
Central Region
Lin Bonesteel Program Administrator Denver Area
UASI
2
All-Hazard Emergency Management Regions

• Regions established by Governor Bill Owens in
  2003
• Evolutionary step in planning and building
  capabilities for historically independent
  autonomous entities
• Return on investment increased
• Common procedures and working relationships
  established through training and exercises
• Limited resources highlight the need for
  risk-based assessments
• Redundancy of equipment and effort eliminated

3
Colorado All-Hazard Emergency Management Regions
4
North Central Region

• Region is a quasi-governmental entity consisting
  of the 10 counties surrounding the Denver metro
  area
• Board of Directors make-up is 2 members per
  county and one member from each RETAC
• Members represent Fire, Law Enforcement, Medical,
  EMS, Emergency Management other fields
• Combined metro, mountain and rural make-up
  creates unique challenges for the NCR

5
Denver Area UASI

• UASI Working Group established in 2003
• WG Members identified by contiguous boundary with
  core city original membership consisted of 27
  members now 22 members
• Members represent Fire, Law Enforcement, Medical,
  EMS, Emergency Management other fields
• Approximately 1/3 1/2 of the UASI Working Group
  are shared members with the NCR Board of Directors

6
North Central Region
7
Regional Vision

• Intent is to provide an inclusive organization
  that will serve as a conduit to expand
  multi-jurisdictional functionality
• Focus is on preparedness activities planning,
  training, exercising
• Planning activities will link identified
  capability gaps to Regional and local
  programs/projects
• Objective is increased return on investment
  enabling more rapid capability building

8
Governance Geographical Challenges

• Overlap of member jurisdictions and agencies
  caused a logical integration of planning and
  assessment activities
• Overall strategic intent of maximizing
  preparedness return on investment
• NCR and UASI use common subject matter expert
  committees to conduct business and evaluate
  projects
• Two entities conduct common strategic planning
  and risk assessment activities

9
Common Planning Processes

• Single Regional THIRA and
  Strategy are developed adopted
  by the governance
  bodies of NCR
  and UASI
• Common Regional Risk and
  Capability Assessments are completed
• Single annual TEPW is conducted to synchronize
  training and exercise efforts across the Region
• Other planning efforts are Regionalized to
  optimize the use of resources e.g., Mass
  Fatality Plan, GIS Data Repository

10
Regional Committee Structure

• 13 Standing Committees
• Planning - Operational Coordination
• Training Exercise - Emergency Management
• Incident Operations - Fatality Management
• Communications - Recovery/CIP
• Public Health - Information Sharing
• Citizen Preparedness - Cybersecurity
• Medical/Hospitals

11
Incident Operations Committee Structure

• 7 Standing Sub-Committees
• Operational Coordination
• EMS
• Explosive Device Operations
• WMD HAZMAT
• Public Safety Security
• Search Rescue
• Health Safety

12
Preparedness Project Development

• Projects are developed within
  the multi-jurisdictional
  committee structure
• Project utility and capability
  impact validated by SMEs
• Ideal projects span multiple agencies and impact
  broad segments of the UASI/Region

13
Project Evaluation and Scoring

• Jointly established Grant Development Committee
  evaluates and scores all submitted
  projects
• Committee consists of 10 County
  Emergency Managers plus 6 disciplinary reps
• Group integrates different disciplinary
  priorities and establishes an integrated priority
  list to guide funding

14
Project Scoring Criteria

• Scoring Criteria is established before project
  application process is initiated
• Criteria are
• Risk Mitigation
• Strategy Linkage
• THIRA Planning Scenario Linkage
• Improvement Plan Linkage
• Budget Management/Matching Funds
• Core Capability Impact
• Multi-jurisdictional Collaboration
• Regional Committee Prioritization

15
Integrated Priority List

• Final result is an IPL that guides prioritized
  funding for the year
• Above the line items include Planning, Training
  Exercise projects
• UASI and HSGP grants are used to fund projects
  down the list
• Project savings are applied to next highest
  priority if able to fund full amount

16
Integrated Priority List
17
Cyclical Nature of Processes

• Annual planning processes focused on capability
  enhancements or risk mitigation
• Cyclical nature allows standing committees to
  adjust work plans and take bite sized approaches
• Emerging issue areas are aligned to core
  capability and then assigned to standing
  committee
• Sustainment of established capability increases
  is high priority

18
Sample Success Areas

• Regional GIS Data Repository
• EMS/Fire Active Shooter
• Ballistic Protection
• Rescue Task Force Full Scale
• Exercise
• Recovery Planning Project
• Regional Communications Infrastructure
• Mountain VHF System Buildout
• ISSI Infrastructure Integration
• Bearcat Upgrades
• Animal Sheltering Equipment
• Shelters Pre-Wiring

19
Building Collaborative Preparedness (aka,
Herding Cats in the Wild West) National Homeland
Security Conference June 2015
Scott Kellar Homeland Security Coordinator North
Central Region
Lin Bonesteel Program Administrator Denver Area
UASI