1. Disaster Recovery Workshop for States From Plan to Implementation: Lessons Learned Personnel

2. Where/how to find skilled staff? Reach out (Find CDBG expertise) –HUD –COSCDA –Other State CDBG Offices OCD first hired key managers –Key managers then hired their own staff Advertise (Get the word out) –Standard LA State procedures

3. OCD Hiring Procedures Used existing personnel procedures to hire “Unclassified” positions –Expedited process –Provided salary flexibility to encourage experienced personnel to relocate Hired Managers from Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New York, North Dakota, and Kentucky

4. OCD Existing Staff TOTAL NUMBER OF CURRENT DRU STAFF: 54 TO ADMINISTER A $13.4 BILLION PROGRAM

5. Restructuring LRA and OCD combining offices Total Combined Staff: 79 Total Positions Vacant: 24 DRU Assistant Director Housing Specialists Hazard Mitigation Economic Development Planning

6. OCD Organizational Chart

7. Future Challenges Maintaining knowledgeable and experienced personnel in an uncertain environment (restructuring, longevity of program) Assuming contractor responsibilities as program winds down Developing longer term program monitoring capabilities Streamlining process for future disasters

8. What would you do differently? Establish emergency hiring and contractor procurement procedures BEFORE a disaster –Identification of experienced personnel and resources across state agencies –Create a ‘Reserve’ list of State employees or retirees to ‘borrow’ until you have the time to hire permanent staff Policy and Implementation under one roof Staff up faster –Hire as many positions as possible early on –Use contractors if necessary (private sector can staff up faster)

9. How to seek/qualify consultants? Follow Procurement Best Practices Look at consultants’ capacity (how many sub-contractors are necessary to provide the service?) Talk to prior clients and subcontractors regarding past performance Less emphasis on knowledge of funding sources (CDBG/HMGP) and more emphasis on management experience and customer service

10. Building Surge Capacity OCD enlisted the assistance of other state agencies DHH, DSS, for some programs OCD required consultants to have subcontractors in place as part of the SFO process In general FEMA, ICF, and others were able to build surge capacity through: –Extensive use of consultants and subcontractors –Salaries commensurate with experience and disaster recovery efforts

11. Building Surge Capacity Road Home Contractor, ICF, was required to hire over 2,000 employees in less than 1 month -38 subcontractors including 2 non-profit agencies and 3 educational institutions -Job Fairs For meeting closing and other benchmarks, the contractor had employee competitions and rewards

12. Recommendations Streamline state civil service requirements to expedite the hiring process and salary flexibility in a disaster Establish a “Reserve” list for disaster recovery efforts (employees and other agencies). Development of a COSCDA Disaster Rapid Response Team