HomeMy WebLinkAboutNo 797A Emergency Management
Ordinance No. 797A
Chapter 11
1
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Sec. 11-1. Policy and purpose.
Because of the existing possibility of the occurrence of disasters of unprecedented size and
destruction resulting from fire, flood, tornado, blizzard, destructive winds or other natural causes, or
from sabotage, hostile action, or from hazardous material mishaps; and in order to insure that
preparations of this city will be adequate to deal with such disasters, and generally, to provide for the
common defense and to protect the public peace, health, and safety, and to preserve the lives and
property of the people of this city, it is hereby found and declared to be necessary:
(1) To establish a city emergency management organization responsible for city planning and
preparation for emergency government operations in time of disasters.
(2) To provide for the exercise of necessary powers during emergencies and disasters.
(3) To provide for the rendering of mutual aid between this city and other political subdivisions of
this state and of other states with respect to the carrying out of emergency preparedness functions.
(Ord. No. 378, §601.010, 10-17-74; Ord. No. 565, §1, 2-27-84; Ord. No. 631, 7-25-88)
(4) To comply with provisions of Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 12, Section 12.25, et al, as amended.
State law reference – Similar provisions, M.S. §12.02, subd. 1.
Sec. 11-2. Definitions.
Emergency management means the preparation for and the carrying out of all emergency functions,
other than functions for which military forces are primarily responsible, to prevent, minimize and repair
injury and damage resulting from disasters caused by fire, flood, tornado and other acts of nature, or
from sabotage, hostile action, or from industrial hazardous material mishaps. These functions include,
without limitation, fire fighting services, police services, emergency medical services, engineering,
warning services, communications, radiological, and chemical, evacuation, congregate care, emergency
transportation, existing or properly assigned functions of plant protection, temporary restoration of
public utility services and other functions related to civil protection, together with all other activities
necessary or incidental for carrying out of the foregoing functions. Emergency management includes
those activities sometimes referred to as “civil defense” functions. (Ord. No. 378, § 601.020, 10-17-74;
Ord. No. 565, §1, 2-27-84; Ord. No. 631, 7-25-88)
Disaster means a situation which creates an immediate impairment to the health and safety of any
person, or a situation which has resulted in or is likely to result in loss to property, and for which
traditional sources of relief and assistance within the affectedarea are unable to repair or prevent the
injury or loss.
Emergency means an unforeseen combination of circumstances which calls for immediate action to
prevent from developing or occurring.
Emergency management forces means the total personnel resources engaged in city-level emergency
management functions in accordance with the provisions of this chapter or any rule or order
thereunder. This includes personnel from city departments, authorized volunteers, and private
organizations and agencies.
Emergency management organization means the staff element responsible for coordinating city-level
planning and preparation for disaster response. This organization provides city liaison and coordination
with federal, state, and local jurisdictions relative to disaster preparedness activities and assures
implementation of federal and state program requirements.
Sec. 11-3. Establishment of an emergency management organization.
There is hereby created within the city government an emergency management organization which
shall be under the supervision and control of the city emergency management director, hereinafter
called the “director”. The director shall be appointed by the mayor, ratified by the council, report
administratively to the city manager, shall serve for an indefinite term, and shall receive a salary
determined by the council. In an emergency he may be removed by the mayor summarily or suspended,
and at other times he may be removed by the mayor, ratified by the council, for cause, after an
opportunity to be heard. The director shall serve at a salary determined by the city council and shall be
paid his/her necessary expenses. The director shall have direct responsibility for the organization,
administration and operation of the emergency management agency, subject to the direction and
control of the city manager. The emergency management agency shall be organized into such divisions
and bureaus, consistent with state and local emergency plans, as the director deems necessary to
provide for the efficient performance of local emergency management functions during an emergency.
The emergency management agency shall perform emergency management functions within the city
and in addition shall conduct such functions outside the city as may be required pursuant to the
provisions of the Minnesota civil defense act of 1951, Minnesota Statues, Chapter 12, or this chapter.
(Ord. No. 378, §601.030, 10-17-74; Ord. No. 565, §1, 2-27-84; Ord. No. 631, 7-25-88)
Sec. 11-4 Powers and duties of the director
(a) The director, with the consent of the city manager, shall represent the city on any regional or
state conference for emergency management. The director shall develop proposed mutual aid
agreements with other political subdivisions of the state for reciprocal emergency management aid and
assistance in an emergency too great to be dealt with unassisted, and shall present such agreements to
the council for its action. Such arrangements shall be consistent with the state emergency plan.
(b)The director shall make studies and surveys of the manpower, industries, resources and facilities
of the city as deemed necessary to determine their adequacy for emergency management and to plan
for their most efficient use in time of an emergency or disaster. The director of emergency management
shall establish the economic stabilization systems and measures, service staffs, boards and sub-boards
required, in accordance with state and federal plans and directions subject to approval of the council.
