Title
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF FOLEY OPPOSING ANY ACTION BY THE ALABAMA LEGISLATURE THAT WOULD RESTRICT OR REMOVE
MUNICIPAL POLICE OR PLANNING JURISDICTIONS
Summary
Description of Topic: (who, what, where, when, why and how much)
Body
WHEREAS, there are currently pending before the Alabama Legislature bills, specifically SB23 by Sen. Elliot, which would restrict or remove municipal authority to exercise police and planning jurisdictions; and
WHEREAS the City of Foley and other municipalities enforce municipal Police and/or Planning Jurisdictions to insure the public health, safety, and welfare in these areas and to assist in the planning of future growth for economic development; and
WHEREAS, the City of Foley provides services such as Fire Services: This bill would pull Fire Service by Municipal Fire Departments back to the city limit of the municipality. Unlike Police, Counties do not have a paid professional fire service like they have for policing via their Sherriff departments. Much of unincorporated county areas are protected via a combination of volunteer departments, backed up by mutual aid agreements with adjacent paid municipal fire departments. Volunteer fire departments have no legislatively defined fire areas and many are struggling to maintain the sufficient level of volunteer commitment to properly respond in the areas that they currently have. Anticipating that Volunteer Departments will pick up these vacated areas is no guarantee, and even if they do, the level of protection would drop for these residents. Therefore, this bill will likely leave areas within unincorporated Baldwin County with either no fire service at all, or a much diminished response. ISO PPC ratings (Fire Protection Class defined to areas) will change for those areas when Municipalities draw back from servicing them and ending mutual aid agreements, creating situations where their insurance rates will be much higher and/or areas where there may be no...
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