R2005-0010 01-10-05RESOLUTION NO. R2005-10
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PEARLAND,
TEXAS, AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER OR HIS DESIGNEE TO
MAKE APPLICATION FOR GRANT FUNDS PROVIDED THROUGH THE
REGIONAL HOMELAND SECURITY COORDINATING COUNCIL.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PEARLAND, TEXAS:
Section 1. That the City Council hereby authorizes the City Manager or his
designee to make application for grant funds provided through the Regional Homeland
Security Coordinating Council.
PASSED, APPROVED and ADOPTED thisthe lOth day of January
A.D., 2005.
TOM REID
MAYOR
ATTEST:
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
DARRIN M. COKER
CITY ATTORNEY
RflSCC
Regional Homebnd 5, urit~ Coordinating Councd
Austin 1Brazoria I chambers i O°iorad0 t FoM 8en~
Galveston 1 Harris [ Libe~ I Matagorda [ Montgome~
Walker 1 Waller 1 Wha~on i cfw of Houston
FY 05 5HSP & LETPP Projects Application Form
Jurisdiction: City of Pearland
Submitted By: John R. Durham
County or City: Brazoria
FIPS Code:
Title: Deputy EMC
Agency: Fire Marshal / OEM
Mail Address (office): City of Pearland Fire Marshal / Office of Emerg. Mgmt.
Street or P.O. Box: P.O. Box 417
City: Pearland State: TX Zip: 77588-0417
SHSP 05 Project LETPP Project Dollars Sought: $500,000
Project General Description:
Enhance the City of Pearland's communications capabilities by moving forward
with the migration toward Digital 800MHz capable equipment that is compatible
with the Harris County SmartZone system and the Regional Plan for
Communications Interoperability. This would include Mobile Radios, Portable
Radios, and Base Station equipment for the Emergency Operations Center.
Regional Priority Addressed:
Priority 1 - Interoperable Communications
Priority 2 - Emergency Response
Priority 3 - Emergency Preparedness and Recovery Capabilities
Priority 4 - Intelligence, Warning and Critical Infrastructure Protection
Disciplines whose capabilities your project will expand:
[check all that are applicable]
CERT Emergency Management EMS Fire Service Haz-Mat
Law Enforcement, General Law Enforcement, Intelligence Pubic Health
Public Safety Radio Public Works Radio, Amateur Social Services
VOADS Other (specify)
ATTACHMENT
FY 2005 SHSP Project - City of Pearland
ASSURANCES/COMPLIANCE
(Mutual Aid Documents In Place)
List of Jurisdictions:
Northern Brazoria County Emergency Radio Group.
Brazoria County Chapter of the American Red Cross.
The Cities of Alvin, Friendswood, League City
The Cities of Baytown, Bellaire, Bunker Hill Village, Galena Park, Hedwig Village, Hillshire Village,
Houston, Humble, Hunters Creek Village, Jacinto City, Jersey Village, Katy, Laporte, Lomax, Missouri
City, Nassau Bay, Pasadena, Piney Point Village, Seabrook, Spring Valley, Southside Place, South
Houston, Stafford, Tomball, Waller, Webster, West University Place.
Garner Environmental.
Southeast Volunteer Fire Department.
The cities ofAngleton, Brazoria, Clute, Danbury, Freeport, Iowa Colony, Jones Creek, Lake Jackson,
Manvel, Oyster Creek, Richwood, Surfside, Sweeny, West Columbia.
The Counties of Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Matagorda, Wharton, Brazoria.
Texas Air National Guard.
Salvation Army Texas Division.
Assurances / Compliance:
Mutual Aid Documents are in place to provide resources and capabilities (for which funding this
project would pay) to the following regional jurisdictions.
List Jurisdictions: SEE ATTACHED...
Our Emergency Operations Plan is certified by G-DEM to meet the "basic" Level of
Preparedness.
Our Emergency Operations Plan is certified by G-DEM to meet the "intermediate" Level of
Preparedness.
Our Emergency Operations Plan is certified by G-DEM to meet the "advanced" Level of
Preparedness.
We receive EMPG funds we do not receive EMPG funds
We have signed the regional H-GAC county agreement.
