What was that?
>> It's 6:30.
>> It is 6:30.
>> Welcome everyone. I, Council Member
Mars, start the July 13th committee the
whole meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Council members Adair and Nichols have
excused absences this evening. Tonight,
our second agenda item is an opportunity
for us to practice some hypothetical
emergency management scenarios by doing
a tabletop exercise. For that portion of
the meeting, we will be moving to the
tables along the floor. Given that the
virtual portion of the meeting will end
after the first item on the agenda,
COOM0284,
emergency management training, at
approximately 7 p.m. The recording will
also stop at that time. Anyone from the
public who is here in the room is
welcome to stay and observe.
Public comment. Members of the public
may address council at this time in
person or virtually. There are two
public comment opportunities at
tonight's meeting. There's a general
public comment opportunity now at the
beginning of the meeting or you can make
comments after the presentation and
council question and answer period on
the first agenda item emergency
management training. Those who signed up
in advance to make comments will be
called on first. If you are joining us
virtually and would like to make
comments, please raise your virtual
hand. If you are on the phone, press
star three. If you have joined by
computer or smartphone, look for a hand
icon or send the host a chat message. If
you are in the room and did not sign up,
I will ask for other speakers before
closing this portion of the meeting.
You're invited to address the council
regarding matters that are directly
related to Isiqua's programs, projects,
services, or events. Comments related to
political campaigns, or ballot
propositions are not permitted. Please
direct the comments to the whole council
and not individuals. While this is not a
question and answer session, we will
contact you to follow up if needed. When
recognized, unmute your microphone for
virtual attendees or move to the lecture
in for in-person attendees. State your
name in relationship to the city. Speak
clearly and pause frequently. Limit
comments to five minutes. Personal
attacks, obscene language, derogatory
remarks, and distracting conduct such as
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feet is discouraged. If a speaker is out
of order, I will caution the member and
remind them of the city's rules of
conduct. Clerk, can you identify uh if
anyone has signed up to speak?
>> No, no one has signed up to speak and in
fact uh we do not have any members of
the public with us in the audience nor
with us virtually at this time.
>> Well, there we go. Uh but to clarify,
council member Joe is with us uh by
phone for your awareness.
>> Great. All right. With that, we'll move
to agenda item COM 0284, emergency
management training, presented by Jared
Schneider, our emergency manager.
All right, let's pull my slides. Give me
one moment. All right, perfect.
Okay.
All right. Good evening, council. It's
uh always a pleasure to get to talk to
you. Um especially tonight speaking
about something near and dear, of
course, to me, which is emergency
management. Um training um elected
officials, making sure you all know your
role in our disasters and emergency
response. um to really just create a
cohesive city um response to to whatever
you know um life has in store for our
city. So um with that the uh I wanted to
key up just um what we're going to be
learning today, the key principles that
we're going to go over. And so as I
mentioned uh elected officials uh you
all play a critical role in how the city
uh manages our emergencies, right? Uh so
this presentation will equip elected
officials on the key principles of one
ensuring continuity of government, two
utilizing emergency authorities, three
collaborating to improve our emergency
response and recovery. Uh defining
responsibilities, right? Making sure we
all know our lanes if you will, and then
of course uh reviewing lessons learned
from other jurisdictions who've gone
through major disasters uh in their own
right. And so um with that we're going
to start really from just the beginning
which is what is emergency management?
What role does it play within our city?
Um what are some of the foundations for
it in law? Um so there are two major
laws that um RC in the RCW and WAC that
really require the foundation of a local
emergency management organization. And
within those two laws, it directs uh
them to establish a plan to respond to
emergencies. I'll talk about what that
plan is in just a moment. Um but for our
own uh IMCC uh code, right, our own is
squa code, it identifies the mayor uh to
serve as the chief executive during
emergencies. And so I'm pulling those
two out because those are very key laws
when it comes to emergency management.
Now the plan that is established by our
local emergency management office is our
comprehensive emergency management plan
or CMP. Within that document, it
establishes uh the roles, the
responsibilities of the mayor, the
council, departments, and our many
partners when it comes to emergency
response. So to back things up just a
little bit too, um there is one system
that every fire department, police
department, city, county, state, all the
way up to the federal government uses
for emergency response here in the
United States. And so that is identified
under the National Incident Management
System, NIMS as an acronym. And we like
every other jurisdiction use that system
to respond and manage our emergencies.
So, we'll be going into a little bit of
uh some of the fundamentals of what
comes with that system. We won't explore
a full instant command system training.
