Strategic Direction and Action Plan

Action: Regional Resilience and Coordination

Prepare businesses and communities for disruption, coordinate recovery, and turn shared needs into practical projects.

Forest fuels management in the Smokey Bear Ranger District. Photo: Forest Service Photography / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Display Crop

Priority 6 · Delivery Brief

Economic Resilience and Long-Term Readiness

Connect steady preparedness with a tested recovery network. Protect essential economic functions while supporting business continuity and workforce adaptability.

Suggested coordinating lead: SNMEDD with participating local and tribal authorities
First delivery milestone: Invite all five counties and Tribe-directed participation; agree on contacts, backup roles, and information-sharing protocols. First 90 days.
Outcome to track: Business reopening and closure duration; restoration of essential economic services; completion of corrective actions

Create a practical regional system for preparing businesses and communities for disruption, sharing economic-impact information, and coordinating recovery assistance across the five counties and with the Mescalero Apache Tribe through voluntary, government-to-government coordination.

Why This Action Matters

Regional resilience brings together business continuity, reliable infrastructure, workforce adaptability, and recovery coordination. Energy-market changes, water constraints, wildfire, and flooding require both preparation and cooperation across communities.

Local Priorities

Community	Planning Focus
Chaves	Prioritize flood-related business continuity, essential services, agricultural supply chains, aviation, and support for smaller communities.
Eddy	Prepare industrial employers, service businesses, and communities for energy-market shifts, utility interruptions, transport disruption, and water constraints.
Lea	Connect energy-sector continuity with supplier diversification, workforce transitions, reliable utilities, and cross-county logistics.
Lincoln	Focus on wildfire and post-fire flood recovery, tourism continuity, small-business reopening, and access to essential services.
Otero	Connect defense, aerospace, tourism, and local service continuity with infrastructure planning and coordination with relevant federal partners.
Mescalero Apache Tribe	Invite Tribe-directed coordination on shared infrastructure, tourism, workforce, and recovery priorities. Tribal participation and information sharing remain subject to the Tribe's decisions.

Six Practical Steps

Agree on roles. Within 90 days of authorization, propose a network charter, named contacts, backup contacts, meeting schedule, and an agreed process for sharing information. Confirm participation before assigning responsibilities.
Map economic exposure. By month 6, compile a profile for each county covering key employers, suppliers, utilities, transport links, community services, and known hazards. Connect it to current local mitigation plans and capital priorities; document evidence gaps.
Help businesses prepare. Offer continuity workshops and simple tools for essential operations, alternate suppliers, records backup, workforce communications, and reopening. Track businesses assisted and completed continuity plans; set the first-year participation goal when staff capacity and the work program are agreed.
Practice coordination. Within the first year, conduct one regional tabletop exercise. Test contact procedures, business-impact reporting, resource referrals, and continuity of the network itself; record corrective actions.
Coordinate after disruption. When participating authorities activate the economic-recovery process, gather voluntary business needs, confirm referral routes, and aim to issue an initial aggregate situation summary within 10 business days. Emergency managers retain incident-command authority.
Turn needs into projects. Maintain a prioritized project list with a project sponsor, scope, estimated cost, readiness, and funding-screening status. Review it quarterly and report annually on delivery, recovery, and remaining gaps.

Coordination Roles

Role	Participation
Regional Coordination	SNMEDD: coordinate meetings, maintain the agreed work program, support project development, and publish aggregate progress reports.
Local and Tribal Coordination	Participating counties, municipalities, and the Mescalero Apache Tribe: designate contacts and determine local or tribal priorities and permissions.
Preparedness and Response Interface	Local emergency managers and New Mexico DHSEM: connect economic recovery planning with established hazard-mitigation and emergency-management processes.
Business and Workforce Support	Chambers, economic-development organizations, employers, education providers, workforce partners, utilities, healthcare providers, and nonprofits: offer continuity assistance and identify recovery needs.

Delivery Timeline

Timing After Authorization	Work Sequence
First 90 Days	Confirm the charter, invitations, staff capacity, baseline data, and budget before launch.
Months 4-12	Complete county profiles, pilot business assistance, test the network, and publish the first review.
Years 2-3	Expand the pilot where evidence supports it, advance ready projects, and review measures annually.
Years 4-5	Evaluate economic outcomes, refresh risk profiles, and recommend changes for the next planning cycle.

How to Measure Progress

Measure	Measure and Approach	Evidence and Frequency
Participation	Invite all five counties and offer Tribe-directed participation within 90 days; track accepted invitations and coverage.	Contact register; quarterly
Readiness	Five county profiles and one regional exercise in year 1; record corrective actions and their completion.	Profiles and exercise record; annual
Business Preparedness	Count businesses assisted and continuity plans completed against the agreed annual work program.	Voluntary participant records; quarterly
Recovery Coordination	Initial aggregate needs summary within 10 business days of agreed network activation, where access and evidence allow.	Activation and report dates; after incidents
Economic Recovery	Track reopening at 30, 90, and 180 days and median closure duration among consenting participating businesses; establish baseline before setting an improvement target.	Follow-up survey; after incidents
Regional Outcomes	Report employment, earnings, industry concentration, and project progress annually; distinguish wider economic trends from results attributable to this action.	Published data and project records; annual

Resources Needed

Build the operating budget around coordination staff, county and Tribe-directed engagement, business continuity assistance, data maintenance, exercises, travel, and accessible outreach. Size each element to the agreed work program and available capacity. Infrastructure construction and direct disaster assistance require separate project scopes and funding.

Potential Funding Routes

Screen local or regional contributions and in-kind support first. Discuss planning and technical-assistance eligibility with EDA. Refer disaster-related projects to the applicable state recovery or mitigation process. State CDBG-DR programs cover specified disasters, geographies, applicants, and activities; they are not a general funding promise for this network. Confirm current program terms and avoid charging the same cost to multiple awards.

Moving Into Delivery

Begin delivery when participating organizations agree on roles, staff capacity, and resources. Establish a baseline before assessing improvement; count the first operating year from that start point.