Operating Procedures for the
Highlands
1.0 Background
and Purpose
The Highlands County Mitigation 20/20 Task Force was established to identify and recommend projects and programs that, when implemented, would eliminate, minimize, or otherwise mitigate the vulnerability of the people, property, environmental resources and economic vitality of the community to the impacts of future disasters. These identified projects and programs are termed “mitigation initiatives” and constitute the principal component of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan. The fundamental purpose of this plan is to guide, coordinate and facilitate the efforts of the agencies, organizations, and individuals participating in the Task Force as they seek funding, authorities or other resources necessary for implementation of the identified mitigation initiatives.
The Mitigation 20/20 Task Force has established an organizational structure to support its operations, and has adopted bylaws that govern the membership and functioning of the group. To complement these bylaws, these procedures have been prepared to define how this organizational structure identifies, evaluates and processes the mitigation initiatives needed to reduce the community’s vulnerability to future disasters. The procedures identify the steps through which newly proposed mitigation initiatives are evaluated and coordinated among the participants in the Task Force, and then incorporated into the local mitigation plan. The procedures also define how the local mitigation plan will be routinely updated, enhanced and maintained in the future.
The procedures described herein are consistent with the computer software program “Mitigation 20/20™,”[1] which has been designed specifically for the purpose of developing, enhancing and maintaining local mitigation plans. The Highlands County Task Force will utilize “Mitigation 20/20™” as a planning tool to support its operations.
2.0 Overview of the Procedure
This procedure defines the fundamental operations by the Mitigation 20/20 Task Force to develop, expand and maintain the local mitigation strategy, including the following:
· Support of the organization and its operations,
· Identification of the natural, technological and societal hazards threatening the community
· Evaluation of the human, economic and environmental vulnerabilities to those hazards,
· Assessment of the existing framework of policies, plans and requirements of the community as related to the capability to eliminate, reduce or mitigate the community’s vulnerabilities to the identified hazards,
· Identification, characterization, justification and prioritization of new initiatives to eliminate, reduce or mitigate the community’s vulnerabilities,
· Evaluation and coordination of new mitigation initiatives by the Task Force,
· Resolution of conflicts between participants in the planning regarding proposed mitigation initiatives and their implementation,
· Incorporation of mitigation initiatives into the plan for future implementation,
· Coordination of the implementation of mitigation initiatives in the plan,
· Periodic review of the status of implementation of the initiatives incorporated into the local mitigation plan, and assessment of their priority for the ensuing planning period, and
· Preparation and distribution of updated editions of the local mitigation plan to the community for review and adoption by the jurisdictions and organizations represented on the Task Force.
3.0 Development and Maintenance of the Task Force’s Organization
The categories and types of participants that are eligible for membership in the Task Force are specified in the bylaws. Participants in the Task Force include many different types of agencies, organizations and individuals, such as government agencies, regional authorities, community and neighborhood groups, business associations, private businesses and industries, local institutions, and even interested individuals. Organizational participants in the Task Force have the following duties:
· To assign individuals to serve as agency or organizational representatives on the Task Force,
· To have these representatives attend meetings and contribute to the discussions and decision making conducted by the Task Force,
· To provide expertise, information or perspective on the identification and definition of hazards threatening the community,
· To conduct technical evaluations of the vulnerabilities of the facilities, systems, neighborhoods, operations and/or valuable resources for which they are responsible or otherwise depend upon,
· To identify, characterize, prioritize and propose for incorporation into the plan various structural and non-structural mitigation initiatives that would eliminate, reduce or mitigate the vulnerabilities of their facilities, systems, operations or resources to the impacts of future disasters,
· To adopt, endorse or otherwise approve their portion of the local mitigation plan,
· To strive to implement the mitigation initiatives identified by the organization and incorporated into the plan by the Task Force as the resources and/or authorities to do so become available,
· To continue to appraise the Task Force of the implementation status of the organization’s proposed mitigation initiatives incorporated into the plan, and
· To support or otherwise participate in the Task Force’s activities in the community to further develop its overall mitigation capability.
The bylaws of the Highlands County Mitigation 20/20 Task Force also establish the organizational structure and responsibilities of three permanent committees for development, maintenance and implementation of the local mitigation plan. These are the Steering Committee, the Planning Committee and the Public Information Committee. The general duties and responsibilities of these three committees are identified in the bylaws, and this procedure defines how these committees carry out those duties.
