Frederick County Officials Meet to Develop Multi-year Emergency Management Strategic Plan

The following release was originally issued by Frederick County on April 13, 2009.

Winchester Hall / 12 East Church Street
Frederick, Maryland 21701
CONTACT:  Robin K. Santangelo
Public Information Officer, 301-600-2590
rsantangelo@fredco-md.net

Frederick, MD

Officials from Frederick County Government, the Frederick County Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency met recently for a day-long planning session to help develop a multi-year strategic plan to guide the county’s emergency management activities. The officials, representing the emergency planning committees under the county’s Emergency Management Policy Advisory Committee, reviewed a preliminary independent analysis of Frederick County’s emergency plans as measured against several national standards and discussed issues that they recommend be addressed over the next several years within the strategic plan.

“Frederick County strives to be a leader in the National Capital Region in preparing to respond effectively to emergencies. The county’s divisions, departments and our emergency management partners have invested considerable time and energy in developing plans that will contribute to an effective response to a major emergency.  This strategic planning session took us up to another level of emergency management, making us even more effective in providing for the safety of our citizens during a crisis,” commented Assistant County Manager Barry Stanton.

Frederick County engaged Dewberry, a planning, engineering and project management consulting firm based in Fairfax County, Va., to facilitate the strategic plan development process.  Working under a Department of Homeland Security grant, Dewberry was tasked to assist with an objective analysis of the county’s current plans as compared to the nationally recognized Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) standards developed by the International Association of Emergency Managers, National Emergency Management Association, Department of Homeland Security, National Association of Counties, National League of Cities and many other local, state and federal organizations. 

Dewberry reviewed each plan by using a tool developed for similar analyses of other county governments within the National Capital Region that focuses on the EMAP standards and other recognized national standards. While this was not an official assessment by the EMAP organization’s assessors, of the 177 elements reviewed by Dewberry, the county’s plans met or partially met 81% of the standards in the preliminary review.  During the strategic planning meeting, several of the elements which had a preliminary “partial” or “not met” status were identified as being able to be met by referring to policy or procedural documents which were either not available to Dewberry during their initial review or were currently under development by planning committees. 

The next step in this strategic planning process will be to take the results from the plan review and initial strategic planning session and meet with representatives of the county’s municipal governments and other emergency preparedness partners to gather and integrate their input into the county’s strategic plan before it is finalized and presented to the Frederick Board of County Commissioners. 

Director Jack Markey of the Emergency Management Division commented, “Working toward the Board of County Commissioners’ strategic plan goal of improving the county’s emergency preparedness, our efforts continue to focus on clarifying the shared responsibilities for emergency preparedness that exist between citizens, the private sector and each level of government; creating an effective interagency and intergovernmental framework for establishing priorities and making decisions during emergencies that is consistent with the National Incident Management System, and aligning our mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery investments with the risks the county faces.   The ability to effectively work together toward the shared goal of protecting our community has been, and always will be, the key to our success.” 

For more information on the strategic planning process, contact Director Markey at 301-600-6790 or via e-mail at emergencymanagement@fredco-md.net.

municipal • disaster • government • strategic consulting • emergency