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Public Works Mutual Aid Agreement – Procedures Guide

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
  1. PURPOSE
  2. BASIC TENETS OF PUBLIC WORKS MUTUAL AID
  3. PROCEDURES FOR PUBLIC WORKS MUTUAL AID
    1. Designated Public Works Coordinator
    2. Communications
    3. Operational Area Concept
    4. Regional Coordinator Concept
    5. State Role
    6. Resource Lists and Contacts
    7. Arrange Care for Assisting Forces
    8. Documentation for Reimbursement
    9. Proclamation of Emergency
    10. Agency in Charge
    11. Checklists for Requesting Mutual Aid
    ATTACHMENT A
    ATTACHMENT B
    ATTACHMENT C – CA MUTUAL AID REGIONS
    ATTACHMENT D – CHECKLIST FOR MUTUAL AID ASSISTANCE
  1. PURPOSE

    The purpose of this Procedures Guide is to provide parties to the Public Works Agreement with a practical set of guidelines on how to effectively provide and receive public works assistance under the terms of Public Works Mutual Aid Agreement #62170. It is not intended to override or change the terms of the basic Agreement. The terms of the basic Agreement shall govern in the event there is any actual or apparent conflict between this Procedures Guide and the Agreement. The following provisions are suggested guidelines only and not binding on any agency. These provisions should be modified and expanded as necessary to meet the unique needs and emergency organizational structure and working relationships of each operational and regional area.
  2. BASIC TENETS OF PUBLIC WORKS MUTUAL AID

    1. The most effective means of providing timely assistance to a jurisdiction impacted by a disaster is to have agreements in place in advance of the disaster. That has been accomplished by the enactment of Public Works Mutual Aid Agreement #62170 for all parties to the Agreement.
    2. Assistance is voluntary.
    3. Assistance provided will be reimbursed by the requesting jurisdiction.
    4. Jurisdictions should reasonably commit their own resources before requesting mutual aid.
    5. A proclamation of a local emergency is necessary to trigger the Agreement.
    6. Cooperative planning and training are desirable to enhance the effectiveness of providing mutual aid when needed.
    7. Mutual aid should flow through the State Mutual Aid system to enhance coordination and assure reimbursement of eligible expenditures by the impacted jurisdiction.
  3. PROCEDURES FOR PUBLIC WORKS MUTUAL AID

    1. Designated Public Works Coordinator

      Paragraph 1 (a) of the Agreement specifies that the "Coordinator" shall mean the person designated by each party to act on behalf of that party on all matters relative to mutual aid, to include but not be limited to requests, responses and reimbursement.

      It is suggested that this person be a person in authority during a disaster that would be authorized to request public works resources and bind their agency for the cost of these resources. They should also be in a position of authority for the providing agency to release personnel and equipment to the agency impacted by the disaster.

      It is suggested that alternate coordinators be designated in case the primary coordinator is unavailable during the disaster.
    2. Communications

      A preplanned method of communicating requests for public works assistance is essential to effectively obtain such assistance. This includes identifying the organizational channels to be used to process the requests and alternative communications hardware for transmitting the requests. Telephones should not be relied upon as the primary means of communications within the area impacted by a major earthquake disaster and common public works radio frequencies do not exist in most areas of the State to facilitate mutual aid requests between agencies by radio. The Communications organizational channels should reflect the unique organizational arrangements between the agencies in each operational and regional area. All signatories to the Agreement are strongly urged to develop such specific procedures and protocols as quickly as possible. One example of such a system is shown on Attachment A. Each operational and regional area is encouraged to develop a system of communications hardware and/or common frequencies that will allow direct communications between the Public Works Agencies in the areas.
    3. Operational Area Concept

      Paragraph 1 (c) and 14 of the Agreement specifies that an operational area, normally a County and all the jurisdictions in the County, shall be the basic unit for coordinating public works mutual aid.

