2768                            County Local Laws

partments and squads. One delegate shall be appointed by the Mayor
and City Council of the City of Takoma Park. Any vacancy occurring
among delegates shall be filled within 30 days by the squad, depart-
ment, or city in the manner of the original election or appointment.
Such delegate shall serve until the next annual election. The chiefs
and elected delegates will vote as individual representatives of their
respective departments and squads and shall not be bound by their
departments' or squads' decision in any vote which they shall cast as
members of the Board. The Board shall have a fulltime executive
assistant and, in addition, shall have such other staff employees as
may be provided for in its approved budget as necessary to carry out
the functions of the Board. The Board shall elect annually at its first
meeting after the June election from among its members a Chairman
and such other officers as provided for in its bylaws. The selection of
the Chairman shall be subject to approval by the County Executive
and confirmation by the County Council and if not approved, another
election shall be held. The Chairman shall serve until his successor
has been elected and approved.

b.    Executive Committee Established and Membership.

There shall be established an executive committee of the Fire
Board to consist of seven members. The Chairman of the Fire
Board shall serve as committee chairman. Six of the members shall
be from the fire departments; one member shall be from the rescue
squads. The committee chairman may be either a member of a fire
department or be the rescue squad member. The six members shall
be elected annually by the Board from among its members at its first
meeting after the June election. The members shall be nominated
and elected so that the committee membership will fairly and broadly
represent the interests of the entire fire and rescue service and the
County. Not more than one member shall be from any one fire de-
partment.

c.    Duties, responsibilities and authority.

1. Fire Board. The Fire Board shall have the following
duties, responsibilities and authority:

(a)    It shall approve the response areas of the fire and
rescue services after recommendation by the executive committee.

(b)    It shall prepare and maintain a map of the County
showing the fire, rescue, and ambulance service areas based on the
closest companies.

(c)    It shall investigate, plan and approve new and relocated
fire and rescue station locations and make appropriate recommenda-
tions to meet service needs; provided that final approval of locations
shall be subject to approval by the County Executive in accordance
with Section 2-137 and Section 27-2 of this Code.