Montgomery County Settlement Agreement

 Montgomery County Courthouse Park

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES AND POLICIES

  • The Department will work collaboratively with the County to ensure that the County's Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) will be in compliance with ADA requirements. The touchstone for compliance with ADA requirements relating to emergency management is Chapter 7 of the Department's ADA Best Practices Tool Kit for State and Local Government (ADA Tool Kit), which includes key ADA obligations that apply to all aspects of emergency management, including planning, preparedness, evacuation, shelters, medical and social services, lodging and housing programs, recovery, and rebuilding.
  • The County is committed to compliance with the ADA requirements as described in Chapter 7 of the ADA Tool Kit. Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will revise its EOP so that it conforms with Chapter 7 of the ADA Tool Kit, and the County will provide a copy of its revised EOP (including supporting documents) to the Department. The Department will review the revised EOP to ensure compliance with title II of the ADA and its implementing regulation.
  • If the County contracts with another entity, such as the American Red Cross or another local government, to provide its emergency preparedness plans and emergency response services, the County will ensure that the other entity complies with the following provisions on its behalf.
  • Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that it continues to regularly solicit and incorporate input from persons with a variety of disabilities and those who serve them regarding all phases of its Montgomery County Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan (preparation, notification, response, and clean up).
  • Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that its community evacuation plans enable those who have mobility impairments, vision impairments, hearing impairments, cognitive disabilities, mental illness, or other disabilities to safely self-evacuate or be evacuated by others. Some communities are instituting voluntary, confidential registries of persons with disabilities who may need individualized evacuation assistance or notification. If the County adopts or maintains such a registry, its report to the Department will discuss its procedures for ensuring voluntariness, appropriate confidentiality controls, and how the registry will be kept updated, as well as its outreach plan to inform persons with disabilities of its availability. Whether or not a registry is used, the County plan should address accessible transportation needs for persons with disabilities.
  • Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that if its emergency warning systems use sirens or other audible alerts, it will also provide ways to inform persons with hearing impairments of an impending disaster. The use of auto-dialed TTY messages to pre-registered individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, text messaging, e-mails, open-captioning on local TV stations and other innovative uses of technology may be incorporated into such procedures, as well as lower-tech options such as dispatching qualified sign language interpreters to assist with emergency TV broadcasts.
  • Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that emergency shelters have electrical power (such as a back-up generator) and ways to keep medications refrigerated (such as a refrigerator or cooler with ice). Access to back-up power and refrigeration at such shelters will be made available to persons whose disabilities require access to electricity and refrigeration, for example, for using life-sustaining medical devices, providing power to motorized wheelchairs, and preserving certain medications, such as insulin, that require refrigeration. The written procedures will include a plan for notifying persons of the location of such shelters.
  • Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will implement and report to the Department its written procedures that ensure that persons who use service animals are not separated from their service animals when sheltering during an emergency, even if pets are normally prohibited in shelters. The procedures will not segregate persons who use service animals from others but may take into account the potential presence of persons who, for safety or health reasons, should not be in contact with certain types of animals.
  • Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will develop, implement, and report to the Department its plans for providing equivalent opportunities for accessible post-emergency temporary housing to persons with disabilities. Within one year of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will ensure that information it makes available regarding temporary housing includes information on accessible housing (such as accessible hotel rooms within the community or in nearby communities) that could be used if people with disabilities cannot immediately return home after a disaster if, for instance, necessary accessible features such as ramps or electrical systems have been compromised.

PHYSICAL CHANGES TO EMERGENCY SHELTERS

  • Some of the County's emergency shelters may be owned or operated by other public entities subject to title II or by public accommodations subject to title III and, as such, are subject to the obligation to provide program access or remove barriers to accessibility under the ADA. This Agreement does not limit such future enforcement action against the owners or operators of these facilities by any person or entity, including the Department.
  • Within one month of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will request in writing that each of the owners and operators of the shelter facilities listed in Attachment G will remove the noted barriers to access for persons with disabilities. The request will specify that the remediation be completed within one year of the effective date of this Agreement. The County will simultaneously send a courtesy copy of the request to the Department.
  • Within fourteen months of the effective date of this Agreement, the County will survey the shelters listed in Attachment G to determine whether the noted barriers have been removed. If not all barriers have been removed, the County will identify within eighteen months of the effective date of this Agreement an appropriate number of alternate shelters where the parking, exterior routes, entrances, interior routes to the shelter area, and toilet rooms to the shelter area comply with the Standards.
  • Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement and until all emergency shelters have accessible parking, exterior routes, entrances, interior routes to the shelter area, and toilet rooms serving the shelter area, the County will identify and widely publicize to the public and to persons with disabilities and the organizations that serve them the most accessible emergency shelters.

 

SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT BETWEENTHE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAANDMONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLANDANDMARYLAND NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSIONUNDER THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACTDJ 204-35-256