Um, again, we're only going to pick out
the pieces really that do pertain uh to
elected officials and again what what
your role is within uh emergencies. So,
emergencies um they do extend beyond
just response, right? So um on the right
you'll see in this slide a uh what we
call the continuum of emergency
management. So um beyond response right
there is recovery, mitigation and
preparedness. And so just to speak to a
little bit of those um recovery is of
course you know recovering from a
disaster after it happens. Um that is
sometimes an overlooked element of
emergencies especially uh community
defining ones right where serious
numbers of homes are lost and people are
left with trauma etc etc right a
recovery is something uh that doesn't
always get the attention but is often
times uh something that jurisdictions
spend the most time uh working on uh
related to emergencies mitigation is
making disasters uh less bad if you will
for the future right so whether it's
infrastructure improvements um
development of new programs uh to to
support our uh residents or our
community. Um that is really reducing
the long-term impact. Preparedness is
speaks to not only our community members
knowing what to do and how to be
prepared for our many emergencies, but
also for our own uh city government to
make sure that we're ready to uh
respond. And of course, response is
pretty straightforward, right? when
whatever thing happens um we are we are
responding to it uh accordingly as
identified in our comprehensive
emergency management plan. So that's
really emergency management um in a
broad nutshell. It's um authorities and
how it is established within our city
and here in Washington.
So um I want to draw some lines first
and talk about roles, right? So um
within that plan we have roles and
responsibilities identified. So two
terms that you're going to hear not only
in this training but also in the
exercise tonight is instant commander
and emergency operations center. Um
effectively the things that these that
these people are doing and that this
institution is doing is it's leading our
emergency operations. It's directing
tactical response, coordinating uh
resources, providing situational
awareness and communication to the
public. So situational awareness kind of
being internally amongst other
responding entities and agencies, but
communication of course out to uh the
community at large. Um making sure that
they're aware of what's ever happening
and then really implementing our
emergency plans as we've written them up
in kind of that preparedness uh time of
the continuum.
um to break down what the role of
elected officials is are in an emergency
is uh first we're going to take a look
at the mayor. Um so the mayor is
ultimately uh they have the executive
leadership right of the city. So that is
their uh role identified within our
comprehensive emergency management plan.
Um they also have the ability to declare
uh a local emergency and exercise
emergency powers. Um, if you're
unfamiliar with some of those things
that uh get waved or uh or those
emergency powers, a couple examples of
them are uh the most common is like
waving uh competitive procurement
requirements, right? In an emergency, we
need things quickly and we don't always
have time to go through uh the full
process that we would have otherwise,
right, to procure these emergency life
safety uh resources. It helps us with
the immediate expedential of funds. Um
it helps with mutual aid unlocking uh
resources from other jurisdictions. Um
other things that can often be times
waved is like emergency overtime and
like normal leave approvals right for
city staff and uh also permitting.
Permitting is another huge section that
can be uh addressed with those emergency
powers. Uh lastly, the mayor is also
supporting in uh clearing barriers right
for emergency response. you know, if the
mayor can um lend their weight to making
things uh more efficient in in terms of
emergency response, whether it's working
with another uh jurisdiction or entity,
you know, that's uh that's something
that we look to them um to help us with.
Council's role is uh legislative and
elected continuity. So if the mayor is
unavailable for whatever reason, the
council president will serve then as in
the role of the mayor and the deputy
council president will move up to that
council president role. And so um that
is a very critical element, right, of
making sure that we as a city um aren't
left wondering, right, who is in charge.
And so, um, there's a time, right, where
you may be called upon to act in a role
that you may not currently have right
now on council for that reason. And so,
um, through the course of this training
exercise, right, like we want to make
sure that you're all thinking that way
too, right? That like you may be asked
to be making decisions that are outside
of your current um, wheelhouse as an
elected official.
Um, council is in charge of emergency
budget appropriations. And so, uh,
disasters, they're expensive. Um, they
cost a lot of money, right? And so,
council has a big role in making sure
that we can fund and actually pay for
these things and and really the
financial stewardship of the city uh, at
large. We'll talk about that a little
bit more um, as we go through the
exercise.
uh what they both are um responsible for
or both being uh the mayor and the
council is policy guidance. So there
will be issues that come up in our
response um or or potential paths that
we could pursue that either may be
costly or they may be um they may have
an optic to them or impact our residents
in a way that we as responders don't
feel comfortable making that decision by
ourselves. Right? And so we may look to
um look to you all to help us make those
decisions uh as representatives right of
the community. Next is uh advocating for
outside assistance right uh isqua as it
stands is not alone. We have plenty of
other jurisdictions who can support us
in many different ways. And sometimes,
you know, that takes advocacy, whether
it's, you know, sharing information
about what's happening here uh with
other elected officials and other
jurisdictions, you know, in the county,
the state, or otherwise. Um, we need to
tell the story of why we need support.
