1. The local government and the county each agree to furnish emergency services, as defined in § 102 of the Emergency Management Services Code, being 35 Pa.C.S.A. § 7102, and § 101 of the Homeland Security Act 227, being 6 U.S.C. §§ 101 et seq., to each other upon request and on a non-reimbursable basis. No local government shall present any claim of any nature against the county for compensation for any loss, damage, personal injury or death occurring in consequence of the performance of the services called for in this Agreement.
A. The Emergency Management Services Code and the Homeland Security Act define these services as firefighting, police, medical and health, rescue, disaster warning, communications, shelter, evacuation and other named emergency response and recovery services.
2. This Agreement shall apply to the following circumstances in addition to all other applicable situations:
A. The deployment of emergency service equipment and/or personnel by the local government or the county in response to the occurrence or the threat of a human-made, natural or war-caused disaster or terrorist act;
B. The distribution of materials, supplies, equipment and other forms of aid by and between the local government and the county;
C. The staffing and equipping of an emergency operation center responsible for coordinating the emergency response activities of the local government or the county affected by an actual or imminent disaster emergency;
D. The deployment of emergency service equipment, material and/or personnel by the local government or the county in response to a declaration of a local disaster emergency declared by the local government or the county;
E. Response to incidents (actual or imminent) which endanger the health, safety or welfare of the public and which require the use of special equipment, trained personnel or personnel in larger numbers than are locally available in order to reduce, counteract or remove the danger caused by the incident;
F. Participation in exercises, drills or other training activities designed to train personnel to prepare for, cope with or prevent the occurrence of any disaster emergency; and
G. As part of this Agreement, the county agrees to provide emergency call taking and dispatch services for municipal emergency response agencies, as outlined in the Emergency Communications Services Act (35 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 5301 et seq.), as amended.
3. Any deployment by the local government or the county of emergency service equipment pursuant to this Agreement shall be subject to the following terms and conditions.
A. Any request for aid hereunder shall state the amount and type of equipment and/or personnel requested, but the amount and type of equipment and number of personnel to be furnished shall be determined by a representative of the responding local government or the county.
B. The local government or the county having supervisory responsibility for the incident shall have overall supervision of mutual aid personnel and equipment during the period such incident is still in progress. Further,
SUPERVISION, as used in this section, pertains to conduct of the mission. Each person participating in the mission remains an employee of that person’s employing agency and is subject to the personnel policies solely of that employing agency. It is agreed that all responding agencies will manage each incident in accordance with the provisions set forth in the National Incident Management System.
C. The responding local government or the county shall be released by the requesting local government or the county when the services of the responding local government or the county are no longer required or when the responding local government or the county is needed within its normal jurisdiction.
D. Nothing contained herein shall require either the local government or the county to respond to a request for mutual aid or to continue to render such mutual aid if the resources supplied to the requesting local government or the county are needed within its normal jurisdictional area, as determined by the responding local government or the county.
E. This is a mutual aid agreement and it is assumed that all available assistance will generally be provided. Nothing, however, in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the local government or the county from refusing to respond when it is deemed appropriate by the local government or the county. In addition, any responding party may refuse to perform any specific task when, in the sole determination of the responding party’s supervisor, response would create an unreasonable risk of danger to the responding party’s employees and/or equipment or any third-party.
F. A party to this Agreement shall have the right to withdraw resources it has provided at any time without incurring any liability. Notice must be given to the local government or the county having overall command responsibility for the incident upon withdrawal.
4. This Agreement shall become effective immediately upon its ratification by the parties. Duly authenticated copies of this Agreement shall, at the time of its approval, be deposited with the local government, the county and the McKean County emergency management agency. Duplicate copies of the Agreement shall be as binding and effective as the original.
5. This Agreement shall continue in force and remain binding on the local government and the county until the governing body of the local government or the commissioners of the county take action to withdraw. Such action shall not be effective until 30 days after notice of the withdrawal has been sent by the local government or the county desiring to withdraw to the other party.
6. This Agreement in no way invalidates mutual aid agreements already in existence. The parties to this Agreement may be subject to the provisions of preexisting agreements except as expressly provided herein.
(Res. 2007-9, passed 2-12-2007)