City of Greater Geelongmunicipal Emergency Management Plan

CITY OF GREATER GEELONGMUNICIPAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLAN

PART 9FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS: 2015 - 2017

Part 9Financial ArrangementsPage

Amendment Summary9-2

9.1Introduction 9-3

9.1.1 Council Contributions9-3

9.2Financial Arrangements – Preparation/Prevention9-3

9.2.1Desktop Exercises (Discex or Tactical Exercises without Troops,

ie personnel) 9-3

9.2.2Field Exercises9-3

9.3Financial Arrangements – Supply of Supplementary Resources9-4

9.3.1 Response9-4

9.4 Natural Disaster Funding Arrangements (NFDA) 9-10

9.4.1Emergency Management Manual Victoria (EMVV) 9-10

9.4.2Commonwealth Payment to Municipal Councils 9-12

9.4.3Non-natural Emergencies 9-12

9.4.4Emergency Management Manual Victoria (EMMV) 9-14

9.4.5Expenditure not Subject to Refund under the NDFA Model 9-10

9.5Catering 9-13

9.6Post-Emergency Financial Assistance9-14

9.6.1Emergency Relief9-15

9.7Donated Goods/Monies9-15

9.8Fencing and Control Line Rehabilitation9-16

9.9Recording Expenditure – Council Response & Recovery Operations 9-16

9.10 Other Administrative Bodies for Post Financial Assistance9-16

9.11Summary Table of Dec 2012 Changes to NDRRAs9-17

9.11.1 Further Information of Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery

Arrangements9-20

AMMENDMENT SUMMARY – PART 9

Revision
Number / Amendment Date / Change/ Reason for Change
2015-2017 / Sept 2014 /

P2, Special Note added
Fig on p9.6 added as per EMMV
P18 additional information added on NDRRAs
Cl 9.11.1 added

Oct 2015 / 1. Cl 9.3 re-worded
2. Cl 9.3.2 Deleted
3. Cl 9.4.6 Deleted

SPECIAL NOTE: Late September 2014, the Federal Government released its Productivity Commission Draft Report on Natural Disaster Funding.

It is anticipated that this will result in changes. This Part will remain essentially unchanged until these changes are known

9.1Introduction

Emergency management arrangements are predicated on the assumption that agencies agree to meet reasonable costs associated with the provision of services. The general principal is that costs are within the “reasonable means” of an agency or organization are met by that agency or organization.

The following pages are a summary of the State financial assistance policy known as the Natural Disaster Financial Arrangements which is administered by the Department of Treasury and Finance (DT&F).

9.1.1 Financial Contributions

Council funds the following organisations on an annual basis viz:

Citizens Radio Emergency Service Teams (CREST)

Service: CREST provide communications support services

Corangamite Catchment Management Authority

Service: funds are allocated for the river telemetry system(s) maintenance

Victorian State Emergency Service

Service: funds allocated (along with State Government contributions) for the day-to-day operational costs of the four SES Units within CoGG

Country Fire Authority – Mt Anakie Fire Tower Committee

Service: funds the operational costs associated with the Mt Anakie Fire Tower

9.2Financial Arrangements – Preparation/Prevention

9.2.1Desktop Exercises (Discex or Tactical Exercises)

This type of exercise does not involve resource deployment.

All agencies, private companies participating in the exercise agree to meet their own expenses incurred in the exercise.

9.2.2Field Exercises

This type of exercise does involve resource deployment.

All agencies participating in the exercise agree to meet their own expenses incurred in the event.

Where the exercise is undertaken at the request of a private company, then expenses other than reasonable expenses associated with salaries of participating organisation’s employees is to be paid for by that private company. This shall not apply where the exercise is conducted during normal business hours.

The financial arrangements associated with the intended exercise are to be agreed to prior to the exercise.

9.3Financial Arrangements – Supply of Supplementary Resources By Council

9.3.1 Response - Resource Supplementation

Under Part 4, Cl 20 (2) of the Emergency Management Act 1986, ‘…a municipal emergency management plan must contain certain provisions viz:

(a) identify the municipal resources (being resources owned or under the direct control of the municipal council) and other resources (see note 3 below) available for use in the municipal district for emergency prevention, response and recovery; and

(b) under Cl 21 (1) & (2) a municipal council must;

Appoint a person(s) to be the Municipal Emergency Resource Officer (MERO)
The MERO is responsible to the council for ensuring the co-ordination of municipal resources*

* municipal resources are resources that are owned or under the direct control of the municipal council, i.e. within Table One, these resources and for the purposes of this Plan, are referred to as Cat A & Cat B, with all three ‘categories’ (see Table One) collectively referred to as Supplementary Resources

SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES
Category / Description / Remarks
Cat A Resources / These are resources owned by the Council / These resources include interalia: labour, plant/equipment, materials and other council assets.
Cat B Resources / These are resources under the Direct Control of the Council / These are resources under contract to the Council, e.g Heavy Plant Contract administrated by City Services Fleet Unit
Cat C Resources / These are Other Resources / These are resources located within (or beyond) the municipal district that are neither owned or controlled by the council, but their availability may be identified in the municipal emergency management plan. (refer to notes 3 & 4 below)

Table One

Notes (source Practice Note- Sourcing Supplementary Emergency Response Resources from Municipal Councils (version 3.2), July 2015, EMV):

1. Response agency requests for supplementary resources are directed to the relevant (Police) Coordinator (IERC/MERC/RERC). Supplementary emergency response resources are initially sourced at a local level, i.e. from within the municipal district. The Coordinator may contact the MERO and request the required resources. The MERO will determine whether the resources requested are available from municipal resources (owned or under the direct control of the municipal council) and if available, arrange for their provision.

