Public Accountability Report

Major fiscal year 2021 accomplishments include:

Fiscal

• During fiscal year 2021 the agency oversaw nearly $1.1 billion in spending, of which approximately $715 million was for grants to various entities and $348 million was for the agency’s COVID-19 response. The agency’s COVID-19 response expenditures for this fiscal year were primarily tied to vaccination. 
• IEMA continues to work with the Governor's Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) and other State agencies to oversee and report on the $3.5 billion in CARES funding for the State.
• During fiscal year 2021, IEMA’s Fiscal Division processed 12,915 payments, which is nearly double the number handled in the last full year prior to COVID-19, with only two full-time accounts payable employees and one temporary employee.
• In fiscal year 2021, the agency had 567 procurements for its regular operations, in addition to the nearly 1,800 COVID-19 related procurements completed since March of 2020. This includes contracting with more than 700 civilian nurses to support state testing, state vaccination, and hospital surge staffing capabilities.  It is important to note that for most of fiscal year 2021, IEMA only employed four full- time procurement employees and one part- time contractual employee.

Logistics - IEMA Logistics has been instrumental in the state’s personal protective equipment (PPE) distribution and vaccination administration efforts. During fiscal year 2021, the IEMA logistics team filled 4,000 requests from local jurisdictions seeking PPE and medical supplies. These requests required distributing more than 66 million pieces of PPE on behalf of the state’s COVID-19 response operation. These efforts were vital due to a broken supply chain that left local jurisdictions hamstrung to meet the needs of the residents of Illinois. This massive undertaking equates to an average of 1.2 million outbound pieces each week.

Legal -The IEMA Legal Team, a staff of six full time employees, supported the State’s COVID response efforts by drafting and negotiating over 450 COVID-19-related contracts and similar documents, including over 50 COVID-related contracts, over 300 COVID-19-related Basic Ordering Agreements (BOA), and over 100 COVID-19-related contract amendments. Additionally, Legal completed over 75 COVID-related Agreements – (IGA’s, Licenses, Leases, MOU’s).

Operations

• Testing: Under IEMA’s coordination and staffing structure, the State of Illinois testing infrastructure network administered approximately 15-million COVID-19 tests during fiscal year 2021.
• Alternate Housing: Coordinated with local jurisdiction to ensure proper planning documents were finalized in order for local jurisdictions to offer appropriate alternate housing for COVID-19 individuals should a need arise.
• PPE Stockpiles: Coordinated with local jurisdictions to promote proper planning to maintain PPE stockpiles in anticipation of future COVID surges. This planning assumption required the establishment of a 60-day PPE supply at state warehouses to support a 30-day supply requirement for each local jurisdiction.
• Mass Vaccination: IEMA Operations was instrumental in the success of the state’s mass vaccination efforts. Mass vaccination clinics, supported by the Illinois National Guard and local jurisdictions, were established throughout the state and administered more than 12 million vaccines. These efforts are largely attributable to 74 percent of the state’s most vulnerable residents becoming vaccinated.
• Federal Partnerships: IEMA Operations partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish a mass vaccination clinic at the United Center which resulted in 400,000 vaccines administered within three months.
• Youth Vaccinations: IEMA operations partnered with IDPH to establish the state’s first COVID-19 vaccination program for youth ages 12-17. The agency hosted nearly a dozen training courses for contracted staff to ensure proper safety measures and training was in place before administering a new vaccine to our state’s youngest patients.
• COVID-19 Reimbursement: In fiscal year 2021, IEMA assisted more than 1,500 governmental and not-for-profit organizations seeking reimbursement of expenses related to the COVID-19. Through the FEMA Public Assistance (PA) program, IEMA has administered more than $700 million dollars to these entities.

