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Saco council approves updated emergency operations plan after questions on mayoral authority
Summary
Council voted 6–0 to approve an updated emergency operations plan that consolidates SOPs across departments and adds notification and shelter guidelines; Councilor Johnston raised concerns the draft did not clearly reflect the mayor's statutory emergency powers and staff pledged ordinance redlines and York County EMA input.
The council voted unanimously to move forward with an updated emergency operations plan intended to standardize planning, response and recovery phases across city departments.
Fire-EM staff described the update as an effort to bring multiple existing policies into one working document and to add formal procedures for Code Red emergency notification, heating/cooling-center operations, emergency-shelter guidelines and severe-weather planning timelines. "We really wanted to make sure we were defining department roles and responsibilities," the fire chief said during the presentation.
Councilor Johnston urged caution, saying the draft as he read it appears to remove or fail to define the mayor's established emergency powers under the charter (citing section 4.37). "I don't think it's really appropriate for council to be removing our own authority or that of a mayor without going through the proper process," he said, asking for clarification of the mayor's role.
Deputy Administrator Prescott acknowledged the concern and said staff will provide redlines for the ordinance language and will not slow necessary updates for life-safety reasons: "We owe this council updates to the section you referenced...happy to do that." The fire chief added the plan remains a working document and that York County EMA is reviewing for best practices; staff said they will return a final version and proposed redlines.
Council held that the current vote would approve the draft to proceed toward a final and to allow staff to incorporate feedback; a final adoption vote will follow once redlines and county feedback are integrated. The motion to approve the order passed by roll-call vote, 6–0.
