State emergency management officials Wednesday protested an audit charging they are failing to properly prepare the state for disasters.
Legislative auditors say the division has failed to adequately monitor and evaluate emergency plans prepared by other private and governmental entities and doesn't adequately track emergency equipment to know what is available at any time in case of disaster.
"As a result, the state has little assurance that all state agencies, local jurisdictions, schools and school districts, resort hotels and tribes have prepared plans that meet federal requirements or will assist the entities in responding to emergencies," the audit states.
In a sharply worded response, Division Administrator Frank Siracusa objected to the audit's implication emergency management is not prepared to respond to a disaster.
"This is a clear misrepresentation of the division's capabilities since the division has demonstrated through consistent performance the state's ability to effectively and expeditiously respond to and recover from eight disasters since 2004, including the recent Fernley flood," he wrote.
Public Safety spokesman Dan Burns also objected saying "That's absolutely incorrect."
Siracusa also said it is not the state's responsibility to ensure that local jurisdictions and tribal nations are complying with federal laws. He said that is the responsibility of those local jurisdictions.
He said the division has no authority to force compliance with state law requiring development of emergency plans and that, according to legislative fiscal staff, the division's job is simply to receive those plans and keep them on file.
Kamala Carmazzi, deputy administrator of the division, said they have no authority to force hotels, schools, Indian tribes and others to file those reports. Tribes, she said, are sovereign and don't have to follow state or federal laws.
And she said the division has only two people, one recently hired, to receive and manage all those plans.
Legislative Auditor Paul Townsend said it wouldn't take much to verify who needs to submit a plan and send letters to them. He also pointed out that emergency management received five additional positions from the Interim Finance Committee in June.
But Carmazzi said those were paid with federal money and that assigning them to enforce state requirements would almost certainly be illegal.
Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said she wasn't buying emergency management's arguments.
"You're not even close to understanding your mission," she said.
And Assemblyman John Marvel charged that the division was "trying to make scapegoats" out of hotels and local governments.
Carmazzi said after the meeting the other issue they objected to in the audit was the demand that emergency management implement a tracking system so everyone knows exactly where all pieces of emergency equipment and other resources are at any given time. She said Clark, Washoe, Carson City, possibly Douglas and Elko counties could do that but that all the other counties have told them they don't have the resources.
She pointed out that would require daily monitoring and reporting to know exactly what is available at any given time.
She said that requirement as well as reviewing and helping to develop emergency plans for local and private entities would require a substantial increase in the division's staffing.
And she too repeated that the division has responded effectively to every disaster it has faced, most recently the earthquake in Wells and the Fernley flooding.
"Emergency management in the state of Nevada is very strong and very sound," she said.
She said she and Siracusa, who was absent because of a personal emergency, would work with auditors to try resolve the disagreements.
Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.