2. Municipal councils are not the only source for supplementary emergency response resources, although the MERO is usually consulted first regarding the local availability of the required resources.

3. The extent to which each municipal council is prepared to be involved in sourcing other resources from within (or beyond) its municipal district should also be detailed in the MEMPlan.

4. There is no obligation for the MERO to source required resources that are not owned or under the direct control of the municipal council, i.e. other resources. However, the MERO is encouraged to extend the coordination role to the provision of other resources.

Who pays for Supplementary Resources sourced from the City of Greater Geelong

The Practice Note- Sourcing Supplementary Emergency Response Resources from Municipal Councils (version 3.2 July 2015, EMV) states in Cl 14 that:

Municipal councils are expected to provide municipal resources for emergency response operations without charge to the response agency. However, the provision and use of municipal resources for this purpose may be subject to limits and constraints, e.g. the use of some types of equipment may be limited to a timeframe due to the expense of its operation or for equipment that is not available at certain times of the year. The application of this arrangement recognises that municipal councils have limited budgets to provide resources for emergency response operations. Such limits and constraints should be reasonable, commensurate with each municipal council’s capacity to provide such resources, and details included in municipal emergency management plans.

The provision of municipal resources to response agencies beyond a municipal council’s defined limit may be charged to the response agency.

Response agencies are responsible for meeting the cost of resources sourced by a municipal council that are not municipal resources, i.e. other resources. When an emergency response coordinator, or a council officer, arranges provision of a non-municipal supplementary resource for a response agency, it does so as an agent of the response agency which retains full responsibility to meet all the associated costs[1]. This does not prevent a council from electing to meet the costs, at its discretion.

Notes:

1. It is good practice for the MERO to alert the response agency where it is likely that the cost of supplementary emergency response resources (sourced through the municipal council) will or will not be charged for.

2. Legislation may provide specific powers for response agencies to recover costs from property owners. For example, the fire services may recover additional costs incurred in attending hazardous materials incidents.

SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES
Category
(see table One) / Financial Limits / Constraints
Cat A Resources / 1. Council owned resources such as Graders and Water Carts etc that, at the time the agency requests same, are engaged in road resheeting operations* will be charged back to the requesting Agency. These operations are time sensitive and as such resources under the control of council would need to be hired in to complete the road resheeting and Dust Suppressant programs;
* Council’s road resheeting program is typically conducted annually during the months of (mid) July to (end of) October. Dust Suppressant program conducted annually during Nov/Dec.
2 Council owned resources which are being used by council’s construction teams at the time the agency requests same will be charged back to the requesting Agency. These operations are time sensitive and as such resources under the control of council would need to be hired in to complete the construction work/ program;
3. Council owned resources that incur costs such as overtime either for the operator, supervisor or support staff such as Workshop personnel, will be charge back to the requesting Agency;
4. All costs associated with deployments of council owned resources, e.g. cost of refuelling, field servicing etc where they exceed the specified ‘cost threshold’ (see item 7 (below)) will be charged back to the requesting Agency;
5. Where the Agency request(s) requires the MERO to recall council staff back from annual leave, or work any unbudgeted overtime, then these costs will be charged back to the requesting Agency;
6. Council owned resources that are deployed during response operations to another municipality will be charged back to the requesting Agency;
7. The cost threshold, i.e. defined limit, will consist of the accumulated total of all costs associated with all deployments/supply/use of council owned resources. Refer to Table Two Supporting Notes for important notes.
Cat B Resources / 1. Costs associated with the hiring of resources under the control of council will be charged back to the requesting Agency. These costs will be charges as per the schedules contained in the Council’s Heavy Plant and Equipment Contract
2. The cost threshold, i.e. defined limit, will consist of the accumulated total of all costs associated with all deployments/supply/use of council controlled resources. Refer to Table Two Supporting Notes for important notes.
Cat C Resources / Resources of this type, i.e. other resources, will be charged back to the Agency requesting same – as per Fig 1 (below)

Table Two

Table Two Supporting Notes

OVERRIDING FINANCIAL LIMIT/CONSTRAINTS:

In all instances where the cost of deploying municipal resources , i.e. Category A and Category B, exceeds a cumulative ‘cost threshold’ of $50,000.00 the cost incurred which is above the ‘cost threshold’ will be charged back to the requesting Agency;

The ‘cost threshold’, i.e. defined limit, shall be the cumulative total cost of all deployments for all emergency events in any one financial year irrespective of the Agency requesting the resources or the number of emergency events, that is, once the ‘cost threshold’ is reached in any one financial year, then further Agency requests will receive a tax invoice for municipal resources.

The financial trigger will apply to emergencies within council’s municipal footprint. Deployment of council owned/managed resources outside the footprint will be charged to the agency requesting same.

The cumulative ‘cost threshold’ only applies to a Natural Disaster as per the Federal Government’s ‘Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) Determination. All costs incurred by the City of Greater Geelong for events that lie outside the NDDRA Determination will be charged back to the requesting Agency and no cumulative ‘cost threshold’ applies.

Financial Flow Chart

The following chart illustrates the process to be followed by the City of Greater Geelong and all requesting Agencies.

(refer to Table Two (above)

Fig 1: Financial Flow Chart

(source: Clause 15, Practice Note- Sourcing Supplementary Emergency

Response Resources from Municipal Councils (version 3.2 July 2015, EMV)

City of Greater Geelongmunicipal Emergency Management Plan

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