California Department of Food and Agriculture

California Department of Food and Agriculture

Continuity of Operations/Continuity of Government Plan & Analysis

Local and Regional Emergency Plan Annexes

October 2006 – Present

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) retained James Lee Witt Associates to review and revise their Continuity of Operations and Continuity of Government plans, which had previously been submitted to the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. JLWA made specific recommendations for improvements and outlined the next steps for completing a comprehensive COOP/COG plan. The plan included agency-specific annexes and covered all operational divisions within CDFA, including Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services, Agricultural Security and Emergency Response, Animal Health and Food Safety Services and Grant Programs.

The COOP/COG plan outline encompassed all of the OES-required elements, focusing on the needs of both food and agriculture emergency response. The final report included comments, percent-completed analysis and recommendations for:

• Emergency plans and procedures

• Essential functions

• Risk assessments

• Agency EOC functions

• Relocation plans

• Devolution plans

• Reconstitution plans

• IT and vital records recovery plans

• Employee communications plan

• Individual and family emergency preparedness plan

• Interoperable communications plan

• Training and exercising

JLWA prioritized the next steps for CDFA to focus their additional preparedness efforts. These included comprehensive emergency response and planning elements, as well as COOP/COG planning.

In continuing support of CDFA, JLWA is coordinating statewide food and agriculture planning through all-hazards food and agriculture emergency response annexes designed for local and regional emergency plans. To accomplish this task JLWA is:

• Assessing and recommending the best regional divisions in the state

• Developing matrices for state agencies with roles in animal emergency response

• Developing matrices of responders from the state to the county level

• Developing an all-hazard food and agriculture plan as a working draft for the CDFA Emergency Preparedness and Support Unit committee

Visit California Department of Food and Agriculture webpage