ENGROSSED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 694
(By Senators Kessler and White)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported March 25, 2009.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §15-5-28, relating to
mutual aid agreements; establishing a statewide intrastate
mutual aid system; setting forth legislative findings;
authorizing the Director of the Division of Homeland Security
and Emergency Management to propose a statewide mutual aid
agreement; establishing procedures to allow local
jurisdictions to elect not to participate; establishing
procedures to amend the mutual aid agreement; creating a
Statewide Intrastate Mutual Aid Committee; and establishing
procedures for comment for changes to the agreement and the
reenactment of the agreement.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §15-5-28, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 5. DIVISION OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT.
§15-5-28. Statewide mutual aid system.
(a) The Legislature hereby finds that emergencies transcend
political jurisdictional boundaries and that intergovernmental
coordination is essential for the protection of lives and property
and for the best use of available assets, both public and private.
The purpose of this section is to create a system of intrastate
mutual aid between participating political subdivisions in the
state. The system shall provide for mutual assistance among the
participating political subdivisions in the prevention of, response
to and recovery from any disaster that results in a formal state of
emergency in a participating political subdivision, subject to that
participating political subdivision's criteria for declaration. The
system shall provide for mutual cooperation among the participating
subdivisions in conducting disaster-related exercises, testing or
other training activities outside actual declared emergency
periods. This section provides no immunity, rights or privileges
for any individual responding to a state of emergency that is not
requested or authorized to respond by a participating political
subdivision. Participating political subdivisions will be ensured,
to the fullest extent possible, eligibility for state and federal
disaster funding.
(b) The Statewide Intrastate Mutual Aid Committee is hereby
created. The committee shall consist of eleven members from various
different public safety entities and other governmental entities
who shall be appointed by the Director of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The director, or his or her
designee, shall chair the committee. This committee shall be
multidisciplinary and representative of emergency management and
response disciplines as well as local government. It shall be the
committee's responsibility to hold, at a minimum, annual meetings
to review the progress and status of statewide mutual aid, assist
in developing methods to track and evaluate activation of the
system and to examine issues facing participating political
subdivisions regarding the implementation of this legislation. The
committee may prepare an annual report on the condition and
effectiveness of mutual aid in the state, make recommendations for
correcting any deficiencies and submit that report to the
appropriate legislative committee or other governing body. Members
of the committee shall serve a maximum two-year term.
(c) Upon the enactment of this legislation, all political
subdivisions within the state are members of the statewide mutual
aid system:
Provided, That a political subdivision within the state
may elect not to participate or to withdraw from the system upon
the enactment of an appropriate resolution by its governing body
declaring that it elects not to participate in the statewide mutual
aid system. A copy of any such resolution shall be provided to the
Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
(d) This section does not preclude participating political
subdivisions from entering into supplementary agreements with
another political subdivision and does not affect any other
agreement to which a political subdivision may currently be a party to, or decide to be a party to.
(e) "Emergency responder", as used in this article, shall mean
anyone with special skills, qualifications, training, knowledge and
experience in the public or private sectors that would be
beneficial to a participating political subdivision in response to
a locally declared emergency as defined in any applicable law or
ordinance or authorized drill or exercises; and who is requested
and authorized to respond. Under this definition, an emergency
responder may be required to possess a license, certificate, permit
or other official recognition for his or her expertise in a
particular field or area of knowledge. An emergency responder could
include, but is in no way limited to, the following:
Law-enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical services
personnel, physicians, nurses, other public health personnel,
emergency management personnel, public works personnel, local
emergency debris removal teams, those persons with specialized
equipment operations skills or training or any other skills needed
to provide aid in a declared emergency.
(f) It shall be the responsibility of each participating
political subdivision with jurisdiction over and responsibility for
emergency management within that certain subdivision to do all of
the following:
(1) Identify potential hazards that could affect the
participant using an identification system common to all
participating jurisdictions.
(2) Conduct joint planning, intelligence sharing and threat assessment development with contiguous participating political
subdivisions, and conduct joint training at least biennially.
(3) Identify and inventory the current services, equipment,
supplies, personnel and other resources related to planning,
prevention, mitigation, response and recovery activities of the
participating political subdivision.
(4) Adopt and implement the National Incident Management
System approved by the State of West Virginia.
(g) A participating political subdivision may request
assistance of other participating political subdivisions in
preventing, mitigating, responding to and recovering from disasters
that result in locally declared emergencies or in concert with
authorized drills or exercises as allowed under this section.