And, you know, that's something that
we've had to do before in the bomb
cyclone and and other recent events,
too. And so, this is it's a very key
function of uh electeds. And then
lastly, uh it's leazison leisoning with
the city administrator and deputy city
administrator during emergencies. So
that is your that is your primary way of
communication, right, of the back and
forth of information during an
emergency, right? So whether it's
something that we as responders need to
know about or whether it's something
that you all need to know about too, the
city administrator and WC administrator
are going to be that primary link if you
will to operations.
Jared, I have a question. In that
incident command structure system that
you described,
>> are there ever emergencies where city
staff are are the incident command
responder? And if so, do we have staff
that have taken that sort of training?
>> Yes, actually frequently. Um, our staff
will serve in that instant commander
role. Um, and yes, we do uh we do have
there is recognized training uh through
that instant command system that is
standardized. Um it's up to really the
courses like ICS 300 and 400 that
certifies someone to really be in that
role. And we do have a cadre of
individuals. Yeah. Of which I'm included
and a few others in this room um have
all taken that training.
>> Got it. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Um a couple things also I wanted
to highlight that isn't on this slide,
but the governor can actually wave some
other rules that um that we can't
otherwise here at the local um level.
And so that is a potential advocacy area
as well. So an example is the governor
can actually uh wave like commercial
driver hour restrictions. Um now you
might be wondering like what's that for?
Well like fuel delivery right for power
outages and things like that. There's
some really serious restrictions right
on like what how many hours people can
drive um for that thing for for that. Um
also like licensing requirements for
specific professions. There's quite a
few things where if we have um some laws
or regulations, right, that are really
barring us in response, those are
potential things that maybe the
governor, right, could potentially wave
as part of declaring an emergency and
just another advocacy lane uh for you
all if if the situation should arise.
Now, one last thing I do want to say too
about emergency powers, right, is it
doesn't suspend constitutional rights,
right? Eliminate the need for open and
public meetings, right? council comes
together uh doesn't suspend like
environmental regulations, building
codes, or you know, even allow for
unlimited spending, right? So, it's not
a magic wand. You know, there are
specific things that we can and cannot
do with those emergency powers and uh
the declaration of a local emergency.
So, just uh just wanted to highlight
that it's not, you know, end all be all,
right, for for really um some of these
very important things for our community.
Okay. To kind of parse this out a little
bit more. So, um, what's the difference
between a operational decision, right,
and a policy decision? So, what are some
of these decisions that staff and first
responders are going to be making as
opposed to what are some of the
decisions, right, that the mayor or city
council might be asked to either weigh
in on, right? And so some operational
decisions are where should resources be
deployed, which roads need to be closed,
how should evacu evacuation warnings be
delivered, uh once it's safe to reenter
an area, and uh what should be repaired
first in terms of infrastructure, right,
to get things going back uh online. Now,
some policy decisions is one, should the
city proclaim a local emergency to
unlock these emergencies emergency
authorities, right? We can't do that as
staff. Uh should the city establish a
community curve for you? Right? That's
another big decision that you all could
weigh or or or use as a tool. Uh should
the city council authorize emergency
spending uh to open additional shelters
or contract with hotels? Like that's
just an example, right, of one of those
situations where we say, you know, we
could either do it in a lowcost manner,
right? Or we could do something a little
bit more expensive. You know, do we have
the funds like are we willing to spend
the funds on something like that, right?
So those are some policy that's an
example of a policy decision we might
ask of of of you all. And then uh what
are the city's priorities really for
guiding recovery? Um we'll explore that
topic a little bit more, right? But
recovery can uh be a somewhat uh
difficult road to navigate. You know,
there's a lot of different competing
priorities. People will want different
things when it comes to um recovering
from a disaster. And so um we would
certainly need policy weighin on that.
All right. So now uh we're going to talk
about some lessons learned right from
other uh disasters that have happened
around the country and just some general
principles. So um this uh image that you
see in front of you here on the slide is
from the Maui wildfires in 2023. Now um
this was a exceedingly tragic wildfire.
102 people lost their life with over
2,200 buildings completely destroyed.
