[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Somers Point 8-22-1963
by Ord. No. 8-1963; amended in its entirety 3-12-1981
by Ord. No. 5-1981. Subsequent amendments noted where applicable.]
Because of the existing and increasing possibility of the occurrence
of disasters of unprecedented size and destruction from fire, flood, hurricane,
tropical storm or other natural or man-made causes, such as blackouts and
power failures, aircraft accidents, bomb threats, chemical and radiological
accidents, riots and violent demonstrations, and in order to ensure that preparations
of this City will be adequate to deal with such disasters and generally to
provide for the common defense and to protect the public peace, health and
safety and to preserve the lives and property of the residents of this City,
it is hereby found and declared to be necessary to:
A.Â
Create a Municipal Emergency Management Agency.
B.Â
Provide for the rendering of mutual aid to other cities
within the State of New Jersey and adjoining states and to cooperate with
the state government with respect to carrying out emergency functions.
C.Â
Create and test an emergency operations plan for all
divisions of City government in the event of one of the aforementioned disasters.
It is further declared to be the purpose of this chapter and the policy
of this City that all emergency functions of this City be coordinated to the
maximum extent with the comparable functions of the state government, including
its various departments and agencies, of other municipalities and private
agencies of every type, so that a comprehensive plan may make the best use
of this City's manpower, resources and facilities in the event that a
disaster does occur.
It is further declared to be the purpose of this chapter and the policy
of this City to organize an emergency management organization, in conformity
with the Civil Defense Act as directed by P.L. 1942, c. 251, as amended. The
name of this organization shall be as follows: Office of Emergency Management,
Emergency Management Agency.
The Mayor of this community shall be responsible for the appointment
of a qualified coordinator of this office pursuant to state and federal guidelines
as of the date of his appointment. It shall be the responsibility of the Coordinator
to appoint a Deputy Coordinator, a staff and a coordinating Municipal Emergency
Management Council as may be needed to effectively operate this organization.
It is the responsibility of the staff, under the direction of the Coordinator
and Deputy Coordinator, to create and test the emergency operations plan and
to be prepared to activate it whenever necessary. It is the responsibility
of the Mayor to appoint the Municipal Coordinator as Chairman of the Municipal
Emergency Management Council to coordinate activities of the various municipal
departments, private businesses and agencies in the event of any of the aforementioned
disasters.
It shall be the responsibility of this organization to carry out and
enforce such orders, rules and regulations, as issued by the Mayor or the
chain of command as outlined by the emergency management plan, under the authority
of this chapter. The organization shall have available for inspection all
such orders and rules and regulations made by the Mayor or the chain of command
or under their authority.
The organization shall have a fully functional emergency operations
center, which shall be ready to coordinate all City, county, state, federal
and other agencies' functions in the event of a disaster. It shall also
have an alternate operations center planned in the event that the first shall
be damaged or unusable.
