Latest news with #NationalIncidentManagementSystem
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
City of Abilene appoints new city manager
ABILENE, Texas () – The City of Abilene has appointed a new city manager. Emily H. Crawford, who is the current city manager of Brownwood and has served in local government leadership for the past 14 years. Crawford will officially move into the city manager role June 25, becoming Abilene's 2nd female city manager. Mindy Patterson, who has served as city manager since former city manger Robert Hanna left in March, was the first. Prior to serving as City Manager, Crawford served in many roles with the City of Brownwood, including Assistant City Manager, Director of the Brownwood Economic Development Corporation, Community Relations Coordinator of Brownwood Independent School District, and Director of Brownwood Convention and Visitors Bureau. Read more about Crawford and her qualification provided by the City of Abilene below: Crawford holds a Master of Science in Organizational Development from Abilene Christian University. Her Bachelor's degree is in Health and Wellness Promotion from Texas State University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She also completed executive training at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT Austin and holds a graduate certificate in mediation from ACU and multiple certifications through the National Incident Management System. Crawford currently serves as President Elect of the Texas City Management Association (TCMA), where she has held a number of leadership roles including Vice President, Region 3 President, 100-Year Anniversary Conference Committee Chair, and Membership Committee Chair. She also serves on the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool Board of Trustees. In 2023, she was recognized as 'Woman of the Year' by the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Hurt said Crawford's perspective and ideas will help guide the city of Abilene into the future. 'She brings new opportunities for change and isn't afraid to think differently,' he said. 'She's got great ideas for the future, and I'm excited to see how she helps lead Abilene forward.' Crawford said she and her husband, who pastors Brownwood Community Church, are looking forward to making Abilene their home. 'My husband, Scotty, is a huge supporter of me and my work, and he is excited,' she said. 'It's definitely a sad time for us as well, because we have such great friends and such a wonderful church and a great work environment here. But we are at a place in our lives where we are looking at this as an opportunity for just a new chapter, a new adventure.' Crawford said she focuses on building excellence into everything she and her current staff does, something she said she knows Abilene shares as a core value. 'When we're putting in infrastructure, we want to make sure that we're doing it in a way that 10 years from now, if it has to be dug up for some reason or another, we did it right — and they're not going to have to go back and fix what we didn't do properly,' she said. 'We don't just want to do it on the fly or on the cheap. That's what I mean about working today with tomorrow in mind. We have to think about what we do every day and how that will impact our future residents.' Crawford said she also is a big believer in healthy organizations, citing her master's degree from ACU in organizational development. 'I have been able to see what a thriving, healthy organization can be — the enjoyment of having a good workplace environment,' she said. 'People are happy to come to work. They believe in the mission. And I'm not saying that it's not the case in Abilene, but that is a core value of who I am as a city manager and as a leader. I believe when the city organization, the people in it, are healthy and thriving, then the results that the public receives are high quality. That's what I want to bring to Abilene.' Crawford and her husband have been married since 1996. They have two adult sons and two daughters-in-law. Outside of work, she enjoys herb gardening, reading, traveling, hosting dinner parties, and spending time with her family. Crawford worked in other industries before her family moved to Brownwood in 2006, where she became the director of the community's Convention and Visitors Bureau through its Chamber of Commerce. The role allowed her to interact with the City Council regularly and also introduced her to city officials and its inner workings. She worked for the Brownwood Independent School District for two years as its Community Relations Coordinator, then became the Director of the Brownwood Economic Development Corporation in April 2011. It was through those roles that she found her passion for municipal government, 'I just really fell in love with all the aspects of the city — Public Works and public safety and even the landfill,' she said. 'I was just so intrigued by all of the things and the operations that happen on a day-to-day basis that mostly go unseen or unnoticed, especially when they're operating as they should.' Her predecessor in Brownwood, Bobby Rountree, was a long-tenured city manager who spent most of his career with the City of Baytown. 'He became my mentor, and he saw that I was curious about local government,' she recalled. 'He gave me opportunities to do special projects and learn alongside him.' As Rountree neared retirement, Crawford served as assistant city manager with him for a year, then was appointed to the Brownwood's top spot upon his retirement. In her time in Brownwood, Crawford said one of her top three projects as city manager would include a public safety initiative coordinated with other agencies in Brown County to update radio systems. 'That was a massive undertaking because of the age of all of our equipment and the radio infrastructure,' she said. 