(c) The director shall prepare a comprehensive emergency plan for the emergency preparedness of
the city including municipal and unincorporated areas and shall present such plan to the council for its
approval. When the council has approved the plan by resolution, it shall be the duty of all city agencies
and all emergency preparedness forces of the city to perform the duties and functions assigned by the
plan as approved. The plan may be modified in like manner from time to time. The director shall
coordinate the emergency management activities of the city to the end that they shall be consistent and
fully integrated with the emergency plan of the federal government and the state, and correlated with
emergency plans of other political subdivisions within the state.
(d) In accordance with the state and city emergency plan, the director shall institute such training
programs, public information programs and conduct practice warning alerts and emergency exercises as
may be necessary to assure prompt and effective operation of the city emergency plan when a disaster
occurs.
(e) The director shall utilize the personnel, services, equipment, supplies and facilities of existing
departments and agencies of the city to the maximum extent practicable. The officers and personnel of
all such departments and agencies shall, to the maximum extent practicable, cooperate with and extend
such services and facilities to the city emergency management organization and to the governor upon
request. The head of each department or agency in cooperation with the director shall be responsible
for the planning and programming of such emergency activities as will involve the utilization of the
facilities of the department or agency.
(f) The director shall, in cooperation with existing city departments and agencies affected, assist in
the organizing, recruiting and training of such emergency management personnel that may be required
on a volunteer basis to carry out the emergency plans of the city and state. To the extent that such
emergency personnel are recruited to augment a regular city department or agency for emergencies,
they shall be assigned to such departments or agencies and shall be under the administration and
control of said department or agency.
(g) Consistent with the state emergency services law, the director shall coordinate the activity of
municipal emergency management organizations within the city and assist in establishing and
conducting training programs as required to assure emergency operational capability in the several
services (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 12, Sec. 12.25)
(h) The director shall carry out all orders, rules, and regulations issued by the governor with
reference to emergency management.
(i) The director shall act as principal aide and advisor to the city official responsible for direction
and control of all city emergency operations during an emergency. The coordinator’s main responsibility
is to assure coordination among the operating departments, nongovernmental groups, and with higher
and adjacent governments.
(j) Consistent with the emergency plan, the director shall provide and equip at some suitable place
in the city a control center and, if required by the state emergency plan, an auxiliary control center to be
used during an emergency as headquarters for direction and coordination of emergency management
forces. He shall arrange for representation at the control center by municipal departments and agencies,
public utilities and other agencies authorized by federal or state authority to carry on emergency
management activities during an emergency. He shall arrange for the installation at the control center of
necessary facilities for communication with and between heads of emergency management divisions,
the stations and operating units of municipal services and other agencies concerned with emergency
management and for communication with other communities and control centers within the
surrounding area and with the federal and state agencies concerned.
(k) The director may dismiss any emergency management volunteer at any time and require
him/her to surrender any equipment and identification furnished by the city.
Sec. 11-5. Local emergencies.
(a) A local emergency may be declared only by the city manager and/or mayor, or their designee. It
shall not be continued for a period in excess of three days except by or with the consent of the
governing board of the political subdivision. Any order, or proclamation declaring, continuing, or
terminating a local emergency shall be given prompt and general publicity and shall be filed promptly by
the chief of the local records-keeping agency of the subdivision.
(b) A declaration of a local emergency shall invoke necessary portions of the response and recovery
aspects of applicable local or inter-jurisdictional disaster plans, and may authorize aid and assistance
thereunder.
(c) No jurisdictional agency or official may declare a local emergency unless expressly authorized by
the agreement under which the agency functions. However, an inter-jurisdictional disaster agency shall
provide aid and services in accordance with the agreement under which it functions.
Sec. 11-6. Emergency regulations.
(a) Whenever necessary to meet a declared emergency or to prepare for such an emergency for
which adequate regulations have not been adopted by the governor or the city council, the mayor or his
designees may by resolution promulgate regulations, consistent with applicable federal or state law or
regulation respecting: the conduct of persons and the use of property during emergencies; the repair,
maintenance, and safeguarding of essential public services; emergency health, fire and safety
regulations; drills or practice periods required for preliminary training; and all other matters which are
required to protect public safety, health and welfare in declared emergencies.
(b) Every resolution of emergency regulations shall be in writing, shall be dated, shall refer to the
particular emergency to which it pertains, if so limited, and shall be filed in the office of the city clerk,
which copy shall be kept posted and available for public inspection during business hours. Notice of the
existence of such regulation and its availability for inspection at the clerk’s office shall be conspicuously
posted at the front of the city hall or other headquarters of the city and at such other places in the
affected area as the council shall designate in the resolution. By like resolution, the mayor or his
designees may modify or rescind any such regulation.
(c) The city council may rescind any such regulation by resolution at any time. If not sooner
rescinded, every such regulation shall expire at the end three (3) days after its effective date or at the
end of the emergency to which it relates, whichever comes first. Any resolution, rule or regulation
inconsistent with an emergency regulation promulgated by the council shall be suspended during the
period of time and to the extent such conflict exists.
