East Hampton Town government has been operating under a “unified incident command” structure since March 27, a reorganization implemented two weeks after Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc declared a state of emergency that authorized him, in conjunction with Bruce Bates, the town’s emergency preparedness coordinator, and Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo to “take whatever actions are deemed necessary to protect public health and safety.”
New York State Executive Law provides local chief executives “extraordinary authority during the course of a disaster,” according to “The Authority of a Municipal Chief Executive During an Emergency,” a publication of the State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials. “In the event of a disaster, the local chief executive is authorized to declare a local state of emergency within the municipality and to issue local emergency orders to protect life and property or to bring the emergency under control.”
A supervisor or mayor can extend emergency orders for additional periods during the emergency, and “The legislature may, by concurrent resolution, terminate emergency orders at any time,” according to the Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials.
Mr. Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday that the unified incident command reorganization “made clear what the proper chain is, to make sure necessary work is getting done,” and to ensure communication between “decision makers and the boots on the ground.”
A flow chart depicting the unified incident command organized East Hampton Town government into three categories: operations, logistics, and continuation of business operations.
Operations is divided into several subcategories: the Police and Marine Patrol Departments, under Chief Sarlo; the Public Safety, Building, Fire Prevention, Ordinance Enforcement, and Animal Control Departments, with Lt. John Claflin serving as liaison; fire and emergency medical services under Kent Howie; human services, incorporating nutrition, transportation, adult day care, and in-home services, with Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez as liaison to the town board, and the Buildings and Grounds, Parks and Recreation, and Public Works Departments, with Councilman David Lys serving as liaison.
Human resources, finance, purchasing, payroll, internal audit, grants, accounts receivable, and accounts payable fall under the logistics column. Continuation of business operations includes the town clerk, tax receiver, assessors, and the Housing, Aquaculture, and Planning Departments, with Deputy Supervisor Sylvia Overby as liaison to the town board. Councilman Jeff Bragman is liaison to the town attorney, Natural Resources and Land Acquisition Departments, East Hampton Airport, appointed boards, and the town trustees.
The unified incident command flow chart designates Mr. Van Scoyoc as the town’s public information officer. “If we have any weakness, it’s in the [public relations] department,” he said. “We’ve tried to better communicate with the public as to what’s going on, but we’ve really had our heads down, especially for the first three weeks of the crisis, making sure we’re covering all the bases we need to cover.” He said that the town government is functioning well, that “we were effective at dealing with the crisis and emergencies that came up as a result. We’ve settled into some sort of new normal.”
The supervisor said that the present order is set to expire around May 13. While Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said this week that a phased reopening in regions in which it is deemed safe to do so is likely to commence upon the May 15 expiration of his New York State on PAUSE executive order, Mr. Van Scoyoc said that “I would probably extend” the town’s emergency declaration. Downstate regions are unlikely to reopen on May 15 given population density and the number of infections and hospitalizations on Long Island, in New York City, and in Westchester County. “Whether or not I would actually have to make any decisions or take actions under that emergency declaration remains to be seen, but the power would be in place to do so if I deemed it necessary,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s indefinite,” the supervisor said of the unified incident command structure. Discussions about reopening are ongoing, he said, as “things calm down and we see the landscape clearly now. The hospital is not being overwhelmed at the moment. . . . I suspect that the need to be in this unified incident command structure will also be going away as we reopen.”