Emergency Management in County Government: A National Study, published by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, was commissioned by NACo to examine key aspects of county emergency management, including its organizational structure, budgets and funding, personnel and training, use of technology, and ways counties collaborate with other government entities and nongovernmental organizations.
In many local governments, the emergency management function has traditionally been assigned to public safety units such as police/sheriff and fire departments. The survey found that emergency management is, for the most part, now a separate unit within a public safety department (38 percent) or a stand alone unit of county government reporting directly to the chief executive or governing body (40 percent). In other words, 78 percent of counties nationally have established emergency management units separate from the police/sheriff and fire departments.
Despite the renewed emphasis on emergency management since Sept. 11, 2001, emergency management budgets are small, averaging only $33,277 a year with no significant variation from one region to another across the country. In addition, 53 percent of the survey respondents expect the emergency management agency's budget to stay the same in the next fiscal year.
The survey found that the number of employees actively engaged in emergency administration is remarkably low. Most counties operate with fewer than six full-time equivalents in the agency. The data suggests that there are a few large counties with significant numbers of staff in emergency management while the vast majority of counties have only one or two employees assigned to such tasks.
The percentage of staff with training, according to the survey, in grant application preparation is significantly disproportionate to the percentage that have been given this responsibility. Experience in this area is likely to become increasingly important given the emphasis placed by the federal government on emergency management and federal preparedness and grant funding made available.
In addition, the survey found that:
- The 2005 hurricane season had little effect on the budgets of emergency management agencies in county government. Only 39 percent of counties anticipate a budget increase, and of those that do, only 12 percent attribute the increase to the experience on the Gulf Coast in 2005.
- Most emergency management agency heads (77 percent) have duties beyond emergency management.
- Thirty-eight percent of U.S. counties do not have a mobile operations command unit, and one in four has no alternate command center of any type.
- Eighty percent of U.S. counties use Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, but only 14 percent have this capacity within the emergency management agency.
- Most collaborative activities have been limited to informal agreements and joint planning activities. Only about half of U.S. counties have formal agreements in place, usually with a state agency or other county governments.
- About two-thirds of counties have conducted some type of emergency management training exercise within the last year. Fifteen percent have not done so in more than two years.
- Most county disaster plans do not address special populations. This is especially true for minorities, non-English-speaking persons, homeless and indigent persons.
"The survey results confirm what we have been observing, which is that the profession of emergency management in counties is being recognized and the skills and knowledge of the people working in the field are increasingly commensurate with the challenges they face in today's world," said NACo Executive Director Larry E. Naake. "Nonetheless, the federal government must continue to assist county emergency managers and other public safety officials, who are being asked to protect their counties with less assistance. Since 2005, key Department of Homeland Security state and local assistance programs have been reduced by over a billion dollars. NACo feels strongly that Congress and the White House must reverse the trend of less federal money going to the nation's first responders."
NCSC received completed responses from 564 counties in March and April 2006, representing all Census divisions and 46 of the 50 states. The counties range in size from 67 residents to more than 9.5 million, thus providing researchers with a wide range of variability from which to generalize American counties.
