IBTS Pre-event Service Agreements for Counties
An IBTS Partnership with NACo
IBTS disaster recovery experts on a home reconstruction site in the New York City area.
After a natural disaster hits, finding the disaster recovery experts and specialists to assist your community throughout the response and recovery process can be a time-consuming, challenging task – given the surge in demand, vendors may not honor pre-existing contracts, can be difficult to find, and may not be specialized in disaster recovery. A crucial component of disaster planning is having these contracts in place before a disaster hits so that you can have access to reliable disaster response and recovery professionals that will enable you to build back stronger and more quickly.
To help counties be better prepared with the resources they need to recover from natural disasters, IBTS partnered with the National Association of Counties (NACo) to offer pre-event service contracts that give NACo members access to a full menu of IBTS’s disaster preparedness, response, and recovery services.
Through this partnership, NACo members have access to subrecipient agreements, disaster planning and plan activation, initial disaster response, post-disaster services, recovery administration, grant closeout, resilience planning, and other associated shared services. Subrecipient agreements also provide a myriad of other benefits to counties, including:
- CDBG-DR open procurement requirements are waived, which can save a community over 90 days needed for typical procurement
- IBTS is limited to direct costs only, which reduces hourly rates
- Sharing the implementation and execution of grant funds with the community
“For absolutely no risk, you can have IBTS available to you in the time of a disaster,” explains Dana Johnston, IBTS Economic Development and Disaster Recovery (EDDR) development manager. “There’s no retainer, we’re just there to help. As a nonprofit, our interests are solely in making sure communities are prepared, protected, and that they have a vetted resource.”
Having access to IBTS’s experienced disaster recovery experts can speed recovery while reducing the risk – and the headache – of stringent requirements that come with state- and federally funded disaster recovery programs. From disaster planning and debris removal to contractor procurement and CDBG-DR program administration, IBTS brings a cadre of disaster management experts with boots-on-the-ground experience in nearly every realm of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.
There is no initial cost to counties in signing the pre-event contract, which is only implemented if the county faces an emergency or would like to use IBTS for disaster planning and mitigation services. Signing the agreement presents no risk to the county as there is no retainer and the county is only charged for contracted services. If a county chooses to implement a service, IBTS provides a statement of work and pricing.
With the option to choose just a selection of services from IBTS’s full disaster menu, counties can perform the services they’re capable of while calling on trusted IBTS experts to fill in the gaps before, during, or after a disaster. “Our goal is to provide a team that has the expertise counties need to be successful,” Johnston says.
Johnston gives the example of debris removal, which is a common pain point for counties in the recovery process. “After Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, debris removal was one of the biggest complaints,” she says.
When the need for debris removal services surges after a natural disaster, smaller counties especially may find engaging their contractor challenging. By partnering with IBTS, counties will have access to a debris removal contactor, in addition to any other disaster service offered under the pre-event agreement.
“When a disaster hits, contractors start coming out of the wood works and it’s difficult for counties to identify trusted resources with disaster recovery experience,” says Johnston. “With IBTS, counties can feel confident that if they call us, we will be there to assist them in whatever capacity needed.”
To learn more about IBTS’s pre-event contracts available for NACo members, contact Dana Johnston at djohnston@ibts.org, or (571) 305-3463. To learn more about the disaster management services IBTS offers, visit the IBTS website or check out our disaster recovery brochure.