FCCMA Webinar: Emergency Management for Senior Officials

On April 3, 2025, the Florida City and County Management Association presented the coaching webinar “Emergency Management for Senior Officials.”

Peter Cavalli, MPA, founder and CEO of Tampa Bay Training, organized and coordinated the panel discussion for FCCMA. The program brought together perspectives from city management, emergency management, and public works to examine the leadership responsibilities associated with preparing for, responding to, and recovering from emergencies.

The webinar and its associated resources are available through the FCCMA Webinar Archive.

Webinar Information

Program: Emergency Management for Senior Officials
Organization: Florida City and County Management Association
Date: April 3, 2025
Time: 2:00–3:00 p.m. Eastern
Format: FCCMA Coaching Webinar

The original program announcement associated the webinar with ICMA Practice Areas 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, and 14.

Program Purpose

One of local government management’s most important responsibilities is protecting the general welfare of the community.

City and county managers do not replace emergency-management professionals, public-safety officials, public works leaders, or technical specialists. Senior officials do, however, establish priorities, allocate resources, define decision authority, communicate with elected officials, and bring departments and community partners together.

The webinar was designed to explore how senior officials can support preparedness, response, recovery, and organizational resilience through coordinated leadership.

Discussion areas included:

• Stakeholder engagement
• Building and funding resilient communities
• Public information and emergency communication
• Workforce development
• Coordination among management, emergency management, and public works

Panelists

The panelists and their positions listed for the April 2025 webinar were:

Bart Diebold

City Manager, City of Pinellas Park

The city-management perspective is essential to connecting emergency planning with executive decision-making, elected-official communication, budgeting, departmental coordination, and continuity of government services.

Billy Ingram

Assistant Public Works Director, City of Largo

Public works departments play a central operational role before, during, and after emergencies. Their responsibilities may include debris management, infrastructure assessment, transportation access, utility coordination, equipment deployment, facility support, and restoration of essential services.

Cathie Perkins

Emergency Management Director, Pinellas County

Emergency-management leadership helps coordinate planning, preparedness, resource management, situational awareness, public communication, intergovernmental coordination, response, and recovery.

The panel’s combined experience reflected the cross-functional nature of local-government emergency management.

Why Emergency Management Requires Executive Leadership

Emergency management cannot operate effectively as an isolated department or a plan stored on a shelf.

Senior officials influence whether the organization:

• Defines roles and decision authority before an emergency
• Maintains current emergency and continuity plans
• Coordinates across departmental boundaries
• Establishes reliable communication procedures
• Budgets for training, equipment, contracts, and recovery capacity
• Develops backup personnel for essential responsibilities
• Builds relationships with county, state, nonprofit, private-sector, and community partners
• Conducts drills and addresses identified deficiencies
• Communicates accurately with employees, elected officials, and the public
• Maintains essential services during prolonged disruptions

These responsibilities require sustained management attention before an incident occurs.

Questions Senior Officials Should Ask

The webinar subject remains relevant for managers, administrators, department directors, and other senior officials. Leaders can begin by asking:

Governance and Authority

• Who has authority to make operational, financial, and public-information decisions?
• Are delegations of authority documented?
• Who assumes essential responsibilities when primary personnel are unavailable?

Coordination

• Do emergency management, public works, utilities, finance, procurement, communications, human resources, information technology, and public safety understand one another’s roles?
• Are external partners included in planning and exercises?

Operational Readiness

• Are emergency plans current and usable?
• Do employees know where to find the applicable procedures?
• Have critical functions been tested through drills or exercises?
• Are identified corrective actions completed and verified?

Financial Preparedness

• Are emergency purchases, contracts, documentation, and reimbursement responsibilities understood before an incident?
• Does the organization have procurement and financial procedures that can function under emergency conditions?

Public Communication

• Who is authorized to release information?
• How will the organization communicate when normal systems fail?
• Are messages accessible to people with disabilities and residents with different communication needs?

Workforce Capacity

• Are employees trained for their emergency assignments?
• Does the organization have sufficient backup personnel?
• Are supervisors prepared to manage extended operations, changing assignments, fatigue, and employee welfare?

Building a More Resilient Organization

Community resilience depends on more than an emergency operations plan. It requires leadership, capable employees, reliable infrastructure, functional partnerships, financial preparation, effective communication, and a willingness to learn from exercises and actual incidents.

Senior officials set the tone for that work. When executive leaders treat preparedness as an ongoing management responsibility, departments are better positioned to coordinate and maintain essential services when normal operations are disrupted.

Watch the Archived Webinar

The recording and available program resources can be accessed through the FCCMA Webinar Archive. Look under the 2025 Video Archive for April — Emergency Management for Senior Officials.

Additional webinars and professional contributions involving Peter Cavalli and Tampa Bay Training are available on the Tampa Bay Training Webinars and Publications page.

About Tampa Bay Training

Tampa Bay Training provides instructor-led training, coaching, and consulting for Florida local governments, public works departments, utilities, engineering and construction organizations, and infrastructure professionals.

Our work includes workforce development, supervision and leadership, emergency preparedness, safety, operational training, and organizational support.

Organizations interested in discussing coaching or consulting services may contact:

Peter Cavalli, MPA
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
executive@tampabaytraining.com
813-420-5891