Submission of Proposed Information Collection to OMB Form Required for the Law Enforcement and Security Personnel Costs Information Collection

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing

[Docket No. N-94-3773; FR-3721-N-01]

Submission of Proposed Information Collection to OMB Form

Required for the Law Enforcement and Security Personnel Costs

Information Collection

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian

Housing, HUD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The proposed information collection requirements described

below have been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department

is soliciting public comment on the subject proposal.

DATES: Comments due date: June 22, 1994.

ADDRESSES: Comments should refer to the proposal by name and should be

sent to: Joseph F. Lackey, Jr., OMB Desk Officer, Office of Management

and Budget, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503; or

Joan Campion, Rules Docket Clerk, Department of Housing and Urban

Development (HUD), 451 7th Street SW., Washington, DC 20410.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kay F. Weaver, Reports Management Officer, Department of Housing and

Urban Development (HUD), 451 7th Street SW., room 4178, Washington, DC

20410 (202) 708- 0050. This is not a toll-free number. Copies of the

documents submitted to OMB may be obtained from Ms. Weaver.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This Notice informs the public that the

Department of HUD has submitted to OMB, for expedited processing, an

information collection package with respect to the forms and other

information required for the Law Enforcement and Security Personnel

Form. It also is requested that OMB complete its review within 30 days.

The Department has submitted the proposal for the collection of

information, as described below, to OMB for review, as required by the

Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. chapter 35).

(1) Title of the information collection proposal: Law Enforcement

and Security Personnel Costs Form.

(2) Office of the agency to collect the information: Office of the

Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.

(3) Description of the need for the information and its proposed

use: The data that will be collected on the forms are necessary for HUD

to quantify current and future financial commitments by the Department

to increased law enforcement personnel in local communities as

requested by the Office of Domestic Policy at the White House.

(4) Agency form numbers: HUD Form 52355.

(5) Members of the public who will be affected by the proposal:

Public and Indian housing authorities.

(6) How frequently information submissions will be required:

Annually.

(7) An estimate of the total number of hours needed to prepare the

information submission including number of respondents, frequency of

response and hours of response: See attached chart with a total of

48,000 burden hours.

(8) Type of request: New.

(9) The names and telephone numbers of an agency official familiar

with the proposal: Julie B. Fagan, Office of Public and Indian Housing,

(202) 708-1197.

Authority: Section 3507 of the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44

U.S.C.; Section 7(d) of the Department of Housing and Urban

Development Act, 42 U.S.C. 3535(d).

Dated: May 2, 1994.

Joseph Shuldiner,

Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.

Notice of Submission of Proposed Information Collection to OMB

Proposal: Housing Authority Law Enforcement and Security Personnel

Costs

Office: Office of Resident Initiatives

Description of The Need For The Information and Its Proposed Use: This

information collection is required in connection with Public Housing

Drug Elimination Program (PHDEP), and other public housing funding

which funds law enforcement and security personnel in public housing.

Information from this form will allow the Department to measure current

funding levels supporting law enforcement and security personnel and to

report those measurements to the Office of Domestic Policy at the White

House.

Form Number: HUD Form 52355

Respondents: Public Housing Authorities and Indian Housing Authorities

Reporting Burden:

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Number of Frequency

respondents of Hours per = Burden

responses responses Hours

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Initial reporting...................................... 1200 1 24 28,800

Annual reporting....................................... 1200 1 8 9,600

Initial record-keeping................................. 0 0 0 0

Annual record-keeping.................................. 1200 1 8 9,600

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Total annual burden.............................. 1200 1 40 48,000

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Status: New Collection

Contact: Julie B. Fagan, (202) 708-1197.

Date:

May 2, 1994.

Part A: Justification

President Clinton has pledged an additional 100,000 police officers

by 1998. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been

directed by the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC) and the

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to assist in fulfilling that

pledge by providing for 4,100 police-equivalent positions in 1994 and

5,000 position per year between 1995-1998 (see Attachment One).

The primary HUD programs that permit the funding of law enforcement

and security officers are the Public Housing Drug Elimination Grant

(PHDEP), Community Development Block Grant, Comprehensive Improvement

Assistance Program (CIAP), Comprehensive Grants (Comp Grant), and

operating subsidies. From those programs, HUD is expected to provide

the positions outlined above. OMB assumes that HUD will use $124

million in budget authority in FY 1994 and $150 million for FYs 1995-

1998 to fund these positions.

A1.0 Circumstances That Make Collection Of The Information Necessary

The Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) administers four of

the five programs identified above. The programs fund the activities of

only public and Indian housing authorities (HAs). PIH does not

currently have the mechanisms to measure or determine the costs or

specific number of law enforcement and security personnel our grant

monies are supporting.

