Employee Preparedness

County Response Structure

Lead County departments are those departments that are voting members of the County Emergency Management Council. These departments are responsible for developing county-wide emergency management policies, plans, and procedures. During an emergency, they play a primary role of ensuring that the county is accomplishing its mission of reducing emergent conditions impacting lives and property, and restoring the delivery of County services to the public. They are responsible for coordinating with their “contact” departments and special districts to:

• Ensure that they are aware of county-wide emergency management policies, plans, and procedures.
• Assist them with the implementation of county-wide emergency management policies, plans, and procedures.
• Provide a point of contact between and the CEOC and those departments and special districts that do not have access to the County’s Emergency Management Information System (EMIS).

The purpose for establishing an emergency management relationship between Lead and Contact Departments and Special Districts is to ensure that there is a means for passing emergency management plans, policies, and procedures to and from county departments and special districts during non-emergent times, and to provide a communications channel to and from these agencies and the County Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) during emergent periods.

Contact departments and special districts are agencies that provide services to the public. Under the state of California’s Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS), County government must take reasonable measures to plan for and conduct emergency response operations as well as ensure speedy restoration of services to the public. To accomplish this mandate the EMC, through OEM, maintains information on the status of contact departments and special districts meeting the requirements of county-wide emergency management policies, plans, and procedures. This information flows through lead departments. During an emergency, the CEOC must have information on the status of contact departments and special districts.

The primary means of communications during an emergency is the County’s Emergency Management Information System (EMIS). Contact departments and special districts with Internet access are encouraged to have three to five staff that have registered as EMIS users and are trained to use the system. Emergency related communications and reports flow in accordance with the Operational Area’s Disaster Information Reporting Procedures. Contact departments and special districts that don’t have EMIS access coordinate with their lead department to establish alternate means of communications through lead departments.