Emergency Management Once Removed

Now for Something Completely Different: The Story I Was Never Asked To Tell By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Since September 2015, "Emergency Management Once Removed" has served as a monthly commentary on current local, regional and national emergency management and/or homeland security issues, drawing on my experiences during 12 years as Director of Emergency Management for the City of Seattle, and 8 years and 7 months as Director of the Washington State Emergency Management Division. I also served seven plus years as an officer of the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) culminating in 21 months as NEMA President. [...]

Give “Electeds” Their Due By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Emergency managers often scorn the intrusion of "politics" or "politicians" into their work. Untimely "special" requests during regular business and even during a crisis feed the instinct of most emergency managers to "lay low" in a political environment. The inappropriate intrusion of Executive staff in emergency management operations often impedes daily operations: on the other hand, avoiding such contact can result in the executive NOT being kept current on major issues. In addition, executive staff, and even cabinet-level department heads, jealously guard from whom the Executive receives information. The [...]

Dividing the Burden By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Whose responsibility is it to restore the social equilibrium in a post-disaster environment? It is not solely the government’s role to provide the “answer” in difficult times. Each of us has a role. Some of the burdens of a participatory democracy fall on individuals and private interests. When a disaster strikes, it’s never "good enough" to wait for the feds to arrive with money and resources, ignoring the responsibilities of state and local government to anticipate events that could bring the affected jurisdiction's economy and society at large to an [...]

Climate Change and Emergency Management By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed At the 2007 National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) Annual Forum, I persuaded the Chair of the Preparedness Committee to allow a presentation on climate change at the Committee’s meeting. The expert speaker, Bob Freitag, a former FEMA official turned academician, proved uniquely qualified to describe the looming threat from the perspective of an experienced emergency manager turned academician. Freitag’s message was sobering. The ensuing discussion was the first of its kind within NEMA and very likely any emergency management gathering. Potential consequences that in 2019 seem apparent to [...]

A Problem or an Opportunity? By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed The Disaster Reform and Recovery Act (DRRA) addresses longstanding issues in the disaster management system. Pre - Disaster Mitigation (PDM) is touted as a high priority for attention – so far, so good. Here is the problem: FEMA appears to be proceeding too fast with too little consultation with state and local emergency managers. The federal rules and accompanying guidance have yet to be developed or vetted with state and local emergency managers. The BuildStrong Coalition has put forth 14 key principles that they recommend be employed in [...]

Homeland Security: “If seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year…”* By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), formed post 9/11, consolidated 20 plus federal agencies under a single Cabinet-level Secretary. There were naysayers among the ranks of emergency managers. I was one of them. Among our concerns: emergency management might be severely under – supported due to ignorance, incompetence or institutional jealousy. We were prescient: Who could forget the attempts to substitute "prevention" for "mitigation", or the determined efforts to "zero out" what we now call the Emergency Management Performance [...]

Just One More Thing By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed As the Washington State Legislative Session kicked off, the Seattle Times listed several topics that were the highest priorities for consideration. They were, in no apparent order: K-12 funding; Special Education; Climate Change; Opioids and Behavioral Health; and Public Records (a Seattle Times’ fixation). Each seems worthy of attention. Missing, however is call for a thorough review of the potential for a major or catastrophic disaster and the efforts and resources currently committed to dealing with them. Local and State governments are far too dependent upon the federal government [...]

Wishin’ and Hopin' By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Local and state elected officials searching for 2019 New Year’s resolutions to commit to might consider this modest list: Imagine: If elected officials and senior leaders chose to ask, at least annually and without a staff filter, their emergency management directors to list areas where there is a serious staffing or policy shortfall: in short, inquiring as to what could go wrong that some attention, funding and encouragement from the top might resolve before it becomes a real-time, serious deficiency? NOTE: this happened just twice in my 21 years as [...]

You Can Observe a lot by Watching By Jim Mullen "You can observe a lot by watching" (Yogi Berra - former NY Yankee catcher, manager, philosopher) When one retires, or in my case, semi- retires, Yogi's comment begins to make a lot more sense. When you work in a particularly stressful or responsible job, dealing with emerging issues can limit one's scope, a bit like being stuck in a traffic jam on I-5, wedged between trucks that don’t allow you to ever consider changing lanes, altering your speed or even find an alternate direction to take. Early in my 12 [...]

“Us” and “Them” By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed It’s not uncommon for individuals or organizations to attempt to elevate their own standing by demeaning the contributions of others. In the long run it’s a losing game. Those that employ "us" vs "them" as a tactic can only inflate their own capabilities so much before the gaps in their capabilities are exposed. In the meantime opportunities for advancing the values of a profession, an organization or even a nation are deferred to the detriment of all. Emergency management is not immune from such destructive behavior. Way back in 1992 [...]