Requests for assistance shall be made to the Division of Homeland
Security and Emergency Management through the designated county
emergency management director by the chief executive officer of a
participating political subdivision, or his or her designee for
response. Requests may be verbal or in writing. Verbal requests
will be followed up with a written request as soon as is practical
or such number of days as the state, in its discretion, may
dictate.
(h) The obligation of a participating political subdivision to
provide assistance in the prevention of, response to and recovery
from a locally declared emergency or in authorized drills or
exercises is subject to the following conditions:
(1) A participating political subdivision requesting assistance must have either declared a state of emergency in the
manner outlined in this section or authorized drills and exercises;
(2) A responding participating political subdivision may
withhold resources to the extent necessary to provide reasonable
protection and services for its own jurisdiction;
(3) Emergency response personnel of a responding participating
political subdivision shall continue under the command and control
of their responding jurisdiction to include medical protocols,
standard operating procedures and other protocols, but shall be
under the operational control of the appropriate officials within
the National Incident Management System of the participating
political subdivision receiving the assistance; and
(4) Assets and equipment of a responding participating
political subdivision shall continue under the control of the
responding jurisdiction, but shall be under the operational control
of the appropriate officials within the National Incident
Management System of the participating political subdivision
receiving the assistance.
(i) If a person or entity holds a license, certificate or
other permit issued by a participating political subdivision or the
state evidencing qualification in a professional, mechanical or
other skill and the assistance of that person or entity is
requested by a participating political subdivision, the person or
entity shall be deemed to be licensed, certified or permitted in
the political subdivision requesting assistance for the duration of
the declared emergency or authorized drills or exercises and subject to any limitations and conditions the chief executive of
the participating political subdivision receiving the assistance
may prescribe by executive order or otherwise.
(j) (1) Any requesting political subdivision shall reimburse
the participating political subdivision rendering aid under this
system and in accordance with procedures developed by the Statewide
Intrastate Mutual Aid Committee, provided the request for aid is
authorized by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency
Management. A participating political subdivision providing
assistance may determine to donate assets of any kind to a
receiving participating political subdivision. Requests for
reimbursement shall be in accordance with procedures developed by
the Statewide Intrastate Mutual Aid Committee.
(2) Should a dispute arise between parties to the system
regarding reimbursement, involved parties will make every effort to
resolve the dispute within thirty days of written notice of the
dispute by the party asserting noncompliance. In the event that the
dispute is not resolved within ninety days of the notice of the
claim, either party may request the dispute be solved through
arbitration. Any arbitration under this provision shall be
conducted under the commercial arbitration rules of the American
Arbitration Association.
(k) The Statewide Intrastate Mutual Aid Committee shall
develop comprehensive guidelines and procedures that address,
including, but not limited to, the following: Projected or
anticipated costs, checklists for requesting and providing assistance, recordkeeping for all participating political
subdivisions, reimbursement procedures and other necessary
implementation elements along with the necessary forms for requests
and other records documenting deployment and return of assets.
(l) Personnel of a participating political subdivision
responding to or rendering assistance for a request who sustain
injury or death in the course of, and arising out of, their
employment are entitled to all applicable benefits normally
available to personnel while performing their duties for their
employer. Responders shall receive any additional state and federal
benefits that may be available to them for line-of-duty deaths.
(m) All activities performed under this section are deemed
hereby to be governmental functions. For the purposes of liability,
all persons responding under the operational control of the
requesting political subdivision are deemed to be employees of the
requesting participating political subdivision.
(n) Whenever the law-enforcement officials of any political
subdivision are rendering outside aid pursuant their lawful
authority, and with the approval of the Director of the West
Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management,
and under the authority of a state of emergency as officially
proclaimed by the Governor, such law-enforcement officials shall
have the same authority, powers, duties, rights, privileges and
immunities as if they were performing their law-enforcement duties
in the political subdivisions in which they are normally employed.
The authority vested in the law-enforcement official, in accordance with this section, shall vest upon reporting in person to the
Emergency Management Agency official in charge and on duty at the
county or city of destination assignment. The law-enforcement
official shall act under the authority, supervision and control of
the highest ranking law-enforcement official within the assigned
outside jurisdiction. Law enforcement and powers of arrest
authority will not attach to the law-enforcement official while in
transit from his or her jurisdiction of origin en route to his or
her assigned jurisdiction under intrastate mutual aid assistance.
(o) This act shall become effective on its passage and
approval by the Governor.