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Minnesota Statewide Public Works Mutual Aid Agreement Quick Facts • There is no membership or other fixed cost to participate in this agreement. • The Joint Powers Agreement specifically allows a requesting party to select the resources that best meets the needs of a given situation. • Only governmental units as defined by Minnesota Statues, Section 471.59, subd. 1 or a “municipality” as defined by Minnesota Statutes, Section 466.01, subd. 1 are eligible to participate. • A requesting party may individually call upon any other participating party for mutual aid. There is no requirement to make requests through a particular party. • The Joint Powers Agreement should not be interpreted as restrictive in providing resources to deal with only major catastrophic situations. Participating parties can utilize the resources for many reasons including routine circumstances such as training efforts, maintenance operations, and back-up support service. • The decision as to when to invoke mutual aid and whether to respond is left to the discretion of the requesting or sending party. • For liability reasons, management of a mutual aid situation is under the control of the requesting party. • The sending party has discretion whether to provide personnel or equipment and can recall such assistance at any time. • Hennepin County Emergency Management (“HCEM”) has volunteered to serve as the administrative coordinator of the pact. They have the largest EM staff of any County EM Department in the State. • There is no grace period for costs, so if mutual aid is requested the cost clock can start as soon as resources roll. That said, the agreement says that “charges may be levied”, so it is optional for the sending City to bill. The reason that it is written this way is that traditionally Cities help each other in-kind. But in some extraordinary situation, costs may need to be recovered due to the scope of the response provided. That said, any joint training effort is exempt from billing. • Each Party shall be responsible for its own personnel and equipment and for injuries or death to any such personnel or damage to any such equipment. Responding personnel shall be deemed to be performing their regular duties for each respective Sending Party for purposes of workers’ compensation.