A program staff functioning under the direction of the Steering Committee also supports the Task Force. The program staff will establish a schedule of meetings of the committees, notify individuals of the meeting time and locations, and otherwise support the committees in their activities. The program staff will also routinely issue reports to the Steering Committee regarding the status of participation of the agencies and organizations with membership in the Task Force, as well as on the progress of these agencies and organizations in developing and maintaining their role in the strategy. To do this, the program staff will maintain a list of the public and private organizations and agencies making up the Task Force.
The program staff will also support the organization through the following operations:
· Scheduling meetings of the Steering, Planning and Public Information Committees under the direction of the committees’ chairpersons,
· Supporting meetings as needed by preparing agendas and facilitating discussion, as well as preparing and distributing summaries of meetings,
· Training and informing participants in the technical and administrative operations needed for development and maintenance of the strategy,
· Assisting with the technical analyses, when necessary,
· Processing information and data provided by the participants for its use in the local mitigation plan,
· Supporting agency and organizational efforts for the implementation of the mitigation initiatives incorporated into the plan,
· Maintaining the computer database of the mitigation initiatives proposed by the participants and incorporated into the plan, and
· Providing other such information and support as feasible to accomplish the mission of the Task Force.
4.0 Increasing Community Awareness and Understanding of Hazard Mitigation
One of the key roles of the Highlands County Mitigation 20/20 Task Force is to increase the general public’s awareness of the benefits of hazard mitigation and the available techniques for making the community more disaster resistant. An important assessment necessary for the effective development and maintenance of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan is to evaluate the current level of the public’s understanding of, acceptance for and willingness to implement a range of mitigation initiatives. Periodically, as indicated or upon the request of the Steering Committee, the Public Information Committee will survey portions of the community or otherwise solicit information regarding the public’s perspective on mitigation needs and programs, as well as the factors that make the public more vulnerable to disasters than is warranted.
The Public Information Committee will be responsible for ensuring that processes undertaken for the development, implementation and maintenance of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan have adequately considered public needs and viewpoints. As needed, the Public Information Committee will encourage appropriate participating agencies and organizations to propose mitigation initiatives that would, upon implementation, further public understanding and utilization of good mitigation practices.
5.0 Identification of the Hazards Threatening the Community
The Planning Committee is
responsible for the Task Force’s initial and ongoing efforts to identify the
natural, technological and societal hazards threatening the community. The purpose of this analysis is to define those
locations, facilities or systems within
In its discretion, the Planning Committee may conduct this analysis on behalf of all jurisdictions, or may request each local government jurisdiction to conduct the analysis independently using the common methodology given in Mitigation 20/20™. To the extent information is available, the Planning Committee and/or the individual jurisdiction will utilize data provided in a geographic information system (GIS) format for those identified hazards that have been so characterized. When feasible, information and data resulting from the Task Force’s efforts will be recorded a GIS format as well. In the absence of available GIS data, the analysis will be conducted on the basis of “best judgment” by the planning participants.
The hazard identification analysis will be accomplished through the following general methodology:
·
Identifying all significant natural,
technological and societal hazards that threaten
·
Defining or estimating the geographic and/or
operational scope of the areas and/or community functions within
· Determining or estimating the probability or frequency of occurrence of the hazard event,
· Defining, estimating or predicting the general consequences of the event to human health and safety, to property, to valuable environmental resources and the economic vitality of the community.
· Deriving a measure of risk to reflect the relative significance of hazard being addressed to the jurisdiction being evaluated.
The measure of relative risk may
then be used by the jurisdiction and/or the Planning Committee to guide and
prioritize the subsequent mitigation planning process. The hazard
identification process is intended to encompass both developed areas of
Hazard identification information and other findings from this analysis will be made available for use by the public and other interested organizations and agencies. As applicable, the findings of the analysis will be included in the individual jurisdictional and/or organizational sections of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan.
6.0 Vulnerability Assessment
Considering the relative risk of the identified hazards for each local jurisdiction, the participants in the Task Force will then conduct an assessment of the vulnerability of specific facilities, systems, and/or neighborhoods within those jurisdictions, as applicable to their authorities, responsibilities and/or interests. The Planning Committee is responsible for promoting the use of Mitigation 20/20™ by all participants in this assessment process to ensure county uniformity in the technical approach by all participating jurisdictions. The Planning Committee is also responsible for monitoring progress in implementation of the vulnerability assessment process.
