Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout the chapter.

(1) "Building safety emergency" means a situation that temporarily renders a building safety department incapable of providing building safety services and includes, but is not limited to, declared states of emergency, declared disasters, and other situations that temporarily impair the jurisdictions ability to provide building safety operations.

(2) "Chief executive officer" means the county executive in those charter counties with an elective office of county executive, however designated, and, in the case of other counties, the county legislative authority. In the case of cities and towns, it means the mayor in those cities and towns with mayor-council or commission forms of government, where the mayor is directly elected, and it means the city manager in those cities and towns with council manager forms of government. Cities and towns may also designate a chief executive officer for the purposes of this chapter by ordinance.

(3) "Command" means the ultimate authority over emergency responders and resources, held by the responding member jurisdiction.

(4) "Emergency responder" means a person with skills, qualifications, training, knowledge, and experience to respond in the case of a declared emergency, as defined by law, including expertise in such areas as law enforcement, firefighting, emergency medical services, medicine, nursing, public health, emergency management, public works, building safety specialized equipment operations skills, or other skills needed to provide aid in a state of emergency.

(5) "Operational control" means the subset of command, granted by the responding member jurisdiction to the requesting member jurisdiction for the duration of the deployment of emergency responders or resources, under the intrastate building safety mutual aid system. Operational control includes the day-to-day direction and operation of emergency responders or resources while deployed under the intrastate building safety mutual aid system, but does not include discipline, promotion, hiring, and firing of emergency responders, nor ownership nor disposition of resources.

(6) "Requesting member jurisdiction" means a member jurisdiction that requests assistance from another member jurisdiction under the process established by the intrastate building safety mutual aid system.

(7) "Resources" includes supplies, materials, equipment, facilities, energy, services, information, or systems used to prevent, mitigate, respond to, or recover from any incident resulting in a deployment under this chapter.

(8) "Responding member jurisdiction" means a member jurisdiction that has or intends to provide emergency responders and/or resources to a requesting member jurisdiction under the process established by the intrastate building safety mutual aid system.