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Former Sarasota County Worker Says Answers Given To Emergency Communications Test

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Jackie Barron / News Channel 8

Published: October 15, 2007

SARASOTA - A former Sarasota County employee claimed she was given the answers to a test that measured employees' ability to communicate in times of disaster.

Crystal Beauchemin, who was fired by the county several months ago, said she was concerned about other people's safety so she decided to speak up.

"We didn't memorize them," she said. "They gave us ditto sheets and we circled them."

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Homeland Security urged local governments to certify employees who have a direct role in emergency management and response to become National Incident Management System certified.

Almost 7,000,000 people have been certified in the NIMS, according to FEMA.

"It's not a new concept to emergency responders and fire and policemen," said Ed McCrane, Sarasota's chief of emergency operations.

"It's been around a long time, but to your public works personnel and other employees, it's new to them," he said.

NIMS was created so that responders from different jurisdictions and agencies could work together to respond to natural disasters and emergencies, including acts of terrorism, according to the NIMS Web site.

When Gary Spraggins, the county's former Homeland Security chief, took a post in public works, he started training road and bridge crews in the system.

"Public works would be one of the first people on the scene with the heavy equipment," Spraggins explained.

The federal government requires the county prove who it trains by having that employee take a test. Those who pass earn a certificate.

Beauchemin took Spraggins' workshop last fall and became certified. But she said the certificates don't mean anything since Spraggins gave everyone the answers before they took the test.

"If your government sets some standards and everybody has to go by these then that's how it should be," she says.

Spraggins admitted that at the end of his incident command workshops he walks employees through the test before they officially take it "to make sure they understand what the right answer is."

Spraggins told WFLA-TV's Jackie Barron that FEMA told him to teach that way during a special session he took in December in Maryland.

Kevin Lloy, a FEMA senior project officer, said the "Train the Trainer" courses teach people to go through the course and then give the test or send employees to take it online. Either way, Lloy said discussing the questions and the answers beforehand made no sense.

McCrane said Spraggins plans to handle future training for road and bridge crews differently.

"I think everyone should be given the opportunity to go ahead and take the test based on the material they learned to see how well they grasped it," McCrane said.

Higher-level first responders such as emergency management leaders, police and firefighters take more advanced incident command courses before facing more difficult tests from specialized instructors.

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