Cochise County supervisors review update to emergency-declaration rules, direct staff to revise and return

Cochise County emergency management director Dan DeShawn outlined proposed revisions to the county's 1979 emergency-declaration resolution and its 2020 corollary policy at a Board of Supervisors work session, and supervisors directed staff to incorporate changes and return the documents for consideration in roughly three weeks.

DeShawn told the board the draft text updates statutory references to Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 26, and federal guidance including the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and Homeland Security Presidential Directives 5 and 8. He said the revisions replace dated language such as "civil defense" with the contemporary term "emergency management" and adopt an "all hazards" framing to cover threats to health, welfare, property and safety across the county.

The proposed resolution mirrors current state statute language about definitions, emergency functions, powers of the board, and duties of the emergency management director, DeShawn said. He noted one statutory change since COVID: counties are explicitly excluded from ordering business closures, a power reserved to incorporated cities under state law. He also described…