Brunswick County Commissioner Frank Williams has been named to a newly formed National Association of Counties (NACo) Intergovernmental Disaster Reform Task Force.
According to a news release, "NaCo President and Sonoma County, California, Supervisor James Gore appointed 28 county leaders to the group, which is tasked with modernizing federal disaster policies, strengthening intergovernmental partnerships geared towards disaster resiliency and enhancing local disaster mitigation, response and recovery capacities."
Gore stated in the release, “Every community in our country understands the fierce urgency of protecting our communities and building our resiliency to disasters. Having battled through mega fires, floods and droughts here in my own backyard, I know that tasking this diverse group of leaders to work quickly and thoughtfully towards a set of recommended actions will enable counties to drastically improve our community, county and nationwide resilience.”
Williams said his experience serving as chair of the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners during three hurricanes prepared him to serve on the disaster reform task force.
“Brunswick County residents felt the effects of hurricanes Florence, Dorian, and Isaias during my four years as chair of the board of commissioners,” Williams stated in the release. “My experience during Florence has been the defining moment of my tenure as a commissioner and was the inspiration for my NCACC Presidential initiative, 100 Counties Prepared. Serving on this task force is a natural extension of that work.”
Williams served as president of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) from August 2021 until August 2022. His NCACC presidential initiative, 100 Counties Prepared, was borne out of his experience serving as county board during Hurricanes Florence, Dorian and Isaias. During those experiences, "he observed a lack of emergency preparedness training suitable for elected officials. He appointed a task force, which focused on filling that void by creating an emergency preparedness training tailor-made for elected officials," the release stated.
Additionally, Williams is currently serving his second term as chair of NaCo’s Resilient Counties Advisory Board (RCAB).
