Business Plan for the new Department of Emergency Management

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.

Options for the Provision of Emergency Management & Communications Services

One of Milwaukee County’s primary roles is to provide public safety services. These services include handling of emergency phone calls, coordinating emergency management programs after disasters, providing a radio network for first responders, and providing coordination of and training for Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Only coordination of emergency management is mandated by State Statute. County taxpayers provide a total of $10.9 million in tax levy funding for these services, which are staffed by 60 full-time positions.

Currently, these services are all fragmented across several County departments:

1. Emergency Management services are located within the Office of the Sheriff. These services include coordination of disaster response, training, and policies and procedures, and are mandated by State Statute 323.14(1)(a)(2). For instance, this section manages an Emergency Operations Center, coordinates the County’s response to federal declarations of disasters after severe weather, and provides cross-jurisdictional training exercises related to mass-casualty responses. This section within the Office of the Sheriff includes six positions, including the County’s Emergency Management Director, one position dedicated to a federal emergency and disaster task force, and three emergency management service coordinators. Total tax levy in this section is $443,201.
2. Emergency Communications & Dispatch, also located within the Office of the Sheriff, includes the County’s mobile 911 dispatch center, and is one of the County’s Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) for mobile telephones. This section mainly receives 911 calls made by cellular telephones in municipalities other than the Cities of Milwaukee and Franklin, and those covered by the North Shore PSAP ( Bayside, Brown Deer, Fox Point, River Hills, Glendale, Shorewood & Whitefish Bay). Operators will relay calls to the correct 911 Dispatch Center, as necessary. Dispatch services are provided for Sheriff Deputies, District Attorney investigators and Medical Examiner investigators via the 800 MHz radio system. In 2013, the County entered into a contract in which the Milwaukee Police Department began automatically receiving such calls placed within city borders. This section includes 23 full-time positions, including 19 telecommunicators and three lead positions. Tax levy in this section totals $3,348,703.
3. Emergency Medical Services, located in the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) provides regional dispatch services for paramedic units utilizing the 800 MHz radio system, communications for all Froedtert and Children’s Hospital transports, immediate medical direction control, education, health information management, medical supplies, quality assurance and dispatch guidelines for the Advanced Life Support (ALS) paramedic and the municipal fire department Basic Life Support (BLS) system on a contracted basis with all 19 municipalities in the County . This section has 30 full-time positions and a tax levy of $5,965,838.
4. The Radio Services section of the Department of Administrative Services Information Management Services Division (DAS-IMSD) is responsible for maintaining the County’s various radio communications systems, including the new 800 Mhz Trunked Radio System, which provides radio access for most of the County’s municipalities, and which will be replaced in cooperation with Waukesha County. This section is staffed by one full-time position.

This fragmentation of responsibility for emergency-related public safety services has led to confusion and controversy over responsibility for maintaining equipment and facilities. For instance:

• The 911 dispatch center is located in a building managed by Department of Administrative Services – Facilities Management Division, making it responsible for building and other infrastructure maintenance.
• DAS-IMSD has responsibility for equipment related to the 911 dispatch system, but both DAS-IMSD and the Sheriff have at times budgeted for its replacement.
• One of the Emergency Medical Services’ core competencies within DHHS is regional radio communication and provider relationships; however its coordination with similar services in the Office of the Sheriff is unclear and could be leveraged to provide savings and service improvements.
• The County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is operated in a Level 4 status by a Duty Officer under the Office of the Sheriff. The County Courthouse fire of July 2013 proved an urgent situation requiring the relocation resourcing of public services, a function of the County EOC. However, audible operations ensued, as this valuable resource remained dormant.

The Public Policy Form has recently studied the issue of consolidating 911 dispatch services in various parts of the County, and in 2014 the County considered but did not ultimately adopt a change in management of Emergency Management and Emergency Communications.

As the County continues to deal with significant fiscal pressures, alternative service delivery models should be considered. The following alternatives are available:

Consolidated Models – Waukesha, Brown, and Allegheny (PA) Counties

In Wisconsin Waueksha and Brown Counties have fully-consolidated Emergency Management Departments, with all of the above services located under one director who reports to the County Executive.

Waukesha County has a Department of Emergency Preparedness that includes the following service areas under the management of a Director of Emergency Preparedness:

• Countywide wireless 911 communications
• Emergency Management
• Radio Services
• Waukesha County has successfully consolidated dispatch services for 30 of the County’s 37 municipal agencies.

