Fire chief discusses council responsibilities in disaster situation

In light of the recent destruction caused by tornadoes in central Iowa, the Newton City Council thought it an appropriate time to discuss mayoral and council responsibilities in a natural disaster situation during a workshop held Monday at the DMACC Newton Campus.

Fire Chief Jarrod Wellik began the discussion by holding up a thick, heavy binder he calls the City of Newton Incident Command System Multi-Hazard Functional Plan, or the Emergency Operations Plans for short.

“This is the plan,” Wellik said, clasping the white book in his hand like a dumbbell.

Only a small fraction of the pages are reserved for mayoral and city council duties and actions during an emergency situation. Cut into five basic sections — management, operations, logistics, planning and financing/administrative — the command system plan is generally used to give responders the ability to communicate effectively and correctly manage an incident.

“It’s one of those things where we have a lot of responsibilities and a lot of different facets that we have to look at. You’re ultimately responsible for it, right? There’s a big responsibility that goes along with your positions,” Wellik said to council members. “What we rely on the city council and the mayor for is to make those policy decisions and those changes during a disaster situation to allow us to do our jobs.”

What happens in these situations, Wellik continued, is the Newton Fire Department’s spending limit of $2,500 is stretched thin, especially when a disaster calls for a requisition of bulldozers and payloaders and dump trucks. The council is asked to support the various emergency efforts and report to a designated emergency operations center.

Three emergency operations centers can be set up in Newton: the city council chambers, Jasper County Emergency Management and the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office.

“What we would ask you to do is to be apart of that because you’re going to have to meet, you’re going to have to do declarations, you’re going to have to do certain things you’re going to be responsible for and do,” he said.

He also discussed what not to do. For instance, city council members are advised not to go to the scene of disasters where emergency crews are operating.

“That’s not the place to be,” Wellik said. “There is a time and a place for you to be involved in some of that. In other words, we all realize that as elected officials you need to be seen in the public and you need to be out witnessing to what’s going on and speaking with your constituents. That’s an important part of what you do and an important part of the response, but there’s a time and a place for that.”

During the Monday workshop, Wellik passed out a training plan for city council members. The fire chief asked mayor Mike Hansen, city administrator Matt Muckler, council members Lin Chapé, Evelyn George, Mark Hallam, Steve Mullan, Dean Stonner and Craig Trotter to look through the training matrix and consider taking specific classes.

“What we would try to do set up a time where we can actually do it as a group. Maybe something like this — a council workshop — where we can sit down and I can actually walk you through the class,” Wellik said of the awareness-level online courses.

The classes, Wellik said, would help the council better understand what emergency responders are dealing with during disaster situations, in addition to what they would be expected to do and oversee.

“It would give you that big picture view of what’s going on,” he said. “Because that’s what we’re going to ask you to do is take that overarching look and provide the guidance and support that we need to do the job on the ground. Ask anybody that’s been through it.”

Hansen thanked the fire chief for presenting information to the council during the Monday workshop.

“Chief, we’ll review all of this and we will take it up with the administrator and see what we can get done,” Hansen said.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com