SITUATION & NEED
Coordinated Consulting Services (CCS) was hired in May 2024 by La Paz County to develop this La Paz County Continuity of Operations Plan (LPC COOP Plan) & Business Impact Analysis and to conduct a tabletop exercise testing key plan components. The scope of the project was to develop a COOP Plan that serves as an operational guide should an incident or emergency event disrupt the ability of La Paz County to perform its essential functions. The plan includes operational descriptions for each of the four phases of COOP and addresses specific key planning areas. The project also included a training and tabletop exercise designed to promote collaboration among county departments, familiarizing La Paz County department leadership with the COOP plan tools, and identify key planning, training, and assessment priorities.
SOLUTION
La Paz County and CCS established a core planning team which included CCS staff members, staff from the La Paz County Health Department, and the County Administrator. La Paz County previously compiled continuity data in 2019 but were unable to proceed in plan writing due to the COVID-19 response. CCS began the project by conducting an initial assessment of the 2019 data and developed a folder system in Basecamp which served as the temporary storage location for the 26 departments’ documents. CCS worked with the core team to identify project leads and backup staff for all departments. Selecting staff who had knowledge of and expertise with specific department functions was critical. These small working groups served as subject matter experts during data collection.
On July 16, 2024, CCS provided a COOP Project Overview Training for department leads, backups, and the core planning team members. Participants received a summary of the COOP plan and tabletop exercise project, a training about the COOP plan development and Business Impact Analysis processes, and a summary of project next steps.
CCS developed a unique data collection strategy that included two parts: identifying, describing, and scoring the Functional Area/Department essential functions followed by collecting information about the dependencies that support those essential functions. Following the July 16 training, CCS staff began conducting in-person interviews. CCS staff met with each department lead in order to identify, describe, and score their department’s essential functions. Once all La Paz County essential functions were identified and scored, CCS conducted an analysis on the top 25% of scored functions, scored functions highest to lowest, and performed other key analyses.
For the second data collection interview, CCS worked with the core planning team to develop a workbook to gather information about the dependencies that support essential functions. CCS met virtually with each department, including collecting contact information for the department’s COOP roster.
Concurrent with data collection, CCS developed the LPC COOP Plan, sometimes referred to as “the base plan,” was written in consultation with the core planning team. This plan describes the overall response framework and coordination points for LPC’s response to any emergency that potentially or actually disrupts their essential functions. The COOP base plan references a series of workbooks which included each department business impact analysis and dependency summary information. CCS conducted additional analyses by aggregating data, producing graphs, and summarizing key data. These workbooks are incorporated by reference into the COOP base plan.
In December 2024, CCS conducted a tabletop exercise with department leads and backups from all County departments. The purpose of the tabletop exercise was to evaluate and improve La Paz County’s ability to maintain or quickly resume essential functions and services during a disruption or emergency. This exercise allowed department personnel to review and assess the draft COOP and related documents, identify gaps and weaknesses, identify critical resources needed to maintain operations, and improve coordination and collaboration among all county departments. The exercise reinforced the importance of preparedness and creating a culture of readiness throughout the county government. The tabletop identified areas for improvement that were incorporated into the LPC COOP Plan.
OUTCOME
La Paz County reviewed the areas for improvement and recommendations in the after-action report to identify future priorities such as conducting ongoing and routine organizational training, developing a comprehensive alternate site strategy and plan, and researching notification systems. La Paz County will utilize this plan to assist in ensuring continuity of essential services during and after a significant disruption or emergency. The LPC COOP Plan and BIA helps to ensure that La Paz County can swiftly recover from a crisis while continuing to meet the needs of the community.
