As the emergency management agency for an urbanized county with fifty-nine municipal jurisdictions, the Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management (CCOEM) is continually looking for ways to support city, village, and township emergency management efforts. To help municipal jurisdictions focus their limited resources most effectively, CCOEM has implemented a standards-based municipal emergency management certification program which provides guidance and validation of city, village, and township emergency management programs.

Enhancing municipal preparedness is a core mission of the Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management (CCOEM). As the emergency management agency for an urbanized county with fifty-nine municipal jurisdictions, CCOEM is continually looking for ways to support public safety officials in their roles as emergency managers.
With a total population of more than 1.2 million, Cuyahoga County’s municipal jurisdictions range in size from Cleveland, with more than 395,000 residents, to the Village of Linndale, with fewer than 200 residents. Every jurisdiction in the County, including the two townships, provides police, fire, and emergency medical services to their residents. With no first-responder responsibilities, CCOEM’s primary task is to assist and support municipalities as they prepare to conduct emergency management operations.
But while local safety officials recognize their emergency management responsibilities, their daily public safety duties often take precedence. Handling the day-to-day requirements of a police or fire department – especially when municipal budgets are under increasing pressure – leaves little time for public safety chiefs to plan or train for the possibility of disasters or emergencies. And with fifty-nine jurisdictions to support, CCOEM personnel are hard-pressed to maintain detailed awareness of each community’s emergency management readiness.
As a result, CCOEM was in need of a program that could provide effective emergency management support to a large number of municipal jurisdictions of varying sizes and capabilities. Ideally the program would both enhance and measure the ability of communities to conduct emergency management operations.
The solution was a standards-based program that would identify a baseline emergency management capability and provide a means to measure a community’s capability against that baseline. Accordingly, in September 2012, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald announced the creation of the County’s ReadyCertify program.
Similar to other standards-based accreditation or certification programs, like the International Standards Organization (ISO) program, ReadyCertify can help municipal officials identify emergency management capability strengths and shortfalls, measure progress, and identify strategic priorities.
Credentialing and certification programs in emergency management are not new. The field already has programs in place to certify the knowledge, skills and abilities of emergency management professionals, including the FEMA Professional Development Series (PDS) Certificate, the Advanced Professional Series (APS) Certificate, the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Certified Emergency Manager® (CEM®) and Associate Emergency Manager (AEM) Certificates. In addition, the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) employs a standards-based accreditation process for emergency management agencies. The Ohio Emergency Management Agency is accredited through EMAP and the Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management is currently working through the accreditation process.
For participating communities, certification through the ReadyCertify program provides independent confirmation that their organization is prepared to conduct effective emergency management operations. Certification will be recognized across the County and will publicly demonstrate a community’s commitment to emergency management and public safety.
The core of the ReadyCertify program is a set of 24 emergency management performance standards that cover the full spectrum of emergency management activities, including administration, organization, planning, training, response, and recovery. To become certified, a community must comply with 18 of the 24 standards. To ensure that the program is applicable to large and small jurisdictions, participating communities can select which standards they wish to meet.
Twelve of the standards are identified as ‘core standards’ and must be completed by all participating communities. Taken together, the core standards establish a baseline emergency management capability that every jurisdiction, regardless of size, should be able to achieve.
Communities that meet 21 of the 24 standards can achieve “certification with distinction,” while communities that comply with all 24 standards are declared “fully certified.”
The ReadyCertify standards are designed to encourage the use of best practices and increase the awareness, understanding, and appreciation of increased cooperation and interoperability among Cuyahoga County’s communities.
The standards support the program’s guiding principles:
• Preparedness begins at the local level.

• Preparedness requires the involvement and support of the whole community, including government, business, community organizations and citizens.

• Preparedness requires a comprehensive approach that includes risk-assessment, planning, resourcing, education, training, and public outreach.

In developing the standards, CCOEM sought to identify the critical organizational, administrative, planning, and training tasks that a community should complete in order to prepare effectively for emergency management operations. Our expectation was that most, if not all, communities are already performing the majority of these tasks. Our intent was not to develop a checklist of new requirements, but was to identify the baseline capabilities that communities should acquire and to provide a way for communities to measure their level of preparedness.
The 24 standards are organized in eleven categories. Those categories, and a brief description of the standards, are listed below. The twelve ‘core standards’ are marked in red.
1.0 Emergency Management Program Administration
1.1 Documented Emergency Management Program
1.2 Designated individual
1.3 Financial and administrative
2.0 Hazard Identification
2.1 Hazard Identification and Risk
3.0 Hazard Mitigation
3.1 Mitigation program
4.0 Planning
4.1 Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
4.2 Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP).
4.3 Shelter-in-Place and Evacuation Training.
5.0 Incident Management
5.1 The jurisdiction has designated a single point of contact to serve as the Emergency Coordinator.
6.0 Resource Management
6.1 Resource management system
6.2 Agreements to share resources with other jurisdictions
7.0 Communications and Warning
7.1 Emergency alerts and warnings.
7.2 Interoperable public safety communications.
7.3 Initiate, receive and/or relay warnings and notifications to key city personnel including decision-makers and emergency personnel.
8.0 Operations
8.1 Shelters.
8.2 Damage assessment and reporting.
8.3 Citizens Corp
9.0 Facilities
9.1 Designated location
10.0 Training and Exercises
10.1 Documented training program
10.2 Individual Assistance/Preliminary Damage Assessment training
10.3 ICS 100, ICS 200, ICS 300, ICS 400, and ICS 700.
10.4 Public safety exercise
11.0 Public Education and Information
11.1 Public Information program
11.2 National Preparedness Month.

When a community applies to participate in the program, CCOEM sends them a comprehensive Applicant’s Guide which contains the full standards and suggestions on how the community can document their compliance with the standards. CCOEM also provides templates for a basic risk assessment, an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), and a basic Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP).
While it may take a community some time to prepare required plans or document their compliance, none of the standards require any significant purchases or other expenditures.
Since the program’s roll-out in September, 2013, twenty-six communities have requested information and twelve are participating in the program.
Accreditation through ReadyCertify can be a key benchmark for measuring the quality of a community’s emergency management organization. Preparing for accreditation can provide an opportunity for the community’s public safety leaders to identify their agency’s strengths and weaknesses. This process can help municipal officials make decisions that will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their emergency management operations.