Sedgwick County adopts updated Local Emergency Operations Plan

Sedgwick County on Wednesday adopted an updated Local Emergency Operations Plan that county emergency management staff say is designed to streamline response and recovery operations across the county.

"This is the plan, that I shared with you during our 2 2 1 sessions last week," Julie Stimpson, director of Emergency Management, told commissioners as she presented the plan and its changes. Stimpson said the LEOP complies with Kansas requirements (as cited in the presentation) and with the National Incident Management System.

Stimpson described the revised plan as a two-part document with a base plan and 15 emergency support function annexes that assign roles and responsibilities for functions such as transportation, mass care and utilities. She said the new draft reduces the document from nearly 400 pages to 180 by removing redundancies and adds language on "expanding incidents" to address events that grow in complexity or resource needs.

Commissioners asked about coordination with cities that do not have local emergency-management staff and about long-term recovery needs such as housing and debris removal. Stimpson said the county will pursue collaboration with municipal partners and that a separate long-term recovery plan focused on cross-sector infrastructure and partnerships will come to the commission next year.

Chairman Beatty moved to adopt the resolution to adopt the Sedgwick County Local Emergency Operations Plan; the motion passed by roll call. The record shows all five commissioners voted in favor.

The plan's adoption starts the county's five-year review cycle; Stimpson also noted work continuing on an extreme temperature annex and an active-shooter annex.