Vigo Emergency Management Director has reshaped agency

By Howard Greninger
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE August 19, 2007 12:57 am

— A year ago, the Vigo County Emergency Management Agency was in turmoil, with a former deputy director resigning after semi-automatic weapons were found in that office.
Political pressures were also on a county advisory council, which had been meeting just once or twice a year, for an apparent lack of oversight of the EMA.
Dr. Dorene Hojnicki took the helm as director of the county’s EMA on July 24, 2006, after a previous director had retired. Hojnicki literally was thrust into “emergency management” within days of her appointment.
She closed the EMA office July 31, 2006, to conduct a full inventory after a semi-automatic pistol, two assault-type rifles, ammunition canisters, alcohol and pornography were found in the office of Donald D. VanHorn, then the deputy director.
VanHorn, convicted of a federal felony of wiretapping the home of a police officer in 1985, was prohibited by law from possessing a firearm. He served four months in federal prison and was placed on probation for 32 months from that federal charge. He began working for the county in 1991.
VanHorn resigned his position in late August 2006. He was arrested in December 2006 on a warrant for intimidation and again in February for stalking, a class-D felony.
On Friday, a jury found VanHorn guilty in the stalking case; his sentencing is Sept. 26. He still faces a possible trial on two class-A misdemeanor charges of intimidation. No trial date has yet been set.
During that early controversy, Hojnicki faced other immediate concerns — an annual county budget for the department was required within days of her starting as director. In addition, within a month, the county had to meet new federal requirements for the National Incident Management System, which allows emergency managers and responders from different jurisdictions to work together more effectively to handle emergencies or disasters.
If the county did not qualify, it may have lost federal funds or even faced refunding money.
“There was pressure from every angle, from the advisory board and from county commissioners. I was trying to do what was best for the community and that office at that time,” Hojnicki said.
“The idea was, how do I make something safe and see where we are at? I had to overcome the hurdles one at a time,” she said. “I had done emergency medicine for almost 30 years and what you do is default the training. Make sure everything is safe and secure and work backward to make a priority list of where we need to be.”
Hojnicki got the county budget prepared with the aid of the county auditor’s office, health department and from calls to other EMA departments surrounding Vigo County.
With the aid of fire departments and other first responders, the Incident Management System requirement also was met. “We made it with three days to spare with a lot of hard work from numerous people out in the response community. I can’t tell you how they stepped to the table and helped out. If it was not done, we may have had to send some money back,” Hojnicki said.
The new director then worked to reshape the office.
“No longer was it the days of the civil defense. We’re emergency management and we had to look for people who have the skills that could bring several different resources to the table,” Hojnicki said.
Two deputy directors were hired, Keith Holbert as deputy director of operations, and J.D. Kesler as deputy director of planning and the public information officer. An administrative assistant, Celeste Hunter, also was hired.
“The office has a wealth of knowledge and background to perform a good job. It’s a blessing to get them,” she said of her new staff.
Both Holbert and Kesler have military backgrounds. Holbert served active duty for the U.S. Navy and Kesler in active duty for the Army, then Reserve Air Guard. Holbert is battalion chief in the Sugar Creek Township Volunteer Fire Department and is a 1984 graduate of Indiana State University with a bachelor’s degree in computer technology. Kesler worked for the federal Bureau of Prisons and helped with contracts and plans.
Hojnicki, 52, graduated from nursing school in 1974 and worked as a nurse until mid-1982. In 1982 and until 1986 she went to medical school in Chicago, the city where she was born and raised. She did a medical residency in Chicago from 1987 to 1989. Hojnicki came to Terre Haute in 1989 and worked until 1999 as an emergency room doctor.
She then went to Indiana State University in 1999 as ISU campus physician and a team physician. In May 2006, she started as a public health coordinator for Vigo County Health Department before becoming director of the EMA.
When asked to describe her first year as the director of the Vigo County EMA, Hojnicki simply said, “Whew.”
After a short pause, she continued.
“I figured if I didn’t have a heart attack or stroke in the first four months, I’m good to go,” she said. “I am not kidding when I say there were numerous sleepless nights. The pressure of trying to bring something together, looking for personnel, it wasn’t the smoothest transition. It was an atmosphere that was extremely tense while still wanting to do the right thing.”
Hojnicki said she thinks the office is now better prepared for emergencies and disasters.
“There is no way any community can be 100 percent prepared. It will always be a learning curve, always be response planning with living documents as we train and practice. Things change, threats change. We are in a constant state of learning. I think we are better than we were a year ago. Are we perfect? No.”
In search of a
new home
Members of the county’s EMA Advisory Council say the emergency agency has become a better-functioning department.
“I have a great deal of peace about the direction and the amount of expertise and professionalism that we have now. I believe Dr. Hojnicki has done a remarkable job of transitioning the EMA into a homeland security responsive unit that is getting better each and every week,” said Terre Haute Mayor Kevin Burke, a member of the advisory council.
Burke referred to Vigo EMA’s work as part of the Indiana Regional Response Team Task Force 7 in Vigilant Guard, which was one part of a nationwide exercise called Ardent Sentry. That exercise in May tested the National Response Plan and the Indiana Strategy for Homeland Security. The exercise, for which the Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field served as a forward base, was staged at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center near North Vernon. The exercise involved a response to a simulated nuclear explosion.
