SALISBURY – County officials are exploring a code amendment extending the time period for emergency declarations.
In a work session on Tuesday, the Wicomico County Council met with David Shipley, the county’s emergency services director, to discuss a code revision that would extend any emergency declaration from seven days to 22 days.
Currently, the county executive can issue an emergency declaration for a period of seven days. However, the county council must vote to extend the declaration if needed.
Shipley told the legislative body this week the suggested revision would address a timing issue associated with council meetings held on the first and third Tuesday of each month.
“If the first council meeting falls on the first of the month – and a good example is October, a month with 31 days – the second meeting would be on the 15th of that month,” he explained. “This will result in a void of 21 days from the second meeting mentioned to the first council meeting in the following month. The 22nd day that I’m talking about … would be used for implementation of council action.”
In short, Shipley told council members the 22 days would eliminate the need for the council to meet in an emergency session to extend an emergency declaration.
When asked if the timeframe had caused problems in the past, Shipley noted then-County Executive Bob Culver had to reissue an emergency declaration for a burn ban last year after learning it would expire before the next council meeting.
“There was some confusion about trying to get an emergency council meeting put in place at that point, so what he did was he issued another seven-day declaration that went from October 10 until the 15th,” he explained. “Then the council met at its regular meeting on the 15th and extended the declaration.”
Councilman Joe Holloway, however, questioned if the county executive could simply reissue an emergency declaration in any situation.
“That’s what was done,” Shipley replied. “I don’t know if that was the best remedy to continue to do it that way.”
When asked what constituted an emergency situation, Shipley noted burning bans, snow events and other natural disasters would be included.
“Those examples you gave would be the only ones where I would ever press the county executive to do an emergency declaration,” he said.
Council President Larry Dodd, however, questioned if the county executive could also call for an emergency declaration in the event of civil unrest.
“That may be something we would want to look into with this,” he said.
In order to amend the county code, a legislative bill could be introduced at the council’s next meeting on Nov. 17.
