(a) Adoption. A comprehensive disaster plan shall be adopted and maintained by ordinance of the city council upon the recommendation of the city manager. When approved it shall be the duty of all city departments to perform the functions assigned by the plan and to maintain their portion of the plan in a current state of readiness at all times. The disaster plan shall be considered supplementary to this article and shall have the effect of law whenever a disaster, as defined in this article, has been declared.

(b) Positions. The city manager shall prescribe in the disaster plan those positions within the disaster organization, in addition to his or her own, for which lines of succession are necessary. In each instance the responsible person will designate and keep on file with the director a current list of three persons as successors to his or her position. The list will be in order of succession and will as nearly as possible designate persons best capable of carrying out all assigned duties and functions.

(c) Responsibilities of department heads. Each department head assigned responsibility in the disaster plan shall be responsible for carrying out all duties and functions assigned. Duties will include the organization and training of assigned city employees and volunteers. Each department head shall formulate the operational plan for his or her service which, when approved by the city council, shall be an annex to and part of the disaster plan.

(d) Amendments. Amendments to the disaster plan may be submitted to the director. If approved, the director will submit the amendments to the city council with recommendations for their approval.

(e) Services for persons outside of government. When a required competency or skill for a disaster function is not available within the city government, the director is authorized to seek assistance from persons outside of government. The assignment of duties, when of a supervisory nature, shall also grant authority for the persons so assigned to carry out such duties prior to, during and after the occurrence of a disaster. Such services from persons outside of government may be accepted by the City on a volunteer basis. Such citizens shall be enrolled as volunteers in cooperation with heads of the city departments affected.

(f) Authority of city manager. Some of the duties described in this section will ordinarily be handled as a matter of routine by the director, but the responsibility and authority stems from and remains with the city manager. (Code 1979, § 12-16)