The Public Housing Drug Elimination Program (PHDEP) funds a variety

of public housing anti-drug efforts, including the hiring of law

enforcement and security officers. Since program inception in 1989 the

PHDEP has funded 1762 grants totalling $532,459,075 million. According

to the plans of the FY 1991 to FY 1993 grantees, approximately $178

million of the funds were targeted to additional security or law

enforcement staff. Over the same period, the proportion of total

dollars targeted specifically to additional law enforcement and

security costs has remained about the same each year.

While PHDEP grantees are required to submit semi-annual reports on

the status of grant activities and funding, the level of detail varies

greatly, and the information is only reviewed on a grant by grant

basis, and is not collected or concatenated on a field office, regional

office or national basis. Information from PHDEP semi-annual reports

are insufficient sources because the reports are not standardized and

several other PIH funding sources pay for police/security costs.

In FY 1993, CIAP grants totalled $326 million, and are currently

being phased out. The reports required from CIAP grantees report

``anti-drug costs'', but do not include anti-crime costs, and do not

separate labor from other related costs.

In FY 1993, Comp Grants totalled $2.5 billion. The Comp Grant

program allows costs for ``health and safety'', but none of the Comp

Grant reports capture any information on security and law enforcement

personnel costs.

Public Housing Operating Subsidy (O/S) can also be used to pay for

``Protective Services'', including labor, materials, and contract

costs. In FY 1992, nationwide, $108.2 million were spent on all

protective services costs. Of those funds, $71.9 were spent on labor,

and $32.7 on security contract costs. Since FY 1987, the dollars spent

on labor costs by all housing authorities has increased by 44 percent

from $49.8 to $71.9 million, while the dollars spend on security

contract costs has increased by 42 percent from $76.1 million to $108.2

million. HUD does not collect information at any level of greater

detail.

The Law Enforcement/Security Form for which OMB approval is sought

would be required from HAs annually. Use of this form will enable the

level of law enforcement and security support to be shown in a

consistent manner, through annual compilation of the requested data.

The planned characteristics of the form are for reporting at the agency

level. HAs will report on the funds and positions relative to the

relevant grants they are operating.

A2.0 How and by Whom the Data Will be Used

A2.1 Purpose of the Data Collection

The Department will use this information for several purposes.

Primarily the data will be used to report to the Secretary, and in turn

to the Domestic Policy Council of the White House, HUD's contribution

to the Administration's effort to increase the number of law

enforcement officers by 100,000 by 1998.

The Department will also analyze the information to better

understand the contribution of public housing funds to local law

enforcement efforts. A recent HUD technical assistance contract

addressing the issues of law enforcement and public housing show an

increasing financial commitment by HAs to pay for law enforcement and

security services.

Two major policy issues are raised by these HUD funds paying for

security and law enforcement personnel: comparable level of law

enforcement services provided by local government, and liability. Many

of the financial commitments by HAs show evidence of public housing

communities which do not receive a comparable level of law enforcement

services from local government, as required by the Annual Contributions

Contract (ACC), or HAs paying additional costs disproportionate to the

additional services received. HAs compensate for the lower level of

services by paying for additional officers or security. HUD is

interested in understanding this issue, and assisting HAs to negotiate

for the required comparable level of services, and for any additional

services.

Liability has also been raised as a major policy issue. If HUD

grantees are using HUD funds to pay for law enforcement and security

personnel, it could be incumbent upon the Department to ensure that all

legal and insurance matters are adequately addressed by grantees before

financial and contractual commitments are made for law enforcement and

security services. Without any knowledge of the extent of those

commitments, and which HAs are making those commitments, HUD cannot

develop an adequate response for technical assistance and training.

As HUD funds are increasingly targeted to law enforcement and

security costs, the Department needs to understand and develop

appropriate policies to assist HAs in the development of safe and

secure environments. Without an understanding of current commitments

and their shifts from year to year, the Department will not be able to

develop effective program or technical assistance responses to HAs with

inadequate law enforcement an security coverage.

A2.2 Consequences If the Information Was Not Collected

If the Department were not to collect this information it would be

considered unresponsive to the President's request, it would continue

to lack the necessary information to understand the nature and extent

of potential liability and to assist housing authorities in negotiating

for a comparable level of local government law enforcement services.

A3.0 Use of Improved Information Technologies

The required information can be submitted to HUD Headquarters in

two formats. The first will be a bulletin board format with direct on-

land access from HAs to HUD Headquarters. The bulletin board format

will be the same as the hard copy form seen in Attachment 2. The second

and alternative format will be a one-page hard copy form as attached in

Attachment 2. The form will be machine-readable and will be submitted

directly to the Office of Public and Indian Housing at HUD Headquarters

in Washington, D.C. where the form will be scanned electronically and

the information stored in a database for future use.

A4.0 Efforts to Identify Duplication

The Department has examined existing data sources, such as the

grant applications and semi-annual reports for public housing

competitive programs including PHDEP, CIAP, and Comp Grant, as well as

Operating Subsidy reports. The required data are not consistently

available in any of these sources because none require the reporting of

law enforcement and security expenditures specifically (see A1.0

above).

