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Emergency management budget jumps as safety division and threat‑assessment costs move into department
Summary
Oakland County's emergency management department told commissioners its FY27 operating budget rises substantially after the Safety Division and behavioral threat assessment program were folded into its budget; officials also warned federal grants like BRIC and EMPG have been reduced. Tom Hardesty said disaster reimbursements and unplanned community siren requests make revenue timing uneven.
Oakland County's emergency management and homeland security office told the finance committee that its operating budget will increase markedly in FY27 after the county transferred the Safety Division and behavioral threat assessment costs into the department.
"It looks significantly different this year," said Tom Hardesty, director of emergency management and homeland security, explaining that safety spending previously budgeted elsewhere is now part of his department and that behavioral threat assessment costs formerly in risk management have been moved into Emergency Management. Hardesty said the department expects expenditures to rise from about $3 million to more than $8 million, driven primarily by the safety transfer.
Hardesty outlined why revenues can be volatile for his office: disaster response expenses are often reimbursed months or years later, and one‑off community projects — such as the county policy where communities pay 75% to install a siren and the county pays 25% — can create unplanned revenue spikes. "Sometimes we get a short notice on those," he said, which affects year‑to‑year comparisons.
Commissioners pressed the presenters on staffing and continuity planning after the budget changes. Hardesty and Mike Crum, safety division manager, said the personnel counts were not increasing as new positions but that roughly 31–32 safety staff have been merged into the emergency management department's headcount; the change is primarily a funding and accounting realignment.
Officials also warned of shrinking federal grant support. Hardesty said the Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC) program and portions of the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) are diminished under current federal and state distributions; he noted the county receives only about $17,000 a year under one federal pass‑through program and that state allocations further reduce county shares. "We hope to not have to use disaster grants," Hardesty said, but shortfalls complicate hazard mitigation and planning work.
Looking ahead, the department requested software to manage public and inter‑agency training registrations and to support behavioral threat assessment case management. The presenters framed those tools as efficiency and safety investments rather than new staffing requests.
The committee did not vote on the budget at the hearing; the presentation was informational and commissioners signaled follow‑up questions would be addressed in finance staff materials.
