DEPARTMENT BUDGET SUMMARY

MISSION STATEMENT: To provide the highest level of emergency preparedness for the citizens and visitors of Arlington.

The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) was created as a part of the County Manager's realignment plan. OEM was established with the goal of providing the highest level of preparedness to the citizens of Arlington through the expansion of the County's comprehensive emergency management program. The program is intended to provide leadership, coordination and continuity to enable the County to respond to, recover from and mitigate the impact of natural, man-made and technological hazards. The program includes, emergency planning, public education, emergency exercises and special event management, which are all aimed at increasing the County's capacity to deal with a crisis or disaster. The Office also includes the Emergency Communications Center, which houses the E 9-1-1 call center.

FY 2006 PRIORITIES: The FY 2006 priorities of the Office of Emergency Management are:

• To develop and implement standard County operating plans and procedures to manage an emergency, crisis or disaster.

• To continue community involvement in personal emergency preparedness through public outreach and education programs.

• To plan and conduct mock emergency exercises to test and evaluate the County's emergency response capabilities.

• To implement a watch center concept in the Emergency Communications Center to better manage communications and information.

• To recruit and retain qualified professional personnel and provide appropriate staffing so that the Emergency Communications Center can meet the increasing requirements and expectations of the Police Department, the Fire Department and the residents of Arlington County.

• To maintain aging critical communications and computer systems so as to preserve their reliability and performance to meet increases in workload demand.

• To continue to work toward the relocation of the ECC to the Police/Courts building plus the upgrade of the general County radio system in FY 2006.

PRINCIPAL PROGRAMS: The principal programs of the Office of Emergency Management are:

• Emergency Management

• Emergency Communications Center

• Metropolitan Medical Response System

• Homeland Security Grants Management

SIGNIFICANT BUDGET CHANGES: The FY 2006 proposed budget for the Office of Emergency Management is $8,220,034, an increase of eight percent from FY 2005 adopted budget.

• The Office of Emergency Management was created in FY 2005 by consolidating emergency planning and the Emergency Communications Center (ECC).

• Personnel expenditures and FTEs increased due to normal salary increases ($121,996), overtime ($60,800), the conversion of 3.5 FTEs from part-time temporary positions to part-time permanent positions ($31,313), the addition of three Metropolitan Medical Response Team grant funded positions ($238,215, 3.0 FTEs) in FY 2005 supplemental appropriation and the transfer of one position from Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources in FY 2005 ($98,738, 1.0 FTE) to the Office of Emergency Management.

• Non-personnel expenses increased due to increases in special telephone charges ($10,980), County telephone charges ($12,215), electricity ($5,000), fuel ($1,452), cost of radio batteries ($10,000), and maintenance and repair of the communications system ($1,220).

• Revenue projections decreased due to a decrease in the wireline and wireless 9-1-1 revenues based on FY 2004 actual and FY 2005 current projections ($500,100). This decrease is partially offset by the addition of a Metropolitan Medical Response System grant ($238,215).

PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

FUTURE BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS: The following factors may impact the Office of Emergency Management's budget in the future:

• Federal funding to combat terrorism.

• Additional equipment once Emergency Management Plans are fully developed and implemented.

• Required budget, accounting and audit support staff for homeland security grants management.