While some might find that difficult to comprehend, I would not have predicted the selling of state roads and bridges to commercial entities as something I'd see in my lifetime either.
In reality we have already been outsourcing the emergency management function to other governmental jurisdictions for decades. The typical form this takes is for incorporated cities and townships to contract with their county to provide emergency management services.
The next logical step is to have private sector consulting businesses provide staff support to individual jurisdictions. This has already happened. I recall Ellis Stanley was hired as a contractor to be the local OEM Director when there was a vacancy in the position when the City of Denver was doing planning for the Democratic National Convention.
As homeland security consulting dollars dry up there may be a consulting firm or two that might pursue this type of service. What a jurisdiction has to gain is the cost avoidance of retirement and other benefits. When you add those to the equation it might be economically feasible to hire a firm to provide the support to a city/county/state.
Having a firm be your emergency management agency would provide a tailored workforce that can expand and contract based on the needs of the organization. When you need a mitigation plan you add the staff to do the work. When the planning is done the staff resource goes away. When there is a disaster the consulting firm, if large enough, could have a surge capacity of people to bring in to help with the response and recovery phase. There are already firms who have contracts with states for this type of service.
There are of course downsides to contracting. Continuity in the positions might be an issue as people rotate in and out of the agency/firm.
Does anyone know of an arrangement like this today that substitutes for an agency staff before there is a disaster?
