STATEMENT OF ISSUE
Staff is seeking Commission approval to accept a grant, from the Department of Community Affairs, Division of Emergency Management, in the amount of $82,000.00, to enhance the joint City-County Incident Tracking System and to develop Continuity of Operations Plans for City Departments. This is a cost reimbursement grant, with no matching funds required from the City.
RECOMMENDED ACTION
Option #1 Accept the grant award and authorize the City Manager to expend the funds.
FISCAL IMPACT
The funding is a pass-through grant from the Department of Homeland Security, to the State of Florida, to the City of Tallahassee. The total grant is for $82,000. Of these grant funds, $40,000 will be used to enhance the City-County Incident Tracking System and $42,000 will be used for the development of Continuity of Operations Plans.
The fiscal impact to the City of Tallahassee is an enhanced capability to track and map downed trees and power-lines, flooded roadways, power outages, and other impacts and responses. The City would also be able to document and map those activities, which will increase our chances of federal reimbursement in a federally declared event. It will also enhance the capabilities of staff to deliver resources more effectively and efficiently during a disaster event.
Robert Powers, Emergency Management
Anita Favors Thompson, City Manager
For information, please contact: Robert Powers, Emergency Management, 891-6201.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL/ISSUE ANALYSIS
HISTORY/FACTS & ISSUES
The Tallahassee-Leon County Geographical Information System, TLC GIS, began developing the Emergency Operation Center Incident Tracking System, EOC ITS, about six (6) years ago. Under TLC GIS’ coordination efforts, both City and County staff have contributed to the development and deployment of the application. The application was developed in-order to better manage and track events and to assist in the effective distribution of resources during a disaster.
The EOC ITS provides a valuable tool whereby both management and first responders can visualize the impacts of an event, through mapping key incidents such as flooded roadways, down trees, powers lines, power outages, damaged structures, locations of resources. The EOC ITS can; track vehicle locations, provide alternate routes based on road closures, overlay a variety of GIS data layers such as flood zones, geographical boundaries, schools, daycares, and other critical facilities and infrastructure.
The EOC ITS has been tested during numerous exercises, but during Tropical Storm Fay 2008, it was put to the test. While the system worked really well, it required duplicate data entry between different work order management systems, such as WebEOC and the Outage Management System. This grant will allow staff to fulfill management’s direction in integrating these technologies by reducing duplicate data entry while providing a comprehensive visualization of the critical incidents that occur during an event similar to Tropical Storm Fay.
Since 2006, the City of Tallahassee has developed Continuity of Operations Plans for Police, Fire, Fleet, Electric, Underground Utilities and Public Works. There are several Departments currently working on their plans and these grant funds will be used to develop; an additional eight (8) plans.
With Commission approval and acceptance of the grant funds, a purchase order will be established to allocate the project funding.
CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS
This is a government grant and charitable contributions do not apply.
OPTIONS
1. Accept the grant award and authorize the City Manager to expend the funds.
Pros: Accepting the grant, enhances the City’s capabilities to respond to and recover from disasters.
Cons: Without the grant funding and program improvements, the City may not be able to function as effectively during an emergency.
2. Do not accept the grant award and to find other avenues to meet the need.
Pros: None.
Cons: It will take staff time, to develop the GIS mapping and Continuity of Operations Plans at a cost to City.
ATTACHMENTS/REFERENCES
None