HB2761 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2013 and 2014
HB2761

Introduced 2/21/2013, by Rep. Elaine Nekritz

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act

Creates the Interstate Mutual Aid Act. Authorizes the State and units of local government to enter into mutual aid agreements with units of government from another state to provide for the coordination of communications, training, response to, and stand-by for planned events and emergency responses between the units of government. Contains provisions concerning licenses and certifications, liability, and employee benefits.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning local government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Interstate Mutual Aid Act.

Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act:

(a) "Emergency Responder" includes, but is not limited to, emergency medical services personnel and firefighters, including firefighters trained in the areas of hazardous materials, specialized rescue, extrication, water rescue, and other specialized areas.

(b) "Mutual Aid Emergency" or "Emergency" means an occurrence or condition resulting in a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or the environment where the governmental entity having jurisdiction over the situation determines that the situation exceeds its ability to render appropriate aid and that it is in the public's best interest to request mutual aid from an out-of-state entity with whom the governmental entity has a written mutual aid agreement. "Mutual aid emergency" or "emergency" does not include a situation that initially rises to the level of disaster or emergency that requires a state or local declaration of a state of emergency, unless that declaration occurs after the initial request for mutual aid has been made.

Section 10. Mutual aid agreements. In order to more adequately address emergencies that extend or exceed a jurisdiction's emergency response capabilities, either without rising to the level of a state or local declaration of a state of an emergency, or in the initial stages of an event that may later become a declared emergency, a political subdivision of this State may enter into mutual aid agreement with one or more units of government from another state. A political subdivision of this State includes, but is not limited to, a county, city, village, township, special district, and any other unit of local government, or any combination thereof. The mutual aid agreement may provide for coordination of communications, staging, training, and response to planned and unplanned events that a local jurisdiction has determined exceeds, or is likely to exceed, its emergency response capabilities. When engaged in training, staging, and emergency response in accordance with mutual aid agreements, emergency responders from outside this State are permitted to provide services within this State in accordance with this Act and the terms of the mutual aid agreement. This Act does not prohibit a private entity that employs emergency responders, or its employees, from participating in the provision of mutual aid, provided that the private entity is a party to a mutual aid agreement with the requesting political subdivision and the agreement permits the participation.

Section 15. Licenses, certifications, and permits. An emergency responder from outside this State who holds a license, certificate, or other permit recognized or issued by another state shall be deemed licensed, certified, and permitted to render mutual aid during a mutual aid emergency within this State pursuant to a mutual aid agreement under this Act if the emergency responder is:

(1) acting within the scope of his or her license, certificate, or permit and within the scope of what an equivalent license, certificate, or permit from or recognized by this State would authorize; and

(2) acting under a request for mutual aid made pursuant to a mutual aid agreement under this Act.

Section 20. Governmental functions; liability; emergency responders. Any function performed by an emergency responder pursuant to a mutual aid agreement under this Act shall be deemed to have been for public and governmental purposes, and all immunities from liability enjoyed by this State's political subdivisions and their officers, agents, and employees shall extend to the emergency responders from another state while providing mutual aid during a mutual aid emergency or while engaged in training and exercises pursuant to a written mutual aid agreement under this Act.

Section 25. Employee benefits. Emergency responders from outside this State, while rendering mutual aid within this State pursuant to a mutual aid agreement under this Act, remain employees and agents of their respective employers and jurisdictions. Nothing in this Act, or any mutual aid agreement entered into under this Act, creates an employment relationship between the jurisdiction requesting aid and the employees and agents of the jurisdiction rendering aid. All pension benefits, relief benefits, disability benefits, death benefits, workers' compensation, and other benefits enjoyed by emergency responders rendering emergency mutual aid shall extend to the services they perform outside their respective jurisdictions as if those services had been rendered in their own jurisdiction.

Section 30. Limitations. This Act does not limit, modify, or abridge an emergency management compact entered into under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact Act.