The vulnerability assessments of specific facilities and systems will be conducted by those agencies, organizations or individuals represented on the Task Force that have established operational control over the facilities or systems, or otherwise have been designated as responsible for their operation and maintenance. For neighborhoods, the assessment will be conducted by the local government agency with expertise, responsibility or interest in the location, and/or by representatives of the applicable neighborhood or community association.
Vulnerability assessments will include evaluation of the potential for physical damage or operational failure due to the occurrence of the hazards identified as threatening the community. This evaluation will also include the vulnerability of the community to physical damage or operational failure of that facility, system or neighborhood.
The vulnerability assessment process will identify, for the evaluated facilities, systems and neighborhoods, those features or functions relatively more vulnerable to damage or failure in the event of the occurrence of a specified hazard. This finding is then available for the Task Force participants and/or the Planning Committee to use in the development of proposed initiatives needed to eliminate, reduce or otherwise mitigate those vulnerabilities.
For each update of the plan, the Planning Committee will identify those facilities, systems and/or neighborhoods thought to be vulnerable to the impacts of a disaster that have not yet be subject to a vulnerability assessment. The Planning Committee will strive to obtain assessments for all potential vulnerable facilities, systems or neighborhoods until the entire community has been evaluated.
In addition, to the extent feasible, the Planning Committee will strive to obtain vulnerability assessments for undeveloped land that is likely to be developed in the future. This will be done to identify the mitigation actions necessary during the land’s development, should it occur, to protect new facilities, systems and neighborhoods from future hazard events. These identified mitigation actions will be formulated as proposed mitigation initiatives for incorporation into the plan and that would, upon implementation, guide the development of the land in the desired manner.
The findings from the vulnerability assessment will be made available for use by the public and other interested organizations and agencies. As applicable, the findings of the analysis will be included in the individual jurisdictional and/or organizational sections of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan.
7.0 Evaluation of Existing Policies, Plans
and Regulations
Using the results of the hazard identification and
vulnerability assessment process, the Planning Committee will maintain an
ongoing effort to evaluate the existing policies, plans and regulations of the
local government jurisdictions in the planning area. This analysis will be used
to define the capabilities of the local jurisdictions’ policies, plans and
regulations to effectively control or manage the identified hazards and/or
eliminate or minimize the vulnerability to those hazards. The Planning Committee will implement a
common analysis methodology to define the following characteristics of the
policy, planning and regulatory framework of
·
The existing array of policies, plans and
regulations established by local jurisdictions in
· Shortfalls or gaps in the policies, plans and regulations of the local jurisdictions to adequately eliminate or reduce vulnerabilities to identified hazards,
· Inconsistencies or conflicts between the policies, plans and regulations of local jurisdictions resulting in reduced capabilities to eliminate or reduce vulnerabilities to identified hazards, and
· Inadequacies of local jurisdiction’s policy, planning or regulatory framework to fully comply with state or federal hazard mitigation requirements.
This analysis may be conducted by the Planning Committee, the program staff and/or individual local jurisdictions using the methodology established. The findings of the analysis will be available for the applicable participating local jurisdictions to identify mitigation initiatives to modify or enhance the existing policy, planning and regulatory framework and to incorporate these initiatives into the corresponding section of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan.
8.0 Identification and
Characterization of Proposed Mitigation Initiatives
All agencies and organizations participating in the Highlands County Mitigation 20/20 Task Force are encouraged to propose mitigation initiatives for processing and incorporation into the local mitigation strategy, based on the findings of the hazard identification, vulnerability assessment, and evaluation of policies, plans and regulations. Formulation of mitigation initiatives will be done only by those individual agencies, organizations or jurisdictions participating in the Task Force that have the responsibility or authority to implement the identified mitigation initiative should the resources and/or authorities become available to do so. When needed, the Planning Committee may request an agency, organization or jurisdiction that has such responsibility or authority for its cooperation and support to formulate proposed mitigation initiatives determined to be needed based on the results of the hazard identification, vulnerability assessment or evaluation of policies, plans and regulations.
The identification and characterization of proposed mitigation initiatives for incorporation into the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan will be in accord with a common methodology incorporated into Mitigation 20/20™. Proposed mitigation initiatives may be structural, non-structural or combined structural and non-structural, and will be identified and characterized by representatives of the agency or organization intending to propose that initiative for incorporation into the strategy. The program staff may offer assistance and guidance to the participating agency or organization regarding the process to identify and characterize mitigation initiatives, but the participant is responsible for the validity of the information utilized to characterize the proposed initiative. A participating agency or organization may identify and characterize as many mitigation initiatives as desired to propose for incorporation into the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan.
