Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Michael Callagy, County Manager
Subject: Proclamation of Local Emergency
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution further extending proclamation of local emergency until the County takes action to terminate the local emergency.
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BACKGROUND:
Section 8630 of the Government Code and Chapter 2.46 of the San Mateo County Ordinance Code authorize the Director of Emergency Services (“Director”) of San Mateo County to proclaim a local emergency when the County is threatened by conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the County that are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment and facilities of the County and require the combined forces of other political subdivisions to combat and the Board of Supervisors is not in session. (Pursuant to the County Ordinance Code, the County Manager also serves as the County Director of Emergency Services.)
Under the Government Code and Chapter 2.46 of the County Ordinance Code, the Director’s Proclamation of Local Emergency remains in effect for no more than seven days, unless the proclamation has been ratified by the Board of Supervisors.
On March 3, 2020, I issued a proclamation of local emergency in San Mateo County due to the introduction in the County of the COVID-19 virus. On March 10, 2020, the Board of Supervisors ratified and extended the proclamation of local emergency. In adopting the resolution, the Board indicated that the Board would review, at least every sixty days, the need for continuing the local emergency.
DISCUSSION:
Governor Newsom proclaimed a State of Emergency related to COVID-19 throughout the State of California on March 4, 2020. In that proclamation, and among other things, the Governor waived the sixty-day time period in Section 8630 of the Government Code within which a local government agency must review the need for continuing the local emergency related to COVID-19 and this waiver remains in place until the local government agency terminates its respective local emergency.
As noted, the Board Supervisors indicated an intent to review the need for continuing the local emergency at least every sixty days. However, in light of the expected extended nature of the local emergency and the Governor’s waiver of the requirement in the Government Code that the Board of Supervisors periodically review the need for it, I recommend that the Board of Supervisors extend the proclamation of local emergency and that it remain in place until the County takes appropriate action to terminate it.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no Net County Cost resulting from the approval of the action recommended here. This action, however, may assist with the receipt of mutual aid resources from the State of California and from neighboring jurisdictions and may assist the County in establishing eligibility for cost recovery funds related to the COVID-19 pandemic.