AGENDA ST. LOUIS AREA REGIONAL RESPONSE SYSTEM BOARD OF DIRECTORS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2008-11:30 A.M. EAST-WEST GATEWAY COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS 1. CALL TO ORDER BY GIL COPLEY, CHAIR 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF AUGUST 1, 2008 3. DISCUSSION ITEMS A. Executive Director s Report Gragnani 10 min B. Advisory Council Report Mays/Brown 5 min C. Interoperable Communications Update Gragnani 10 min 4. ACTION ITEMS A. UASI Fiscal Year 2008 Award Allocations Adams 10 min B. MetroCom Council Gragnani 10 min C. Nominating Committee Report Bates 5 min 5. OTHER BUSINESS 6. ADJOURNMENT
ST. LOUIS AREA REGIONAL RESPONSE SYSTEM BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES August 1, 2008 The meeting of the STARRS Board of Directors was called to order at 11:30 AM at the offices of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments at One Memorial Drive, St. Louis, Missouri. The following members were present: Mr. Gil Copley, President; Mr. Ed Hassinger, Vice President; Ms. Nancy Bates, Treasurer; Mr. Charles Bryson; Dr. Tom Byrne; Mr. Jerry Goff; Ms. Susan Green, Dr. Dolores Gunn; Mr. Jerry Lee; Ms. Joann Leykam; Mr. Stephen Pollihan; Mr. Larry Ringering; Dr. Morris Taylor; Mr. Rob Wylie; Chief Greg Brown, Eureka Fire Protection District and co-chair STARRS Advisory Committee; Ms. Debbie Mays, Director of Emergency Preparedness, Barnes Jewish Christian and co-chair STARRS Advisory Committee; Mr. Les Sterman, Director and Ms. Maggie Hales, Deputy Director, East-West Gateway Council of Governments. Also present were Mr. Charles Gastler, City of St. Louis Police Department; Ms. Tami Mann, Project Director, Beck Disaster Recovery, Inc.; Mr. Mike Reid, Missouri Senator John Loudon s office; Mr. John Wagner, Community Policy Director, FOCUS St. Louis and STARRS staff: Ms. Hilda Chaski Adams, Mr. Nick Gragnani, Mr. Brian Marler, Ms. Julie Sackman and Ms. Jane Suozzi. Call to Order and Approval of Minutes Gil Copley, President and Chair, called the meeting to order. Mr. Copley introduced Interim Police Chief Stephen Pollihan with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Chief Pollihan indicated he will be attending the Board meetings until the chief s position is filled. A motion was made to approve the minutes of the July 11, 2008; the motion passed. Report of Advisory Council Debbie Mays advised the Board members of the Advisory Council s July 17 th meeting. In addition, Ms. Mays gave an update on the FEMA pandemic table top exercise that is scheduled for August 20. Executive Directors Report Nick Gragnani provided an update on the region s 2008 UASI Award of $8.9 million and that the ad hoc budget committee will meet to adjust the budget from the $13.9 million that was requested. He then gave an update on the items that would be presented to the East-West Gateway Board for purchases.
Mr. Gragnani gave a brief history of the MetroCom Council and its role regarding hospital diversion in the St. Louis region. The Council has been operating as a subgroup under the Missouri Hospital Association (MHA). Because of STARRS involvement with the Hospitals and MedComm, MHA has requested that the MetroCom Council become a committee under STARRS. MHA is working with the members of the Council on this transition. More information will be provided at the September Board meeting. Mr. Gragnani then advised the Board members of the need to update the St. Louis Regional Homeland Security Strategy. The Strategy is an outline of the programs and projects that receive funding from the St. Louis Urban Area Security Initiative grant. Mr. Gragnani stated that when the 2008 UASI application was developed, the STARRS committees reviewed the Target Capabilities List (TCL) to identify response shortfalls or gaps that needed to be funded. The committees will now do a more in depth review of the TCL. Information obtained from this review will be used to update the strategy. A more formal presentation will be presented to the Board once the document is completed. UASI Fiscal Year 2008 Award and Expenditures Update Hilda Adams gave an overview of the UASI 2008 application and subsequent award notification. She discussed the grant requirements and priorities as outlined in the grant application. Ms. Adams advised the members present that the ad hoc budget committee will meet and determine allocations for the amount of funding received. Ms. Adams then updated the Board members on STARRS expenditures over the last 19 months. She gave a Power Point presentation that provided examples of these purchases for the various priorities, i.e., Heavy Search & Rescue, Hazmat, Law Enforcement Bomb team and Tactical teams, incident command, Virtual Emergency Operation Center (VEOC), Terrorism Early Warning (TEW), Critical Infrastructure protection, patient tracking, mass prophylaxis, medical surge, citizens preparedness, special needs, and the sheltering project. St. Louis Regional Emergency Coordination and Concepts of Operations Plan Nick Gragnani gave a brief overview of the need for a regional emergency operation plan. He then introduced Tami Mann of Back Disaster Recovery who gave a report on the process of developing this regional plan. She discussed the Regional Plan Core Group and its membership and gave a brief overview of their meeting which was held immediately preceding the Board meeting. She addressed the committee s objectives, outline and preliminary timeline for the project.
