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Incident Response

SAE frequently provides strategic counsel for high-profile crises of confidence, emergency incidents, public safety issues, hazardous materials events, public controversy, leadership transitions, infrastructure concerns, community impacts, and other sensitive public agency issues.

We bring a remarkable array of experience in crisis management. SAE has provided communications counsel, media relations, and Emergency Operations Center / Joint Information Center management for many of California’s most challenging crises.

Our disaster and crisis experience includes serving as communications counsel, Lead PIO, or Joint Information Center Manager for Garden Grove chemical emergency, atmospheric river flooding, the COVID-19 pandemic, the SCU Lightning Complex Fire, election security, public safety incidents, the Conception dive boat tragedy, the Montecito debris flow, the Thomas Fire, mass shooting incidents, and multiple oil spills. We coordinated the immediate response to the Salon Meritage mass shooting in Seal Beach in 2011.

SAE’s role during an incident is to help agency leaders communicate with speed, accuracy, empathy, and discipline. This includes helping staff gather confirmed facts, develop messages, prepare elected officials and executives, respond to media inquiries, update websites, prepare social media, and communicate with residents, businesses, staff, partner agencies, and other key audiences.

Services provided by SAE include:

  • Strategic counsel: review the most important considerations in each phase of the incident and how to respond; staffing needs and assignments; setting priorities

  • Support for agency leadership
  • Working with the media: prepare messages and materials; write comments; provide counsel regarding briefings and logistics; conduct training
  • Explaining how and why the agency responded
  • Helping the community come together, grieve, gather, and recover
  • Taking care of the communications needs of affected businesses
  • Preparing for memorials, anniversaries, and ongoing community impact
  • Recovery-phase communications
  • After-action review communications support

Scope of Work: On-Call Services

Communications Planning / Provide Strategic Counsel

  • Meet with and/or teleconference with staff to understand issues and the project

  • Provide plans, analysis, and strategic counsel to staff
  • Serve as on-call communications counsel
  • Anticipate, address issues of importance
  • Help agency leaders evaluate communications risks, timing, audiences, and public expectations

Prepare Materials / Advise Regarding Communications Tools and Methods

  • Develop key messages, internal-use Q&A, talking points, opinion pieces, press releases, advisories, other materials as needed

  • Assist with development of presentation materials

  • Prepare website, social media, and community update content

  • Develop elected official talking points

  • Prepare holding statements and community impact FAQs

Internal Agency Communications

  • Recommend outreach program to reach staff, both office and field

  • Provide content to assist leadership as they speak about the issue

  • Collaborate on materials for dissemination to internal audiences

  • Help agencies communicate clearly with staff during sensitive or evolving incidents

Media Relations

  • Develop media strategy

  • Produce and edit press releases and media advisories

  • Conduct onsite key message development and delivery interview preparation and training sessions for key staff and elected or appointed officials

  • Provide preparation and support prior to interview opportunities

  • Monitor media coverage and provide input and follow-up as directed and as appropriate

  • Help agencies respond to fast-moving media inquiries with accuracy and discipline

Community and Stakeholder Communications

  • Prepare community update language

  • Develop resident and business impact messaging

  • Assist with public meeting strategy

  • Prepare FAQs and difficult question responses

  • Help agencies coordinate with partner agencies and outside stakeholders

  • Support recovery-phase communications and public confidence