Roles of Elected and Appointed Officials

What official and unofficial responsibilities have been designated to you and others?

Management of a disaster includes keeping citizens and responders warned and informed, have basic public services quickly restored, and have the individual's needs met. Executive support and participation are essential to ensure that key officials and staff are trained on plans and their roles - besides the first responders. At the same time that your community may be involved in response, you need to look at short- and long-term recovery to return the community to minimum operating standards and to previous conditions with mitigation measures to improve future protection.

Before an emergency occurs, consider the following:

• What are the legal authorities [local, state, and federal] to establish an emergency management program?
• Has the comprehensive emergency management plan and program been reviewed to be consistent with the state plan and program? Does it include the use of incident command system for multiagency/multijurisdiction operations? Has the plan(s) been developed with all stakeholders and reviewed and tested so each person knows his/her role or backup role?
• Has a current assessment of hazards and risks been performed in and surrounding the community?
• What are the boundaries covered by your emergency management organization?
• Who is legally in charge of or designated for emergency management policy actions or decisions in your community? These include activating the Emergency Response Plan and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC); making a decision to evacuate or shelter in place; assessment of and decision when a situation has surpassed the local capability to respond and request assistance through mutual aid or to the state. Is the position appointed?
• Has funding been established to support the emergency management program and the EOC?
• Who is in the line of succession and delegated by ordinance or resolution, especially in an emergency for continuity of government?
• Who can develop and sign a proclamation or declaration of emergency, an ordinance or resolution? Is there a quorum required for emergency decisions or signatures?
• Who can authorize emergency expenditures or contracts?
• What systems are in place for alert and warning? Who do these systems reach and who is responsible?
• What systems are in place to ensure accurate information and status internally and for the community? Who serves as public information lead and how will multiple organizations or jurisdictions share information and releases?
• What coordination has taken place and with whom to ensure that everyone knows each others' roles?
• Has an emergency response and recovery component been established in every department and agency - ensuring planning and training together?
• Have emergency management and hazard mitigation issues been incorporated into all programs to reduce risk of major loss of life and economic destruction through better preparedness and mitigation activities, such as predisaster activities: appropriate land use, construction codes (to include snow load, wind and fire resistance, and fire defensible space requirements) and updated floodplain or liquefaction mapping for all public safety, housing, economic development, highway and public infrastructure decisions (including repairs or abandonment) for all state and local projects?
• What training is available or needed, how often should there be participation and should it be mandatory? What training and education is available for the community members to be prepared?
• What mutual aid agreements - formal and informal - are there for helping other communities while ensuring help is available in the local area? These may include those used for daily emergencies, such as fires and traffic accidents; these agreements may be built upon for larger scale disasters. Do these identify resources and follow legal requirements?
• What other partnerships have been formed (with private industry, nonprofit or volunteer organizations, including search and rescue)?
• How will other elected officials (state and federal) be included in the emergency - before, during, and after?
• Who is left to continue normal government functions?

How can your community create opportunities to benefit from past decisions?

• Map hazards through GIS or other methods to help identify transportation evacuation routes, stability, or liquefaction concerns.
• Assess local preparedness, training, policies, and procedures - highlight strengths and weaknesses.
• Establish incentives for encouraging business owners and homeowners to retrofit buildings with hazard resistant features.
• Consider a disaster trust fund to be used for preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery projects to provide the nonfederal share of disaster costs furing presidential declared disasters and use for financing predisaster mitigation activities.
• Ensure that nonstructural mitigation is performed, such as securing computers and filing cabinets - these are cost and time saving measures that assist government and businesses towards fast recovery.
• Be insured. Ensure that required programs, like the National Flood Insurance Program and the Community Rating system, are in place to be eligible for future federal programs. Have buildings, medical, and other insurance in place.
• Assess the location of the alternate EOC.
• Have designated shelters and public awareness of them.
• Be prepared to assist with Local, State, and Federal Assessment Teams when a disaster or emergency occurs.
• Prepare a local hazard mitigation plan and identify priority projects.
• Participate in the Hazard Mitigation Survey Team (all hazards) or the Interagency Hazard Mitigation Team (floods) and the Hazard Mitigation Strategies (local and state).

By taking these and other steps to identify and solve issues and hazards, liability can be mitigated or prevented.

Elected public officials must give the same attention and priority to their flood problems as they give to their police and fire problems. In the history of Rapid City, perhaps 35 people have died in fires and another 35 have been killed during the commission of crimes. But in just two hours, 238 died in a [June 1972] flood."

- Don Barnett, former Mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota