MINUTES
REGION I RHSOC MEETING
Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007
2 p.m.
MRPC, 4 Industrial Drive, St. James, MO 65559

Call to Order: Chairman Robert Hutson called the January 18, 2007, meeting of the Region I Homeland Security Oversight Committee to order at 2:06 p.m.

Committee Members Present:
Bob Hutson, Jodi Waltman, Charles Witt, Paul Rueff, Jack Emory; Russ Canton; Linda Hanrahan

Visitors and Staff Present:
Richard Cavender, MRPC; Tammy Snodgrass, MRPC; Bonnie Prigge, MRPC; Christine Sorbello, MRPC; Kim Shockley, St. James Schools; Jay Bosch, SEMA; David Bagge, Mo Dept of Health; Jaclyn Neylon, MHA/ Hosp Cood., Todd Schuetz, Lebanon R-III Schools; Duane Robinson, MO Hwy Patrol; Jim Pritchett, Rolla City Schools; Greg Twidwell, MO Dept. of Agriculture; Carol Yanskey, NAIS; Noel Chandler, St. James local citizen; Patricia Chandler, St. James local citizen.

Chairman Hutson stated that he was adding one item to the agenda – Paul Rueff would be reporting on the ambulance district selection subcommittee. The fact that the group was short one person from having a quorum was also discussed. Staff indicated that they would email out a ratification form to the seven members not in attendance. They would need to vote and submit the forms back before any of the votes taken at the meeting could be ratified.

Report from Office of Homeland Security-Paul Fennewald
Paul Fennewald, of the Missouri Department of Homeland Security (MDHS), provided a presentation on several different issues including: adding an Agriculture Representative to the RHSOCs; schools representation and school safety related issues; MERIS update; regionalization of HSRTs; and other updates from the office of Homeland Security.

Mr. Fennewald stated that Governor Blunt mandated the addition of an education representative on the RHSOCs. There is a State-level Homeland Security Safe Schools working group that is promoting the use of a web-based management tool that can be accessed at dhss.safeplans.net. Another committee has been formed to address hazardous chemicals in school science labs and that group is working to establish consistent processes in working with DNR for disposal and inventory of school lab chemicals. One of the biggest shortfalls is the lack of communication and continuity between schools and first responders on current emergency plans. The advisory council has enabled all levels of schools from day care centers to higher education centers to be included and involved in designing the tools and templates for emergency plans for schools. Mr. Fenewald went on to explain that the HSOC education representative will be responsible for organizing a regional school working group for the purpose of providing connectivity to all schools and first responders, this group should meet periodically to discuss homeland security related issues.

Mr. Fenewald then went on to report on the Missouri Emergency Resource and Info Systems (MERIS). This is a website tool being developed to manage all aspects of incident management during a crisis, including credentialing, asset management, reporting, damage assessment, maps, etc. There will be no cost to local agencies to use this resource and it is expected to be available online May 2007.

Mr. Fennewald reported that there are currently 28 Homeland Security Response Teams statewide. The state has determined that it can no longer continue to financially support all 28 of these teams and it will be necessary for these teams to combine and/or become specialized in certain areas, such as: nuclear, biological, terrorist, chemical response, fast water rescue, confined space rescue, trench rescue, etc. MDHS will be looking to condense these teams down to align with the State Highway Patrol regions. The state will also be looking for local jurisdictions, where the teams are located, to begin providing some support for these teams.

A committee is being formed at the state level to give future direction and guidance to the HSRTs and the RHSOCs will be asked for input on the development of regional priorities, capabilities for these teams.

Mr. Fenewald then reported on the Critical Infrastructure Protection Program. This program has identified 1,400 critical infrastructure assets within the state in the areas of:  agriculture and food; chemical; defense industrial base, energy, national monuments/icons; transportation; health; banking and finance; commercial facilities, emergency services, information technology, postal and shipping, telecommunications, water/wastewater. David Finch, Special Assistant in MDHS, will be contacting each region to establish critical infrastructure working groups in April 2007. Each region will need to identify a primary and alternate “co-chair” for these working groups by April. Mr. Finch can be reached at david.finch@dps.mo.gov.

The MDHS has also established a Pandemic Planning Executive Committee and is asking the RHSOCs to provide input on alternative standards of care and alternative care locations. The RHSOCs should identify two people from each region to work with a statewide working group established to address these two issues. This needs to be accomplished at the April meeting.

Mr. Fennewald stated that the HSAC meets regularly and RHSOCs are encouraged to send representatives to attend those meetings. The next meeting is scheduled for February 8, 2007 in Jefferson City. He also stated that they would like to see the RHSOCs continue to meet quarterly on the schedule specified when the regional groups were formed – the third full week of January, April, July and October. He also indicated that he would like to see the RHSOCs alternate between daytime and evening meetings.

Mr. Fennewald then asked the RHSOC to consider adding a representative from Agriculture, stating that agriculture is vulnerable to terrorism and a critical investment justification.

Lastly, Mr. Fennewald explained that the bylaws are established by the State Homeland Security Advisory Committee (HSAC) and only that group can make changes to this document. He stated that the bylaws were a work in progress and welcomed any suggestions for changes that needed to be made or additions. Some changes that the HSAC is already looking at are changing the fiscal year from July - June to October - September.

