Amy Sebring: On behalf of Avagene and myself, welcome to the EIIP Virtual Forum! Our topic today is "Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) for Local Government: A Four Step Approach." Amy Sebring: First, for the benefit of any first-timers, we will go over the order of business. We will begin today's session with a presentation, and then we will proceed to your questions. Amy Sebring: We will provide further instructions just before we begin the Q&A section, but you may wish to jot down your questions or comments as we go along. Amy Sebring: Please do not send private messages to our speakers or the moderator, as we will be busy with the presentation. If you need assistance, you may send a private message to Avagene Moore. Amy Sebring: The transcript of today's session will be available by this evening -- just check back on our home page. Amy Sebring: Now, I am pleased to introduce our speakers. First, Dewayne West, CEM, CCFI, Director of Emergency Services for Johnston County, North Carolina. Dewayne is responsible for supervising the Emergency Management program, Fire Marshal's Office and Emergency Medical Services for the County. Amy Sebring: Dewayne is active in state and local professional associations and currently serves as a member of the North Carolina State Emergency Response Commission, and the Emergency Management Accreditation Commission (EMAP). Amy Sebring: Dewayne is joined by Kent Taylor, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Excelliant Services, Inc. who are working with Johnston County on this planning project. Amy Sebring: Mr. Taylor has extensive experience in the areas of IT hardware, software and business process improvement and disaster readiness methodologies and provides leadership for Excelliant s Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Readiness practice. Amy Sebring: Welcome to you both, we are very pleased to have you with us today. Dewayne, I now turn the floor over to you to start us off please. Dewayne West: Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here to discuss Continuity of Operations Planning. Continuity of Operations Planning or Continuity of Government is often referred to as COOP or COG. It is a relatively new concept for both emergency management and local government. Dewayne West: Kent Taylor of Excelliant and I will be presenting an overview of a process for COOP. I will discuss my experience in implementing a COOP plan in Johnston County, NC. Kent and I will be glad to address questions at the end of our presentation. Dewayne West: Continuity of Operations (COOP) planning facilitates the performance of department or agency essential functions during any emergency or situation that may disrupt normal operations. Dewayne West: What is Continuity of Operations Planning? COOP addresses the recovery of critical core government operations in the event of a disruption of service. This can mean on a short-term basis ... Dewayne West: having a backup capability (files, paper forms, equipment) or can be long-term due to a complete denial of service which could involve relocation to an alternative facility. Dewayne West: How does COOP compare to Continuity of Government (COG) or Business Continuity Planning (BCP)? Continuity of Government typically addresses the succession of leadership. Like Business Continuity Planning for businesses, COOP deals with how to keep an organization s essential day-to-day operations functioning. Dewayne West: Often people think of continuity planning as the preservation of records or backup of data; however, continuity planning involves much more than paper or data, it address the resources (equipment, people, facilities) needed to continue to perform essential functions during a disaster. Dewayne West: Disaster can mean any event that could result in a denial of access to government facilities and/or prevent the government from providing essential services. Dewayne West: When we think of disaster, we typically think of weather-related disasters. Johnston County is located in Eastern North Carolina, close to the coastal plain. Due to our proximity and geography, we are prone to suffer from severe storms, hurricanes and tornados. Dewayne West: Yet, we are just as susceptible to other natural and man-made disasters like fires and floods. We are a high growth area, located near I-95 and the capitol of North Carolina. We must also be prepared for the possibility of terrorism. Dewayne West: Disaster for a local government could come in the form of denial of service. Our increasing dependence upon the Internet and information technology tools as we continually move to a paperless government creates new and important vulnerabilities. Dewayne West: I have been concerned for some time regarding our ability to continue operations should county government be directly impacted by a disaster. A county department or multiple departments could have a fire, flood or other event that would require them to relocate for Dewayne West: an extended period of time. Dewayne West: