re: LaToya seizing some more power

quote:

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Got to love the expansive powers these emergency orders give our mayor. *may utilize any private property *forced evacuations *ban sale of booze and guns *take any steps to stop looting *suspend any regulatory ordinances or rules Neat.

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That may be a copy and paste form that the city has for declaring a state of emergency. They just type in the emergency in a paragraph and the rest is added automatically or copied and pasted from a previous declaration. Some of the paragraphs or orders that may not even apply to this type of “emergency” are in the declaration or just left in. It is probably done to comply with a state code or policy.

All that a state of emergency is really supposed to do is to cut out the city council prereview powers for emergency expenditures and actions that come up due to an emergency.

Also, they are only valid for 30 days, but can continue to be renewed almost indefinitely if needed.

It is not a legal shield or get out of jail free card as state law and city policies still must be followed, except for maybe the public bid law. So if the city needs 1 million cases of water from vendor x, they can just buy it and not have to go to bid and get multiple bids and then get city council approval for the purchase. The council does have to go back and fund the expenditures from the state of emergency.