State Strategy Goals, Equipment or Assets this project addresses:
Prevention: Intelligence Surveillance Warning
Response: Explosive Device Mitigation and Remediation CBRNE Search & Rescue Equipment
Interoperable communications Equipment Detection Equipment
Decontamination Equipment Physical Security Enhancement Equipment
Terrorism Incident Prevention Equipment CBRNE Logistical Support Equipment
CBRNE Incident Response Vehicles CBRNE Aviation Equipment
Cyber Security enhancement Equipment Intervention Equipment
Other Authorized Equipment:
Training Exercise
Recovery: Federal State Local Public Private
Brief Project Narrative:
The proposed Project would address all four Regional Priorities. The Interoperable
Communications equipment that would be purchased would enhance Regional
Communications Capabilities in the following distinct areas. The equipment would ensure
that Local Law Enforcement, and other First R esponder agencies would b e capable o f
continuing to communicate Regionally with others as the technology moves forward, thus
ensuring successful Intelligence Gathering, Surveillance, and Response. The older
Analog 800MHz equipment can continue to be replaced with the newer Digital, SmartZone
Compatible equipment. Regional Recovery efforts would be more sustainable given the
capability to communicate more reliably with our Mutual Aid partners and other identified
Resources.
FY 2005 HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDING
Item 7a
Page 1 of 4
Background
The Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) in its capacity as the State Administrative
Agency is expected to announce Regional Allocations for 2005 Homeland Security Funding and
Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program in the next few weeks. Since appropriations
were roughly 35% less than FY 2004, regional allocations can be expected to be lower, however
the full impact is not yet known. In addition, TEEX has announced that all available funds will
be distributed through a regional allocation and there will no base grants to individual
jurisdictions. Regional project priorities must be submitted to TEEX by December 1.
Current Situation
The Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Council has prepared draft priorities--
Priority 1 - Interoperable Communications
Priority 2 - Haz-Mat & Bioterrorism Capabilities
Priority 3- Exercising, Planning and Training
Additions will be considered at the Coordinating Council meeting on November 9. This final list
of priorities will be presented for action at the November 16 meeting of the H-GAC Board of
Directors.
Fund Source:
Budgeted:
Texas Engineering Extension Service
N/A
Action Requested
Request Board authorization to submit the FY 2005 Homeland Security and LETPP funding
priorities.
(over)
Item 7a
Page 2 of 4
R#SCC
Regional Homekmd Secu it): Coordinating Council
Austin I BraZoria 1 Chambers t Colorado l Fort Beffd
Galveston I Harris 1 Liberly I Matagorda I Montgomery
Walker I Watler I Wharton I Cit~ of Houston
November 4, 2004
RE: Response to a request from H-GAC staff that a recommendation be made regarding State
Homeland Security Program (SHSP) FY05 Funding "Priorities"
Dear Executive Committee Members:
Recently the 14 members of the Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Council
(RHSCC) received an e-mail from H-GAC staff member Sanita Alrey-Debose.
We were asked to respond on a very short deadline which would allow our
recommendation to be passed on to your group and reviewed by you in time for the matter to be
placed on the November 16th agenda of H-GAC for review and approval.
The request was that we provide our recommendation for "priorities" for SHSP FY 05
expenditures. When a clarification was sought from TEEX State Point of Contact Charles Todd,
the following information was provided:
· This is not meant to be a detailed or a final division of the monies by jurisdiction or by
category of"priorities." No specific projects are funding amounts are being sought at this
time.
· What is being asked of us now is a "general" philosophical statement of how we
recommend the broad categories be ranked.
· This then will be used later in the FY 05 funding allocation process as a basis for review
and recommendation by us to the by the Executive Committee of proposed projects to be
funded.
· Those recommendations will then be forwarded to the H-GAC Executive Committee for
final approval - as in the past.
· No actual division of money recommendation is being asked from us at this time and will
not be asked for until the amount of funding available to the H-GAC region is determined
- hopefully some time in mid-December.
· A decision has been made "at the State level" that there will be no "base grants" allocated
for FY 05 SHSP funds. In other words, all funding will be done on a "regional" basis by
project categories.
· No individual jurisdictions (counties or cities) would be guaranteed a specific amount of
money - or any money at all for that matter.
It is not exactly clear who made the decision to do away with base grants or their
rationale for making it. We have been told by TEEX this is going to happen "statewide," in all
the Councils of Government but it is not clear at this point who decided to implement this new
criteria, how they arrived at that decision or when this was done.
