Peoria officials outline expanded emergency plans, stress local role and new communications system

Peoria city leaders on Tuesday described the city's emergency-management planning, training and response resources and asked how the council can support preparedness for large-scale events.

At a March 25 study session, Fire Chief Bernard, Emergency Manager Mark Dietrich and Police Chief Tom Intriere told Mayor Jason Beck and the City Council that most incidents are handled by local police and fire but that larger disasters 'the 'top-end' events' require coordinated response across jurisdictions, state and federal partners.

The presentation emphasized plans and exercises that underpin preparedness. "All emergencies start and end locally," Fire Chief Bernard said. Emergency Manager Mark Dietrich said the city should focus on mitigation and preparedness so response and recovery run more smoothly: "I want to focus today on really that 3 to 5% of the emergencies that go to another level."

Why this matters: city leaders stressed that while routine calls are handled by police and fire, prolonged disasters (wildfire, widespread power loss, major cyberattacks) need an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and interagency coordination. Dietrich outlined Peoria's suite of plans: the Peoria Emergency Operations Plan, an EOC handbook, a flood-response plan and a continuity-of-government/operations plan the city is drafting to address sustained disruptions such as a pandemic.

Key details: Dietrich said the city will pursue regular, graded exercises (discussion-based then operations-based) to test plans and cited priority hazards including wildfire, extreme heat combined with power outages, and cyberattacks, which he called among the most concerning because they can occur without warning. He said Maricopa County plans (the Community Wildfire Protection Plan and the Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan) are part of the regional framework.

Council questions focused on cyber resilience, recovery assurances and communications. Councilmember Bullock, who identified himself as having a technology background, asked whether the city had an 'assured' level of recovery for cyber incidents. Dietrich and Police leadership said the city has layered backups (on-prem, cloud and air-gap systems) and is building continuity-of-operations policies, but that recovery timelines depend on the incident and the preparedness of affected businesses and residents.

Communications proposal: Mayor Beck and staff described a planned Technical Emergency Management Communication System (TEMCS), a mobile mesh network intended to provide an off-grid communications capability for public-safety operations across the West Valley. Officials said Peoria has briefed state legislators and will pursue grants to help fund TEMCS; they suggested the city could stand up the system to assist other jurisdictions during major outages.

Direction and next steps: Dietrich said he will circulate the continuity plan in coming months for council consideration. Councilmembers signaled interest in supporting mitigation funding and training, and requested further detail on cyber recovery needs so the council can target budget support.

Ending: Officials said Peoria's new emergency manager, appointed after a national search, brings experience managing presidential debates, campus responses to COVID-19, wildland deployments and civil unrest; councilmembers thanked staff for the briefing and the city plans additional outreach as emergency plans and the continuity-of-operations document move toward formal adoption.