LPS Response to OLS Questions
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Department of Law and Public Safety FY 2021-2022 Discussion Points 1. The Division of State Police played a high-profile role in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided the State Police with $750 million to help the State cover COVID-19 pandemic response expenditures. • Questions: Please provide a narrative of the Division of State Police’s role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. What toll have the pandemic response activities taken on the health and well-being of Division of State Police employees? The Office of Emergency Management (NJOEM) played a lead role in the State’s COVID-19 response. Major COVID-19 related activities performed by NJOEM include: • Continuous State Emergency Operations Center Unit (SEOC) activation status throughout the pandemic to provide resource support and situational awareness reporting; • Coordination and supervision of the state All Hazard Incident Management Team to provide: planning and operational support, and coordination of federal, State and local stakeholder activities, for community-based testing sites, field medical stations, temporary morgues, Vaccination Mega Sites, and Community Based Vaccination Sites; • Logistics and resource support for testing supplies/kits, ventilators, and medicines, as well as the acquisition and management of the State’s entire personal protective equipment stockpile; • Public relations and information for testing and vaccination programs; • Oversight of financial expenditures for the COVID-19 response, and the administrative support for processing and reimbursement of the State’s $2.4 billion CRF grant; • The Superintendent of the State Police, Colonel Patrick Callahan serves as the State Director of Emergency Management. During the pandemic, the Colonel has the discretion to make additions, amendments, clarifications, exceptions, and exclusions to the terms of the Executive Orders. Many personnel assigned to NJOEM have been required to work extra hours continuously throughout the pandemic to support COVID-19 operations as well as their routine state responsibilities. Although short-staffed, members performed in an exemplary manner, while dealing with their own personal challenges of the pandemic, such as the closure of childcare facilities and schools, remote learning, quarantining, etc. Members have struggled to take personal time and have lost accrued paid leave while trying to fulfill their increased work responsibilities. Certain NJOEM employees were eligible to carry over additional unused vacation time into 2021 because of their engagement in the COVID-19 response. Personnel are experiencing chronic stress, pandemic fatigue, and other mental and physical health challenges. 1 Department of Law and Public Safety FY 2021-2022 Discussion Points (Cont’d) The Office of Employee & Organization Development (OEOD) within NJSP has been providing assistance to employees with mental health challenges. OEOD counseled employees on many issues related to the pandemic, i.e., adjusting to working remotely, home-schooling, anxiety, depression, risks of being an essential employee, anger, isolation, health concerns, grief, and loss. Major COVID-19 related activities performed by OEOD include: • Numerous outreach activities via electronic media to include mass emails or AIC postings on OEOD availability, and mental health and wellness resources for dealing with COVID-19. Station commanders and PSTs throughout the state were contacted and offered support, as well as providing a coordination of Chaplains and OEOD support for Troopers assigned to the temporary morgues. • Telephonic and virtual electronic counseling sessions with employees, as well as, meetings with supervisors and resource providers. New hire orientations and various trainings were conducted virtually. • Question: Please detail the uses of the $750 million in assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. NJOEM made FEMA-reimbursable purchases for all State agencies throughout the pandemic. The Division of State Police has legally encumbered, and/or legally spent, the FEMA assistance allotted to New Jersey to assist the State in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. Our statewide initiatives to "slow" the spread, and our State’s all-out effort to protect the citizens of New Jersey against the spread of COVID-19, include many different programs. These programs range from PPE purchases and distribution, to standing up portable hospitals, to getting the vaccination sites up and running. The Division of State Police encompasses the Office of Emergency Management for the State and as such, it serves as the lead agency; however, we work in tandem with all divisions and departments across the state. 2. The State charged $62.5 million in Division of State Police salaries ($50.5 million) and administrative costs ($12.0 million) to its $2.4 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund allocation under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020. The federal law and United States Treasury guidance require that Coronavirus Relief Fund balances be used to cover costs incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government may disallow expenditures states charge to the Coronavirus Relief Fund that fall outside of permissible parameters. 2 Department of Law and Public Safety FY 2021-2022 Discussion Points (Cont’d) • Questions: How did the Division of State Police determine salaries and administrative costs it could charge to the Coronavirus Relief Fund? Please detail the types of expenditures that were charged to the federal resources. Were regular salaries charged to the fund or only overtime expenditures? The salaries of what job titles were deemed to be eligible to be charged to the Coronavirus Relief Fund? Was there a benchmark that required a certain percentage of an employee’s time to be spent on verifiable COVID-19 response activities? The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Treasurer of the State of New Jersey and the Division of State Police references the U.S. Department of Treasury Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) guidance for State government’s payroll expense eligibility for public safety personnel whose services were substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency. To determine salary costs charged to the CRF, the Division of State Police used the New Jersey Comprehensive Financial System General Ledger and Payroll Ledger to determine eligible payroll costs for the period referenced in the MOU. To identify eligible costs, the DSP Fiscal Control Bureau calculated all regular salary costs for enlisted members and removed all Federal Grant salary match along with General Ledger salary offsets. Overtime expenditures were excluded from the eligible cost calculation and overtime identified as COVID-19 related was submitted to FEMA for reimbursement. The $12.0 million administrative costs charged to CRF were determined by the needs of the Division along with approval by the Governor’s Disaster Recovery Office and Treasury. These projects encompassed administrative costs, which support the mission of the Division of State Police and NJOEM in their management of this disaster and potentially those that may follow. The costs are as follows: • NJOEM personnel salaries • Software and hardware upgrades to OEM • DSP Preparedness Bureau Pandemic Response Package • DSP Training Bureau COVID-19 preparation and management • Upgrade to the NJOEM State Emergency Operation’s real time situational reporting system for state and county OEMs • Emergency response vehicles 3. The State transferred $60.2 million of its federal Coronavirus Relief Fund allocation under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020 to the Division of State Police for P25 Radio System Upgrades. Additionally, the Governor’s FY 2022 Budget indicates the Department of Law and Public Safety will receive $2.7 million out of anticipated 9-1-1 System and Emergency Response Fee funds for a radio system upgrade. 3 Department of Law and Public Safety FY 2021-2022 Discussion Points (Cont’d) • Questions: Please describe the P25 Radio System Upgrades that are being funded out of the State’s Coronavirus Relief Fund allocation and explain how the project is an eligible COVID-19-related use of federal CARES Act funding. What is the schedule for completing the project? Will the $60.2 million allocation fund the entire project? If not, how does the division anticipate financing the remaining project costs? How does the project relate to the recommended $2.7 million State funds Radio System Upgrade appropriation? NJOEM submitted a Coronavirus Relief Funds Grant Application on behalf of 15 state agencies and 7,276 subscribers for consideration of an upgrade from the end of life 4.1 radio system to the P25 statewide radio system. The CRF Project was endorsed by a recommendation from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), requesting that states identify communications as critical to help protect the health and safety of our citizens by ensuring that the communications industry has the requisite access and resources needed to keep Americans connected during these challenging times. The Communications Bureau supported all aspects of the New Jersey statewide response to the public health emergency created by the impact of the Coronavirus. This support included providing communications at all Community Based Testing Sites (CBTS),