Grayson County employees with the right training could be sent to help with disasters elsewhere in Texas under an agreement on the Commissioners Court agenda for Tuesday, Nov. 10.
The item asks commissioners to authorize the county judge to sign a memorandum of understanding making the county a participating jurisdiction in the Texas Emergency Management Assistance Teams, a set of state-run response programs coordinated by the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Sarah Somers of the county's emergency management office is listed as presenting the request.
What the teams do
The agreement in the meeting packet lists five programs under the umbrella:
- an Incident Support Task Force run by the state emergency management division
- a Public Works Response Team that helps with damaged infrastructure, run by the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service
- search and rescue through Texas A&M Task Force 1 and its sister task forces
- a state Incident Management Team that supplies people for specific roles in emergency operations
- a mutual aid system for wildland and fire department support run by the Texas A&M Forest Service
How it would work
The county would decide which programs it supports and, when the state calls, which of its qualified members are available to go. Within 14 days of signing, it would send the state a roster of employees taking part and update it each year.
Deployed workers would be treated as acting on behalf of the state during a mission but would remain county employees for workers' compensation and liability purposes. If a member is hurt on a deployment or in state-sanctioned training, the document says the state division will repay the county for wages, medical bills and benefits it pays out.
