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"The Government that governs the best governs the least."
Thomas Jefferson
Constitutional separation of Rights and Responsibilities
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  • Vices
      Alcohol
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    • Smoking
 
This section presents aspects of the federal/state/regional/local relationships in the areas of emergency management and homeland security. To illustrate these relationships we have chosen to use Pennsylvania, Region 13, Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh as our examples.
 
Federal
At the federal level, the primary responsibility for homeland security resides in the Cabinet Level Department of Homeland Security (DHS) See www.dhs.gov.
Within DHS, The primary responsibility for emergency management is delegated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). See www.fema.gov.
 

FEMA Regions.
Region I: 
 Headquarters Boston Massachusetts
 Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
Region II: 
 Headquarters New York City, New York
 New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
Region III: 
 Headquarters Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia
Region IV: 
 Headquarters Atlanta, Georgia
 Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
Region V: 
 Headquarters Chicago, Illinois
 Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin
Region VI: 
 Headquarters Denton, Texas
 Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
Region VII: 
 Headquarters Kansas City, Kansas
 Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska
Region VIII: 
 Headquarters Denver, Colorado
 Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming
Region IX: 
 Headquarters Oakland, California
  Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands
Region X: 
 Headquarters Seattle, Washington
 Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington
Pennsylvania (www.pa.gov) is a part of FEMA Region 3. Also included in Region 3 are Delaware (www.delaware.gov), Maryland (www.maryland.gov), Virginia (www.virginia.gov), West Virginia (www.wv.gov) and Washington DC (dc.gov). Region 3's headquarters is in Philadelphia.
The task forces are a major interface with PEMA. They also coordinate among themselves for : response (mutual aid), planning, exercises, purchasing and other activities. Region 13 is recognized as the most active and advanced of the pennsylvania response regions.

Region 13 is comprised of Allegheny County, Armstrong County, Beaver County, Butler County, Cambria County, City of Pittsburgh, Fayette County, Greene County, Indiana County, Lawrence County, Mercer County, Somerset County, Washington County, and Westmoreland County
Resources:     See the relevant data located in the Tables web pages. Click here for the link.
 
Reading:     Peruse the website National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) (www.nemaweb.org). NEMA is the professional association of and for emergency management directors from all 50 states, eight territories, and the District of Columbia.

Duties of the Local Emergency Management Director from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA)
 
State
 
State:     A body politic, or society of men united together for the purpose of promoting their mutual safety and advantage, by the joint efforts of their combined strength. Cooley, Const. Lim. 1. One of the component commonwealths or states of the United States of America. The people of a state, in their collective capacity, considered as the party wronged by a criminal deed; the public; as in the title of a cause. “The State vs. A. B.” The section of territory occupied by one of the United States.
Black's Law Dictionary: state
 :
Commonwealth:     The public or common weal or welfare. This cannot be regarded as a technical term of public law, though often used in political science. It generally designates, when so employed, a republican frame of government.
Black's Law Dictionary: commonwealth
 

US States and Commonwealths.
 
 
Pennsylvania
 
Pennsylvania (www.pa.gov/) is a state of the United States of America (www.usa.gov/) located in the northeastern part of the country.
 

Pennsylvania within the United States.
 
State emergency management and homeland security issues are coordinated by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) http://www.pema.pa.gov
 
The current Director of PEMA is Richard D. Flinn, Jr..
His executive staff consists of:
  • Executive Deputy Director
  • 2 Executive Secretaries
  • Chief Counsel
  • Communications Director
  • Deputy Communications Director
  • Legislative and Policy Director
  • Deputy Director for Administration
  • Deputy Director for Operations
  • Deputy Director for 9-1-1
  • State Meteorologist
PEMA Administrative Bureaus are:
  • Bureau of Planning and Preparedness
  • Bureau of Emergency Operations and Resource Coordination
  • Special Deployment and Response Office
  • Bureau of Emergency Management Technical Services
  • Bureau of Financial Management
  • Bureau of Recovery and Mitigation
  • Bureau of Strategic Planning
PEMA has three area offices:
  • Western Area Office in Indiana
  • Central Area Office in Harrisburg
  • Eastern Area Office in Hamburg
 
 
Pennsylvania is described as a commonwealth which effectively means that much of the governing power resides in local municipalities. This includes emergency management, police, judicial, school and other agencies. See www.infoplease.com/us-states/pennsylvania.html
 
Kentucky (kentucky.gov), Virginia (www.virginia.gov), and Massachusetts (www.mass.gov) are commonwealths as well as the US territories of Puerto Rico (www.pr.gov) and the Northern Mariana Islands (gov.mp).
 
All of the other states operate under a system where the county goverment is the focus of much of the activity of interest (emergency services, law enforcement, etc.). Louisiana (louisiana.gov) with its strong French heritage calls its counties parishes.
 
 
Municipality:     A municipal corporation : a city, town, borough, or incorporated village.
Black's Law Dictionary: municipality
 
Pennsylvania is comprised of 67 counties and 2562 municipalities. See www.pamunicipalitiesinfo.com. The state capital, Harrisburg, is located in Dauphin County in the southeastern part of the state.    
 

Pennsylvania Counties.
 
Region 13
 
Within Pennsylvania emergency respons is organized into regional coordinating groups or task forces. Our area is the Southwetern Pennsylvania Emergency Response Group more commonly referred to as Pennsylvania Region 13 (www.pa-region13.org).
 
Mutual Aid:     The means for one jurisdiction to provide resources, facilities, services, and other required support to another jurisdiction during an incident. Each jurisdiction should be party to a mutual-aid agreement with appropriate jurisdictions from which they expect to receive or to which they expect to provide assistance during an incident.
Source: DHS, National Incident Management System, March 2004
 

Pennsylvania Emergency Response Groups and Counter Terrorism Task Forces.

Pennsylvania Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas.
 
County:     The name given to the principal subdivisions of the kingdom of England and of most of the states of the American Union, denoting a distinct portion of territory organized by itself for political and judicial purposes.
Black's Law Dictionary: county
 
Parish:     In Louisiana, a teiritorial division of the state corresponding to what is elsewhere called a “county.”
Black's Law Dictionary: parish
 
Allegheny County
 
Allegheny County (www.alleghenycounty.us) is located in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania.
Emergency services are provided by Allegheny County Emergency Services (www.county.allegheny.pa.us/EmerServ/).
 

Allegheny County within Pennsylvania.
 
 
City of Pittsburgh
 
The City of Pittsburgh (pittsburghpa.gov) is at the geographic center of Allegheny County. Within Pittsburgh, the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (pittsburghpa.gov/ema/) provie emergency services.
 

Pittsburgh within Allegheny County.
 
Clicking on the map below will take you to the Google Map of Pittsburgh.
 
 

Pittsburgh Google Map.
 
Exercise:     Select a city in a state that is in a FEMA region other than Region 3. Identify and describe the federal/state/local relationships for your selection similar to the analysis done in this section.
 
Copyright © 2011 - 2016 Ken Sochats