Introduction
Emergency management is a critical factor that ensures the safety of citizens and property in every local jurisdiction. Proper emergency management ensures that there is proper planning for emergencies. Normally, planning of emergencies is often overlooked until when a disastrous situation occurs. It is important to realize that emergencies and disasters come in various forms ranging from arson, burst pipe to flooding. As such, failure to have the necessary emergency management measures in place may magnify an emergency situation significantly.
Local jurisdictions normally face increased expectations and fewer resources for mitigating emergency situations. Therefore, there should be effective disaster management plans that will help in prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Prevention involves taking a serious look into the emergency in terms of the possible impacts as well as the ways that could significantly reduce the impact. Preparedness is about ensuring that everyone in the community knows what to do when disaster strikes. Response involves putting the disaster plan into action by carrying out the emergency response procedures as well as setting priorities. Recovery involves taking the appropriate actions after a disaster has occurred to get back into working order.
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It is clear that the local level governments have a huge responsibility of ensuring safety of citizens and property. Therefore, there is need for the development of a consistent title to identify a local jurisdiction’s emergency management official in order to promote efficiency and effectiveness in managing emergency situations. As such, each local jurisdiction should have an emergency manager who will have both tactical and policy roles at the local level of government. The emergency management officer will be responsible for building a prepared organization with enough capacity and knowledgeable staff necessary for promoting safety.
The Importance of an Emergency Manager at the Local Level of Government
The title holder of the emergency manager position will ensure that the emergency management responsibilities at a local jurisdiction are handled professionally with utmost sense of accountability. The emergency managers are skilled professionals with the ability to ensure that the communities are able to reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters effectively. Therefore, the emergency managers are important because they adhere to sound emergency management principles while discharging their duties hence protecting the communities through coordination and integration of all activities necessary to build, sustain and improve the capacity to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from disaster.
Emergency managers can assist in carrying out comprehensive emergency management by taking into account all potential hazards, all impacts as well as all the stakeholders. All the potential hazards within a jurisdiction should be considered as part of a comprehensive risk assessment. Additionally, the hazards should also be prioritized based on their impact and likelihood of occurrence (Murphy, 2007). Therefore, the emergency managers in the local jurisdictions assist in developing hazard specific emergency plans based on the outcomes of the risk management process.
The emergency managers can help in analyzing and addressing the specific impacts of emergencies and disasters. Essentially, emergencies and disasters may impact on infrastructure, the economy or human services. Therefore, appropriate plans and protocols should be developed for each hazard in order to effectively mitigate their impacts on the community. Additionally, emergency managers also help in facilitating close working relationships with all levels of government, general public and the private sector.
Based on their knowledge and experience, the emergency managers anticipate future disasters and take the appropriate preventive and preparatory measures necessary for building disaster resilient and disaster resistant communities. As such, the emergency management programs should focus on prevention rather than response to disasters in order to effectively protect lives and property. Therefore, developing the title of an emergency manager will help significantly in coordinating the activities of assessing hazards and reducing vulnerabilities. The emergency managers should therefore have the capacity to develop, implement and enforce policies relating to environmental management, land use planning, building code, training and planning. As such, emergency management will be progressive and not just a reactive exercise.
Emergency managers employ sound risk management principles of hazard identification, risk analysis as well as impact analysis in order to effectively manage risk. Therefore, there should be a dedicated and skilled individual in every local jurisdiction responsible for handling emergency related issues. Emergency managers have the responsibility of addressing the risks specific to their communities. Additionally, efforts should be directed toward risks with the greatest impact on the welfare of the respective communities. If the risks with the greatest impact are effectively addressed, the communities will be well prepared for lesser risks as well.
It is important to have emergency managers in all local jurisdictions to ensure unity of efforts among all elements of a community and all levels of government. An all hazards approach to the control, direction and coordination of disasters should be adopted regardless of size, location and complexity. Therefore, emergency managers are very instrumental in ensuring that such an initiative is successful. The emergency management program should also integrate partnerships that comprise all the stakeholders in the decision making process of the community regarding emergencies and disasters. Additionally, the emergency managers help to ensure that all the emergency management plans are not only integrated with the community’s vision but they should also be consistent with the values of the community. The emergency managers realize the importance of the business community in the process of mitigating risks. Therefore, they will ensure that the private sector continuity plans are in tandem with the community’s emergency operations plan. This is because businesses are a critical component of the community’s emergency operations plan since they can provide the necessary resources during disasters. Furthermore, emergency managers at the local jurisdictions play a significant role in synchronizing the local emergency management program with the higher level programs and plans in order to prevent delays in resource allocation and availability. A dedicated emergency manager will also ensure that emergency management is integrated into daily decisions and not just during disaster situations.
A local emergency manager is capable of creating and sustaining broad and sincere relationships among organizations and individuals in order to encourage trust, build consensus, advocate a team atmosphere as well as facilitating effective communication. The degree to which there is a cooperative and open relationship among all the stakeholders in a community is credited with improving performance during disaster situations. As such, a commitment to collaboration makes other essentials roles and functions in the emergency management process possible. Additionally, high quality of interpersonal trust is very important for collective action, particularly in environments of high uncertainty. As such, all the potential players in a disaster event should be identified and be involved in every aspect of preparedness as well as planning. Thereafter, the emergency managers need to maintain and sustain the real, human contact that is important in making the system work in a disaster event. The ideas and concerns of all the partners should be effectively incorporated into the planning and preparedness efforts relating to emergency management.
