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Public Act 098-0309
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| HB2761 Enrolled | LRB098 09335 OMW 39476 b |
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AN ACT concerning local government.
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Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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represented in the General Assembly:
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Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the |
Interstate Mutual Emergency Aid Act.
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Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act: |
(a) "Emergency responder" includes emergency medical |
services
personnel and firefighters, including firefighters |
trained in the areas of hazardous
materials, specialized |
rescue, extrication, water rescue, and other specialized |
areas. |
(b) "Mutual aid emergency" or "emergency" means an |
occurrence
or condition resulting in a situation that poses an |
immediate risk
to health, life, property, or the environment, |
where the governmental entity having jurisdiction over the |
situation determines (i) that the
situation exceeds its ability |
to render appropriate aid and (ii) that it
is in the public's |
best interest to request mutual aid from an out-of-state entity |
with whom the governmental entity has a written mutual aid |
agreement. "Mutual
aid emergency" or "emergency" does not |
include a situation that
initially rises to the level of |
disaster or emergency requiring a
state or local declaration of |
a state of emergency, unless that
declaration occurs after the |
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initial request for mutual aid has been made. |
(c) "Training exercises" means necessary advance actions |
taken by emergency responders pursuant to a mutual aid |
agreement in order to prepare to more adequately address a |
potential mutual aid emergency.
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Section 10. Mutual aid agreements. In order to more |
adequately address emergencies that
extend or exceed a |
jurisdiction's emergency response capabilities,
either without |
rising to the level of a state or local declaration
of a state |
of emergency, or in the initial stages of an
event which may |
later become a declared emergency, a political subdivision of |
this State, including a county, city, village, township, or |
other unit of local government, or any combination thereof, may |
enter into a mutual aid
agreement with one or more units of |
government from another state. The mutual aid agreement may
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provide for coordination of communications, staging, training, |
and
response to planned and unplanned events which a local |
jurisdiction has determined exceed, or are likely to exceed, |
its emergency response capabilities. When engaged in training, |
staging, and emergency response in accordance with the mutual |
aid
agreements, emergency responders from outside of this State |
are
permitted to provide services within this State in |
accordance with
this Act and the terms of the mutual aid |
agreement.
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Section 15. Licenses, certifications, and permits. An |
emergency responder from outside this State who holds a |
license, certificate, or other
permit recognized or issued by |
another state shall be deemed licensed, certified, and |
permitted to render mutual aid during a mutual aid emergency |
within
this State pursuant to a mutual aid agreement authorized |
by this
Act, if the emergency responder is (i) acting within |
the scope of his
or her license, certificate, or permit and |
within the scope of what an
equivalent license, certificate, or |
permit from or recognized by
this State would authorize and |
(ii) acting pursuant to a request for mutual aid made pursuant |
to a mutual aid agreement authorized by this Act.
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Section 20. Governmental functions; liability; emergency |
responders. Any function performed by an emergency responder |
that is (i) acting within the scope of his or her license, |
certificate, or permit and within the scope of what an |
equivalent license, certificate, or permit recognized by this |
State would authorize and (ii) pursuant to a mutual aid |
agreement authorized by this Act shall be
deemed to have been |
for public and governmental purposes, and
all liabilities and |
immunities from liability applicable to this State's political
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subdivisions and their officers and
employees shall extend to |
the emergency responders from another
state while providing |
mutual aid during a mutual aid emergency or while engaged in |
training
exercises pursuant to a written mutual aid agreement |
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authorized by
this Act. This Section shall not provide greater |
immunities to emergency responders from outside of this State |
than those immunities provided to emergency responders with the |
equivalent license, certificate, or permit in this State. This |
Section shall only apply to causes of action accruing on or |
after the effective date of this Act.
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Section 25. Employee benefits. Emergency responders from |
outside this State, while
rendering mutual aid within this |
State pursuant to a mutual aid
agreement authorized by this |
Act, remain employees and agents of
their respective employers |
and jurisdictions. Nothing in this Act,
or any mutual aid |
agreement entered into pursuant to this Act,
creates an |
employment relationship between the jurisdiction
requesting |
aid and the employees and agents of the jurisdiction
rendering |
aid. All pension, relief, disability, death benefits,
workers' |
compensation, and other benefits enjoyed by emergency
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responders rendering emergency mutual aid shall extend to the
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services they perform outside their respective jurisdictions |
as if
those services had been rendered in their own |
jurisdiction.
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Section 30. Limitations. This Act does not limit, modify, |
or abridge the
emergency management compact entered into under |
the Emergency Management Assistance Compact Act.
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Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon |