§ 13-25-1-6 — Duties of commission and local emergency planning committee; membership on local committee not a lucrative office; appointment of local committee members

(a) The commission shall do the following:
(1) Encourage and support the development of emergency
planning efforts to provide:
(A) state government entities;
(B) local governments; and
(C) the public;
with information concerning potential chemical hazards in
Indiana.
(2) Assist the state in complying with the requirements of SARA.
(3) Design and supervise the operation of emergency planning
districts in Indiana.
(4) Gather and distribute information needed for effective
emergency response planning.
(5) Appoint the members of the local emergency planning
committee of each emergency planning district.
(b) A local emergency planning committee shall do the following:
(1) Satisfy the requirements of SARA.
(2) Prepare and submit a roster of committee members to the
commission at least one (1) time each year.
(3) Meet at least two (2) times, on separate days, every six (6)
months.
(4) Each year, prepare and submit a report to the commission that
describes the expenditures of the local emergency planning
committee in the preceding year that were paid for with the
money distributed under IC 13-25-2-10.6.
(c) A local emergency planning committee member may appoint a
designee to act on the committee member's behalf under this chapter.
An appointment under this subsection must:
(1) be in writing;
(2) specify the duration of the appointment; and
(3) be submitted to the committee at least two (2) calendar days
before the first meeting that the designee attends on behalf of the
member.
(d) For purposes of Article 2, Section 9 of the Constitution of the
State of Indiana, membership on a local emergency planning committee
is not a lucrative office.
(e) The members of a local emergency planning committee shall
elect officers of the local emergency planning committee from among
its members.
(f) The commission may appoint the number of members of a local
emergency planning committee that the commission considers
appropriate. The members of a local emergency planning committee
must include representatives of each of the following:
(1) State and local officials.
(2) Law enforcement, emergency management, firefighting,
emergency medical services, health, local environmental,
hospital, and transportation personnel.
(3) Broadcast and print media.
(4) Community groups.
(5) Owners and operators of facilities subject to IC 13-25-2-10.
(g) The commission may revise its appointment of members of a
local emergency planning committee under subsection (a)(5).
Interested persons, including a county executive, may petition the
commission to modify the membership of a local emergency planning
committee.
(h) A local emergency planning committee is a county board of the
county identified in one (1) of the following:
(1) If the emergency planning district of the local emergency
planning committee is wholly within the boundaries of one (1)
county, the local emergency planning committee is a county board
of the county in which the emergency planning district is located.
(2) If the emergency planning district of the local emergency
planning committee includes more than one (1) county, the local
emergency planning committee is a county board of only one (1)
of the counties, and the county of which the local emergency
planning committee is a county board must be determined by
agreement of the counties included in the emergency planning
district.
(i) The commission may not establish an emergency planning
district that includes more than one (1) county unless all the counties
to be included in the emergency planning district have agreed which of
the counties will be the county of which the local emergency planning
committee will be a county board under subsection (h)(2).
[Pre-1996 Recodification Citation: 13-7-36-7.]

Legislative History

As added by P.L.1-1996, SEC.15. Amended by P.L.92-2001, SEC.2; P.L.26-2010, SEC.17; P.L.85-2015, SEC.10; P.L.68-2016, SEC.2.