San Francisco Mayor Accepts Resignation of Annemarie Conroy, Praises Her Work in Regional Emergency Management

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday accepted the resignation of Annemarie Conroy, who has served most recently as chair of the Super Urban Area Security Initiative, under the new Department of Emergency Management. In this capacity, Conroy was the city's lead on the critically important regional planning effort currently under way for the 10 Bay Area counties and three major cities of Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco.

"It is with regret that I have accepted Ms. Conroy's resignation," said Newsom. "By any objective standard, Ms. Conroy has done a superb job in her work for the city and county of San Francisco as the executive director of the Office of Emergency Services and Homeland Security. She leaves behind a city and a department more ready than ever before to respond to an emergency. Her leadership on the historic regional plan has helped move this much-needed initiative from concept to reality. Without question, Ms. Conroy has provided tremendous service to both San Francisco and to the Bay Area."

Under Conroy, the recently renamed Department of Emergency Management updated the city's Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) for the first time in a decade and created the 72hours.org Web site. During her tenure, several key emergency annexes were created including a greatly expanded care and shelter plan, a new animal care and shelter plan, as well as the first-of-its-kind Earthquake Response Plan Enhancement. Recently adopted by the Disaster Council, this first-of-its-kind document supplements the EOP with an unprecedented level of catastrophic earthquake-specific response planning.

Additionally, under Conroy's leadership, the city's emergency preparedness department secured $82 million in federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding for San Francisco, as well as an additional $23 million in DHS funding for the Bay region.