Section 24-33.5-1606.5 - Office of preparedness - creation - duties - posting of notice of NIMS classes - definition(1) There is hereby created within the division the office of preparedness, the head of which is the manager of the office of preparedness. The director shall appoint the manager of the office of preparedness pursuant to section 13 of article XII of the state constitution. The office of preparedness is responsible for creating and implementing a state preparedness goal and system to improve state capabilities to prevent, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from threats to Colorado.(2) The duties of the office of preparedness include:(a) Improving community preparedness and citizen involvement through external outreach;(b) Identifying and reducing duplicative homeland security-related training needs and efforts, coordinating homeland security-related training among tribal, state, local, and regional agencies, and creating a single training and exercise calendar with identified points of contact that is accessible via the internet;(c) Coordinating and updating homeland security plans;(d) Coordinating all-hazard public risk communication products among state agencies; and(e) Administering federal homeland security grants, in accordance with subsection (3) of this section, providing technical assistance to grantees, and coordinating grant funding opportunities with other state agencies.(3)(a) Unless otherwise authorized under this article 33.5, the grant programs for which the office of preparedness has authority to administer are limited to: (I) The state homeland security program, or its successor program;(II) The Denver urban areas security initiative, or its successor program;(III) The metropolitan medical response system, or its successor program;(IV) The citizens corp program, or its successor program;(V) The urban areas security initiative nonprofit security grant program, or its successor program;(VI) The buffer zone protection program, or its successor program;(VII) The interoperable emergency communications grant program, or its successor program;(VIII) Any grant programs previously administered by the former division of emergency management in the department of local affairs, as of June 30, 2012; and(IX) Any other grant programs authorized by the governor, which programs shall not be inconsistent with the division's purposes.(b) As used in this subsection (3), "successor program" means a federal homeland security grant program that the manager of the office of preparedness reasonably determines is similar in purpose and scope to its predecessor program, regardless of the particular name of the successor program.(4) The office of preparedness shall place on its website a description of the national incident management system, developed by the federal emergency management agency and referred to in this section as "NIMS", and a listing, with any applicable links, of online courses required to become NIMS-certified and courses related to NIMS at institutions within the state system of community and technical colleges.L. 2012: Entire section added, (HB 12-1283), ch. 240, p. 1123, § 24, effective July 1.Subsection (4) is similar to former § 24-33.5-110 as it existed prior to 2012.
For the legislative declaration in the 2012 act adding this section, see section 1 of chapter 240, Session Laws of Colorado 2012.