Excellence in Financial Management
Before, During and After a Major Emergency
~ A National Conversation ~

The disasters in the Gulf Region have highlighted the critical role of financial management in disaster planning. The Council has traveled across the country, speaking with local, state, and federal experts in financial management and planning during an emergency, to discuss strategies to effectively prepare for, respond to, and recover from major disasters. Throughout this initiative, we collected local data on preparedness from a financial perspective and the results were quite alarming. With a goal to produce an online-based tool to assist other jurisdictions around the country, this forum will showcase our findings to the Federal community.

Please join us at this interactive forum designed to continue our conversation at the national-level. We will share the best practices and lessons learned from coast to coast, including what is not working and how the federal government can prepare the local and state levels to financially manage and emergency.

National Expert Panelists Included:

• Matt Jadacki, Deputy Inspector General for Emergency Management Oversight, United States Department of Homeland Security
• Kenneth Horak, Associate Regional Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency
• Thomas Stanton, Institute of Government Fellow, John Hopkins University and Author of Delivery of Benefits in an Emergency, Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
• James Souby, President and CEO, Park City Center for Public Policy
• Denise Daly, Regional Electronic Benefits Transfer Coordinator, Food & Nutrition Services
• Jasmine Faubert, Senior Principal Information Systems Engineer, MITRE Corporation
• Juliette Kayyem, Undersecretary of Homeland Security, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Michael Sabbaghian, Chief of the Recovery Branch, California Office of Emergency Services
• Kathleen Crawford, Program Manager, Coastal Region Branch, California Office of Emergency Services
• Elizabeth MacDonald, Director of Response & Recovery, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency
• Monique Zmuda, Deputy Controller, City of San Francisco
• Liz French, Vice President, JPMorgan Chase
• Mark Crager, Vice President, Specialized Products Group, Visa USA, Inc.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008
9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
The Council for Excellence in Government
1301 K Street, NW, Suite 450 West
Washington, DC 20005

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Agenda to Come...

Click here to listen to the San Francisco panel discussion.

Click here for the San Francisco Emergency Benefits Presentation

Click here for the Boston Emergency Benefits Presentation

Click here for the Boston Session Summary

For more information, please contact Bryan Klopack with any questions at
202-728-0418 or bklopack@excelgov.org.

About the Project:
City and County financial officials play a large and critical role in managing and directing the financial recovery of the citizens in their jurisdictions after an emergency or natural disaster. But we can not wait that long.

To adequately prepared, there must be full partnerships in place between multi-level governments, non-profit, and corporate organizations before these events occur. There must be an active and engaged process to facilitate this type of collaborative response system.

Over the last several years, the Council for Excellence in Government has undertaken a major initiative focused on homeland security. Projects have included a series of town hall meetings engaging citizens around the country, a national poll, the development of a Public Readiness Index (PRI), the creation of an on-going forum for Big City Emergency Managers, and developing a transition plan for the Department of Homeland Security. A major theme through these projects is the continuing challenge of integration and coordination among all essential components of the homeland security enterprise.

With special thanks to our corporate partners Visa and JPMorgan for their support of this forum.