Policy Consensus E-News — February 2006

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Editors Note: Earlier this month the PCI board met in New Orleans. We were all struck by the extent of the devastation and the first-hand accounts by civic leaders who met with us. This special issue of E-News focuses on the role of collaboration in emergency preparedness and disaster recovery and restoration. The first of three articles describes our meeting with New Orleans civic leaders and their sense about what conditions are necessary for collaboration to occur there. Another article describes how California State Sacramento’s Center for Collaborative Policy has staffed up to help state and local governments collaborate to prepare for emergencies. Finally, there are lessons from Florida about how Hurricane Andrew led to a successful collaboration to revise building codes.

PCI Meets with Civic Leaders in New Orleans

Louisiana Representative Diane Winston and General Hunt Downer, Assistant Adjutant General (Army), Louisiana National Guard, led our tour including the levee breech in the Lower Ninth Ward

Hurricane Katrina was the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history. Eighty per cent of New Orleans was flooded. More than 1,000 people died, 350,000 people were displaced from Louisiana alone, 217,000 homes were destroyed, and 81,000 businesses were severely impacted. Then Hurricane Rita hit.

PCI invited a group of civic leaders from New Orleans to meet with us to share their perspectives on what is needed to begin the recovery and restoration process. In addition to an extensive catalogue of resource needs, they cited the need for collaboration.

To our question about what has to occur to bring about collaboration they answered: Collaboration can begin when the necessary parties are willing to come to the table to establish a common goal and begin working together to achieve it. Given the magnitude of the disaster, they need local, state, and federal governments at the table. The civic leaders believe that this is the time to get people galvanized so that all the necessary parties are willing to come together to develop solutions.

Whatever you think about what happened regarding the preparedness and response, we left New Orleans with the view that there needs to be a convener of stature to lead the recovery and restoration efforts. The civic leaders who met with us there believe the federal government needs to play that role.

This is an example of a situation where collaboration is not yet possible. Using collaborative governance to address a problem of this nature requires all affected governments and agencies to be ready to find mutual agreement on purpose and objectives. The necessary partners for recovery and restoration in Louisiana first need to agree upon a framework for combining their efforts.

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Collaboration Accelerates California’s Emergency Preparedness

Hurricane Katrina has made everyone keenly aware of the need to be prepared for disasters and emergencies of all types. That disaster has given the nation a stark reminder of the critical role intergovernmental coordination and collaboration play in emergency response and homeland security.  Since 9/11, emergency management organizations across the country have been struggling to create and coordinate systems for disaster preparation and response.

In California c ollaboration is being employed to accelerate such efforts. Thirteen California state agencies recently completed a plan for modernizing state agency communications and improving the ability of the different agencies to communicate with one another during an emergency. This undertaking by the State Office of Emergency Services and the Interoperability Coalition began last summer when the Center for Collaborative Policy at California State University Sacramento offered its collaborative expertise to assist them with their deliberations. Coalition members recently submitted their plan to the California Legislature, where it is expected to become a cornerstone of the state's emergency preparations.

The Center hired Adam Sutkus, former state Director of California's Citizen Corps Program for community-based homeland security, and a former Chief of Staff at the Office of Emergency Services, to provide strategic consultation, organizational design, and policy facilitation services.  Mr. Sutkus is now working with an analogous group seeking to improve emergency communications for local governments.  A third collaborative project is underway to help emergency response and homeland security programs throughout the state comply with new National Incident Management System (NIMS) requirements so that they will be eligible for additional federal grants in 2007.

Mr. Sutkus is also working with Terry Amsler, California League of Cities/Collaborative Governance Initiative, to convene local governments to discuss how they can potentially use collaborative problem solving tools to work with stakeholders, emergency responders (fire, law enforcement, emergency medical, etc.) and the general public to coordinate emergency planning and preparation.  It is fair to say that cross-jurisdictional collaborative mechanisms to achieve complex emergency management and homeland security goals are beginning to take hold in California.

For more information, you can contact Adam Sutkus at (916) 445-2079.

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Lessons from Florida: How Hurricane Andrew Led to Building Code Reforms

Until Katrina, Hurricane Andrew was the most expensive hurricane in U.S. history. It changed how Florida prepares for and responds to natural disasters. In 1993, the Florida legislature passed a number of provisions including funding for: the Division of Emergency Management, enhanced communications to link governments, training, evacuation plans and shelters, and county plans for post-disaster response and recovery. These have made Florida much better prepared for natural disasters and far more able to deal with their aftermath.

In addition to these actions, the widespread devastation exposed the inadequacy of Florida’s building code – or, more accurately, codes – since the state had over 400 separately administered local building codes. During the recovery period, it became apparent that damage was more severe because of poorly designed and constructed buildings. Governor Lawton Chiles appointed a Building Codes Study Commission and charged it with developing consensus recommendations for improving Florida's building code system for the Governor and Legislature.

The Governor called in the state’s experts on consensus and collaboration, the Florida Conflict Resolution Consortium, a neutral organization based at Florida State University, which designed and facilitated the Commission's work. The Commission's 1997 consensus report served as the basis for 1998 legislation that created a new building code process and system, including a standing Florida Building Commission.

The Consortium continues to facilitate the meetings of the Florida Building Commission in its efforts to develop consensus on a uniform building code. The past two active hurricane seasons have provided graphic evidence that those buildings constructed under the new building code have fared far better than those built under old codes.

For more information contact Robert M. Jones, Director, Florida Conflict Resolution Consortium at (850) 644-6320.

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