In the pretest conducted by the Office of Public and Indian Housing

with nine housing authorities, most respondents indicated that housing

authorities have the necessary information, but do not keep the

information in a central location.

A5.0 Why Similar Already Available Data Cannot Be Used

As discussed in Section A1.0 above, similar, already available data

does not exist. Current HUD-required reports from HAs do not capture

security and law enforcement personnel information as required by the

department.

A6.0 Effort to Minimize the Burden for Small Entities

The set of indicators in the form represents funding sources and

budgets most commonly used by housing authorities, including small

housing authorities. Review of the drug elimination grants (DEGs) by

the Office of Public and Indian Housing shows that smaller housing

authorities with DEGs are just as likely to have DEG funds targeted to

law enforcement or security costs. The likelihood of smaller housing

authorities using other HUD grant fund to support law enforcement or

security costs is unknown because of the lack of information as

outlined in Section A1.0.

A7.0 Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

Because the Domestic Policy Council has asked the Department to

report on its annual contribution to the President's pledge of 100,000

more law enforcement officers, annual reporting should be sufficient,

and less frequent reporting would not allow the Department to report as

required.

A8.0 Circumstances Requiring Deviation From Guidelines In 5 CFR 1310.6

The proposed monitoring system is consistent with the guidelines

set forth in 5 CFR 1310.6 (Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the

Public--General Information Collection Guidelines). There are not

circumstances that require deviation from these guidelines.

A9.0 Consultations Outside of the Agency

To aid in the preparation of the PHDEP Outcome Monitoring System,

the Department has conferred with Carroll Buracker of Fredericksburg,

VA, leading authority in law enforcement services. Mr. Buracker

provided valuable comments in the definition of different types of

security and law enforcement officers more suitable for public housing

authorities, and those changes have been incorporated into the

document. The Department has also conferred with several public housing

authorities, receiving suggestions for clearer instructions and use of

terms including definitions of FTE, time frames, and local government.

These have been incorporated into the document, and will be

incorporated into the instructions.

A10.0 Arrangements and Assurances Regarding Confidentiality

The Department will develop a HUD Notice to accompany the form

explaining that the information reported will be used by HUD to measure

HUD support of national law enforcement and security personnel costs.

A11.0 Sensitive Questions

No questions of a sensitive nature are included in the proposed

report.

A12.0 Estimated Costs to the Federal Government

Staff of the Department of Housing and Urban Development developed

the form and will collect and concatenate the data. There will be no

additional contractual cost to the government.

A13.0 Respondent Burden

All public and Indian housing authorities which expend HUD funds on

law enforcement or security staff will be required to collect the data

and submit the report annually. Currently HUD does not anticipate more

than 1200 HAs to have to complete more than the first part of the form.

The initial set-up or modification of one housing agency's data

collection system is estimated to take three working days (24 hours).

Once the collection system is in place, the annual burden for one

grantee, including time to prepare data and complete the form is 8

hours. The total annual burden program-wide will vary based on the

number of housing authorities which use HUD funds to pay for law

enforcement or security staff, which is not anticipated to be more than

1200 HAs.

Name of Reporting Form: Public Housing Law Enforcement/Security Form

Respondent: All public and Indian housing authorities

Number of Respondents: 3300

Estimated Time in Hours: Initial set-up: 24 hours; subsequent reporting

8 hours/year.

Frequency in Reporting: Annual.

Annual Burden (In Hours): For 1200 housing authorities, 28,800 hours

for initial setup plus 9,600 hours/year for subsequent reporting.

Note: The reporting requirements for small housing agencies

(under 1,250 units) are somewhat less, as they are less likely to

have used more than one HUD funding source to pay for law

enforcement and security activities.

A14.0 Reasons For Change In Burden

This is a new reporting form and therefore this section is not

applicable.

A15.0 Tabulation Plans, Statistical Analysis, Study Schedule and

Publication

The concatenation and analysis of the results is intended for use

by the program staff at the Department to monitor shifts.

The concatenation and analysis of the results is intended for use

by the program staff at the Department to monitor shifts in the use of

funds and to report to Congress and the White House. As part of ongoing

program monitoring, the data gathered may be tabulated and used

periodically to assess the overall effectiveness of HUD funds in

national efforts at increased law enforcement. Currently, there are no

plans for such a formal assessment based on this report.

PART B. Sampling and Response

The Public Housing Law Enforcement and Security Form (PHLESF) is

designed to collect information from the universe of public and Indian

housing authorities. No sampling will be done.

Attachment 1: Memo Outlining 100,000 Officers

Attachment 2: Public Housing Law Enforcement and Security Form

BILLING CODE 4120-33-M

TN23MY94.002

[FR Doc. 94-12518 Filed 5-20-94; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4210-33-C