      Because of their knowledge of public works terminology and procedures, it is suggested that a public works agency representative perform the role of public works coordinator for each operational area. Normally, this should be the County Public Works Agency for the operational area, although a different arrangement could be established if desired by the involved agencies.
    4. Regional Coordinator Concept

      Paragraph 13 of the Agreement suggests that requests for mutual aid assistance be channeled through the appropriate Regional State Office of Emergency Services to ensure maximum effectiveness in allocating resources to the highest priority needs. Channeling these requests through the State Regional OES Office also helps to ensure State and Federal reimbursement of costs incurred.

      Because of their knowledge of Public Works terminology, equipment and methods, it is suggested that Regional Coordinators for Public Works Mutual Aid be Operational Area Coordinators. They would be typically elected from the operational area coordinators within their region. This is the approach which has been effectively used for coordinating Fire, Law and Coroner Mutual Aid. The Regional Public Works Coordinator should work closely with the State Regional OES Office in carrying out this role. A typical flow chart for the operational area and regional area coordinator concept is shown on Attachment B.

      The regional area groupings should be developed by mutual consent of the operational area coordinators. Logical groupings of these operational areas should take into account geographic boundaries and traditional relationships between operational areas. They could match State OES regions (see Attachment C) or geographic barriers such as mountain ranges may dictate another more practical grouping.
    5. State Role

      The State would act to support Public Works mutual aid assistance under the Agreement by offering assistance to the Regional and Operational Public Works Coordinator, and to act as Statewide Coordinator for seeking mutual aid resources if required from beyond the impacted region.
    6. Resource Lists and Contacts

      It is strongly recommended that lists of public works resources be developed for each participating agency, for each Operational Area and Regional Area. Such lists are essential for the operational area or Regional Coordinator to quickly identify which agencies have the particular types of resources needed by the requesting impacted agency.

      The designated public works coordinator for each agency should develop a detailed list of resources for their agency by quantity and type of personnel equipment and materials and a contact number to check on its availability when needed. It is suggested that the coordinator then provide a brief summary of that information to the operational area coordinator for compiling an operational area resource directory of resources and contact numbers. Similarly, the operational area coordinator would provide a copy to the Regional Coordinator to establish a regional directory of resources and contact numbers.

      It would be desirable to develop common standardized terminologies for resources, similar to the Incident Command System (ICS) concept in Fire Mutual Aid, to facilitate categorizing and compiling these inventory lists. However, the development of the standardized terminology should not hold up the development of these resource lists.
    7. Arrange Care for Assisting Forces

      Paragraph 6 of the Agreement requires that the requesting party be responsible for the safekeeping of the resources provided by the assisting party. The requesting coordinator is required to make arrangements for housing and feeding these assisting personnel and fueling and serving their vehicles.

      Each participating agency is encouraged as quickly as possible to develop specific plans for how they will carry out this responsibility. This could include designating people in their personnel department with responsibility for arranging food and lodging and to preplan how they will be housed, especially if many buildings are damaged, as they would be in a large scale earthquake.
    8. Documentation for Reimbursement

      In accordance with Paragraph 9 of the Agreement, each requesting and assisting party is required to keep accounting records of the personnel, equipment, and materials provided under the Mutual Aid Agreement as required by the Federal Stafford Act administered by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and State Natural Disaster Assistance Act (NDAA) guidelines. This requirement is to maximize the requesting agencies reimbursement of costs expended to receive mutual aid.

      Each party to the Agreement should become thoroughly familiar with those Federal and State accounting requirements and pre-establish emergency management procedures and training of their personnel to carefully document all costs of labor, equipment and personnel, including administrative costs, accounted by specific damage location. This practice is not only for mutual aid reimbursement but for reimbursement of all agency costs associated with the disaster. To obtain copies of these State and Federal guidelines, contact your Regional State Office of Emergency Services.
    9. Proclamation of Emergency

      Paragraph 3 of the Agreement requires that a proclamation of Local Emergency must be approved by an authorized official of the agency impacted by the disaster. Also, a State of Emergency should be requested through the operational area for approval by the Governor to authorize State reimbursement and a request for a Presidential proclamation of Emergency to trigger Federal reimbursement. Each Agency should include in their emergency plan a provision to seek such a proclamation from the authorized official in their jurisdiction as soon as they can reasonably determine that the disaster will be beyond that mutual aid assistance will be required. They should make their authorized officials aware of the importance of such a proclamation before the disaster strikes so the officials will act quickly when the disaster does strike.

