Emergency management submits hazard-mitigation revisions to state, seeks shared DLAN access and budget boosts

The county emergency management office informed the Health and Human Services Committee on Aug. 19 that it submitted revisions to the multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan and is seeking to join a shared disaster-records system to reduce costs.
The office said New York State returned the draft plan on July 31 with requests for more information on four towns; the county’s consultant gathered the requested material and the revised submission went back to the state on Aug. 15. The director said the package should be ready for FEMA review, but did not guarantee timing.
The director requested two budget increases: modest salary adjustments for four deputy directors (the county worked earlier to remove a salary cap and now proposes up to a 5% increase, estimated at about $1,105.15 split among the four deputies for a year), and an increase to an equipment/account line to pursue shared access to Ulster County’s DLAN records-management system. The office said standalone licensing would cost the county roughly $32,000 a year, but the county has an opportunity to pay Ulster County $13,000 to boost Ulster’s infrastructure and onboard the county on that shared platform for the remainder of this year and the coming year.
“Other counties are using it,” the director said, and the office expects training and onboarding would be part of the arrangement; the system would be used to document assignments, correspondence and multi-agency incident records.
The director said Homeland Security grant opportunities might cover half the cost for threat-assessment and management team use; staff were pursuing grant matches. The director told committee members that the county had recently purchased replacement laptops and expected them to be serviceable for roughly three years.
Committee members discussed operational commitment and training needs; the director emphasized that using the DLAN platform requires a full commitment to training so users are comfortable during an incident.
The committee carried related personnel and budget motions on voice votes and directed staff to proceed with the consultant’s FEMA submission and with follow-up on DLAN procurement and grant opportunities.