Subd. 1. Establishment. There is hereby continued within the city government a Department of Emergency Management, which shall be under the supervision and control of a Director of Emergency Management. The Department of Emergency Management shall be organized into such divisions and bureaus, consistent with state and local civil defense plans, as the Director deems necessary to provide for efficient performance of local civil defense functions during a civil defense emergency. The Emergency Management Department shall perform civil defense functions within the city limits and, in addition, shall conduct such functions outside the city limits as may be required pursuant to the provisions of the State Emergency Management Act of 1996, being M.S. Chapter 12, as it may be amended from time to time.
Subd. 2. Director. The Director shall be appointed by the Mayor with approval of the Council and shall serve for a term collateral to the Mayor’s term or two years, whichever is less. The Director may be reappointed. In a civil defense emergency, the Director may be summarily removed or suspended by the Mayor or his or her successor. At other times, he or she may be removed at will upon decision of the City Council. The Council shall provide for the Director’s salary by resolution and necessary expenses. The Director shall have direct responsibility for the organization, administration, and operation of the Emergency Management Department, subject to the direction and control of the City Council. When the Director is removed summarily as aforementioned, he or she shall have a hearing within 60 days of his or her summary dismissal, to present his or her case, or sooner if possible, depending on the length and severity of the disaster during his or her summary dismissal.
Subd. 3. Powers and Duties of the Director.
1. The Director, with the consent of the City Council, shall represent the city on any regional or state organization for civil defense. He or she shall develop proposed mutual aid agreements with other political subdivisions within the state for reciprocal civil defense aid and assistance in a civil defense emergency too great to be dealt with unassisted, and he or she shall present such agreements to the Council for its action. Such arrangements shall be consistent with the State Civil Defense Plan and, during a civil defense emergency, it shall be the duty of the Department of Emergency Management and civil defense forces to render assistance in accordance with the provisions of such mutual aid arrangements.
2. The Director shall make such studies and surveys of the manpower, industries, resources, and facilities of the city as he or she deems necessary to determine their adequacy for civil defense and to plan for their most efficient use in time of a civil defense emergency. He or she shall report to the City Council annually at a regular Council meeting for February of each year, or at his or her request, other times.
3. In accordance with the state and city civil defense plan, the Director shall institute such training programs and public information programs and shall take all other preparatory steps, including the partial or full mobilization of civil defense forces in advance of actual disaster, as may be necessary to the prompt and effective operation of the city civil defense plan in time of a civil defense emergency. He or she may, from time to time, conduct such practice air raid alerts or other civil defense exercises as he or she may deem necessary, with approval of the City Council.
4. 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 local department, in cooperation with and under the direction of the Director, shall be responsible for the planning and programming of such civil defense activities as will involve the utilization of the facilities of his or her department.
5. The Director shall carry out all orders, rules, and regulations issued by the Governor with reference to civil defense.
6. The Director shall direct and coordinate the general operations of all local civil defense forces during a civil defense emergency in conformity with the controlling regulations and instructions of state civil defense authorities. The heads of departments shall be governed by his or her orders in respect thereto.
7. Consistent with the emergency management plan, the Director shall provide and equip, at some suitable place in the city, a control center which is required by the state emergency management plan, to be used during a civil defense emergency as headquarters for direction and coordination of civil defense forces. He or she shall arrange for representation at the control center of city departments, public utilities, and other agencies authorized by federal or state authority to carry on civil defense activities during a civil defense emergency. He or she shall arrange for the installation at the control center of necessary facilities for communication with and between heads of civil defense divisions, the stations, and operating units of city services and other agencies concerned with civil defense and for communications with other communities and control centers within the surrounding area and with the federal, state, and county agencies concerned.
Subd. 4. General Provisions on Emergency Management Workers.
1. Each person who is appointed to serve in the Emergency Management Department shall, before entering upon his or her duties, take an oath in writing before any officer of the State Department of Civil Defense or the local Director. The oath shall be substantially in the form described by M.S. § 12.43, as it may be amended from time to time.
2. A civil defense volunteer shall be called into service only in case of a civil defense 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 for their services.
3. Each emergency management volunteer 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 or her identification of a volunteer or otherwise represent himself or herself to be an authorized volunteer.