Gov. Rendell seeks to shake up emergency response hierarchy

Local emergency officials are confused about who’s in charge on the state level.

HARRISBURG (AP) — Gov. Ed Rendell said Friday he wants to restructure state government to address major emergencies as officials released a study of the state’s bungled response to a February snowstorm that stranded highway travelers overnight.

Adopting recommendations in the study, Rendell proposed elevating the importance of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and making its director the top emergency response official in the state, reporting directly to the governor.

Making PEMA a Cabinet-level agency requires approval by the Legislature, and would mean that its top official must receive Senate confirmation. The agency would be renamed the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Rendell said.

The agency also will subsume the Office of Homeland Security, which until now has had just a handful of employees as part of the governor’s office. Rendell can accomplish that change with an executive order.

The study, done by James Lee Witt Associates and released Friday, found substantial confusion among local emergency response officials about who was in charge at the state level.

It also found that the emergency management agency was ill-equipped for challenges, with “inadequate guidance and an inconsistent agenda” in recent years, as well as limited internal cooperation and strategic planning. The shortcomings had generated concern at other state agencies, which learned to work around the agency to avoid frustrating delays, the study said.

However, the report also said that Rendell has improved the agency’s operations in the wake of the storm with the assistance of high-level state officials from other agencies.