9.0 Prioritization and
Submission of Proposed Mitigation Initiatives
In order to most effectively allocate limited resources available for implementation of mitigation actions in the community, all initiatives proposed for incorporation into the plan will be prioritized in accord with the common methodology incorporated into Mitigation 20/20™. The participating agency or organization proposing each initiative is responsible for use of this methodology.
Upon completion of the identification, characterization and prioritization of a mitigation initiative proposed for incorporation into the strategy, the participating agency or organization will submit the proposal to the Planning Committee for review and coordination with other proposed mitigation initiatives. The submittal will be on a schedule and in a format established by the Planning Committee for this purpose.
10.0 Review and Coordination
of Proposed Mitigation Initiatives
The Planning Committee is responsible for ensuring the inter-jurisdictional and inter-organizational review and coordination of proposed mitigation initiatives. To accomplish this responsibility, the Planning Committee will do the following:
· Establish a schedule for the participants to submit proposed mitigation initiatives to be considered for incorporation into the next edition of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan,
·
Ensure the use of Mitigation 20/20™ methodology
by all participating agencies and organizations in
· Distribute the guidance, training or information incorporated into Mitigation 20/20™ as needed to facilitate complete and accurate submittals by the participants,
· Review each proposed mitigation initiative received for completeness, adherence to the prescribed methodology, the validity of the characterization information and data used by the participant, and the likelihood that the proposal will actually mitigate the hazard(s) or vulnerability(ies) of concern,
· Compare proposed mitigation initiatives with others already incorporated into the plan or being submitted during the current planning period to ensure an absence of conflict or redundancy in purpose,
· If needed, return the proposed mitigation initiatives to the submitting agency or organization for additional information or analysis and resubmittal, and
· Prepare a recommendation for action by the Steering Committee to incorporate the proposed mitigation initiative into the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan and to consent to the participant listing the proposed initiative in their section of the plan. In preparing a recommendation, the Planning Committee will make every reasonable effort to work with the agency or organization proposing an initiative to avoid making a recommendation that incorporation be refused by the Steering Committee.
11.0 Incorporation of Proposed
Mitigation Initiatives into the Strategy
The Steering Committee, at next meeting following receipt of the Planning Committee’s recommendation, will review and act upon that recommendation regarding incorporation of the proposed mitigation initiatives into the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan. The Steering Committee may concur with the recommendation or disagree. Upon concurrence, the Steering Committee will vote to incorporate or refuse to incorporate the proposed mitigation initiative into the strategy, as recommended by the Planning Committee.
In the event that the Steering Committee refuses to incorporate the proposed mitigation initiative into the local mitigation plan, a full explanation for the action will be provided to the participant and suggestions made regarding corrective actions that could be taken to enable the proposal to be so incorporated. The proposing agency or organization would then be responsible for taking such actions and resubmitting the proposal for incorporation into the strategy.
In the event the Steering Committee disagrees with a recommendation made by the Planning Committee, it will inform the Planning Committee of the points of disagreement and suggest steps to be taken to make the recommendation acceptable for action. The Planning Committee would implement these steps as soon as feasible.
No proposed mitigation initiative will be considered as incorporated into the plan until it is the given an affirmative majority vote by the Steering Committee for incorporation into the plan.
12.0 Resolving Conflicts
In the event that a mitigation initiative proposed by a participating agency or organization is determined by the Planning Committee to be in conflict with one or more other initiatives in the plan or being submitted by others, the Committee will take action to resolve the conflict. This will be done in the following manner:
· The participants proposing the conflicting mitigation initiatives will be notified of the findings of the Planning Committee and requested to make any such modifications to the proposals needed to resolve the conflicts,
· Should the participants be initially unwilling or unable to make such modifications to their proposed mitigation initiatives, the Planning Committee will schedule and hold a detailed discussion of the matter and involve both participants and any other interested parties,
· In the event that such detailed discussions do not result in voluntary action on the part of the participants making the proposals, the Planning Committee will formulate a recommendation to resolve the conflict. In making this recommendation, in its discretion, the Planning Committee may give preference to the proposal already incorporated into the strategy, to that first submitted to the Committee for review, and/or to the proposal achieving the highest priority score in accord with the Mitigation 20/20™ methodology.