Um, and there was uh criticism from the
community uh during this incident
because the governor was um was a was
pretty silent to start this uh uh
incident off. He happened to actually be
or they happened to actually be at a
conference during the time of these
wildfires. And so the lieutenant
governor was actually the one in charge,
right? And so there was some confusion
around who who had the authority and for
that reason there was this gap in
communication which is was perceived
or uh even the sense that like you know
an ineffectual response right so that's
a huge takeaway is that when we um come
to an emergency or have a situation like
that we need to make sure that we know
who's in charge right that we're
speaking with one voice that we h really
have um a presence within the community,
right, when these things happen because
um otherwise, you know, the community
will will key into that, right? And
they'll kind of see that fractured uh
nature and specifically, you know, when
it comes to communication. We want to
make sure that we're sharing that same
me message and, you know, we don't have
elected officials from one jurisdiction,
you know, pointing the finger at the
other, you know, and saying, you know,
where were they or they didn't show up.
So, we're all in this together, right?
Is is really the main one of the main
lessons from that uh from that wildfire.
Uh the next is the Marshall wildfire in
2021. Uh so this was in Colorado. Um a
really fastmoving wildfire. Uh I think
on December 31st, it claimed the life of
two individuals and about a thousand
structures lost. And um the biggest
community criticism from this was really
recovery, it didn't start until much too
late, right? So, put yourselves in the
shoes of a community member, right? And
a wildfire, you learn that a wildfire
had burnt down your home 2 days, you
know, after you evacuate, right? And um
pretty quickly, you're going to want to
know what the future looks like for you,
right? Will you be able to rebuild on
your um will you be able to rebuild your
house? Is it safe to rebuild there? Um
you know, we don't want this to ever
happen again. So, what is the city doing
to to make sure it never does? You're
going to have a lot of questions, right?
And in this particular example,
residents were very frustrated um at the
city because there wasn't really a true
recovery plan put in place until uh far
too late. And so the community lost some
faith in the city, right, that they
could uh effectively manage recovery uh
following this wildfire. So uh the
lesson learned there is we need to think
about recovery even during response,
right? So even while you know the flood
waters are still high and the fire you
know is out there right and the after
the shaking's like stopped or maybe even
after the aftershock is going right like
we need to be thinking about recovery
and what that means for our community
and start putting our heads together
around this topic um because people are
going to demand information quickly.
Um, next is the uh the Black Summer
Fires in Australia, which you know,
we're joined by uh deputy administrator
Autumn, who was actually there uh
visiting one of the communities, right,
post wildfire, who had some great
takeaways um from what uh recovery
looked like for them and just the
long-term nature of how long recovery
takes, right? It took it takes years. Um
it's not uh it's not a short-term thing
and in some cases right the the
government there had to really
reconsider what their priority was in
some cases even ending programs to um to
in favor of recovery programs. We'll
talk a little bit more about that later
in the tabletop exercise. Autumn maybe
could share some some more of the
nuggets from there. Um but it is um
again yeah recovery is a is an ordeal
that is um it takes a lot of it takes a
lot of thought. Um, a couple other
common pitfalls that weren't necessarily
highlighted by uh these incidents, but
um I just want to bring up uh from from
others is one that um a a potential
barrier, right? Is a when an elected
official may call the incident commander
directly to request a change in tactics,
right? That's something that can cause a
stumbling block in terms of the
response, right? Because um we want to
keep those lanes identified, right? keep
the responders thinking about the
response and policy makers thinking
about policy because um imagine right if
um you you know you you all have um you
you all live here right and so if you
see firet trucks you know defending one
street perhaps right and if you request
a change you know where those fire
trucks are right those decisions were
made based on a risk assessment and with
a tactical response in mind right and so
um we just want to make sure that we
keep those lanes separate it and make
sure that uh it doesn't create any
complications because a responder may
feel pressure, right, to adjust tactics
to to meet those uh requests, you know,
and that might not always be in the best
interest for the community at large. So,
that's one common pitfall. Uh sharing
unofficial information is also another
uh common pit pitfall when it comes to
the relationship between uh responders
and policy makers, right? Again, that
just kind of speaks to the um nature of
one needing one unified voice, right?
You all are going to have uh access to
information that no one else in the
community will have access to, right?
And we have uh a joint information
center is what it's called. It's an
element of our emergency operations
center that really coordinates that
public communication, right? Like what's
approved for um for releasing out to the
public. And that's just to make sure
right that um nothing uh either gets
shared that isn't verified right or that
it's uh shared at the right time like
take for example you know if we have an
issue at one of our water reservoirs or
one of our water towers and you know we
think we might lose pressure in the
system but you know um and so that gets
shared right that we might lose water
pressure everyone's going to fill up
their bathtubs right which will only
make that issue uh uh worse right but oh
good news 30 minutes later we have an
emergency generator ready to hook up on
to it. No problem. You know what I mean?
