On February 16, 2018 Governor Abbott extended the disaster declaration for 60 counties in Texas. This is the sixth renewal of a disaster declaration for the counties in the declaration. To view the full extension of the disaster declaration, click here.
Texas SB 2078 currently working its way through the Texas House, essentially requires more detailed planning to be included into the School District’s Multi-Hazard Emergency Operations Plan (“MEOP”).
The biggest change is the addition of six requirements into the MEOP establishes for only school districts:
#1: The Chain of Command/Line of Succession Identification;
#2: 2 scenario specific response plans, with more that can be designated by the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University;
#3: Portable building safety
#4: a parent/guardian communication plan
#5: statement on amount per student spent on school/district safety
#6: identification of the safety and security committee.
The interesting part is the statement on amount spent per student on school/district safety. The legislative history doesn’t currently suggest a reason why. It can be assumed that this is intended to be a marker for the community to see how their tax dollars are being spent.
The accountability and enforcement mechanism to this bill is essentially public shaming. The new Tex. Education Code §37.108(f) would allow the Texas Education Agency to post online those who fail to submit a MEOP, submit an MEOP that doesn’t meet standards, or fail a safety and security audit.
Texas Senate Bill 1897 was introduced on March 10th, 2017 seeking to require more information be put into a local disaster declaration. State Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock, Texas introduced the legislation which has been referred to the Agriculture, Water, & rural Affairs Committee on March 23, 2017.
Here are the highlights from this legislation:
“An order or proclamation declaring, continuing, or terminating a local state of disaster issued under this section must include: (1) a description of the nature of the disaster; (2) a designation of the area threatened; and (3) a description of the conditions that have brought the local state of disaster about or made possible the termination of the local state of disaster.”
If the political subdivision to which the order or proclamation applies maintains an Internet website, a copy of the order or proclamation shall also be posted on the political subdivision ’s Internet website.
In accordance with Section 418.016(e), the presiding officer of a political subdivision may request the governor to waive or suspend a deadline imposed by a statute or the orders or rules of a state agency on the political subdivision, including a deadline relating to a budget or ad valorem tax, if the waiver or suspension is reasonably necessary for the political subdivision to cope with a local disaster declared under this section.
Follow the bill’s actions and progress by clicking here.
Visit State Senator Perry’s Website by clicking here.
The 85th Texas Legislature just called their first regular session this past month. With that, a plethora of bills were filed by state legislators seeking to get their ideas out into their chamber for consideration. One of theses bills was proposed by Senator Kirk Watson from District 14. SB 351 proposes establishing a disaster recovery fund and providing post-disaster grants to local governments (county and municipal), state agencies, and volunteer organizations.
The current system of emergency management under the Stafford Act Disaster Relief Act requires that each level of government or entity exhaust their response and recovery resources before asking for support from the next higher level. In the past, the Texas has been able to provide some funds to entities within the state for recovery purposes; state statute has generally limited support to helping with the state’s cost share of federal disaster grant programs. This is not a hard rule because there are many areas in state statute that allow for disaster grants to be awarded by the governor; however, the funding is largely driven from the federal level. This bill could change all of that.
SB 351 would establish a Disaster Recovery Fund and allow the Texas Division of Emergency Management to administer the fund. After reading the initial text of the bill (which has not been heard in committee yet) it appears that this is essentially duplicating the federal program, at the state level. This can be a good thing for Texas in helping relieve the need to try and help areas impacted by a disaster that has not received a declaration status by the president–which is highly discretionary and is considered to be highly politicized.
We will help keep an eye on this bill as it moves through the State Senate.
On September 30th, the Texas Division of Emergency Management (“TDEM”) published the Request for Applications (“RFA”) notice for the Hazard Mitigation Emergency Preparedness (“HMEP”) grant program in the Texas Register. HMEP gives funds for the Local Emergency Planning Committees (“LEPC”) for furthering work in hazardous materials transportation emergency planning. This grant is through the U.S. Department of Transpiration, and is an 80% cost share program. Only LEPC’s may apply.
The deadline is October 17, 2016.