· The Planning Committee recommendation will be transmitted for action to the Steering Committee.
· The Steering Committee will review the recommendation and take any such action as deemed appropriate to reconcile the conflict prior to incorporation of the proposal(s) into the next edition of the strategy.
13.0 Incomplete Processing of
Proposed Mitigation Initiatives
If proposed mitigation initiatives are submitted to the Planning Committee after the deadline established for that purpose, in its discretion, the Committee may decline the process such proposed initiatives for the next edition of the plan. However, the Committee will retain the submissions, and review and process the initiatives in accord with this procedure for purposes of incorporating them into the subsequent edition of the plan. These unprocessed mitigation initiatives will be termed “pending” mitigation initiatives, and may be listed in the next published edition of the plan under that term. Pending mitigation initiatives will not be eligible for funding or resources made available through the Task Force and/or the Highlands County Mitigation Plan in the same manner as would proposed initiatives that are fully processed, prioritized and incorporated into the strategy. The participating agencies and organizations may separately, in their discretion, pursue implementation of pending mitigation initiatives at any time.
14.0 Implementation of
Proposed Mitigation Initiatives
Following its incorporation into the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan, each participating agency or organization is responsible to attempting to secure the funding, resources or other approvals and permits necessary to implement the proposed mitigation initiative. The Mitigation 20/20 Task Force will provide such support to the agency or organization as is feasible at the time, but the agency or organization itself maintains full legal, financial and administrative responsibility for implementation of the proposed action.
On request of the agency or organization attempting to implement an approved mitigation initiative, the Steering Committee will certify to any identified party that the proposed mitigation initiative was subjected to the Task Force’s review and coordination process, and that it has been approved for incorporation into the strategy. If desired, this certification and documentation of an initiative’s incorporation into the plan may be delegated by the Steering Committee to the program staff.
15.0 Monitoring of
Implementation of Mitigation Initiatives
The Planning Committee will be responsible for monitoring the status of implementation of proposed mitigation initiatives incorporated into the Local Mitigation Plan. On an annual basis, the participating agencies and organizations will make information available to identify if one or more of the following actions have been accomplished by the agency or organization proposing the initiative:
· Initial actions to obtain funding, permits, approvals or other resources needed to begin implementation of the initiative,
· Any necessary design or development actions have been initiated or completed, or if funding has been obtained,
· Complete implementation of the mitigation initiative,
· If the agency or organization proposing the initiative no longer intends to implement the initiative, and/or
· Additional information or analysis has been developed that would modify the priority originally assigned to the initiative upon its incorporation into the strategy.
In monitoring the implementation status of the mitigation initiatives incorporated into the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan, the Planning Committee will evaluate the continued priority for implementation to be afforded each initiative incorporated into the strategy. This determination will be made with consideration of the following factors:
· The proposed initiative’s relationship to current or more recent hazard identification and risk assessment evaluations conducted by the Task Force,
·
Recent experience with hazard events in
· The initiative’s predicted current and/or continuing acceptance to the community for implementation, and
· The current probability of receiving funding for implementation from local, state or federal sources and its consistency with current local, state and federal program priorities.
On an annual basis, and for preparation of the next updated edition of the plan, the Planning Committee will recommend to the Steering Committee that an initiative be designated as priority for initiation, continued at its currently designated priority, or deferred for future action. The Committee will also advise the Steering Committee when an initiative is being or has been implemented and can be removed from the plan, or the proposing agency or organization has terminated action on the initiative and has requested its removal from the plan.
The Steering Committee will consider and act on the Planning Committee’s recommendation in order to finalize the list of approved proposed mitigation initiatives to be incorporated into the next updated edition of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan.
16.0 Approval and Issuance of
the
On an annual cycle, the Highlands County Task Force will approve and issue an update of the Local Mitigation Plan. To do this, the Steering Committee will, by affirmative majority vote, allow release of the updated version of the strategy, which will contain at least the following information:
· The currently approved listing of the mitigation initiatives proposed by participating agencies and organizations,
· A statement of the Task Force’s goals and objectives for initiative implementation for the coming planning period,
· Updated information regarding the findings of the hazard identification, vulnerability assessment and evaluation of policies, plans and regulations,
· Progress on implementation of the mitigation initiatives previously incorporated into the strategy,
· A listing of the currently participating agencies and organizations and the status of their participation,
· The current edition of the Task Force’s bylaws and operating procedures.
