New York Laws
Article 2-B - State and Local Natural and Man-Made Disaster Preparedness
21 - Disaster Preparedness Commission Established; Meetings; Powers and Duties.

(2) The state incident management team shall have the authority to act
as the operational arm of the temporary organization. When called to
duty and deployed by the state, members of any state or local incident
management team shall be deemed temporary employees of the state and
shall have the same privileges and immunities afforded to regular state
employees, subject to the rules and regulations promulgated by the
president of the state civil service commission pursuant to section one
hundred sixty-three of the civil service law;
g. assist in the coordination of federal recovery efforts and
coordinate recovery assistance by state and private agencies;
h. provide for periodic briefings, drills, exercises or other means to
assure that all state personnel with direct responsibilities in the
event of a disaster are fully familiar with response and recovery plans
and the manner in which they shall carry out their responsibilities, and
coordinate with federal, local or other state personnel. Such activities
may take place on a regional or county basis, and local and federal
participation shall be invited and encouraged;

i. submit to the governor, the legislature and the chief judge of the
state by March thirty-first of each year an annual report which shall
include but need not be limited to:
(1) a summary of commission and state agency activities for the year
and plans for the ensuing year with respect to the duties and
responsibilities of the commission;
(2) recommendations on ways to improve state and local capability to
prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters;
(3) the status of the state and local plans for disaster preparedness
and response, including the name of any locality which has failed or
refused to develop and implement its own disaster preparedness plan and
program; and the extent to which all forms of local emergency response
assets have been included, and accounted for in planning and preparation
for disaster preparedness and response; and
j. develop public service announcements to be distributed to
television and radio stations and other media throughout the state
informing the public how to prepare and respond to disasters. Such
public service announcements shall be distributed in English and such
other languages as such commission deems appropriate.
4. All powers of the state civil defense commission are assigned to
the commission.
5. The state office of emergency management within the division of
homeland security and emergency services shall serve as the operational
arm of the commission and shall be responsible for implementing
provisions of this article and the rules and policies adopted by the
commission. The director of the state office of emergency management
within the division of homeland security and emergency services shall
exercise the authority given to the disaster preparedness commission in
section twenty-nine of this article, to coordinate and direct state
agencies and assets in response to a state disaster emergency, through
their respective agency heads, on behalf of the governor and the chair
of the disaster preparedness commission, when the governor, the
lieutenant governor, and the chair of the disaster preparedness
commission are incapacitated or without an available means of reliable
communication with the state office of emergency management. If the
director of the state office of emergency management is unable to
exercise this authority, then the executive deputy commissioner of the
division of homeland security and emergency services shall act in this
capacity. In the event that the executive deputy commissioner is unable
to exercise this authority, then such authority shall be exercised by
the official willing and able to do so in the following order: the
superintendent of the division of state police; the state fire
administrator; or the director of the office of counterterrorism within
the division of homeland security and emergency services. Nothing in
this subdivision shall be construed to limit the authority of the
governor, lieutenant governor, or the chair of the disaster preparedness
commission to oversee the director of the state office of emergency
management within the division of homeland security and emergency
services or any official exercising authority given to the disaster
preparedness commission in section twenty-nine of this article.