New Procedures for Initiating Emergency Operations

[Colleen Pate]

TO: Council Members

FROM: Mayor Kirk Watson
Jesús Garza, Interim City Manager

DATE: April 6, 2023

SUBJECT: New Procedures for Initiating Emergency Operations

The most critical time for the City to be providing its residents with the clearest information and best services possible is during an emergency. When and how the City opens its Emergency Operations Center, communicates with the public, transitions from normal City operations to emergency operations and declares an official emergency represents some of the most complex work that a city government does. There is evidence that currently, we are not working as efficiently or effectively during the worst of circumstances when the public needs us to be at our best, and that must change.

Opening an Emergency Operation is, by its very definition, not business as usual. In fact, it is important to know that State law outlines distinct roles for Mayors and County Judges during these circumstances. For instance, state law says that the mayor may, when a State of Local Disaster has been declared, exercise similar powers on an appropriate local scale as have been granted to the Governor. [Texas Government Code, Chapter 418, Subchapter E]

The purpose of this memo is to provide clear communication on the procedures for opening the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), declaring an emergency, and communicating with one another and the public.

We will develop and share a standard checklist for opening the EOC to include:

• Identifying the key departments that will be involved in a unified command structure for the event.
• Launching coordinated communications between city departments, mayor and city council and other governmental entities.
• Holding press conferences and launching other communications strategies (including social media, text and radio communications, partner organizations, neighborhood listservs, etc.) to announce the precipitating event, the opening of the EOC and the cadence of communications to ensure timely information is accurate, consistent and disseminated across a wide variety of communications channels.
• Providing specific responses for vulnerable populations who might be more impacted by the particular event.
• Identifying in advance the types and locations of shelters and communicating those locations and the details of openings to the public.
• Opening communications with other impacted public entities.
• Activating interlocal agreements for emergency response.

Unfortunately, the frequency and intensity of emergencies we experience has increased over the years.

We will be scheduling a tabletop EOC drill in the next six weeks to test this part of our emergency response system.

We are also beginning work on a regional EOC drill which would allow us to test our region-wide response, something we must do because, as we have seen, emergency events are often regional in nature. This will be a more complex drill testing everything from communications, interlocal agreements and joint command structures.

We thank you for your support as we implement these vital changes in procedures to better serve the community and improve public safety in our City.


xc: CMO Executive Team
Ken Snipes, Homeland Security Emergency Management Special Assistant
Jessica King, Director, Communications & Public Information Office

On behalf of Mayor Watson