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March 21, 2006
State Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules (SOAHR) Ottawa Building
611 W. Ottawa
Lansing, Michigan 48909 SOAHR_Rules@michigan.gov
Notice of Proposed Guideline
To all concerned parties:
The Emergency Management Division (EMD) of the Michigan Department of State Police is publishing notice of its intent to adopt a guideline. The guideline to be adopted includes two parts. The first part describes the EMD’s existing policy for allocating Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) funds to local jurisdictions. The second part details the policy for funding of new programs under this same grant. The contents of the entire guideline to be adopted follow:
Emergency Management Division Guideline for Allocating the Emergency Management Performance Grant Award for Local Jurisdictions and Funding New Local Programs
1. ALLOCATION POLICY FOR FUNDING EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS
The Emergency Management Performance Grant award for a local jurisdiction is determined as a percentage of the local emergency manager’s salary and fringe benefits. Each qualifying program is allocated the same percentage of its program manager’s salary and fringe benefits. The following example shows how the percentage is determined. Please note that the following figures are only examples. Actual amounts will be dependent on the amount of funds awarded to the state by the Department of Homeland Security and the total local budgets for salaries and fringe benefits for a fiscal year.
Budget and Funding Amount
Total of Salary and Fringe Benefits of Local Emergency Managers $5,000,000 FEMA Funding Available $2,000,000
In order to fund each program at 50% of its local emergency manager’s salary and fringe benefit total, in the above example, EMD would need $2,500,000. The budget shortfall makes it necessary to set local allocations at 40% of the salary and fringe benefit costs of the local emergency managers. This was determined by dividing $2,000,000 by $5,000,000.
Example of the calculation of EMPG funding for a local jurisdiction
A=(Total of all the local emergency manager's salaries and fringe benefits) =$5,000,000 B=(Federal funding provided for local share of EMPG program) =$2,000,000
C=(The local emergency manager's salary and fringe benefits for FY 2005)=**
**(For example, if the local emergency manager's salary and fringe benefits for a fiscal year = $10,000)
(B/A) x (C) = The Local Jurisdiction’s Award ($2,000,000/$5,000,000) x ($10,000) = $4,000
2. POLICY REGARDING FUNDING OF NEW EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS
EMD will consider funding new county emergency management programs upon request since counties are required by the Emergency Management Act to have an emergency management coordinator. If the county board of commissioners does not appoint a coordinator, the chairperson of the county board has the responsibility. EMD, however, does not provide EMPG grant funds if the chairperson of the county board acts as the emergency management coordinator.
Current city and township emergency management programs that receive EMPG funding have been grandfathered, but they will not usually be funded again once they have been discontinued. New or reestablished city or township programs will only be considered for funding when sufficient additional funding is available so that the total funding for existing programs is not reduced.
EMD does not provide funding for public college or university emergency management coordinators.
The following information describes the subjects and issues involved:
This first part of this policy affects the existing county-level and municipal emergency management programs that are currently funded through the Emergency Management Performance Grant. The second part of this policy affects potential non-county level emergency management programs that currently do not receive Emergency Management Performance Grant funding. Non-county entities (political subdivisions) that could potentially be included as programs are cities and townships with a population of 25,000 or more.
The time-line for adoption of this guideline follows:
The EMD requests that this guideline be adopted 35 days from the date of this request or
May 19, 2006.
The opportunity to express comments is described below:
The recipients of this guideline notice may express any views or arguments regarding the proposed guideline or the proposed effective date of the guideline. Written comments will be accepted for 35 calendar days from the mailing date of this notice, May 19, 2006. All written comments should be directed to the following address:
Michigan State Police
Emergency Management Division
Attn: Captain Kriste Etue 4000 Collins Road
P.O. Box 30636
Lansing, Michigan 48909-8136
The following information references the specific statutory provision about which the proposed guideline states a policy:
The EMD operates under direction of Act 390 of 1976, commonly known as the Emergency Management Act. Although this policy has historically not been considered to be a guideline, it has recently been brought to our attention that Sec. 7a, (3) of Part 30.407a of Act 390 of 1976 contains the following requirement:
(3) The division shall receive available state and federal emergency management and disaster related grants-in-aid and shall administer and apportion the grants according to appropriately established guidelines to the agencies of this state and local political subdivisions.
With the advice of the Attorney General’s office, the EMD has determined that it is administratively correct to issue this policy as an official guideline pertaining to the distribution of the local portion of the Emergency Management Performance Grant. This correspondence is in effect announcing that intent.
The information that follows provides a brief discussion of the history regarding the policies to be adopted as a guideline:
The division allocates the local portion of the Emergency Management Performance Grant using a policy that was formulated by a division committee in 1994. The policy indicates that only new county- level programs will be considered for funding, but in 1995 (due to an increase in federal funds), several non-county jurisdictions were allowed to enter the program and become eligible for funding. Since 1995, no new non-county level programs have been allowed to enter the program as funded programs. During the period of 1997 through 2000, another committee consisting of division personnel and members of the Michigan Emergency Management Association (representing local emergency program managers from all eight EMD districts throughout the state) undertook a study to determine alternate funding allocation formulae. The committee met on an ongoing basis and resolved in 2000, based on their findings, to maintain the existing formula adopted in 1994 rather than to revise the formula.
The allocation policy and the policy regarding the funding of new programs were first published within a newly developed guidebook, the “Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) Guidebook” (EMD-PUB 208), in July of 2002. The policy was again published in the revised guidebook in July of 2005.
If you have any questions regarding this request, please feel free to call Ms. Sandy Glazier
(517) 333-5047 or e-mail her at glaziers@michigan.gov. Sincerely,
KRISTE ETUE, CAPTAIN
Deputy State Director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security
KE:slg
cc: Mr. Robert Ianni, Office of the Attorney General
Mr. John Allen, Preparedness Officer, Office of Grants and Training, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC
Ms. Amanda Ratliff, Grants Specialist, Office of Grants and Training, Preparedness Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Region V
Mr. Anthony Katarsky, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division, Michigan Department of State Police
Mr. Mark Wesley, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division, Michigan Department of State Police