“I also believe that there is a high level of accountability now and it is a department now that is in the light of day and certainly being scrutinized and held to a high standard, and that is certainly the way we want things done,” the mayor said.
“I feel that Vigo County is better prepared than we were a year ago, but with the clear understanding the job is not done,” Burke said.
Burke, like other advisory council members, says a new facility is needed for the EMA, one that allows it to meet a federal requirement of an emergency operations center or EOC and accommodate large vehicles. The EMA is now at 934 S. 4th St. in a building built in 1875, then rebuilt in 1938.
Vigo County Commissioner David Decker earlier this month sought to have the EMA locate at the airport, hoping a building used by the Federal Aviation Administration may provide space.
The problem, Decker said, is the FAA still has a lease on the building “and has no date on when they would move or even what portion they will continue to use.”
While the airport remains a possible site for a new EMA office, Decker and Burke each said another possible site is the former driver’s education building at the Vigo County Fairgrounds. Decker said the building has 4,000 square feet and has a large lot surrounded by a chain-link fence. In addition, the entire fairgrounds is surrounded by fencing.
“Our main goal is to provide the best public safety that we can,” Decker said. “The fairgrounds is located near Interstate 70. Moving there could help out the Fair Board, as well as the city and county.”
Tom High, a member of the advisory council and deputy chief of the Honey Creek Fire Department, said that getting into a new building that meets Homeland Security standards can help the county EMA score better in a state review. Those scores, he said, can help the agency qualify for certain grants.
One difference High said he has noticed over the past year “is we have seen the EMA director quite a bit more. She has also been out to assist the county HAZMAT [hazardous materials] team. She is more hands-on.”
High, who has been on the advisory council for two months, did voice concern, however, that advisory council meetings during the summer have not brought a quorum.
Brent Spier, chairman of the advisory council for the past year, said he thought it was important the council meet monthly. “Unfortunately, without calling everybody for every meeting and sending them the schedule, it has been a little difficult during the summer to get a quorum, but we are well-attended and the city and county are well-represented,” he said.
Spier said the council is serving its advisory role.
“There is no policy that can come from that council. We don’t direct anyone or disburse any money … but we are part of a check-and-balance system, which comes back to accountability. I think with the current EMA staff … I think in the eyes of the public, I think they believe the EMA is doing a good job, and I tend to agree with them,” Spier said.
Focus on
preparedness
Education is a key to being prepared, Hojnicki said, and she has set a goal to bring more educational classes to first responders, people she calls “the boots on the ground.”
The county’s involvement in the Indiana Regional Response Team Task Force 7, which comprises eight Indiana counties (Clay, Greene, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Vermillion and Vigo), has shown its ability to respond to a disaster or emergency. She points to work in the national Ardent Sentry exercise.
“District 7 was the only task force that met its mission, to be totally self-sufficient and be able to plug and play for up to 48 hours, and we were probably good for 72 hours should our mission have been expanded” under that exercise.
“We took 130 people to Muscatatuck [Urban Training Center] from the task force, which had numerous people from Vigo County” and the other seven counties.
Last October, the canonization of St. Mother Theodore Guerin was being celebrated in a special ceremony by the Sisters of Providence at St. Mary-of-the-Woods. About 600 people attended a special service, while others watch via closed-circuit TV.
It was an event the Vigo County EMA thought could be a target for terrorism. The Task Force 7 had more than 160 volunteers on hand for three days for that event, Hojnicki said.
“First of all, we didn’t know how much traffic would come in and there are only two-lane roads into that area. When you look back at some of the canonizations that have occurred in the U.S., which I believe there are only seven previously in the history of the United States, there were throngs of people that came out. We didn’t know what to expect,” Hojnicki said.
“I believe in this day and age, if you don’t think that any community activity is going to have a potential for a terrorist threat,” she paused, not finishing the sentence. “We try to be as ready as possible. It was the first time the state rolled the Mobile Command Center, which was a $1.4-million asset, which the governor approved to send it. The state was very supportive.”
In July, the EMA was part of a foreign animal disease tabletop exercise staged at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. That exercise tested response to an outbreak of monkeypox.
Next, a live exercise will be staged at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center on Oct. 9 and 10. “There will be another animal outbreak, such as the avian or pandemic flu, and we will work in other problems that we saw during the tabletop exercise, but under a full-scale exercise,” she said.
To aid in training, Hojnicki said she has tried to increase education to first responders. Sessions have included two “active shooter-type” programs, training for emergencies such as the shooter at Virginia Tech earlier this year; a two-day weapons of mass destruction HAZMAT evidence collection class; a three-day weapons of mass destruction samples collection class; a session on terrorist bombing; and a one-day class on crime scene management. Most of the sessions are offered through the federal Office of Domestic Preparedness, she said.
In emergency management, such training often leaves Hojnicki speaking in acronyms for several different departments.
“Our job is to act as a resource, to bring all these community partners and agencies together — the county, city, state and feds. We respond 24/7 on a call through central dispatch to an oil spill, a tanker turned over, or even a chemical release at the surgical center. You call us, we will come,” she said.
“Our role as part of that is to fill in the gaps so the responders can do what they are trained to do. It might be making phone calls, might be reports to IDEM [Indiana Department of Environmental Management] or calling the DNR [Department of Natural Resources] or running to get MSDS [material safety data sheet] sheets, or work the radios of HAZMAT teams.
“Our role is not to take over, but augment what those agencies do,” she said.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.