      A proclamation of emergency is also critical because it changes the status of government workers to emergency service workers status which provides greater flexibility in the use of these people than exists in non-declared emergencies under employee Memorandum of Understanding.
    10. Agency in Charge

      Paragraph 6 of the Agreement provides that the requesting coordinator shall remain in charge of the incident and provide direction and control to the resources provided by the assisting party. The request may also include having the assisting party providing supervisory personnel to take direct charge of their forces under the overall direction of the requesting coordinator. The intent is that the assisting party will comply with all reasonable directions from the requesting coordinator. However, the assisting party should not be obligated to perform any work that it reasonably believes would unduly jeopardize the safety of its employees.
    11. Checklists for Requesting Mutual Aid

      Each party to the Agreement is encouraged to develop checklists for their coordinator to use in assuring that all required steps are followed to properly and effectively seek and provide Public Works Mutual Aid for the benefit of the impacted area and protection of the assisting party. These checklists should establish who is to carry out each essential function both internally to the agency and externally and contact numbers and means for reaching them.

      Attachment D is a sample checklist that can be modified as needed to meet the needs of Agency, Operational Area and Regional Coordinators.


INTERIM EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK
LOS ANGELES COUNTY


Los Angeles County does not currently have common radio frequencies which will allow direct emergency communications between the County Public Works Department and the public works agencies of the incorporated cities. An 800-mhz general government radio frequency system is currently being developed that may eventually provide this capability and amateur radio packet systems are also being developed that will assist in this effort. However, in the meantime to suit our immediate needs, if phone system is not functioning, we have decided to utilize the existing Sheriff's radio net.

The system very briefly works as follows. When a public works agency in the County is impacted by a disaster and requires mutual aid, they would contact their assigned closest Sheriff's station. The Sheriff's station will then forward the request on the Sheriff's radio net to the Main County Emergency Operations Center where a representative of the County Department of Public Works will be stationed in an emergency. The County Public Works representative has direct radio and ring down line ties with the County Department of Public Works Emergency Operations Center to determine if County resources can assist. If they are unavailable to assist, the County Public Works Department representative would contact other cities in the County, again through the Sheriff station net, if phones are not functioning, to secure the needed assistance. If County-wide resources are overtaxed, the request would be processed to the State OES Regional Coordinating Office to seek mutual aid from outside of Los Angeles County.







CHECKLIST FOR MUTUAL AID ASSISTANCE

  1. Pre-Event

    Develop procedures at local, operational area and regional area levels to carry out mutual aid including checklists of actions, resource lists, etc.

  2. Post Event

    1. Local agency quickly assesses estimated extent of damage and availability of local resources to deal with it.

    2. If it is apparent that outside resources will be needed to effectively deal with the emergency, prompt authorized local official to request proclamation of local emergency and request State of Emergency through the County operational area coordinator.

    3. Upon proclamation of local emergency, request mutual aid assistance from operational area public works mutual aid coordinator according to pre-established procedures.
      (This form may be used - Resource Request Form)

    4. Be specific on request as to type and quantity of resources needed, when to report, who to report to, how long needed, type of work to be performed.

      Once a providing party can be located to satisfy the resource request, the coordinator will determine how quickly these resources can be made available and notify the requesting party of that fact.

    5. The requesting party will make all necessary arrangements to house, feed, and otherwise care for the assisting party's personnel and equipment.

    6. The requesting party will carefully document all costs by specific damage site according to State and Federal procedures to maximize reimbursement for costs expected. Carefully record the names of assisting personnel and equipment at each site, and hours worked there.

    7. The Regional State OES Office should provide a liaison representative at the impacted operational area EOC to assist in facilitating mutual aid.

    8. The requesting party should return the assisting party's resources as soon as possible.

Public Works Mutual Aid Agreement – Procedures Guide
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