I. What benefits do you hope to achieve by engaging in this project? Ensuring that staff are

Transcription

1 Capstone Project Summary I. What benefits do you hope to achieve by engaging in this project? Ensuring that staff are educated about the emergency procedures and plan in place to address actions during and following emergency events. II. How will you know if your project is successful? If all levels of staff have a clear understanding of their role during and after a catastrophic event. III. Was your project implemented? The City has an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) in place for the planning, mitigation, response, and recovery from natural and human made disasters within the City. I suggest that the all departments of the City have an established one or two-page sheet (simplified Business Continuity Plan) that identifies key contact personnel and alternative work relocation stations in the event of an emergency. What I did learn is that staff needs to be educated and aware of the structured plan in place. The EOP that exists today deals primarily with large scale events that are community wide. Therefore, a simplified Business Continuity Plan should be developed by department and/or division and shared with all employees so they are able to resume their duties and understand their role in the event that a small scale emergency occur. IV. Please state any cost savings or increased revenue. Cost savings are realized through a well informed staff. Educated employees are able to make responsible choices regarding their safety during emergency situations. Keeping the employees safe and aware of proper procedures reduces the likelihood of injured employees reducing health care costs. V. Was your project aligned with the Strategic Plan of your organization? No, the City does not have a formal strategic plan in place.

2 City of Bay City Emergency Preparedness & Disaster Recovery Plan FINAL CAPSTONE PROJECT PLAN Submitted by: Roberta Spencer City of Bay City 301 Washington Avenue Bay City, MI

3 I. Problem Statement In October 2010, the City of Bay City-City Hall experienced a fire that caused temporary displacement and reassignment of over 50 employees and resulted in a disruption of normal services provided to over 32,000 residents. The process of getting back to business, finding temporary locations and office furniture for displaced employees, restoring phone and computer service, as well as restoring the services provided to the public was accomplished in a significantly short time frame. The building fire occurred on Tuesday, October 12 th and by the following Tuesday, all displaced staff members were located and for the most part open for business. Resuming operations in such short time frame is a clear indicator of city staff s talent and ability to get things done. More significantly, it was accomplished without a defined and established plan of action. Staff had participated in disaster planning exercises with other local municipalities, but a plan designed specifically for City operations does not exist. Since developing the project plan additional research was conducted to determine what processes were in place, if any, that would assist in developing a plan. I since learned that an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) does exist for the City. The City is a part of the Bay County Emergency Management program and the Fire Chief serves as the liaison between the City and County. He is responsible for ensuring that the City Emergency Operations Plan is current and functional. The plan is based on a comprehensive formant established by the Federal Government and defines the operational responsibilities of the various city governments. The City s EOP and the Bay County Emergency program address high-level emergencies those that would affect a large portion of the city or county. In the case of the City Hall Fire, other City locations were available for temporary relocation and use for relaying information to the public that did not require the use of County facilities as defined in the plan. 3

4 There still exists, in my opinion, a lack of education and training for employees as it relates to emergencies and resuming operations timely. The issues that could be addressed through a simplified Business Continuity Plan that includes the following: Communications to both employees and customers Transitional operations II. Analysis of Problem: The City and each of its departments have a need for a Business Continuity Plan. With the fire at City Hall staff immediately experienced the following: No communication system (phones, computer systems were cut off not only for city hall but the majority of the communication lines for the outlying City buildings such as the Electric Department and City Service Building). No pre-established meeting location for Crisis Management Team to meet No formal document that listed how to communicate to employees I propose to prepare a written and established plan that clearly identifies the operations and processes at risk and outlines the necessary steps and personnel to get back to business. The benefits of having a clearly defined, established and practiced plan would result in the following: 1. Identify the operational elements most at risk and prioritize the restoration of operational equipment 2. Identify a war room (location in which the crisis management team could meet and establish activities) 3. Create an established method of communicating with critical and non-critical employees 4

5 4. Create a method for communicating temporary operations with customers 5. Set up routine progress meetings 6. Identify three-deep personnel for tasks Barriers to creating a Business Continuity Plan can be attributed to the economic health of the City. Reduced staffing levels, caused by budget constraints, contribute to operating in a reactive state versus a proactive state. When staff is reduced some activities and tasks are not perceived as priority. The City has been fortunate in that catastrophic events such as the fire at City Hall rarely occur and the need to create a plan is not perceived as a priority. The varied duties of the departments can also lead to the creation of plans that apply only to a particular work group. Initially the team members directly involved include the following staff members: City Manager Deputy City Manager of Administrative Services/City Clerk Deputy City Manager of Community Development Information Systems Manager Fire Chief Police Chief As the project evolves implementation and distribution of the information would affect all employees. III. Project Findings: There exists an Emergency Operations Plan for the City. The City is a part of the Bay County Emergency Management program with the Fire Chief serving as the liaison between the City and County. The Fire Chief is responsible for ensuring that the City Emergency Operations 5