Brown County has a fully consolidated Emergency Management Department. The Department of Public Safety Communications provides 911 law enforcement, emergency medical dispatch services and radio communications. This consolidation occurred with the support of the Brown County Sheriff and in 2001 telecommunicators were transitioned from the Sheriff to the consolidated department. Unlike Milwaukee County, it has achieved consolidation of land-line emergency dispatch and radio services with some municipalities. Emergency Management services are a division within this department. This model is also utilized by Allegheny County, PA (Pittsburgh).

Dane County Model

Dane County provides these services in two separate departments: 911 dispatch is provided by a Department of Public Safety and Communications. Like Brown County, Dane County has achieved significant consolidation of dispatch services with dozens of municipalities, and the County’s Sheriff and Medical Examiner, which saves significant taxpayer resources. Emergency Management services, including EMS coordination, is provided in a separate Department of Emergency Management. In this model, both departments report to the County Executive.

 Discussion

There is no single best structure for emergency services. In Hennepin County, MN (Minneapolis), the Office of the Sheriff operates the 911 communications center while emergency management is a separate department and EMS services are coordinated by a local health system. In Ramsey County, MN (St. Paul), radio and 911 communications/dispatch are provided in one department while emergency management services are coordinated in another. As the County seeks to achieve savings both in its own operations and for other municipalities, it is important to consider how the structure of these various services might drive countywide efficiencies.  Questions to consider include:

• Would combining Emergency Management, Radio, and/or EMS into a single department drive efficiencies both countywide (in the form of reduced administrative staff, better coordination of contracts, etc.) and across jurisdictions? In Brown, Dane and Waukesha Counties these functions are managed by the Executive Branch of County Government. One advantage of consolidated reporting under a single elected official is the ability to create a common direction and integrated policies.
• Would combining these services make it more achievable to implement consolidation efforts with other municipalities as has happened in Brown, Dane, and Waukesha Counties? During the implementation of the new 800 Mhz Trunked Radio System, it has become clear that several municipalities will soon need to replace dispatch and other communications equipment and infrastructure. A consolidated system could save taxpayers in these municipalities significant resources through economies of scale and better pricing models.
• Consolidation of these services within one department will make it easier to create and track progress towards performance measures. Currently no one program area has total control over all operations, making performance evaluation difficult. Placing these services under one manager should improve accountability.

 

How the County Budgets for Information Technology

Milwaukee County departments allocated a total  of nearly $19 million in spending for information technology items and services in their 2015 requested operating budgets; with another $5.4 million in capital expenditures. Of the total requested operating expenditures, $13.5 million or 71 percent are in departments other than the Information Management Services Division of the Department of Administrative Services (DAS-IMSD), which is the County’s central IT services department.

The County has decentralized the process for the procurement and management of information technology. Budgets for the purchase of hardware, software, consulting, or other IT-related items are provided to individual departments. Departments may utilize these funds to purchase any IT-related items, so long as they stay within their expenditure budgets.

The current decentralized structure has led to:

• Multiple versions and licenses of the same software package across departments. DAS-IMSD estimates that the County currently has more than 10,000 software applications and/or application versions for its 4,600 employees.
• Different departments use different systems to do the same thing. For instance, several different software solutions are utilized across the County to manage facility maintenance efforts. None of the solutions talk to one another, meaning departments cannot share information on maintenance needs; the County does not have comprehensive information on its maintenance efforts; and many of the solutions do not provide sufficient data for performance measurement or other analysis.
• Individual departments often purchase a solution and then inform DAS-IMSD that it needs to be supported. This sets DAS-IMSD up to fail its customers when it is not brought in on the front end of the purchase and/or it may not have the resources or ability to support the department in the timeframe desired.
• By failing to view IT from a countywide viewpoint, it is extremely difficult to provide adequate, cost-effective, and appropriate human and capital resources in DAS-IMSD.

This decentralized structure does not conform to budgeting best practices. The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has developed best practices for IT budgeting and project management. In summary, the GFOA recommends centralizing IT budgets within the organization’s IT agency, requiring departments to submit business cases for significant IT projects, and taking an organization-wide view of how IT is utilized.

