Town Council 04-14-2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

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April 14, 2020 The Mooresville Town Council met in a special session on Friday, April 14, 2020 at 7:00 P. M. at the Mooresville Government Center. Council members physically present were, Council President Shane Williams, and Councilman Tom Warthen. Councilwoman Jessica Hester, Councilman Dustin Stanley, and Councilman Jeff Cook were present via telephone. Town attorney Chou-il Lee was present via telephone. Councilman Tom Warthen gave the prayer. New Business - n �d Tornado Response —Town Council President, Shane Williams presented the council with a Proclamation of Disaster as a result of the recent tornado event. Town Attorney Chou-il Lee introduced to the town council, Attorney Beth Copeland. With her area of expertise in emergency management, Mr. Lee believed it would be beneficial for her to discuss the Proclamation. She explained that the proclamation authorizes the town council to declare a local disaster emergency allowing the town to implement the comprehensive emergency plan that had been adopted by the council in 2005, and allow the town to reach out to the county and the state for emergency relief. Mark Turney from the Morgan County Emergency Management addressed the council stating that the State of Indiana has an emergency management plan already in place, and under that plan the Town Emergency Manager does not have the authority to contact the State or FEMA. Once the town's resources for this emergency are exhausted it then moves to the County resources then Mr. Tumey's office will request assistance from the State. This procedure is laid out in an Indiana State code that details the procedure for this. And the town emergency plan needs to be amended to line up with State code. Attorney Beth Copeland agreed with Mr. Tumey, and stated that the purpose for the Proclamation is just the first step to being able to reach out to the County and the State for assistance, and since the town is now facing an emergency it would be prudent to begin dealing with the situation at hand and then begin to look at rewriting the Town emergency plan. By doing this now it prevents any delays in the future and gives a good foundation for moving forward. Councilman Warthen noted that the town emergency plan had not been reviewed in recent years. He also noted that there was no end date to the proclamation only the start date of April 15, 2020 and was under the impression that it was only to last 7 days. Attorney Beth Copeland stated that the 7 -day clause in the emergency plan gave the Executive authority for the council President to declare an emergency without the need for council approval for 7 days at which time the council needed to adopt the proclamation in order to extend it. The council president did not issue an executive emergency declaration, so the Council must now issue the proclamation. Councilman Warthen then asked if the clause about authorizing essential services in order to mitigate damage from the local disaster only pertained to public property and if it pertained to circumventing current ordinances and procedures for permanent construction. Attorney Beth Copeland stated that clause was intended to allow the council to make the decisions needed for temporary construction measures in the immediate future so that the residents of the town do not lose essential services. It does not give the council the ability to bypass any committees for any permanent construction that may be required in the future. When asked, Mark Turney let the council know that a declaration of disaster is typically only declared after the town has exhausted all of its resources to handle a disaster. Only the declaration of an emergency by the governor will trigger the ability to bring in additional resources such as FEMA.