6 Plan is current and functional. Other key city contacts and their specific duties are identified in the EOP as follows: City Mayor, City Manager, Fire Chief, and City Clerk. The plan is based on a comprehensive format established by the Federal Government and defines the operational responsibilities of the various city governments in accordance with the standards of the National Incident Management System (NIMS). IV. Alternative Solutions: In lieu of preparing an EP/DR plan, a standard prepared form document or a Business Continuity Plan could be implemented that would assist key contact employees in the following areas: Communications to both employees and customers Transitional operations Resumption of normal operations Alternatively, a consultant could be employed to assist in writing such a plan. Fortunately there are many online templates that can be used and modified for a company s use without expending fees for a consultant. Another option in completing a plan would be to utilize an intern to complete as a special project. Once complete and in place then departments could maintain their individual documents. V. Analysis of the Solutions: There are pros and cons to hiring a consultant to complete a Business Continuity Plan. The pros include knowledge of how the plan should be put together; the pertinent material that should be included along with the format. The cons would be the cost of employing a consultant and their possible lack of knowledge in the area of city operations. Some managers, 6

7 know best the way to formulate a plan that works for their areas of responsibility. Additionally no fees are paid for the completion of such a plan. The con for a plan implemented in-house is that some may not recognize the significance of having a detailed plan in place in the event of an emergency and therefore may not make it a priority to complete. Another con is lack of time to devote to a task that can become monumental should it not be broken down into easily completed sections. An informal survey revealed that many department and division heads had at a minimum a contact list of their key employees to reach in the event of an emergency. I believe that this project can be completed in-house using existing administrative staff in coordination with the managers they support. Therefore implementation will be based on inhouse completion utilizing a standard prepared form or simplified Business Continuity Plan template. VI. Implementation Plan: The process used to establish, create, and maintain a simplified Business Continuity Plan, and educate employees of same in the event of an emergency is as follows: 1. Present to each department and division heads the need and tools to complete a Business Continuity Plan. 2. Create one source of contact or a small committee to distribute and collect the established plans. 3. Help identify risks, critical services and their dependencies; prioritize them; and identify internal and external disruptions 4. Assemble the documents in a consistent manner so that any one person could step up and follow and implement the plan. 5. Implement plan, conduct tabletop exercises, train staff 7

8 6. Continually update the established plan 7. As employees are hired, review of the city s Emergency Operations Plan and their assigned department s Business Continuity Plan must be presented as part of their orientation process. VII. Resource Estimate/Budget: If using an outside consultant, fees will vary depending on the experience of the consultant and the current demand for their services. Different consultants will also spend varying amounts of time on a project. A request for proposal could be written to provide guidance to the consultant if there are severe budget constraints so that they can focus their response. However, for my project I propose that the creation of a Business Continuity Plan could be performed in-house, with the possible assistance of student interns. The City utilizes student interns at no cost for the completion of special projects. VIII. Implement Solution: I propose developing a more refined document such as a simplified business continuity plan for small-scale emergencies such as the city hall fire. This includes educating staff of the plans in place to assist in resuming normal operations or temporary normal operations. This may develop into having trained city staff or speakers brought in to address specific actions to take in the event in any kinds of emergency situation. Therefore in order to implement the revised project plan of developing and utilizing simplified Business Continuity Plans the following needs to take place: Present concept to City Manager for approval to go forward. 8

9 Meet with Fire Chief to enlist aid in determining information that may be required. o o o Review with Fire Chief the simplified Business Continuity Plan Template Identify priorities Revise as necessary Present at City Manager staff meeting Identify plans/ processes already in place Conversations with fellow staff members indicate acknowledgement for the need of such a plan as well as support for the project. Additional conversations need to be held to clearly identify the end product with each Division Head. Without a clear end product all manner of documents could be produced negating the objective of this project. The end product may result in a one-page sheet for each department that outlines the following: Key Contact List: at a minimum listing key personnel that will assume assigned Alternative Assembly Work Areas: IX. Evaluate Solution: The cost of not having a well-defined plan could result in significant injuries to city staff as well as the public. Additionally the cost of not doing business because of operational disruption can be detrimental for the city and its residents. The Business Continuity Plan would not only address fire emergencies, but actions to take in various emergency situations such as bomb threats, workplace violence incidents and possible hostage situations. It is better to be well prepared for an emergency that may never occur rather than react to an emergency could potentially occur. This is an achievable project given the commitment of staff. The project will be implemented in stages beginning with the Division in which I work. That means meeting with 9

10 Department Heads and their administrative staff. Identifying what is currently in place and whether it can be improved upon or shared with others for their use. A preliminary review of the processes in place will be completed within three months. There are eight direct reports (divisions) to the City Manager. Most division heads are located in other buildings and may already have a plan in place. An audit of emergency procedures should occur to determine what is in place and be reviewed with the Fire Chief or his representative. Staff anticipates the audit process to be complete within six months. During this timeframe an interim plan would be developed to address situations that could potentially occur. Receipt and review of Business Continuity Plans as they are completed will be a means of analyzing the results. The best-case scenario is that the ability to evaluate the plan s effectiveness is never determined because a need has not arisen to put the plan to use. However, this needs to be an active and achievable plan should an emergency occur. Evaluation could be made in the form of mock exercises and timed exercises dealing with randomly chosen emergency events. Finally, short ten question quizzes will be developed and presented to employees to gauge their knowledge of actions to take in emergency situations; and retraining provided on areas of noted deficiencies. Mock training exercises will be conducted annually to ensure employees follow the proper course of action for the mock emergency situation. 10