[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 98 (Monday, May 23, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-12518]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: May 23, 1994]


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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:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                          Number of    Frequency                                
                                                         respondents       of       Hours per    =      Burden  
                                                                       responses    responses           Hours   
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
                                                        --------------------------------------------------------
      Total annual burden..............................         1200            1           40            48,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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