ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: March 5, 1999
Author/Local: Peter Judd/7361
RTS No. 212

CC File No. 3601

Council: March 23, 1999

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	General Manager of Engineering Services and General Manager of Fire & Rescue Services
SUBJECT:	Emergency Preparedness - Engineering Services

RECOMMENDATION

A. THAT an Emergency Coordinator excluded position be established at a cost of $63,000 to undertake the following activities:

i) one half time to manage Emergency preparedness in Engineering Services; and

ii) one half time to manage the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Program reporting to the General Managers of Fire and Rescue and Engineering Services.

B. THAT an existing Civil Engineer II position responsible for Structures be upgraded to a Civil Engineer III at a cost of $10,000 and that an annual budget of $15,000 be established for emergency preparedness support costs.

C. THAT the total cost of $88,000 from the foregoing recommendations be funded by the elimination of a vacant Superintendent position.

COUNCIL POLICY

In 1990, Council identified Emergency Preparedness as one of the City’s seven corporate priorities and supported the continuation of an expanded work program in this area.

DISCUSSION

In conjunction with the development of the Emergency Operations Centre and the Wide Area Radio Network, Engineering Services has placed additional emphasis on our emergency preparedness. This has been facilitated by the temporary assignment of existing staff when this has been possible.

The work has included developing individual branch emergency plans (Water, Sewer, Streets, etc.) and working with other departments to develop an operating plan for overall emergency response.

In the coming months, much needs to be done including issuing emergency response manuals, developing training programs for people who will have a role at the EOC, coordinating plans with outside utilities, and identifying required emergency supplies.

In the longer term, more work will be required than in the past to keep plans up to date, to assess and maintain staff readiness for EOC duty and to carry out training. Most important for Engineering Services is the need to plan and carry out field exercises periodically. We have found these exercises essential in order to put theory into practice and to ensure that plans are effective and up to date. We have not done this on a regular basis in the past.

In addition to Emergency Planning, Engineering Services has taken on an active role in Urban Search and Rescue including the role of team lead. The Urban Search and Rescue Task Force has developed into an effective unit that is widely recognized for its capability. Leadership of this task force has become a significant task involving coordination not only with a variety of local agencies that participate on the team but also with Provincial and Federal officials. The number of agencies participating on the task force means that the leader must deal with a wide variety of union issues on an ongoing basis.

The current ad-hoc staffing arrangement for emergency planning and Urban Search and Rescue is not adequate to accomplish the tasks listed above.

To take on these tasks, we propose to establish an excluded Emergency Coordinator at pay grade 428 in the Structures branch and to upgrade the current Civil Engineer II position (CE II) in Structures to a Branch Head position, CE III.

The net cost of these two changes would be $73,000 annually. We also recommend that funding of $15,000 be established as a budget in the Structures Branch for emergency planning expenditures including printing of Branch Emergency Plans and the provision of emergency support supplies.

Temporary staff for emergency planning have been funded for the last few years from a vacant Superintendent position previously made available through a reorganization. This position funded at $89,000 can be eliminated if the new positions and budget are approved for a net saving of $1,000.

This recommendation is supported by the Director of Risk and Emergency Management.

Classification of the position has been reviewed and concurred with by the General Manager of Human Resource Services.

CONCLUSION

Development of the EOC, leadership of the Urban Search and Rescue team and the need for an appropriate level of Emergency Preparedness require a greater level of resource commitment in Engineering Services. We recommend establishment of an excluded Emergency Coordinator position and upgrading of a CE II position to a CE III as well as establishment of an annual budget of $15,000 for emergency support costs. The total annual cost of these changes would be $88,000. This would be offset by elimination of an existing position for a net saving of $1,000.

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(c) 1998 City of Vancouver