Pennsylvania Consolidated & Unconsolidated Statutes
Chapter 73 - Commonwealth Services
Section 7312 - Organization

This agency shall consist of and be organized substantially as follows:
(a) Council.--Primary responsibility for overall policy and direction of a Statewide civil defense and disaster program and response capability of the type hereinafter prescribed shall be vested in a body legally known as the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Council, which shall be composed of: the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Adjutant General, Secretary of Health, Attorney General, General Counsel, Secretary of Community Affairs, Secretary of Environmental Protection, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Public Welfare, Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, Chairman of the Public Utility Commission, State Fire Commissioner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, President pro tempore of the Senate, Minority Leader of the Senate and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, President pro tempore of the Senate, Minority Leader of the Senate and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives may authorize a member of their respective Houses of the General Assembly to serve in their stead. The Governor may authorize up to two representatives of business and industry, up to two representatives of labor, up to two public members at large and one representative respectively of the Pennsylvania State Association of County Commissioners, the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Commissioners, the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, the Pennsylvania League of Cities and the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs to be nonvoting members of the council. The Governor may designate a member to serve as chairman. Five members shall constitute a quorum.
(b) Compensation and expenses.--The members shall serve without compensation, but may be reimbursed for their actual and necessary traveling and other expenses incurred in connection with attendance at meetings.
(c) Regular meetings.--For the conduct of routine business, including particularly the consideration of matters of basic policy, the council shall meet at the call of the chairman and at least three times during each calendar year.
(d) Emergency meetings.--In the event of attack or disaster situations determined actually or likely to be of such nature, magnitude, severity or duration as to necessitate extensive or extraordinary deployment and use of Commonwealth resources for emergency purposes, the chairman shall, within not more than 72 hours immediately following such determination, call the council into emergency session, for consideration of actions taken or to be taken. In the absence of the chairman, notice of such meetings shall be disseminated to the membership by the State director.
(e) State director.--To supervise the work and activities comprising the State Civil Defense and Disaster Program, the Governor shall appoint an individual to act, on a full-time basis, as director of the agency. The director shall perform all such fiscal, planning, administrative, operational and other duties as may be assigned to him by the council and shall act as the chairman's principal assistant in civil defense and disaster matters. The director or the director's designee is also the State coordinating officer responsible to coordinate and supervise the Commonwealth and local disaster response effort following a presidential declaration of an emergency or a major disaster.
(f) Staff.--The council shall, within the limitations of appropriations made to the agency, arrange for the employment of such professional, technical, administrative and other staff personnel as may be deemed essential to the development and maintenance of a Statewide civil defense and disaster plan and program of the type hereinafter prescribed. All such personnel shall be employed and subject to pertinent provisions of the act of August 5, 1941 (P.L.752, No.286), known as the "Civil Service Act," and the Commonwealth Compensation Plan.
(g) Office space, equipment and services.--The agency shall be furnished necessary and appropriate office space, furniture, equipment, supplies and services in the same general manner as are other Commonwealth departments and agencies.
(h) Emergency communications.--The agency shall maintain an integrated communications capability designed to provide to all areas and counties weather advisories, river forecasts, warnings, and direction and control of all emergency preparedness functions within the Commonwealth. The agency shall coordinate the Commonwealth's emergency communication systems, sharing of information and weather emergency notification among the National Weather Service, contiguous State emergency management offices, local coordinators of emergency management, the Pennsylvania State Police, local police departments, private relief associations and other appropriate organizations. Additionally, the agency shall establish the sole Statewide telephone number that persons, including county and municipal emergency management personnel, may use to report incidences of radioactive and hazardous materials and other disaster emergencies.
(i) Administrative provisions.--Except as otherwise provided in this part, the agency shall be subject to the provisions of the act of April 9, 1929 (P.L.177, No.175), known as "The Administrative Code of 1929."
(July 13, 1988, P.L.501, No.87, eff. imd.; Nov. 13, 1995, P.L.609, No.62, eff. 60 days)

1995 Amendment. Act 62 amended subsec. (a).
1988 Amendment. Act 87 amended subsecs. (a), (d), (e) and (h). See section 9 of Act 87 in the appendix to this title for special provisions relating to continuation of State Director.
References in Text. The Secretary of Community Affairs, referred to in subsec. (a), was abolished by Act 58 of 1996 and the functions were transferred to the Secretary of Community and Economic Development.
The Secretary of Public Welfare, referred to in this section, was redesignated as the Secretary of Human Services by Act 132 of 2014.
Cross References. Section 7312 is referred to in section 2103 of Title 71 (State Government).

Structure Pennsylvania Consolidated & Unconsolidated Statutes