For those who have worked in the emergency field–whether it is on the ambulance, fire or police departments, emergency management office or another realm of the emergency field–the emergency budget always has a real sense of urgency. For emergency responders, the budget simply cannot be large enough, but for many municipalities, the budget is far too large given the resources that they have to work with and the myriad programs the local government runs.
There are many other factors that directly impact a budget, though. And an individual’s frame of reference regarding emergencies will certainly be an important factor.
That said, communities should work to elect individuals who have worked in emergency management. Their frame of reference will give them a unique perspective into understanding the needs of emergency management. Of course, this may not always be the case and it may be difficult to elect someone who has this type of experience.
In other instances, communities should look to find someone who has at least experienced an emergency. Their frame of reference will help tremendously in terms of understanding the needs of an emergency management budget.
Representative Bureaucracy
Representative Bureaucracy is a well known political science theory. Generally, Representative Bureaucracy is essentially the idea that a bureaucracy is comprised of individuals with a background that the bureaucracy is looking to support in society through the programs it runs.
It is a relatively complicated theory as numerous scholars have added to the concept and have developed it over the years. Perry illustrates a number of important pieces of Representative Bureaucracy according to Mosher in his [link url=”http://www.indiana.edu/~jlpweb/papers/Democracy%20and%20the%20New%20Public%20Service_ARPA_March%202007.pdf” title=”article”], “Democracy and the New Public Service”. Taking Mosher’s ideas into account, it is very important for an organization to have a frame of reference for the program they are running. It adds in another component of democracy that Mosher highlighted the need for.
Work Experience
Work related experience is an important component to the overall arching management of emergencies. The more experience someone has in the emergency field, the better!
[link url=”https://www.fema.gov/william-craig-fugate” title=”Craig Fugate”], the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Administrator had extensive experience for managing emergencies prior to his appointment by President Barack Obama. His experience simply allowed for FEMA to effectively manage disasters based on his past experiences managing disasters in the State of Florida.
Emergency Frame of Reference
In other instances, simply having a frame of reference helps tremendously. [link url=”https://donovan.house.gov/about/full-biography” title=”Congressman Dan Donovan”] doesn’t have emergency work experience, but he does serve a district that experienced Hurricane Sandy – an issue that certainly needed excellent disaster management plans. Congressman Donovan serves on the [link url=”https://homeland.house.gov/subcommittee/emergency_preparedness_response_and_communications_subcommittee/” title=”House Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications”].
In emergency management, budgets are often going to be reconsidered and potentially tightened considering the current economic situation. While this absolutely might be the case, the more connections lawmakers and politicians have with emergency management, the better.
A frame of reference is increasingly important in helping to develop legislation and budgets that will directly affect emergency management efforts.
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