'We were able to upgrade our public safety radio system along with our dispatch center, allowing every single first responder in Brown County to communicate while expanding the reach of the radio system.' That project aided first responders in doing their jobs with speed and accuracy, allowing greater overall communications and increasing first responder and residents' safety. 'I'm really proud that the county, other area cities, and all the fire agencies were able to come to an agreement on the best service and the best product, and we all invested in it at the same time so that it could be a comprehensive upgrade,' she said. Another key accomplishment, Crawford said, is in what she'd call 'place-making,' a concentrated effort to make public spaces such as parks and recreation areas more enjoyable. Those upgrades, such as splash pads, enhanced green spaces, and enhancing sports complexes, added in both value and safety. Crawford said she loves Parks & Recreation because it provides experiences families can enjoy while encouraging a healthy lifestyle. Related goals have seen the city enhance the community's downtown district with attractive, walkable shopping, dining, and entertainment options. 'We've had a huge boom in our downtown district of new businesses, almost all of which were local Brownwood people who were taking a risk in opening a new business,' she said. 'They have been very successful, and now downtown is the place to be.' A capstone of accomplishments during her tenure would be the new Brownwood Event Center complex. A decade in the making, the center is now the gem of the community's downtown, she said. 'We've already hosted so many conferences and business expos and weddings,' she said. 'It's become the place to go, the place to be. And I'm really so proud that when people think of their happy memories and special moments in Brownwood, it's going to be at the event center.' Growth and renewal is tied directly to an individual city council's desire to reinvest in the community and its future, Crawford said. 'I'm very fortunate that I have been able to work with the Mayor and Council here in Brownwood, who not only want to service the needs of the residents today but look to the future — what kind of a city are we building for our children and our grandchildren?' Crawford said. 'When we collectively have that type of an outlook, then it really makes growth possible.' Another key component of growth is tied to community partnerships, whether they be local business, industry, medical, and more. It's like putting puzzle pieces together, she said, and when they fit, 'that's when the magic happens.' 'The city alone cannot create growth,' she said. 'We have to create a foundation and policies and an environment where business can thrive.' That can be done through code, incentive packages, or a variety of other strategies, she said, but all need to be geared to ensuring existing enterprises thrive and entrepreneurship can be fostered. When Hanna announced earlier this year he planned to retire, Crawford saw Abilene as a natural next step in her professional journey. Brownwood essentially sees Abilene as its neighbor — or its 'big sister' up the road, Crawford said. 'One of the reasons why I was drawn to Abilene is because I was very familiar with the city,' she said, from entities such as Hendrick Medical System to the West Central Texas Council of Governments and local colleges such as ACU and TSTC. That will give her a level of familiarity and comfort, she said, with enough room to really dig in and get to know the city's inner workings. 'I feel like I understand the West Texas culture, which we also share in Brownwood,' she said. 'Being out here with no really close neighbors creates a sense of independence, but it also creates a sense of community connection. We all have to pull together and make things happen. I think that instills a real strength, and that's something I see in Abilene. If we want something to happen, we have to pull together and make it happen.' That sense of connection and value of place also is transferable to demographics and economics, Crawford said. 'When you look at industry, healthcare, higher education, those are all very, very similar dynamics to Brownwood,' she said. The proximity to Brownwood means that Crawford and her family can also maintain ties with her parents, who live there, and friends and contacts she's made there, while letting her dig into her new home. 'I plan to bring a perspective that places a strong emphasis on collaboration and partnerships, because I see that happening in Abilene — with the city, with the Development Corporation of Abilene, with the Abilene Chamber of Commerce, with nonprofit organizations and foundations,' she said. 'I love partnership and collaboration, because, like I said, the city alone doesn't have the only piece that's needed to build healthy communities. It takes all of those pieces working together.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Business Journals
23-05-2025
- General
- Business Journals
St. Louis moves 'fully' into recovery phase less than a week after deadly EF3 tornado