(d) During a declared emergency, the city is, notwithstanding any statutory or charter provision to
the contrary, empowered, through its governing body acting within or without the corporate limits of
the city, to enter into contracts and incur obligations necessary to combat such disaster by protecting
the health and safety of persons and property and providing emergency assistance to the victims of such
disaster. The city may exercise such powers in the light of the exigencies of the disaster without
compliance with the time consuming procedures and formalities prescribed by law pertaining to the
performance of public work, entering rental equipment agreements, purchase of supplies and materials,
limitations upon tax levies, and the appropriation and expenditure of public funds including, but not
limited to publication of resolutions, publication of calls for bids, provisions of personnel laws and rules,
provisions relating to low bids, and requirements for budgets. (Ord. No. 378, §601.060, 10-17-74; Ord.
No. 631, 7-25-88)
State law reference – Local emergencies, M.S. §12.29.
Sec. 11-7. Emergency management a governmental function.
All functions thereunder and all other activities relating to emergency management are hereby
declared to be governmental functions. The provisions of this section shall not affect the right of any
person to receive benefits to which he would otherwise be entitled under this resolution or under the
worker’s compensation law, or under any pension law, nor the right of any such person to receive any
benefits or compensation under any act of congress.
Sec. 11-8.Participation in labor dispute or politics.
The emergency management organization shall not participate in any form of political activity, nor
shall it be employed directly or indirectly for political purposes, nor shall it be employed in a labor
dispute. (Ord. No. 378, §601.110, 10-17-74; Ord. No. 565, §1, 2-27-84; Ord. No. 631, 7-25-88)
Sec. 11-9. Workers and volunteers; compensation; oath; identifying insignia; carrying firearms;
applicability of city personnel procedures.
(a) No person shall be employed or associated in any capacity in the emergency management
agency who advocates or had advocated a change by force or violence in the constitutional form of
government of the United States or in this state or the overthrow of any government in the United
States by force or violence, or who has been convicted of or is under indictment for information
charging any subversive act against the United States. Each person who is appointed to serve in the
emergency management agency shall, before entering upon his duties, take an oath in writing before a
person authorized to administer oaths in this state, or before any officer of the state division of
emergency management or the director. The oath shall be substantially in the form prescribed by
Minnesota Statutes, Section 12.43, and reads as follows:
“I ___________________________________________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will
support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of
Minnesota against all enemies; foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the
same, that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation of purpose of evasion; and
that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter. And I do further
swear (or affirm) that I do not advocate, nor am I a member of any political party or organization
that advocates the overthrow of the Government of the United States or of this state by force or
violence; and that during such time as I am a member of the City of Maplewood, Minnesota,
emergency management agency, I will not advocate nor become a member of any political party or
organization that advocates the overthrow of the Government of the United States, or of this state,
by force or violence.”
(b) Emergency management volunteers shall be called into service only in case of an emergency or
a natural disaster for which the regular municipal forces are inadequate or for necessary training and
preparation for such emergencies. All volunteers shall serve without compensation.
(c) Emergency management volunteers shall be provided with such suitable insignia or other
identification as may be required by the director. Such identification shall be in the form and style
approved by the federal government. No volunteer shall exercise any authority over the persons or
property of others without his identification. No person, except authorized volunteers, shall use the
identification of a volunteer or otherwise represent himself to be an auth§orized volunteer.
(d)Personnel procedures of the city applicable to regular employees shall not apply to volunteer
emergency management workers, but shall apply to paid employees of the emergency management
agency. (Ord. No. 378, §601.050, 10-17-74; Ord. No. 565, §1, 2-27-84; Ord. No. 631, 7-25-88)
State law reference-Similar provisions to subsection (a), M.S. § 12. 43.
Sec. 11-10. Fiscal matters; reports.
(a) There is hereby established an account in the general fund to be known as the emergency
management account. Into this account shall be placed the proceeds of taxes levied for civil defense,
money transferred from other funds, gifts and other revenues of the emergency management agency.
From it shall be made expenditures for the operation and maintenance of the emergency management
agency and other civil defense expenditures.
(b) The director shall, as soon as possible after the end of each fiscal year, prepare and present to
the city council for the information of the council and the public, a comprehensive report of the
activities of the emergency management agency during the year. (Ord. No. 378, § 601.070, 10-17-74;
Ord. No. 565, § 1, 2-27-84; Ord. No. 631, 7-25-88)
Sec. 11-11. Penalty for violations of chapter.
Any person who violates any provisions of this chapter or of any regulation adopted thereunder
relating to acts, omissions or conduct, other than official acts of the city officers or employees, shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor. (Ord. No. 378, § 601.120, 10-17-74; Ord. No. 631, 7-25-88)
State law reference-Penalty for violation of Minnesota civil defense act of 1951, M.S. § 12.45.
Sec. 11-12. Effective date.
This ordinance shall take effect upon approval by the City Council of the City of Maplewood.
The Maplewood City Council approved this ordinance on 04.26.1999.