EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT TRAINING UPDATE
The 2007 homeland security bill, S.B. 11, mandates that certain appointed public officers complete three hours of emergency management training. A detailed article describing this training appeared in the April 30, 2008, and June 20, 2007, editions of the TML Legislative Update. Both are available at http://www.tml.org/legis_updates.html.
Under the bill, certain appointed public officers, including fire chiefs and some appointed emergency management personnel, are required to take the emergency management training. The training must be completed: (1) by January 1, 2009, for officers who took office before January 1, 2008; or (2) within 180 days of taking office for an officer who took office after January 1, 2008.
Under the bill, the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management (division) is tasked with developing and providing the training. The division must “ensure that at least one course of training approved or provided by the division is available on videotape or a functionally similar and widely available medium at no cost.”
What can affected city officials do if the division hasn’t prepared a free video by the appropriate deadlines? Apparently nothing. The free and convenient nature of the training was key to the intent of the legislation. Until the materials are made available by the division, it is TML’s position that city officials need not act.
Future editions of the TML Legislative Update will identify any division training when it is made available.