Analysis of the 2004-05 Budget Bill Legislative Analyst's Office February 2004

Office of Emergency Services (0690)

The Office of Emergency Services (OES) is headquartered in a state-of-the-art command and control center in Sacramento County that was constructed in 2002. It also operates a Coastal Region Operations Center in Oakland, a Southern Region Coordination Center at Los Alamitos, a Specialized Training Institute at San Luis Obispo, and small field offices at other locations. The Governor's budget does not include any capital outlay funding for the office.

Although we have no issues with the budget, the 2003 infrastructure plan for the office includes two projects about which we have concerns. The OES infrastructure plan and these projects are discussed below.

Infrastructure Plan

The 2003 California Five Year Infrastructure Plan shows the OES identified almost $50 million in infrastructure needs (see Figure 1). Of this total, $40 million would replace two- operations centers. This figure also shows the capital outlay approved in the 2003-04 Budget Act and proposed by the current administration in the Governor's 2004-05 budget.

Need for and Scope of Planned Operations Centers Unclear

We recommend that the office report at budget hearings on its current plans for replacing two operations centers.

Two projects identified by the department in its infrastructure plan need better definition of their programmatic need and the scope of the facilities required. These are: 

• Coastal Region Coordination Center. The existing coastal region operations center is located in leased space in Oakland that does not meet the requirements of the state Essential Services Building Act. The prior administration did not support funding in the infrastructure plan for a replacement facility because OES has not evaluated its programmatic and facility needs in light of a reduction in staff at the coastal region office.
• Southern Region Coordination Center. The existing southern region coordination center is located at the Los Alamitos airfield in two modular buildings that do not meet the standards required by the Essential Services Building Act. The infrastructure report indicates the prior administration supported $27 million primarily for replacement facilities but noted that OES has not yet determined what services need to be delivered in southern California or developed a strategy for delivering them.

At this time, we are unable to evaluate the need for, and scope and cost of, either proposal. We recommend that the office report at budget hearings on its current plans for replacing these operations centers.