TOMAHAWK – Earlier this month, the City of Tomahawk Common Council gave the thumbs up to an ordinance that makes several updates to the city’s emergency management procedures.
During its meeting at City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 6, the council gave its final stamp of approval to an ordinance that repeals a chapter from the municipal code titled “Civil Emergencies” and replaces it with a chapter called “Emergency Management.”
The ordinance had been given the green light by the city’s Health and Safety Committee last month.
The ordinance implements procedures for emergencies ranging from “enemy action” to “natural or man-made disasters” and establishes a chain of command for such occurrences.
Under the ordinance, the Mayor will serve as Local Emergency Management Director and head of the City of Tomahawk Emergency Management Organization. Prior to the ordinance’s approval, the Chief of Police had been the city’s designated Civil Defense Director.
During last month’s Health and Safety Committee meeting, Police Chief Al Elvins explained that in the event of an emergency, he and the fire chief would occupied with the situation at hand and unable to coordinate the response effort, prompting the ordinance’s proposal and ultimate approval.
According to the ordinance, the Director – currently Mayor Michael “Hob” E. Habeck – is responsible for the organization, administration and operation of the city’s Emergency Management Organization, subject to Common Council oversight. The Director will also coordinate all emergency management activities within the city, work with outside emergency management agencies and other municipalities, enter into mutual agreements with other municipalities, participate in state and county emergency activities upon request and issue all necessary proclamations, warnings and alerts in the event of an emergency.
Habeck will be tasked with preparing a comprehensive general plan for emergency management and presenting it to the city council for approval.
The authority to appoint Deputy and Assistant Directors is granted to the Director, subject to approval from the council.
Under the ordinance, the city will formally recognize and adopt the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) in order to ensure that all agencies responding to an emergency would be able to “operate in a coordinated manner, utilizing a recognized management process, incident management objectives, common terminology, common communication procedures and equipment designations.”
The ordinance was unanimously approved by the council.
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