Mayor Cara Spencer on Thursday declared the city of St. Louis was "fully in recovery mode" less than a week after an EF3 tornado killed five and caused more than $1 billion in damage. In a press conference Thursday, Spencer said she has confidence in the local response team led by Captain John Walk. Walk has been with the fire department for more than 36 years and has been assisting with the emergency response every step of the way. Walk said his team has moved past the response phase and fully into recovery. He said that they are using the National Incident Management System, a proven system that has been used for natural disaster response for decades. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events "My message to those that are affected by it, whose lives are turned upside down, is 'We hear you, we care, and help is on the way,'" Walk said. Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said the standardized process will help provide a smooth process for people working on repairs and people in need of assistance. In addition to local response teams, state and federal emergency response teams are in St. Louis surveying damage and assisting in recovery. Spencer said they are finalizing a plan for how the Missouri National Guard could help with the recovery effort. Spencer said a major part of the response is building inspection. She said she believes it is the largest building inspection effort in the history of the state. She said the priority of that team is to provide information to keep residents and workers safe, not to remove anyone from their homes. "Right now, we know that a lot of people are worried about the notices on buildings," she said. "We want to assure you right now that it is not our intent, nor are we going to be punishing residents in any way, shape or form, for entering your property." Spencer said the city is in the process of clarifying the wording on notices and has brought in an additional team to clarify the messages provided following structural reviews. Spencer said the community response has been "heroic," but they will not be able to rebuild without federal and state assistance. "We have folks working 12-hour days every single day just to get the work done," Spencer said. "We are looking to FEMA to come and help us fund that. It's not something that the city has the financial backing to run for the long haul." She said her office is in the process of determining how those costs might be shared between the city, state and federal government. A spokesman from Ameren (NYSE: AEE) said there are about 2,700 workers continuing the effort to restore power to the area. He said about 9,000 customers remain without power, but the outages are localized in smaller groups. He said the company's goal is to have power restored by Sunday evening for all the homes for which the restoration process is safe. He said crews are working with the city's building department to determine what homes and buildings can have power safely restored. This report originally appeared on KSDK.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: The Wasatch earthquake is long overdue, and America isn't ready
Experts believe that the Wasatch Fault, one of the longest and most active normal faults in the world, is long overdue for a major earthquake, with a 57% chance of experiencing a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake within the next 50 years. This is common knowledge among Salt Lakers, who consider themselves blessed, if not lucky. But luck isn't a plan. And with our national disaster system melting down, they could be on their own when The Really Big One finally hits. Early in his second term, President Trump signed Executive Order 14239, seeking to offload responsibility for disaster response to state and local governments. A few days later, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she planned to 'eliminate' the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This isn't reform. It's abandonment. It's chaos by design. Here's how our disaster system is supposed to work: Local responders are the first in. The state backs them up. And when the scale of the crisis exceeds their capacity, the federal government steps in — like a big brother with deep pockets and national muscle. The Stafford Act authorizes this, and the National Incident Management System is the playbook. This system, when it works, brings order to the chaos of catastrophe. But it is being dismantled before our eyes. And no one has any idea what will take its place. The system hasn't always worked. After Hurricane Maria in 2017, chaos in the first Trump administration led to prolonged suffering in Puerto Rico. Then came the spectacular collapse of federal crisis management in April 2020 during COVID's early weeks. 'We were all told on a phone call — all 50 governors — that we were basically on our own,' said Washington Governor Jay Inslee. Hospitals overflowed. PPE vanished. States were left to compete against each other for lifesaving supplies. The administration's workaround seems to be to write the federal government out of the process altogether. That huge gamble is based on the idea that 'all disasters are local' — a concept that crumbles in the face of true catastrophe. Studies of major earthquake responses — from Mexico City in 1985 to Christchurch in 2010 to Türkiye in 1999 and 2023 — have found time and again that local and state governments were overwhelmed within hours. With several strands of the fault zone passing directly through the city, this matters deeply for Salt Lake City, one of the most seismically hazardous urban areas in the West. If the Really Big One hit today, would we be ready? Not even close. The United States has the resources, the people and the expertise. What we don't have is someone in charge to make things happen. We need FEMA — now more than ever — to manage the increasingly complex and severe disasters of a polycrisis age. A refocused and empowered FEMA would forge strong public-private partnerships, leading a response that is government-led but not government-centric. It would become the national disaster machine we so desperately need: fast, coordinated, relentless. But we are running out of time. One of these days, in the not-too-distant future, Salt Lakers will wake up in a parallel universe. The fault will finally give way, shredding the Wasatch Front and ripping a gash in the earth's crust from Ogden south through Salt Lake City and all the way to Provo. Dazed families will wander through ruined streets. Thousands will be trapped in the rubble. And no one will be coming to help. When that failure happens, it won't stem from a lack of personnel, equipment or technology. It will stem from a lack of competence. And that will be the catastrophe within the catastrophe.
