O’Shea: Audit DuPage emergency management group

DuPage County’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management could be facing a crisis of its own.

County board member Pat O’Shea — unhappy with the office’s response to last summer’s flooding — is calling for an independent assessment of the department.

O’Shea said he wants the audit done to ensure the department is “heading in the right direction” with its personnel and procedures. The department’s mission is to coordinate the county’s involvement in various emergencies, including natural disasters.

“I hope that we are prepared if something does happen,” he said.

However, members of the county board’s judicial and public safety on Tuesday questioned whether the proposed $30,000 audit is necessary.

Board member Grant Eckhoff said the department already is in the midst of a reorganization effort that began after a 2008 study.

“Unless we are going to start rewriting OEM from the ground up and questioning what we decided to do two years ago,” Eckhoff said, “I’m not sure why we wouldn’t give them the chance to implement the plan that we all adopted.”

OEM Director Norm Sturm said he also doesn’t see the need for an assessment of the department.

“If there’s specific questions, I would be more than happy to answer them,” he said.

In the meantime, Sturm said his office is still working to achieve all the goals outlined in the 2008 report.

“We’ve only really been at it for about a year and a half,” said Sturm, who was hired in 2009. “When I came in, I figured it would be at least a three-year transition. We are remaking the organization, so it takes time. But we have made huge strides.”

Sturm noted the department was just reaccredited by the state in September.

But O’Shea said the reaccreditation process didn’t critique the department to find deficiencies. Meanwhile, he said, he’s heard complaints from those who believe the OEM department didn’t do enough during the flooding that occurred last summer in Carol Stream and other District 6 towns in northwest DuPage.

In response to board members wanting specifics, O’Shea said he will write a letter listing his concerns and citing examples.

“Based on what I have been told,” he said, “we ought to at least take a look at the department and make sure we’re going in the right direction.”