Mr. Fennewald then asked if there were any questions and Ms. Snodgrass requested clarification on tasks that he had mentioned for the RHSOC – specifically how many appointments to committees he was asking for. Mr. Fennewald stated that the MDHS was asking each RHSOC to appointment two people to state committees on Critical Infrastructure, alternative standards of care and alternative care locations. He also asked that the group consider appointing a representative from agriculture.

Welcome School Representatives and Explain the Selection Process- Staff
The governor has issued an executive order placing representatives of local schools on the RHSOC’s . The representatives will meet following the meeting to select a primary representative and alternate.

Mr. Fennewald indicated that he also wanted to meet with the education representatives to brief them on their responsibilities following the regular meeting.

Discussion on Selection of Ambulance Districts - Paul Rueff
Mr. Rueff reported that he had surveyed Region I ambulance districts and made some preliminary determinations on how to select which districts would receive equipment through the grant program. Currently there are three ambulance services affiliated with hospitals in the region and eight independent ambulance districts. The hospital affiliated ambulance services can rely upon the resources of the hospitals to provide generator backup and oxygen refill capability. So those three were eliminated from the pool. Of the remaining eight, one is physically located outside the region, but does provide about 37 percent of its service to Maries County and the rest to Gasconade and Osage counties. Paul Rueff requested a vote from the RHSOC on whether or not to include Ozark Central Ambulance District, which is located in Gasconade County in Belle.

Bonnie brought up that Maries Osage Ambulance also covers Maries County.  Ambulance districts in St. James and Rolla respond in parts of Maries County, but most of the service is from the ambulance services in Belle and Vienna. Mr. Rueff then explained that he had also contacted the Maries Osage Ambulance District in Vienna but they had not responded to his survey so he assumed they were not interested in participating. The discussion then turned to the need to make sure that Maries County was covered and included and additional contacts needed to be made with the service located in Vienna. Mr. Rueff agreed to contact that district again.
The RSHOC then voted on whether or not to include the Ozark Ambulance District that is located outside of Region I. Of the six members present, all six voted not to include Ozark Central Ambulance District this year, but emphasized that the decision was for this year’s funds and did not apply to future funding cycles.

Discussion of Grant Administrative Fee- Staff.
Ms. Snodgrass discussed the three percent administration fee that SEMA was taking off the top of the grant funds. She stated that the administration fee was not even discussed when the RHSOC was reviewing the grants and she apologized for the oversight. There were two ways to take care of it – take three percent off of each grant request or take the full amount of approximately $17,000 out of the interoperable communications grant. Ms. Snodgrass recommended taking threee percent from each grant because she felt that staff could realize at least a three percent savings by making purchases through state contracts. The committee agreed with staff’s recommendation and each grant will be reduced by three percent to cover administrative costs.

Review and Discussion of Region I’s Grant Application- Staff
Ms. Snodgrass distributed the application, including budget documents for review. She stated that a few changes had been made since it was emailed out, but no major changes had been made to the narrative. Ms. Snodgrass indicated that she did not foresee making any changes to the budget documents, but if there were suggestions for strengthening the narrative portion she would be happy to make those changes in the next week or so. She plans to submit it to SEMA the last week of January. Jack Emory made a motion to approve the application as presented. The motion was seconded by Bob Hutson. Motion passed unanimously by the six members present.

Information Sharing- HSOC Members
Jodi Waltman stated that she had experienced the need for alternate standards of care while working at local shelters following the recent ice storm.

Jacquelyn Neylon stated that the region’s hospitals will be purchasing an electronic web-based patient triage database and requested that the RHSOC compare any equipment purchases to what may be available through hospital resources and insure that both systems are compatible.

Bob Hudson requested guidelines for emergency shelter operations. Paul Fennewald will provide some guidelines from FEMA and the Department of Health. Further discussions were on the fact that emergency shelters that serve food will likely be inspected by the local health department.

Ms. Shockley stated that the St. James schools were willing to serve as shelters, but did not know who to contact to set that up. Ms. Waltman stated that they needed to make arrangements with the local emergency management director for either the city or county as well as contact the Red Cross.

Upcoming Meetings and Deadlines:
Grant applications due to SEMA by January 31, 2007
HSAC- Jefferson City, Mo. - Feb 8, 2007
RSHOC- April 19, 2007 2:00 pm

Other
Jay Bosch stated that the due date for FY06 grants is January 31, 2007. The application would go through a technical review at SEMA and then be presented to the HSAC for final review and approval. He indicated that the RHSOC needed to submit both an electronic copy and a hard copy by certified mail. Mr. Bosch stated that he hoped that funding notices would go out in March.

Mr. Bosch also said the RHSOC would have the opportunity to provide input into funding justifications for the next round of grants. The state was currently working on developing those justifications and preparing an application to submit to the federal level. They were hoping to have a first draft completed by mid-February with the final application due in April. The HSOCs could expect that round of funding to become available September 2007.

Adjourn
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:51 p.m.

The Educational representatives designated Todd Schuetz, Lebanon RIII Schools as the primary representative and Kim Shockley, St. James Schools as the alternate.

Minutes Approved:

                                                                                                                       
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