NBC News
18-02-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Hiring freeze of firefighters could be 'deadly,' Forest Service captain warns
SKAMANIA COUNTY, Wash. — A freeze on the hiring and onboarding of thousands of federal firefighters could have deadly consequences as the national wildfire response operates at a "diminished capacity," a federal firefighting captain told NBC News. The federal hiring freeze ordered last month by President Donald Trump will hinder the U.S. Forest Service's ability to "deliver the lifesaving service that Americans deserve,' said Capt. Ben McLane, who serves in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in southern Washington. The U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service employ more than 15,000 career and temporary seasonal firefighters who conduct fuel management, fight wildland fires and assist other agencies in emergencies under the National Incident Management System. Hiring federal firefighters is a lengthy process because federal background checks are required, raising concerns among McLane and other high-ranking firefighters that the federal force will be understaffed going into the 2025 fire season, which technically begins next month but in practicality has become year-round. 'I have firefighters who I should be bringing on, and I'm not able to because our HR practices have stopped until the hiring freeze is lifted, or they're given permission to continue,' McLane said in an interview last week at the site of the 2023 Tunnel 5 Fire, which burned over 500 acres. 'It's as simple as that.' McLane toured the area with NBC News as a winter storm blanketed the Columbia River Gorge with snow, which fell on the remains of homes destroyed by fire. 'This is the time of year where we're training, we're preparing, we're getting the qualifications that we need to answer the call to service when the summer does come,' said McLane, who serves on the board of the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, an advocacy group. As snowflakes covered his hair and jacket bearing a patch from his time working as an elite 'hotshot' firefighter in Lake County, California, McLane dismissed the notion that fighting fires — and preparing to fight fires — was a part-time job. 'The only place fire season still exists is in our administrative practices,' he said. McLane said his work as a senior hotshot had taken him to fires throughout the United States, 'from Alabama to New Hampshire to California, Alaska and everywhere in between.' He was part of the Forest Service's 'initial attack response' to the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, the deadliest in the state's history. Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. But the newly confirmed secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, thanked firefighters in a video released Friday for their mutual aid response to last month's deadly Los Angeles wildfires. 'The U.S. Department of Agriculture has the largest and most sophisticated wildland firefighting workforce in the world,' said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, 'and I am committed to ensuring that you have the tools and resources you need to safely and effectively carry out your mission.' She did not address the hiring freeze nor its impact on the firefighters she was speaking to. A seasonal firefighter who has worked for the federal government for six years and on a hotshot crew for four told NBC News that while he had completed a drug test and background check, and received correspondence from the federal government indicating he would be re-hired, an official offer has yet to arrive. 'There are a lot of talented people who said, 'Screw it, I'm going to take a county job or state job,'" said the firefighter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has been tasked with downsizing the federal government. 'My deeper concern with the hiring freeze is if it doesn't get resolved in time for fire season, just where will that leave us?' he said. 'I've spent somewhere in the ballpark of 400 days fighting wildfires. We are wildfire specialists. That is all we do, and we're good at it. "If our workforce continues to be gutted, the experience that will be lost is irreplaceable.' More than a dozen Democratic senators have called for firefighters to be exempted from the hiring freeze to no avail. 'Pausing the hiring and onboarding of federal seasonal firefighters — while historic wildfires destroy communities and upend livelihoods across the West — is simply irresponsible and dangerous,' they wrote in a letter last week to the Trump administration. As more than 3,000 of his Forest Service colleagues were being laid off last week, McLane said it was important he speak out: 'Our nation's wildfire response system transcends politics, because wildfire transcends politics, and it's the right thing to do to bring on firefighters and ensure that the public is getting the service that they deserve and that they pay for.'
