Commerce City emergency manager recommends removing EOP from municipal code to allow faster updates
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Summary
Emergency Manager Kurt Dominic told the City Council that the city's Emergency Operations Plan is overdue for revision and should be maintained as a living operational document under the city manager's designee rather than codified in Chapter 23 of the municipal code.
Kurt Dominic, the city's emergency manager, told the Council that a multi-department revision of the city's Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) has identified capability gaps and new operational annexes and that keeping the entire EOP codified limits the city's ability to respond and adapt.
"This is a living document," Dominic said, describing annexes added for shelter operations and severe winter weather and outlining new requirements such as NIMS training for full-time staff. He also noted infrastructure changes since the last substantive rewrite: "As we gain these capabilities, our plan has to be updated and reflect that too."
Dominic asked the Council to consider an amendment to rescind Chapters 23-2 through 23-6 and to modify Chapter 23-1 of the Commerce City Revised Municipal Code, so that the city manager or the city manager's designee (likely the office of emergency management) would have delegated authority to maintain and update the EOP without requiring a municipal-code amendment for routine operational changes.
City Attorney Lee Zarzecke said she had reviewed the draft and recommended the same approach: because a document that must change frequently cannot function effectively if fully codified, the Council should permit the emergency manager, through delegated authority, to revise operational details and annexes. "It cannot be a living, breathing document" if it is fixed in code, Zarzecke said, recommending rescission and delegated authority to allow flexibility while keeping the EOP publicly available to council and department directors.
Council members pressed staff on oversight and notice: several asked whether the city manager would provide periodic updates to council when substantive changes are made. Dominic and City Manager Rogers said the practice would include recommendations run through the city manager and city attorney and then provided to council, along with after-action reviews following major incidents to prompt updates.
Next steps: Dominic asked that the Council place language rescinding and modifying the cited portions of Chapter 23 on an upcoming agenda; staff said they would return with proposed ordinance language and with a process for notifying council and ensuring the EOP remains publicly accessible.
