Case Study - The Planning Meeting

Carl is the emergency manager for Howard County, Indiana. Howard County is a rural county that is located approximately 40 miles north of Indianapolis. The largest city in Howard County is Kokomo, which has a population of 45,000 and is the home of Indiana University at Kokomo. The remainder of Howard County is rural and includes the towns of New London, West Middleton, Alto, Center, Sycamore, Plevna, and Cassville.

The Howard County EOP is currently undergoing review, and Carl has gathered the key players from Kokomo and all of the smaller towns so that the updated EOP accurately reflects the needs, resources, and capabilities of the entire county. Carl's goal is to gain buy-in from the key players, then train and exercise the plan as a team. This course of action seems logical to Carl because most of the communities in the county have mutual aid agreements and routinely assist each other during emergencies. The problem Carl sees is that, even though mutual aid agreements are in place, overall planning and coordination is lacking. Thus, when mutual aid agreements are activated, issues arise over who is in charge, what resources should be deployed, etc.

The meeting started amicably enough but differences soon became apparent. The fire chiefs from Alto and Middleton engaged in a heated discussion concerning calls in which both departments responded. Neither chief wanted to relinquish authority over his firefighters. Both believed that the firefighters were loyal to them and would perform better if the chains of command were kept separate. The Kokomo fire chief, whose department used ICS unified command in such situation, tried to intervene, but neither of the other chiefs would consider relinquishing authority.

Carl listened to the conversation for a while, disbelieving the illogic of the chiefs' behavior. To him, the whole conversation was absurd. Of course, joint responses required a unified command structure.

1. Analyze and discuss the case study to determine the points at whichyouwould need to flex your preferences to ensure that the decision made is sound.
2. Think about this case study in terms ofyour preference. How would you have to flex if you were the emergency manager in this situation? Explain.