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's freeze stalls federal firefighter hiring
LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration's federal hiring freeze has stopped the onboarding of thousands of seasonal federal firefighters, including those who work for agencies called on to help battle the devastating Los Angeles-area fires, creating a potential shortfall of firefighters ahead of the next fire season. Even though President Donald Trump's Jan. 20 executive order says the freeze does not apply to positions related to 'public safety,' federal firefighters are not exempt, according to a person who works in hiring at the Bureau of Land Management. The U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service employ more than 15,000 career and temporary seasonal firefighters who perform fuel management, fight wildland fires and assist other jurisdictions in emergencies as part of the National Incident Management System. In at least one field office for the Bureau of Land Management, a division of the Interior Department, officials involved in annual hiring were instructed in an email reviewed by NBC News to 'hold all offers related to fire positions' because of the freeze. The agency 'was already in the middle of hiring their summer [fire] workforce when the federal hiring freeze came down,' a federal hiring manager in Utah told NBC affiliate KSL in Salt Lake City. Another BLM official involved in hiring said, 'The level of stupidity and negligence here is enraging.' 'What if there's nobody to show up? How many people died with garden hoses in their hands?' the person said. 'The people making these decisions — they're not the ones whose houses are going to burn down.' Hiring federal firefighters is a lengthy process because of federal background checks, and any delay in the process raises concerns about an understaffed federal firefighting force, especially in the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles County, which killed at least 29 people and destroyed or damaged more than 18,000 structures, wiping out entire neighborhoods. 'Federal firefighters are the backbone of protecting public safety and putting fires out in the state of California,' Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said Thursday. 'Any lack of hiring puts both federal forested land and California citizens at risk.' Newsom told NBC News last month that the fires would be the costliest in U.S. history in terms of destruction. NBC News witnessed U.S. Forest Service firefighters respond to the Palisades Fire, and they also battled the Eaton Fire in Angeles National Forest, where they deployed five large air tankers, 10 firefighting helicopters and dozens of fire engines, according to the publication Government Executive, which covers federal business news. Federal crews are credited with saving a neighborhood in the Eaton Fire, according to video obtained by KTLA-TV of Los Angeles. The Forest Service, the largest of the federal firefighting agencies, is under a departmentwide hiring freeze, according to a Jan. 21 memo from Gary Washington, acting secretary of the Agriculture Department, which oversees the agency. 'At this time, there are no exceptions to the hiring freeze with respect to the Department,' he wrote. 'Accordingly, effective immediately, agencies and offices are not authorized to extend an offer of employment to any person. Persons to whom an offer of employment has been extended, but acceptance has not been received, shall be contacted immediately and be informed that the offer has been revoked.' Steve Gutierrez, a member of the National Federation of Federal Employees, confirmed that offers had been revoked and said the hiring freeze is made more complicated by other efforts to thin the federal workforce when there is already a shortage of federal firefighters. Gutierrez, a 15-year veteran with the Forest Service on hotshot crews and engines, said thousands of firefighters on probationary status are at risk of termination, as well. 'I was hoping that there would be an exception or exemption to this,' Gutierrez said. A federal hiring freeze in 2017 exempted firefighters. The Interior Department said in a statement Thursday that it is 'implementing President Donald J. Trump's Executive Order across the federal civilian workforce.' The Forest Service said in a statement that it is 'actively working with OPM on its wildland firefighting positions,' referring to the White House Office of Personnel Management. The National Park Service, the White House and the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates the efforts of federal firefighters, did not respond to requests for comment. Sergio Gor, the White House director of presidential personnel, told Fox News, referring to the freeze but not firefighters specifically, that 'the hiring freeze in place is enabling us to vet new people coming in and to other positions, also, but you have to clean house. Look, it's one of those things.' Gutierrez, the union leader, said that in addition to the hiring freeze, a buyout offer letter sent to the federal workforce also went to current federal firefighters. 'I don't know how this could happen,' he said. 'I think it's a slap in the face to these brave men and women who are out there contributing to the public service and saving communities, only to be on the hillside saying, 'Hey, here's your resignation letter — sign by this date.'' This article was originally published on