This centralized model could be very beneficial to Milwaukee County by:

• Reducing IT costs to the County by utilizing enterprise licensing and bulk purchasing instead of individual solutions or items.
• Reducing IT costs by not purchasing unneeded solutions or services.
• Improving IT efficiency by using common solutions for shared or similar needs.
• Improving IT functionality by ensuring that DAS-IMSD is aware of business needs and can support the solutions that are ultimately purchased.
• Improving business processes by requiring departments to conform to countywide IT solutions, instead of maintaining poor processes by customizing individual software packages.

The County Executive has asked the Office of Performance, Strategy and Budge analyze changes to IT budgeting and procurement processes and to make recommendations for improvement.

 

 

2014 Innovation Fund Project Awards

The 2014 Adopted Budget included the creation of the Milwaukee County Innovation Fund. This fund will utilize one-time revenue sources for projects that are designed to improve customer service, enhance operational efficiency, and reduce taxpayer costs for services.

In 2014, the County expects to receive approximately $5.7 million in revenues related to the 2011 sale of a portion of the County Grounds to develop the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Innovation Campus. Of this amount, approximately $4.1 million is available for Innovation Fund Projects. A workgroup made up of representatives from the County Board of Supervisors, the Office of the Comptroller, and DAS-PSB make recommendations for project funding and on April 24, these recommendations were approved.

The approved projects include:

• Construction of  20 units of housing focusing on chronically homeless individuals with alcohol addictions.  The Housing Division would take referrals from Detox, corrections, courts, police, etc. and house individuals that cannot be served in existing housing or shelters due to their active use of alcohol. This funding will leverage over $2 million in other  capital funds from the City of Milwaukee, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and private funds.  A similar model in Minneapolis toured by Housing Division staff show a cost savings for taxpayers of over $500,000 per year by reducing detox admissions by 85%, emergency room visits by 20%, and jail bookings by 23%. 
• An updated jail management system utilized by the County Jail and the House of Corrections. This project will replace an outdated system that uses mainframe computer technology. This project will vastly approve the two facilities’ ability to track inmates, collect data and generate reports. It will also move the County closer to eliminating outdated and extremely expensive mainframe computer technology.
• Updated billing software for the Highways Maintenance Division of the Department of Transportation that will replace the current outdated paper-based system.
• Updated capital project management software.
• Data flow consulting and a call center upgrade in the Department of Child Support Services. Two-thirds of the cost of this project is funded with federal revenues.
• LED lighting upgrades at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
• Consulting services to develop a LEAN workgroup that will analyze County processes and make recommendations for improved efficiency.
• Core competency training for direct care staff that will provide services to individuals with co-occurring intellectual disabilities and mental illness who are being relocated to the community from Behavioral Health Division-Hilltop.
• Lighting retrofits for Lincoln Memorial Drive and tennis courts in various parks.
• Scanning equipment in the Circuit Courts to reduce the use of paper filings and increased electronic document storage.
• Electronic whiteboard units in the Acute and Children s’ Units at the Behavioral Health Division that will enhance the efficient sharing of patient information at the facility.
• Two pieces of equipment that will enhance autopsy services in the Office of the Medical Examiner.
• Funding for the Parks Amenities Matching Fund that will leverage outside revenues for park improvement projects.

The project awards include requirements that recipient departments provide informational progress reports six months after initiation of the project.

2013 Performance Data Submitted to ICMA

Milwaukee County is a member of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Center for Performance Measurement. The County joined this program in 2012. The Center for Performance Measurement tracks several hundred activity data and performance measures in a wide variety of major service areas. In Milwaukee County, these service areas include:

• Parks & Recreation
• Sustainability
• Information Technology
• Human Resources
• Risk Management
• Procurement
• Facilities Management
• Highway Maintenance
• Fleet Management
• Housing Programs

On March 17, the Office for Performance, Strategy and Budget submitted (thanks to the cooperation of several departments) the 2013 data for these service areas to ICMA. The ICMA compiles these data sets from dozens of cities and counties across the Country and makes them available to program participants. This data will be used to evaluate our performance against peer jurisdictions, such as Miami-Dade County, FL; Bernalillo County, NM; Alameda County, CA; and Fairfax County, VA; that also participate in the program.

Look for additional information on performance measures and comparisons with peer jurisdictions in future blog posts!