For more information, see the links below:
Did you know that Texas has a sales tax holiday specifically for Emergency Preparedness Supplies? It does! It is designed to mirror the School Supplies Tax Holiday that has been in effect for many years. However, this hasn’t always been the case.
State Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa from McAllen, Texas authored the bill in March 2015 and was passed in June 2015 by signature of the Governor. A review of the legislative history of SB 904 (the bill that then turned into Tex. Tax §151.3565) shows a very easy path with relatively no opposition to the bill.
Since 2016 will be the first ever “Emergency Preparation Supplies Sales Tax Holiday” there might be some confusion on what exactly is tax free from 12:01 am on Saturday, April 23, and ending at midnight on Monday, April 25, 2016. If you are interested in reading the full statute, you can find what is covered at Tex. Tax Code § 151.3565(b) (West 2016). The great part about this whole process is that–like the School Supplies Sales Tax Holiday–you don’t need to show an exemption form to be exempted from sales tax and there’s no limit to the number of items you can purchase! Keep in mind though, if there is shipping, handling or any other charges on the item when it is purchased, that is considered part of the sales price.
Here’s the list:
As a review, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) recommends individuals and families have the following in their basic emergency supplies kit:
The Texas Comptroller’s website has an announcement speaking about this tax holiday at: http://comptroller.texas.gov/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx98_1017.html.
With two weeks left in the legislative session, the Texas House of Representatives advanced a bill establishing regional search and rescue teams to the floor vote. The next phase is for the bill to be considered by Senate Committee hearings and a vote by the full senate before moving to the governor for action.
This bill represents one of the only disaster management related legislative actions to advance from committee this legislative cycle. HB 1970 (defining a new disaster victim lighted identification system), 2376 (relating to the creation of a disaster relief fund), and 4085 (relating to state disaster declarations are made) were either withdrawn from the schedule or left pending in committee.
The State of Texas currently operates six field response regions. The state expects for this bill to have no impact on local government fiscal requirements, while adding nine state employees to administer the program and provide training to local entities. The concept behind this program would be to synchronize training and coordination among individual volunteers and volunteer organizations instead of creating a new organization of full-time employees.
With an estimated initial investment in 2016 of $12.5 Million into starting the program (equipment, facilities, hiring, and initial training), it is estimated that approximately $1.6 million will be spent annually on upkeep.
– Will
Read the State Committee Report here.
[Pending Legislation] Regulating TASER use by Consumers in Texas
Many of you probably do not realize that there are TASER devices designed for use by private citizens. As a Department of Defense Non-Lethal Weapons instructor I have had the opportunity to learn more about the program, though I have have yet to have the opportunity to fire one.
Currently there is pending legislation in the Texas House of Representatives proposed by Representative Martinez Fischer of San Antonio. The goal of the legislation is to regulate the use of TASERs by non-law enforcement individuals much in the same way that the state regulates the concealed carry program. This has an impact on emergency management because it adds another dynamic of things to think about when conducting sheltering and resource control/distribution during a response scenario.
Consider if you will, you coordinated to have food, water and other necessities dropped off and distributed in the parking lot of your city’s largest retailer, “Big-Mart”. First question is, because it’s private property, who is going to be liable for something that goes wrong? Again, this is why we need legal counsel involved; however, lets go back to the main point. Someone wants more water than what is rationed out. They pull a TASER out and disable the person at the water control station. What do you do? What can you legally do? Do you allow your police to open fire on the individual? Is the city liable for the person having a TASER and inflicting intentional harm on the volunteer/employee at the water station (also known as a battery)? If police open fire on a person that has already expended their one and only shot with a consumer taser device, is it still a threat that needs to be responded with deadly force to?
All these questions and more could be answered by a legal counsel if they were brought in to the planning phase. I know it’s a pain to have a lawyer dump a ton more work on you, but it might be worth it in the end when you can avoid litigation and avoid litigation.
– Will
Read Rep. Martinez’s statement on the proposed legislation here: http://www.house.state.tx.us/news/member/press-releases/?id=1932
Checkout TASER International’s CEW’s for Consumer Self Defense: http://www.taser.com/products/self-defense-products
