What have you heard: Iowa Mutual Aid Compact?

[CornField]

This is an agreement being circulated amid Iowa local governments and counties. While many Iowa locales had interstate mutual aid agreeements (between Iowa and other states), there was no intrastate agreement in place (between places within Iowa).

The basics are that in the event of natural disaster or emergency, one locale could call on another for aid (law enforcement, firefighters, emergency responders, etc.) The home locale would be able to charge the receiving locale for the use. Each emergency instance is a stand-alone event. That is, Howard County might be able to send 2 fire trucks and 20 firefighters to Linn County during one emergency (after Linn has agreed to a certain fee per day or hour); but is not required to *always* send such resources in the event of an emergency.

All things considered, this is nothing new. Fire Departments -- at least in the Linn County area -- have been offering mutual aid for a long time. Cedar Rapids calls on Marion, Hiawatha, Robins, etc. and those towns can also request help from CR. The same has been true of law enforcement. It seems to work really well in every instance I've observed it.

As for the new IMAC, well this seems to be a bit different. As with other such mutual agreements, there is no cost associated with adoption. The twist is that failue to adopt the IMAC could prevent the entity from receiving federal funding for personnel, equipment, supplies, training and other essential functions of preparedness, prevention, response and recovery from disasters. What do you make of that?