The updated plan will contain any proposed and approved or pending mitigation initiatives processed by the Task Force during the preceding planning period. It will also include the approved proposed mitigation initiatives listed in any previous editions of the plan unless they are recommended for removal by the Planning Committee and the Steering Committee has concurred with that recommendation.
Each major jurisdiction and/or organization participating in the mitigation planning process will have a separate section of the plan document specifically intended to list the findings of any analyses done for that jurisdiction. This separate section will also contain the complete list of mitigation initiatives proposed by that jurisdiction or organization.
The Public Information Committee will assist the Steering Committee in announcing the completion, approval and release of the plan by the Highlands County Mitigation 20/20 Task Force. Prior to or concurrent with formal action to release the plan, the Steering Committee may determine that a public hearing or public forum is necessary or required to allow the community an opportunity to review and comment on the strategy. Upon such a determination, the Public Information Committee will take the necessary actions to plan, conduct and document the hearing process.
The Public Information Committee will also take such actions as feasible to make the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan readily available to members of the public and other interested organizations and agencies. At a minimum, a full copy of the plan will be available to each participating jurisdiction or organization.
Upon release of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan, the Steering Committee will request the governing body of each participating jurisdiction or organization to take action to adopt, approve and/or endorse their designated section of the plan. It is not necessary for individual jurisdictions or organizations to take any action concerning the portions of the plan pertaining to another jurisdiction or organization. Upon approval of their portion of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan, the participating jurisdiction or organization will notify the Steering Committee. In the event that their portion of the plan is rejected or disapproved in whole or in part, the Steering Committee will be notified of the reasons for the rejection or disapproval. The representatives of that jurisdiction or organization will then be requested to work with the Planning Committee to address and resolve the impediments interfering with receipt of approval or endorsement by the participating jurisdiction or organization.
17.0 Approval of Supplements
to the Plan
When indicated, the Steering Committee may, in its sole discretion, elect to approve issuance of a supplement to the currently approved mitigation plan. This supplement may contain one or more proposed mitigation initiatives that have been fully processed by the Planning and Steering Committees in accord with this procedure. Upon its issuance, the supplement and the mitigation initiatives contained therein are considered to be an integral part of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan pending the approval of the supplement by the governing body of the jurisdiction or organization that proposed the initiatives.
18.0 Assistance with
Initiative Funding and Implementation
Each participating agency and organization is responsible for implementation of the mitigation initiatives contained within their portion of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan when the necessary resources, funding, authorities and/or authorizations to do so become available. The Highlands County Task Force will, nevertheless, offer assistance and support to the participating agencies and organizations in implementing their proposed mitigation initiatives as appropriate opportunities arise.
The Planning Committee, with the support of the program staff will, during each planning cycle, attempt to obtain information regarding upcoming state and federal programs which may offer opportunities for participating agencies and organizations to receive funding for initiative implementation. The Planning Committee will assess the proposed mitigation initiatives listed in the current approved edition of the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan for all jurisdictions and organizations, and identify the proposed mitigation initiatives matching the funding requirements and/or limitations of the applicable state and federal program. The Planning Committee will then select the proposed initiatives in descending order of priority ranking and, in turn, notify the participating agency or organization of the potential availability of funding for initiative implementation. If it wished to apply for the funding available, the applicable agency or organization would be responsible for then agreeing to complete the necessary application forms, provide any matching funds, etc. If the agency or organization was unable or unwilling to undertake the application process, the Planning Committee and/or program staff would notify the agency or organization with the next highest ranked proposed mitigation initiative listed in the current strategy. In the event that two or more proposed mitigation initiatives listed in the plan were eligible for the funding opportunity and had the same priority ranking, the Planning Committee and/or program staff would simultaneously notify the proposing agencies or organizations.
This action by the Planning Committee and program staff is only intended to facilitate implementation of the various initiatives listed in the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan. Nothing in this procedure or the bylaws of the Task Force is intended to prohibit, interfere with or discourage any participating agency or organization from seeking the funding, resources or authorities at any time to implement proposed mitigation initiatives listed in the Highlands County Local Mitigation Plan.
19.0 Assessment of Recent
Disaster Events
Within 60 days following a
significant disaster or emergency event impacting
[1] Mitigation 20/20™ is a trademark of
Emergency Response Planning & Management, Inc. for a computerized planning
program developed by Emergency Response Planning & Management, Inc. Copyright, 2000, 2001, 2002. All rights
reserved.