We are developing a Continuity of Operations Plan that will be a business resumption plan for the County to facilitate the performance of government services for our citizens. Dewayne West: Under the President's First Responder Initiative in 2002, $100 million in grant funding came available nationally to assist local governments with updating multi-hazard plans. North Carolina received $2.8 million of the $100 million, based on population. Dewayne West: NC's Department of Crime Control and Public Safety's Division of Emergency Management provided guidelines to all the counties in NC in January. Counties could apply for the grants to update their Emergency Operations Plans and develop COOP plans. Dewayne West: Johnston County is receiving a grant for $37,200 to develop a Continuity of Operations Plan for the County Government and update the County's Emergency Operations Plan to ensure it addresses all hazards including terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction. Dewayne West: We are also planning on developing COOP plans for our three larger municipalities in the county: Smithfield (the county seat), Selma and Clayton, and hope to get additional grant funds to do that in the near future. Dewayne West: The Federal grant funding is critical for local governments. Across the state and the nation, many counties are under significant budget constraints. Allocating the funds to pay for business resumption planning is a challenge. Dewayne West: While it should be a priority for every local government, it's tough to make it a line item on the budget when times are tight. I commend NCEM and FEMA for recognizing this and getting the funds to the local governments who need it. Dewayne West: According to FEMA's Introduction to State and Local EOP Planning Guidance from August 2002, COOP planning goals should include an all-hazards approach, the identification of alternate facilities, the ability to operate within 12 hours of activation, as well as sustain operations for up to 30 days. Dewayne West: With the demands on our Emergency Management office, we chose to contract with an outside firm to facilitate the planning process. We selected Excelliant Services to work with us. Excelliant has a track record in business continuity planning and has applied its experiences in business to local governments. Dewayne West: We were impressed with their methodology and approach. Kent will explain more of the four step process later in the presentation. The process results in a plan that is unique to Johnston County and how we conduct day-to- day operations. Dewayne West: We have received full support for the disaster readiness planning process from our County Manager, department heads and employees. Dewayne West: We explained the process and the County's role in it and handed out 150 disaster readiness surveys for the department heads to take back to their employees to complete. Within 2 weeks we received nearly 100% participation. Dewayne West: These surveys gave Kent and his team a base of information to come on site to conduct further interviews to gather data on the critical infrastructure needed to support the essential functions. Kent's team interviewed nearly 60 employees representing our county departments. Dewayne West: The interviews result in the development of the critical lists identifying the critical processes and the resources needed to perform those processes. Resources can be people, equipment, documents, facilities and vendors. Dewayne West: Now I will let Kent describe the process and approach. Amy Sebring: I think we may have lost Kent... Amy Sebring: shall I input? Dewayne West: yes Amy Sebring: Joanne Martin with Excelliant will assist us. Joanne Martin: I will be glad to Joanne Martin: Dewayne has described the first two steps of Excelliant's four- step process for COOP. The Excelliant Method is a disaster preparedness planning methodology that is based upon the latest business continuity planning, disaster preparedness, and project management methodologies. Joanne Martin: Due to the complex processes and technology infrastructure of today's governments, an iterative approach of interviews and analysis is required to provide an in-depth understanding of the organization. Through the use of this iterative process, vulnerabilities and risks are drawn out, documented, and analyzed. Joanne Martin: Kent will pick up from here Kent Taylor: The four main steps are (1) Initiation, (2) Disaster Readiness Assessment (DRA), (3) Vulnerability and Risk Analysis (VRA) and (4) Disaster Readiness Planning (DRP). Kent Taylor: Step 1, the Initiation step, sets the stage by identifying key personnel and the scope of the planning process, as Dewayne mentioned. Kent Taylor: Step 2, the DRA focuses on defining your critical government operations so that critical processes and resources are identified through surveys and interviews. Kent Taylor: Next, Step 3, is the creation of Vulnerability and Risk Analysis from the information gathered during the DRA phase. The