Section 301.140  Multiple County ESDA Consolidation

IEMA may authorize a multiple county ESDA consolidation, if all of the following requirements are met:

a)         At least one of the counties to be consolidated has been determined by IEMA to have an inability to comply with the ESDA requirements of the IEMA Act and of this Part, including, but not limited to, the EOP and exercise requirements, that can be remedied by consolidation;

b)         The counties to be consolidated are geographically connected; and

c)         The counties seeking to consolidate present to IEMA a signed intergovernmental agreement between the counties seeking to consolidate ESDAs that provides at a minimum:

1)         Evidence of consolidation approval and authorization by each of the county boards involved;

2)         A beginning and ending date to the term of the consolidation agreement;

3)         A description of how the county boards will divide or distribute authority for the consolidated ESDA in a way that will ensure that the emergency management interests of the affected counties are adequately addressed and of how issues will be addressed by the counties, such as funding and budget issues and legal representation for ESDA issues, including tort and workers' compensation issues;

4)         A description of how the consolidated ESDA will operate in a situation of concurrent disasters in each of the consolidated counties; and

5)         Evidence of how the unified command system will be implemented by the consolidated ESDA.