Interoperable Communications Update Nick Gragnani addressed the Regional Interoperable Communications Plan and the posting of the RFQ for consultant services to develop the St. Louis regional interoperable communications and microwave connectivity network. Proposals were received from three vendors; Bearing Point, Heinz Corporation and RCC Consultants. A review committee was organized containing STARRS Interoperable Communications committee members Bill Janes, Madison County 9-1-1 Coordinator and Steve Makky, St. Charles County 9-1-1 Coordinator. In addition, the committee included Maggie Hales and Leah Hummert of East-West Gateway. Based on the selection committee s evaluations and from information gained during the interview process, the selection committee unanimously concluded that RCC Consultants has the best combination of skills and experience for this type of work. STARRS Office Move East-West Gateway Deputy Executive Director Maggie Hales advised the members of the pending STARRS office move. The decision has been made to bring staff back to East-West Gateway from their current location in Town & Country. The staff at STARRS has grown to seven and additional space has been acquired in the East-West Gateway offices. It is anticipated that the move should be completed by mid to late October. STARRS Board Meeting Date(s) East-West Gateway Executive Director Les Sterman addressed the Board meeting date. He expressed concern that the current STARRS Board meeting date does not allow for adequate interaction between the STARRS Board and the East-West Gateway Board. He feels that the timing of the meeting is out of sync with the East-West Gateway Board. He suggests moving the Board meeting to the week before the East-West Gateway Board meeting. There was concern expressed about schedule conflicts with the STARRS Advisory Council meeting on the third Thursday of every month. Additionally, Dr. Gunn suggested that the change in meeting dates and times could occur after the first of the year. A lengthy discussion then occurred regarding this issue which ended with Dr. Gunn making a motion to change the STARRS Board of Director s meeting date, beginning with the October meeting, to the second to last Wednesday of every month at 2:30 PM with the proviso that staff work with the Advisory Council on any conflict issues that may occur as a result of this change. The motion carried. Nominating Committee Report Dolores Gunn presented the Nominating Committee Report recommending the following four applicants:
Dr. Judy Grishaber, Medical Director, American Red Cross Blood Services Mr. Nick Hernandez, Plant Operations, the Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis Ms. Myla Oliver-Blandford, Emergency Response Consultant, St. Clair County Health Department/East Side Health District. Mr. John Wagner, Community Policy Director, FOCUS St. Louis A motion was made and seconded to accept the recommendations of the Committee. The motion passed unanimously. Adjournment There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned. The above constitutes a true record of the proceedings of the STARRS Board at its public meeting on August 1, 2008. Margaret M. Hales Assistant Secretary
STARRS St. Louis Area Regional Response System 314.244.9601 Fax 314.244.9611 starrs@stl-starrs.org www.stl-starrs.org Memo to: From: Board of Directors Nick Gragnani Date: September 2, 2008 Subject: UASI FY08 Grant Application Award Allocation On July 25, 2008, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the award amounts for the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) grant program. St. Louis will receive $8,982,000, a modest 3% reduction from the fiscal year 2007 award. $8,451,164 will be available to fund projects submitted in the grant application after Administration and Management fees are removed (3% each for the State Emergency Management Agency and East-West Gateway). The UASI 2008 application process began in February 2008 with the release of the grant application. A total of $781.6 million was appropriated for the Urban Areas Security Initiative program nationwide; 55% ($430 million) reserved for the seven Tier I urban areas in the country and the remaining 45% ($351.7 million) was earmarked for the remaining Tier II cities. St. Louis and Kansas City are Tier II UASI cities. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security instituted several significant changes to the USAI grant for 2008. Fourteen (14) additional urban areas were added as Tier II cities, which meant that St. Louis competed against 52 cities rather than the 39 in 2007. DHS mandated three objectives for the application to strengthen implementation of the National Preparedness Guidelines (NPG). These focus areas are: o Measure program progress against the NPG o Strengthening Preparedness Planning o Strengthen Improvised Explosive Device (IED) prevention, protection and recovery STARRS has already met the first objective by having all STARRS Committees review the relevant Target Capabilities List (TCL) from the NPG. The gaps identified through this review were used as the basis for their proposed application projects and thus, measured the program progress and effectiveness against the NPG. 14301 SOUTH OUTER 40 DRIVE, TOWN & COUNTRY, MO 63017 Coordination Communication Integration
Board of Directors September 2, 2008 Page 2 As in past years, our award could not fund all the projects submitted in the grant application at their full amount. The ad hoc Committee 1 met on August 12, 2008 to determine recommended allocations of the $8,451,164 among the $13,511,212 of projects. The result of their work is on the attached budget spread sheet, which lists the individual projects, the application award request and the ad hoc s recommendations. The attached Executive Summary shows an unallocated balance of $262,983 that was left to the Advisory Council to assign. At their August 21, 2008 meeting, the Advisory Council reviewed the work of the ad hoc Committee, accepted their recommendations and allocated the $262,952 to the microwave project. These allocations will support the mandates of the grant application, 26% of the award will directly support law enforcement and 34% will support the two grant goals of Strengthening Preparedness Planning and IED prevention, protection and recovery. In addition, $375,000 will be available to support the mandated Multi-Year Training and Exercise Plan. Staff Recommendation: Staff recommends that the Board approve the ad hoc committee and Advisory Council recommendation as outlined on the attached Executive Summary. 1 Membership: STARRS Board: Joann Leykam, Jerry Goff, Susan Green, Les Sterman, STARRS Advisory Council: Chief Greg Brown, Gary Christmann, Debbie Mays, Don Schneider, Chief Don Strom and Barbara Whitaker
2008 UASI Grant Application Executive Summary St. Louis UASI Region s Fiscal Year 2008 funding: $8,451,164 The following summary provides a detailed description of all 2008 investment justifications; their original funding request is included in parentheses followed by the final funding amount. 1. Implementing and Sustaining Fusion Center Tips & Leads Network ($10,000) $2,000; establishes a secure network allowing the exchange of information between the Kansas City and St. Louis Terrorism Early Warning groups and the Missouri Information Analysis Center. 2. Emergency Burn and Trauma Care Partnership ($500,000) $250,000; enhances emergency, burn and trauma care delivery and adds surge capacity for burn victims in Kansas City and St. Louis hospitals. 3. Implement NIMS and the NRF ($1,750,000) $922,000; enhances the St. Louis Urban Area planning capability by continuing development of a regional comprehensive plan. It builds on regional planning to assure continuation and sustainment. It addresses gaps in regional planning, training and exercises and leverages existing resources to align with the National Response Framework (NRF) and National Incident Management System (NIMS) while addressing the long term impact preparedness planning will have on the St. Louis Urban Area. 4. Enhance Regional Collaboration ($2,050,000) $650,000; provides sustainment funds for existing regional collaboration tools. These include $200,000 for Virtual Emergency Operations Center, $150,000 for Universal ID, $250,000 for Hospital Incident Command software and $25,000 for the Incident Support Teams project. In addition, $25,000 was set aside for exercising the regional coordination plan that is under development. 5. Implement the National Infrastructure Protection Plan ($678,000) $486,000; sustains the Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources (CI/KR) capability in the St Louis Urban Area by providing $186,000 for the CI/KR Coordinator position within the TEW. Additionally, it provides $400,000 to support the 2008 Vice Presidential Debate at Washington University and the 2009 Major League Baseball All Star game at Busch Stadium. 6. Strengthen Information Sharing ($575,000) $425,000; sustains the St Louis TEW operations and training by providing software and equipment maintenance/upgrades and online subscription services needed to continue the operations.