Vulnerability and Risk Analysis documents the identified vulnerabilities and risks the County may have. Kent Taylor: The final phase, Step 4, is a Disaster Readiness Plan. This plan provides a detailed step-by-step process identifying vulnerabilities and risks and contains an action plan to guide the County in remediation. Kent Taylor: We have a team of continuity planners working with Dewayne's staff with a lead continuity Analyst that serves as the primary contact. A continuity Planner and continuity Quality Assurance Analyst support the lead. Kent Taylor: One of Dewayne's Emergency Management Planners is what we call the "sponsor". The sponsor is responsible for presenting and gathering the feedback on the deliverables during the process. Kent Taylor: We are also training Dewayne and his staff on the process so that we are finished they can maintain the plan without having to call us. Now I will turn it back over to Dewayne. Dewayne West: Johnston County local government is much better prepared for an emergency. The county employees who participated in this process are more aware of their roles in disaster readiness and homeland security. Dewayne West: If you had asked them six months ago, "what would you do if you couldn't get into your office today?" I think you would have received a much different response than you would today. Dewayne West: Now, they are aware of the resources that they would need to continue to perform their jobs in the event they couldn't get into the office. Dewayne West: Continuity planning is an ongoing process. We recognize that this is the first step in developing a comprehensive plan for the County. We are pleased to be one of the first counties in NC to develop a COOP plan. We also know that it is our responsibility to keep it current as we move forward. Dewayne West: Our future goals include exercising the plan, developing plans for the cities to have a unified plan for the County, mitigating the risks that we have found in the process and reviewing the plan at least annually. Dewayne West: That concludes our overview, and Kent and I will be happy to try to address your questions. For that, I will turn the session back over to our Moderator. Amy Sebring: Whew! Thank you very much Dewayne and Kent for persevering! Our protocol for audience questions is to enter a question mark ? to indicate you wish to ask a question or make a comment. Amy Sebring: Then go ahead and compose your question or comment to have it ready, but do NOT hit your Enter key or click on the Send button until you are recognized by name. Please WAIT your turn. Amy Sebring: We will take questions in the order the question marks are sent to the screen. One question at at time please. If you have a follow up, please get back on line with a ? Amy Sebring: Please try to direct your question to either Kent or Dewayne if you can. We are ready to begin now. Amy Sebring: (Again our apologies for the difficulty we seem to be having today.) Amy Sebring: Questions? Comments? Hadi Husani: ? Teresa A. Chapman: ? Amy Sebring: Well, I will try and start us off perhaps ... Amy Sebring: Dewayne, the kinds of operations you are seeking to plan for ... Amy Sebring: are they just disaster response operations ... Amy Sebring: or do they extend to the delivery of normal government functions as well? Amy Sebring: Do you prioritize them? Amy Sebring: (ok, I apparently am not seeing some of the questions marks and will come back in a sec) Dewayne West: No, we are firm believers in All Hazards Planning. Therefore we try to use the same approach to Coop. We do this for all major county departments. Hadi Husani: Kent - in what manner, if at all have you encorporated the role of other emergency service providers in the Disaster Readiness Plan ? Avagene Moore: Hadi, you have a question for one of our speakers? Avagene Moore: You already have it in there, good. Kent Taylor: As Dwayne noted, we're doing a COOP plan for all major county departments. That includes other emergency providers such as police, EMS, etc Avagene Moore: Teresa, your question, please. Avagene Moore: Please plug in your ? if you have a question for Dewayne or Kent. Bill Thorpe: ? Teresa Chapman: ? Avagene Moore: We have lost Teresa, momentarily. Anyone have a question? Ok, Bill, please compose your question, sir. Dewayne West: ? Avagene Moore: Whenever you are ready, please input to the screen. Teresa Chapman: Dewayne, what would you consider to be the biggest challenges to COOP planning at the County level? Avagene Moore: Teresa is back. Take her question, please, Dewayne. Bary Lusby: ? Dewayne West: Getting the various players to understand the importance of the process. Once we did that, it worked quite well. Clarence Wieting: What about a business recovery Avagene Moore: Bill Thorpe, do you have your question ready? Bill Thorpe: Kent, I'm with PEMA Ops in Harrisburg. Do you use special software to build your recovery plans? Bary Lusby: Have you gone so far as to identify alternate sites for the departments to move to? Amy Sebring: Please wait until you are called upon to input your question. Amy Sebring: I realize there is some lag today. Amy Sebring: Kent, do you see Bill's question? Kent Taylor: We populate an Access database with the data for a county and also utilize standard word documents. We also provide a secure intranet for use by the county and project team. Avagene Moore: To all our audience - please wait until you are called upon to plug in your question. Avagene Moore: Bary plugged in a question. Dewayne, do you want to address his question? Avagene Moore: Re: alternate sites. Dewayne West: Yes, We have identified alternate sites for operations, however there is more work to be done in this area. Avagene Moore: Dewayne, did you have a question? Dewayne West: ? for Hadi Avagene Moore: Go ahead, Dewayne. Dewayne West: Hadi, are you referring to field operations for emergency services? Hadi Husani: I am yes, Bary Lusby: ? Dewayne West: We have not addressed that issue beyond our normal emergency operations plan, which does provide for redundancy and mutual aid. Avagene Moore: (If you have a question, please input your ? at any point. Bary, do you have another question ready? Input, please. Teresa Chapman: ? Bary Lusby: Does your county use GIS? How do you address the hardware requirements from a Bary Lusby: remote location? Dewayne West: Yes, we have an outstanding GIS Dept. We have backup servers and redundancy in outlying county buildings. While it would be difficult, we can ... Dewayne West: be back up and running in fairly short order. However, it would probably have full capability. Avagene Moore: Teresa, your question now, please. Avagene Moore: ? Avagene Moore: Dewayne, what are the benefits of doing the COOP planning? Do you see your elected officials more engaged and more appreciative of an effort such as this? (I think we have lost Teresa again.) Avagene Moore: (Others with questions, we have time for 2 or 3 more.) Dewayne West: I am not sure they fully understand the importance of the process at this point. However, they have been very supportative of our efforts. Avagene Moore: ? Teresa A. Chapman: I got dumped... did my last ? come through? Amy Sebring: (no it did not Teresa, can you resubmit please) Avagene Moore: No, it did not, Teresa. Input again, please. Teresa A. Chapman: Kent or Dewayne, did you use a scenario based planning approach, and if so, what type of hazard did you base your scenario on? Kent Taylor: We didn't specifically use a scenario based approach... Kent Taylor: We primarily focused on the loss of a major building, etc... Kent Taylor: We would encourage scenario based exercises as training and testing for the plan ongoing. Avagene Moore: Kent, from your perspective in NC and other places where you are doing the COOP work - are you seeing enlightenment on the part of elected officials re: their responsibilities, etc to the planning effort? Avagene Moore: (Last call for questions! Input your ? now.) Kent Taylor: Yes. They are becoming more aware of their legal responsibility here. Bary Lusby: ? Avagene Moore: Bary, go ahead, please. Isabel McCurdy: ? Bary Lusby: What is the most frustrating problem that you have encountered? Dewayne West: We really haven't experienced any major problems. Quite the contrary... Dewayne West: We had people coming to us and asking to be a part of the process. Avagene Moore: Last question for today. Isabel, please. Isabel McCurdy: As we know elected officials are only in office for a length of term and funding is an important consideration today. How do you ensure the continuity of COOP? Dewayne West: I envision a process similar to the udgrading of an EOP. Through exercises, education and upgrading. It is more of a time issue than money. Avagene Moore: Thanks, Dewayne. Amy will wrap up for us. Amy? Amy Sebring: Thanks to all of you who were able to hang in with us today. For first-timers, we usually do not have the type of problem we had today, so please come back again some time! Amy Sebring: That's all we have time for today. Thank you very much Dewayne and Kent, and thanks also to Joanne Martin of Excelliant for helping set up today's session. Please stand by a moment while we make some quick announcements .... Amy Sebring: If you are not currently on our mailing list, and would like to get program announcements and notices of transcript availability, please see the Subscribe link on our home page. Amy Sebring: Again, the transcript will be posted later this afternoon and you will be able to access it from our home page. (hopefully!) Amy Sebring: We are pleased to announce a new EIIP partner since our last session, Pocket Mobility, Inc. URL: http://www.pocketmobility.com , POC: Greg Ouzounian, Product Manager Amy Sebring: If your organization is interested in becoming an EIIP Partner, please see the Partnership link on our home page. Amy Sebring: Thanks to everyone for participating today. Our session is adjourned but before you go, please help me show our appreciation to our speakers for a fine job, despite the obstacles!