EMC201 State EMCOM Unit Funding 1/3
To:   Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
To:   Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
By:   Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the
      California Governor's Office of Emergency Services

EMC201  State EMCOM Unit funding 1/3   For release 9/13/99

Bulletins 201-203 deal with funding government EMCOM units.
It is hoped this example of what worked for us will assist
others in understanding the complexities of unit funding.

Getting funding for Emergency Communications units that serve
States is not always easy. Obviously it varies state to state.
In some the units structural connection precludes community
funding support. The California OES ECOM unit (ACS) must rely
on the agency budget for equipment, training, travel, etc. Here,
State OES is a direct function of the Governor's Office, hence
reports direct to the Governor. Although an Auxiliary Communica-
tions Unit (ACS) for some other state agency could receive a
donation from the community, to do so for a unit associated with
State OES is a politically sensitive issue.

In January the ACS Program Coordinator on the paid staff of OES
submitted a proposed Budget Change Proposal for regular Fiscal
Year Allocations. This was a departure from the way the unit had
been handled in the past, where there was no regular budget item.
In April, an opportunity occurred for the State OES to seek funds
from a Y2K appropriation. The OES ACS unit was asked to submit a
request. The result of the combination of these efforts was
$96,000 from the Y2K funds for the purchase of new equipment for
the State ACS units of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

The California ACS is an all volunteer service that has been in
existence in some form since the l950's. Originally limited to
the use of Amateur Radio, today it supports all forms of Public
Safety Systems, not just radios, although radios are still the
core aspect of emergency backup communications.

California is a large and complex state, with distinctive
regional differences in geography, population and hazards. That
resulted in the establishment of three administrative regions,
each with it's own Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Regulations
require that any time a county (called an Operational Area - OA)
(includes all political jurisdictions therein) opens its EOC the
state Regional EOC that serves that OA must also activate.
(See SEMS Regulations.) The State ACS must support all EOC's
in addition to the State Operations Center. Since the 3 EOC's
support six Mutual Aid Regions, the ACS task is somewhat
equivalent to the support of 4 EOC's serving 7 states.

Continues next bulletin, #202.