Flagstaff presenters outline emergency‑management program and ask for staff, equipment funding

Flagstaff City staff on the emergency‑management team on Monday described a newly formalized program, recent mitigation projects and the limits of a single full‑time emergency manager, and requested funding to add personnel, vehicles and planning capacity.

The presentation, led by the city’s Emergency Management Director (Stacy) and Daniel Kelly, the emergency program manager, outlined the program’s mission “to reduce loss of life [and] property” through an all‑hazards approach and said the city now coordinates prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery across divisions and with external partners including Northern Arizona University, Coconino County, state emergency management and federal agencies.

Why it matters

Officials told the committee Flagstaff faces a complex risk environment — wildland fire, post‑fire flooding, winter storms, heavy rail traffic through town, cyber incidents and frequent special events — and argued local capacity must grow so the city can respond quickly without waiting for outside aid. Daniel Kelly said the city currently has one dedicated full‑time emergency‑management specialist and that “I’m the only subject matter specialist for the city who is dedicated, in emergency management,” a staffing level he and presenters described as insufficient for both day‑to‑day preparedness and prolonged disasters.

What the city described

- Mitigation work: Presenters summarized several mitigation and recovery projects tied to recent incidents, including Shoals Creek sediment basins, Schultz Creek drainage improvements along Highway 180, and an Interbasin Restoration project the presentation described as a roughly $16,000,000 state grant to restore a waterline damaged in the pipeline fire. They also cited a Spruce Wash suite of flood‑control projects and a wedge project (about $7,000,000) where the Forest Service contributed roughly $3,500,000 and the city bond covered the remainder.

- Exercises and planning: Staff said they updated the city’s Emergency Operations Plan with a consultant, are working on a multi‑jurisdiction hazard plan and continuity plans, and ran a required triennial full‑scale aircraft incident exercise at the Flagstaff airport that involved more than 25 agencies; Airport Director Brian Goll said the emergency‑management partnership made the exercise more realistic and useful.

- Program limits and staffing request: Presenters said the program is largely personnel‑driven and requested funding for a senior emergency‑management coordinator, two additional EM coordinators and a radio technician; other needs listed included a replacement response vehicle, an off‑site emergency command trailer, weather/forecasting software and an updated citywide evacuation and disaster‑recovery plan. The presentation included a 10‑year plan that currently places most of the requested staffing and capital needs in year one.

County, regional and federal context

Committee members asked about comparisons with similar municipalities and regional support. Daniel Kelly said national best practices for a community of Flagstaff’s size recommend roughly three EM personnel (he contrasted that to the city’s single FTE), noted the county’s EM team currently operates with about four staff and said NAU maintains one EM position. On federal assistance, presenters discussed proposed federal changes intended to streamline FEMA reimbursements (including a proposed 180‑day deadline for certain major projects) but warned that reforms could shift responsibilities to states and localities and make local resilience more important.

EOC and mutual‑aid arrangements

When asked about an Emergency Operations Center, presenters said the city currently relies on Coconino County to open an EOC on the city’s behalf for larger incidents. Daniel Kelly added the county does not presently have an ideal physical EOC (a small trailer and alternate sites are used) and that a grant‑funded county EOC is in design but several years from completion, highlighting an interim dependence on virtual coordination and mutual‑aid agreements.

Numbers and next steps

Presenters said the program displayed multiple open disaster declarations from prior incidents and emphasized long recoveries and reimbursement processes; slides shown in the presentation included operating budget figures and grant placeholders but some slide numbers in the transcript were unclear. Staff said they will share comparative research on peer municipalities’ budgets and will work with finance on phasing the 10‑year plan. The committee was told staff will return to continue financial deliberations at the next meeting on Feb. 25.

Quotes

“I’m the only subject matter specialist for the city who is dedicated, in emergency management,” Daniel Kelly said, describing current staffing.

“Without their help, I think we’d be in a much worse place,” Brian Goll, Flagstaff Airport director, said of the EM team’s support for the airport exercise.

Ending

City staff did not ask the committee for immediate formal action at the meeting; they presented the program, answered questions about regional coordination and funding, and asked the committee and finance team to consider the staffing and capital requests during upcoming budget deliberations. The next public meeting on these financial items was scheduled for Feb. 25.