The 2015 Recommended Budget includes the creation of a new Department of Emergency Management. The new department is being created to bring emergency services into one consolidated management structure to improve service and collaboration with municipalities and other regional first-responder agencies. A recent blog post explored some of the issues with the County’s current structure, which you can view here.
The new department brings together four program areas with $11 million of expenditures and 65 staff positions, which is a significant undertaking. The new department would be created on January 1, 2015. Therefore, the County has created a business plan to get the new department “up and running” as quickly as possible. Click here to view the business plan.
Highlights of the plan include:
- The mission statement for the new department will be: “Milwaukee County’s integrated Office of Emergency Management stands as a leader in delivering modern services that prepare and protect the lives and properties of our communities.”
- A new Director position will be created in the October 2014 cycle of the County Board of Supervisors, so that an individual can be identified and hired prior to January 1. This will enable the department to have executive leadership in place on day one, ready to work towards the department’s mission statement.
- Fiscal and administrative staff will be centralized along with departmental leadership during 2015; however the Department of Health and Human Services will continue to provide support during the first quarter of 2015.
- A new supervisory position is created in the 911 communications/dispatch function to manage the 25 positions in that program area.
The Department of Emergency Management’s 2015 budget narrative can be found here.
Milwaukee County Office of Performance, Strategy & Budget 