Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services

The enacted budget makes the following changes to the Executive Budget (March 29, 2012):

• The enacted budget makes no changes to the proposed Executive Budget All Funds, State Operations appropriation of  $64.3 million.

·        Rejects the broad Executive Budget proposal to allow the Executive to have unlimited transfer and interchange authority over all State Operations appropriations. Instead it creates specific transfer and interchange authorization for State Operation appropriations, they include: OGS/Back Office, Call Center, Information Technology. In general this authorization allows the Executive to move appropriations between state agencies for these purposes. For additional detail please see page 5 of the Summary of the SFY 2012-13 Enacted Budget memo.

The Executive Budget recommends (analysis as of January 21, 2012):

A SFY 2012-13 workforce of 442, an increase of 15 FTEs from the adjusted 2011-12 level.  However, the adjusted FTE level for 2011-12 is a decrease of 6 FTEs from the level projected in last year’s Executive Budget. The increase primarily reflects the Division's on-going efforts to maximize federal funding which will be used to support additional positions in critical areas of the agency, such as emergency management

The following chart identifies adjustments in the current fiscal year’s FTEs along with the recommended differences in FY 2012-13 FTEs by program.

·        Continued support of the efforts of the Office of Emergency Management within the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to improve the State’s readiness to deal with disasters.  These include establishing a new protocol to manage rapidly emerging incidents, establishing regional rapid support teams, training State executives, completing and implementing an after action report on the recent disasters, creating a real-time inventory of major State assets that may be needed for a response and developing a protocol for deploying them faster. Further, to improve the ability of local governments to share resources in emergency situations, Article VII legislation is advanced that sets clear guidelines for how shared resources will be deployed and costs will be appropriately shared.

·        An All Funds appropriation of $64.3 million, a decrease of $71.25 million (-52.6%) from the enacted appropriation for SFY 2011-12.  This reduction reflects a $50 million reduction in the Emergency Management program, NY Alert Account (contractual services); and a $30 million reduction in the Interoperable Communications program, Statewide Public Safety Communications Account; offset by an $8 million increase in the Federal Emergency Management Performance Grant account which is federally funded .

·        A Personal Services appropriation of $22.0 million, an increase of $3.6 million (19.6%) from the enacted appropriation for SFY 2011-12.

·        A Contractual Services appropriation of $18.4 million, a reduction of $49.96 million from the enacted appropriation for SFY 2011-12 which reflect the addresses in the NY Alert and Interoperable Communications programs discussed above .

·        DHSES employed an estimated 47 employees under consultant contracts in SFY 2011-12 (or approximately 36 FTEs) at a cost of $2.9 million. It is estimated that 45 consultant employees (or approximately 45 FTEs) will be employed at a cost of $3.5 million in SFY 2012-13.  That is a 20% increase in the cost of consultant contracts from the previous year. The reason for this increase should be discussed at statewide labor management. The expenditures for consultants may include more than personal service costs and is inconsistent with Office of State Comptroller data on consultant spending so it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions on the cost per consultant employee.

·        Article VII legislation (A9055/S6255, part G) would improve emergency responses under the Intrastate Mutual Aid Plan and will enable the State to better prepare and respond to disasters and more clearly define how shared resources will be deployed and funded with local governments.