Emergency managers can synchronize all the activities of the relevant stakeholders in order to achieve a common objective. Normally, the agencies who are directly involved in the emergency management programs are autonomous and each of them bring their own legal mandates, authorities, operating missions and cultures to the planning process. Therefore, emergency managers are responsible for gaining agreement among the disparate agencies in order to ensure that their independent contributions help to achieve the common objective of reducing vulnerabilities to disaster in the local jurisdictions. As such, the emergency managers facilitate the identification of mutual goals and persuade the respective stakeholders to accept responsibility for certain specific performance objectives regarding the emergency management strategies. As such, coordination provides emergency managers with the appropriate tools that help in producing the results necessary to achieve the intended objectives.
Based on their knowledge and expertise, local jurisdiction emergency managers use innovative and creative techniques in solving disaster challenges facing communities. As such, emergency managers comprise one of the most flexible organizational elements of a local jurisdiction due to their diverse and varied responsibilities. As opposed to traditional branches of government that use laws, operating procedures and policies that allow little flexibility in the performance of duties, emergency managers are capable of developing creative solutions to save problems and ultimately achieve the set goals. Therefore, the emergency managers assess vulnerability and risk and consequently develop appropriate corresponding strategies that could be used to reduce risk. Additionally, emergency managers have the flexibility to determine not only the most efficient course of action but the one that has the most chance of being effectively implemented. Furthermore, emergency managers are better placed to use as much resources to create and maintain a well-organized community response structure during the preparedness phase. As such, the emergency managers have the responsibility of developing a risk based community emergency operations plans because the approach is based on the consequences of the hazard and not the promulgating action.
The most challenging phase of emergency management is response. Therefore, emergency managers play a significant role in coordinating activities to ensure that all objectives are met as planned. As such, the emergency managers have to be flexible enough to suggest appropriate variation in tactics and adapt quickly in a rapidly changing and frequently uncertain situations (Donahue & Joyce, 2001). Therefore, emphasis is laid on creative problem solving based on the event as opposed to rigid adherence to traditional plans. Additionally, the emergency managers can effectively deal with political, social and economic pressures in the process of determining recovery priorities. The emergency managers also have to focus on both short term and long term efforts in terms of disaster recovery plans. The flexibility of the emergency managers facilitates the success of emergency management programs because they are capable of providing a variety of solutions to stakeholders. Additionally, local jurisdiction emergency managers have the flexibility to implement the various solutions depending on their likelihood for success.
Emergency managers are important for the local jurisdiction’s emergency management because they value a science and knowledge-based approach on public stewardship, ethical practice, continuous improvement, education and training. The professionalism with which the emergency managers carry out their duties ensures the success of emergency management programs. The emergency managers emphasize respect, commitment and professionalism hence promoting partnerships and support from the relevant stakeholders. The skills possessed by the emergency managers enable them to build productive relationships with the various levels of government, private sector and the community in general. As such, most of the programs related to emergency management will be implemented based on the good will and support from the respective stakeholders.
Key Roles of an Emergency Manager
Once the title of the emergency manager has been developed to identify a consistent local jurisdiction’s emergency management official, the success of emergency management programs will be enhanced considerably. The role and the scope of duties of the emergency managers should be outlined clearly to ensure that they get the necessary support from the key partners. Essentially, the emergency managers need to have both tactical and policy level roles. Therefore, the emergency managers will have the overall responsibility of the emergency management programs within their local jurisdictions.
The emergency managers will include police, public works, emergency medical services and volunteers in the Local Emergency Planning Committee. A strong productive relationship with such stakeholders will ensure that the objectives of the emergency management programs are successful. Therefore, the emergency managers are responsible for preparing their local jurisdictions to effectively protect, prevent, mitigate, respond to and recover from natural, adversarial and technological emergencies in collaboration with the jurisdictional executive leadership and the community stakeholders.
The key responsibilities of the emergency manager include disaster response and recovery, development of a local emergency operations plan, resource management, emergency public information, threat and hazard identification and risk assessment. Such roles of the emergency managers indicate that they play a significant role in ensuring safety in the community. Moreover, there is a great need for the development of the title of emergency managers in all local jurisdictions to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in running emergency management programs. The emergency managers will facilitate disaster response and recovery by coordinating and assisting the respective jurisdictional governments, businesses, local responders and communities in connecting with state and federal assistance programs (Kapucu, 2008). Moreover, the emergency managers will be charged with submitting and maintain approvable jurisdictional multi-hazard mitigation plans. The emergency managers will also be responsible for developing local emergency operations plan in collaboration with local partners. The plan should incorporate evacuation, sheltering, mass care, public information, vulnerable populations and resource management.
The emergency manager will also be responsible for configuring a local emergency operations center (EOC) that will effectively meet the emergency needs of the community. The facility should be able to accommodate emergency managers and volunteers who may be working during a disaster. Additionally, the facility should be configured in a way that it will be able to meet the needs of a larger disaster. The emergency operations center should be located in a low risk area to facilitate safety during disaster.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there is a great need for development of a consistent title to identify a local jurisdiction’s emergency management official in order to facilitate success of emergency management programs. Therefore, the title of the emergency manager will serve as the key professional who will carry out key responsibilities of preparing their local jurisdictions to effectively protect, prevent, mitigate, respond to and recover from natural, adversarial and technological emergencies in collaboration with the jurisdictional executive leadership and the community stakeholders. As such, it is demonstrable that it is necessary to have a consistent title in the name of emergency manager who will be responsible for the local jurisdiction’s emergency management programs.
References
Donahue, A. K., & Joyce, P. G. (2001). A framework for analyzing emergency management with an application to federal budgeting. Public Administration Review , 61 (6), 728-740.
Kapucu, N. (2008). Collaborative emergency management: better community organising, better public preparedness and response. Disasters , 32 (2), 239-262.
Murphy, B. L. (2007). Locating social capital in resilient community-level emergency management. Natural Hazards , 41 (2), 297-315.
