City-To-City Mutual Aid
Adopted at the in 2006
WHEREAS, mayors and local police, fire and emergency medical services personnel are America's true first responders to any disaster, whether natural or man-made; and
WHEREAS, mayors recognize the important role of FEMA, the states, and the National Guard in responding to disasters. But as the Conference of Mayors learned from its mission to the Gulf Coast area following Hurricane Katrina, the fact is that aid did not come in time for too many communities; and
WHEREAS, in the early days of response to Hurricane Katrina, mayors were told by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that all offers of assistance to the impacted area had to be made through their states, and that these offers would then be coordinated through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) system; and
WHEREAS, while for some cities this seemed to have worked, many others found this system very slow to respond, and were forced to self-deploy first responder and other resources to the area in order to help their colleagues and their fellow citizens; and
WHEREAS, virtually every city has entered into mutual aid or inter-local agreements for first responder activities, debris removal, etc. However, as was seen with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, such agreements were rendered all but useless as almost all cities in the respective target region required full deployment of their personnel and assets; and
WHEREAS, what should be supported is the ability of cities to enter into such mutual aid agreements with other cities and metro areas with geographic dispersion to enable cities to provide real time assistance and aid to the impacted region without delay, and
WHEREAS, some cities have already created new city-to-city mutual aid agreements that cross state lines,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The United States Conference of Mayors urges the United States Congress and the Administration to authorize a mechanism that would allow city-to-city mutual aid agreements to trigger reimbursement procedures and liability protection under the Stafford Act during an emergency.