Item 7a
Page 3 of 4
When significant changes are made in the future, it might be helpful to receive clear
information in writing from TEEX and from H-GAC staff on a timely basis to allow us to give
our best efforts to be part of the regional cooperative process of addressing the Homeland
Security issues.
Our Recommendation for "prioritized" Broad Categories for SHSP FY 05 Funds, then,
are as follows:
· Priority 1 - Interoperable Communications: we recommend top priority within
this category be given to ensuring all 13 counties and the City of Houston have
access to the following basic capabilities - (a) public safety radio capabilities,
including: VHF State Interoperable Communications Plan channels, UHF, and
800 MHz capabilities and migration to digital 800/700 MHz capable radios; (b)
"coast-to-coast" push to talk and e-mail/internet capable Blackberry devices; (c) a
common nationwide pager alert capability; (d) a common satellite phone
capability that allows a linkage to the State G-DEM and SOC; (e) a common
Viacom teleconferencing capability; (f) a common satellite up-linking capability;
(g) amateur radio capabilities, where licensed operators are available, that include:
2 meter, 40 meter and 80meter HF and packet and weather station information
capabilities; and (h) multiple mobile communications vehicles that have both
mast and self-locating clamshell antennae capabilities and ACU-1000 or
equivalent frequency patching capabilities.
Once this base level of region-wide capabilities has been implemented for all counties as
feasible, we recommend the focus be on working toward a true regional public safety radio
system. It seems to us that Harris County should be the obvious lead agency in this effort. The
other co-equal piece of this puzzle is to make sure all jurisdictions have the most effective (for
their purposes) CAD system possible in place.
· Priori .ty 2 - Haz-Mat & Bioterrorism Capabilities: We recommend that fire
service entities be tasked with developing a coordinated capabilities strategy and
recommended equipment and mobile response capabilities model based upon, in
part, the common protocol currently being developed for our region - making sure
all_first responders, regardless of discipline, have the necessary personal
protective equipment.
· Priority 3- Exercising~ Planning and Training: We recommend that all
possible efforts be made to offer several regional exercises during the course of a
year and that they be, as much as possible, inter-jurisdictional and use existing
assets like TEEX. As for training, we encourage the use of the DHS consortium
partners (TEEX, LSU etc.) and that we promote attendance at the free out-of-State
training opportunities (Anniston, New Mexico explosives school, etc). Planning
should encompass maximizing exposing ourselves to the best opportunities for
DHS/ODP and other workshop and conference opportunities where we can share
and benefit from "best practices" and unique solutions approaches being used
elsewhere. Two that come to mind as good examples are the "Alert D.C."
program and the State of Florida TSAR team.
Along these lines, we want to make it very clear that these are suggestions for the types
of things we can and should do grouped by proposed priorities that we recommend to the
(over)
Item 7a
Page 4 of 4
Executive Committee. They are not "fixed in stone" and should not be considered as delimiting
any other options under the ranked priorities we are suggesting.
In fact, we want to make it absolutely clear that we are including in our recommendations
to the Executive Committee all the activities and goals stated in the Region's UASI II Strategy
Plan. We will be meeting in person on Tuesday November 9th and may be adopting formal
language the City of Houston representative Cheryl Murray has agreed to have prepared by then
to elaborate on this point.
It was her concern that we not be "locked in" to just the priorities cited in this letter
but that we make it clear to the Executive Committee that our "priorities"
recommendations we are furnishing at H-GAC staff's request today in this letter not be
seen as limiting as to categories and projects eligible for funding with FY 05 SHSP monies.
This is a general suggestion o_[priorities and, even if and when it is approved by the
Executive Committee and passed along for action by the H-GAC Board on November 16th, it
should be viewed as a living concept that is subject to revision and enhancement as the need or
opportunity to do so presents itself- based upon ongoing facts and developing circumstances.
We submit our priority recommendations as requested by H-GAC staff at the direction of
Charley Todd with six counties who participated in yesterday's conference call voting "yes," two
counties (Harris and Liberty) abstaining, four counties (Brazoria, Matagorda, Wharton and
Waller) not participating in the conference call due to other obligations but approving it
previously by email, one county (Walker) approving it verbally in a prior phone conversation
and the City of Houston voting "no."
In sum, that would be 11 in favor, two abstaining and one voting "no."
Sincerely,
THE RHSCC Membership
(by majority vote, City of Houston voting "no" and two abstentions)
ps 2005 Homeland Security Funding.doc
November 9, 2004