During fiscal year 2021, IEMA Operations responded and supported multiple state level responses of significance which required thousands of man hours, including but not limited to:

• The largest lithium ion battery fire in United States history (Superior Battery Fire-Morris, IL) -Coordinated response efforts of 9 state agencies and 2 Non-Gov’t Organizations
• Industrial Fire at ChemTool manufacturing (Formerly the largest industrial lubricant manufacturing facility in the United States) - Coordinated response efforts of 9 state agencies and 2 Non-Gov’t Organizations
• Conducted multiple state level interagency responses (in cooperation with ISP, ILNG, ILEAS) for civil unrest which included the mobilization of over 1,200 personnel.
• An above average tornado season which required multiple responses throughout the state - facilitated state level support as a result of the Father’s Day Tornadoes, including a multiple agency response in support of DuPage county.
• Facilitated IL-Task Force 1 support to Louisiana for deployment to Louisiana for Hurricane Ida response
• IEMA requested and received federal financial support for residents and businesses impacted by disasters in Rockton, DuPage and McLean counties. IEMA was able to assist local jurisdictions with damage assessments that helped the communities qualify for over $3.8 million in Disaster Loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Building a Better Prepared State -IEMA and the Illinois Terrorism Task Force developed the Illinois Homeland Security Strategy, Vision 2025. This plan, which was assembled using a whole-community approach, provides a clear, unified path for preparedness that maximizes the allocation of resources and establishes a framework to address threats and risks.

• IEMA administered more than $1 million to fund 27 Hazard Mitigation Plans for local jurisdictions in Illinois. These plans, once implemented, will add greater protection to 1.2 million Illinois residents from hazards such as floods, fires, earthquakes and more.
• IEMA administered six Infrastructure and Mitigation projects funded through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program totaling more than $17 million dollars.
• Flood Preparedness: IEMA Operations staff conducted and participated in 16 multi-agency Flood Preparedness Workshops throughout the state.
• Published the first ever Integrated Preparedness Plan document, which lays out the multi-year training and exercise plan for IEMA.
• IEMA led a statewide initiative to register and participate in a world-wide earthquake drill, Great Central United States Shakeout. More than 250,000 Illinois residents practiced the “drop, cover, hold on” technique that is advised for personal protection during an earthquake.

Combating School Violence -IEMA launched a pilot program of Safe2Help Illinois, a free information sharing platform that is available 24/7 to encourage students to share information in a confidential environment that could prevent bullying, suicides, or other threats of school violence. The pilot program resulted in more than 130 public interactions. The program launched statewide in October 2021.

Improving Customer/Stakeholder Access -IEMA spearheaded a committee to develop and implement the agency’s first-ever Language Access Plan describing how IEMA will provide language access services to its Limited English Proficiency constituents.

Elimination of Inspection Backlog that Resulted from Understaffing Over a Multi-Year Period - IEMA’s Division of Nuclear Safety has eliminated an inspection backlog (40%) of its radioactive materials licensees that was a persistent concern for five years.  This backlog was a result of retirements and hiring freezes from 2017. IEMA routinely inspects almost 1,100 radioactive materials sites across the State of Illinois for compliance with Agency regulations.

Tier II Reporting Ensures Local Communities are Aware of Chemical Hazards in Their Communities - Under the Federal and Illinois Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Acts, owners or operators of facilities with hazardous chemicals on hand in quantities equal to or greater than set threshold levels must submit Tier II forms between January 1 and March 1 for the previous calendar year. For this time period in 2021, IEMA’s Division of Nuclear Safety successfully worked with approximately 8,500 facilities to ensure timely reporting of their chemical inventories. Tier II Report information is used by Local Emergency Planning Committees, local emergency managers, and first responders to develop plans and to respond to incidents.

Reduction of X-Ray Backlog Created by the pandemic - As a result of not performing onsite x-ray inspections from March 2020 through June 2020, IEMA’s Division of Nuclear Safety ended up with more than 1,000 overdue x-ray inspections. IEMA’s x-ray inspection team developed a plan to improve efficiencies and has decreased the number of overdue inspections to less than 200 by early 2021.