7. Strengthen Interoperable Communications ($3,118,212) $3,381,164; the acquisition of a Point-to-Point microwave system; to go beyond voice communications by supporting voice, telephone, data and video required by other regional investments (i.e, virtual EOC, Patient Tracking System, Universal ID, and aerial video surveillance). The microwave system will connect with MO and IL communications systems and will provide redundancy for critical assets like public service answering points and dispatch centers. This is a recommendation and a critical piece to the St. Louis Regional Land Mobile Communications plan. 8. Homeland Security Mandated Objective - Strengthen CBRNE Response Law Enforcement ($1,505,000) $905,000; addresses identified gaps in the St. Louis regional law enforcement Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams and the law enforcement tactical operations response capabilities to WMD/CBRNE incidents. 9. Strengthen CBRNE Response Fire ($1,230,000) $630,000; sustains funding for the Hazmat and Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams in the region. Funding will maintain these team s existing capabilities by covering the significant costs associated with the upkeep of their response equipment. 10. Homeland Security Mandated Objective - Strengthen Citizen Preparedness ($1,350,000) $400,000; increases citizen awareness, training on individual preparation, protection from and response to disasters. It enhances planning and disaster human service needs especially for special needs populations and builds on a newly created regional committee tasked with developing a structure and process for ongoing collaboration between and among government and nongovernmental (NGO) agencies. 11. Strengthen Medical Surge & Mass Prophylaxis ($1,200,000) $300,000; this investment expands the region s mass prophylaxis capabilities, and provides training and exercise funding.
STARRS St. Louis Area Regional Response System 314.244.9601 Fax 314.244.9611 starrs@stl-starrs.org www.stl-starrs.org Memo to: From: Subject: STARRS Board of Directors Staff St. Louis MetroCom Council Date: September 3, 2008 In the early 1990s, St. Louis regional first responders, hospital emergency room staff and emergency medical personnel formed a committee called CHORAL to provide oversight and guidance for a medical software system by the same name. CHORAL, a precursor to EMSystem, was used to manage ambulance diversion in the St. Louis metropolitan area. This committee operated under the direction of the Hospital Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, a freestanding metro association that closed in 1994. In 1997, EMSystem replaced CHORAL as the electronic ambulance diversion system. By then the committee had renamed itself the MetroCom Council. This group continued to provide policy guidance as a subcommittee to the St. Louis Metropolitan Healthcare Council (SLMHC), which is the successor organization to HAMSTL. Since 2002, EMSystem costs have been paid through federal disaster preparedness grant funds. More important, the EMSystem gradually has evolved from an ambulance diversion management tool into one of Missouri s primary disaster preparedness response systems. Recently, Ms. Kathy Arnold, Council Chair, announced her retirement effective January 1, 2009. With this transition, the Missouri Hospital Association (MHA) has evaluated the future role of the council and its organizational structure. To centralize these important roles and enhance regional coordination, the MHA and staff have agreed that the MetroCom Council should serve as an official subcommittee under STARRS instead of the SLMHC. Current members of the MetroCom Council include representatives from St. Louis, Missouri and metro east Illinois hospitals, EMS and fire services. These members will continue to serve as committee members. The benefits of placing MetroCom Council under the STARRS oversight include: STARRS leads disaster preparedness planning for the St. Louis metropolitan area and is supported through federal grant funds and various hospital contributions. The MetroCom Council s role will be expanded and enhanced within the STARRS organization to include expertise on additional medical disaster response communication systems to include patient tracking and provide input to the region s medical communications center, MedComm. 14301 SOUTH OUTER 40 DRIVE, TOWN & COUNTRY, MO 63017 Coordination Communication Integration
MetroCom Council September 3, 2008 Page 2 MetroCom Council will be able to collaborate better with the other disaster response planning groups that are a part of the STARRS organization structure. STARRS will provide formal committee structure and staff support to the MetroCom Council. If approved, the MetroCom Council will fall under the STARRS capability specific focus area of Strengthen Medical Surge and Mass Prophylaxis. The Council will coordinate medical surge target capabilities with the capability specific areas of hospitals, EMS, public health and long-term care representatives. MHA and staff believes aligning MetroCom Council with STARRS will enhance the coordination and improve area disaster planning capabilities for the bi-state region. At their August 21, 2008 meeting, the Advisory Council voted to accept MHA s recommendation to place MetroCom Council under the STARRS committee structure. Recommendation: Staff recommends that the Board of Directors approve MetroCom Council becoming a STARRS committee and placed under the Strengthen Medical Surge and Mass Prophylaxis Capabilities focus area.