And so all that to say, right, um share
making sure that we share that
information when we're ready to share it
is is important. And and the JIC um I'm
pointing towards Autumn because Autumn
often times is our JIC leader, right?
But you all are also a very powerful
tool when it does come to public
communication too, right? like you have
access to community and groups that like
we want to make sure that get this
information right, but we just need to
make sure it's like at the right the
right time and with the uh right
approved message, if you will. Um
lastly, uh this one is um visiting
dangerous areas without coordination,
right? Don't get too close to the
incident without uh giving us a a heads
up. You know, we don't want to make sure
that uh a rescue mission has to happen
for for any of you all. And then of
course, you know, promises about
timelines can also be a challenging um
thing, right? Like we want to make sure
kind of that same that same uh
communication theme that we were just
talking about. Timelines is like very a
very common burn point for um for local
responders, right? And for city
governments where, you know, we may not
know the full extent of damages or how
long it's actually going to take to to
recover, for example. And so if we make
too many promises, you know, people are
going to stop trusting our word, right,
if we can't meet those those timelines.
So all that to say, those are just some
of the high level um lessons learned
that we've learned from other
jurisdictions and other community. You
know, we've had some major disasters in
the few years that I've been here
already. And you know, I'm really uh
proud to say that like Isqua City
Council has done incredible job in those
responses. you know there there is
actually no afteraction items like
calling out any of these pitfalls right
so you all have done a really good job
uh in the past all that to say but I
still wanted to highlight them just to
make sure right that we do are we are
aware of them um so we don't have to
make those mistakes and um and learn
from them if you will okay last thing I
want to touch on because this is
something that uh frequently comes up in
disasters right is what are the types of
uh resources specifically financially
available to the city and its residents
following a disaster. So, uh we're going
to start first with federal support. So,
FEMA public assistance is probably the
most uh common requested form of
financial uh support following a major
disaster. And so, public assistance is
kind of a tricky term because uh public
in this sense actually means government.
Um so, it's like FEMA government
assistance, if you will. So, this type
of assistance helps us recapture our
costs in an emergency. It also helps us
uh fund the repair and restoration of
our infrastructure. Um there's typically
a federal cost share or there is a
federal cost share element to it. They
take 75% of that cost and cover um
whatever it is for for um the damages.
We take the other 25%. Sometimes the
state has kicked in 12.5% of that local
damage uh local share of that cost
allocation that 25% but that's something
that's a little bit in question as state
budget um issues have have um deepened
if you will. So all that to say um it is
a huge aid for us um if we can get
public assistance. So, uh, to qualify
for public assistance, King County needs
to have public damages totaling in a
little over $11 million. And then
statewide, we need at least about $15
million. And so, if we can have recorded
public damage of $15 million about in
the state and 11 in King County, then we
get a presidentially declared disaster,
which unlocks these funds. We got this
for the severe flooding in December. Um
but we did not get this for the bomb
cyclone if you all might remember that
was something that we um and you all I
know tried you know very hardly to lend
your voice to um unlocking those federal
dollars but you know um unfortunately we
did not receive them. So again that is
something that we we look to as a huge
uh financial support for the city to
recover city government to recover. Um
FEMA individual assistance is um that
funds that actually help people recover.
there is um no set formula for how that
is uh delivered. So generally there is a
rule of thumb where if you have a few
hundred homes uh destroyed, that's
typically when FEMA will actually start
issuing um uh some recovery funds to
survivors. Uh Small Business
Administration disaster assistance loans
are probably the most common form of
federal aid following a disaster. Uh
they're essentially yeah low interest
loans that help businesses and um res or
uh even um h like uh residents uh
nonprofits all uh recover, right? You
can use those loans to rebuild. Um
they're usually I think right now I
checked today they're like 2.8% is the
interest rate on those loans. There's a
formula for having uh damages there that
you can see at the bottom of the screen.
And like I said it's a very common
threshold that we hit. Other programs,
uh, the Department of Health and Human
Services has a program, same with the
Department of Agriculture, and then
Washington State Individual Assistance
is much like FEMA individual assistance,
a um state program that uh helps
financial um that helps uh lowincome and
vulnerable populations recoup the costs
of uh surviving this disaster. So, um
with that, that was my final slide
before we get into the tabletop. I know
council member Boyd had a few questions
that you sent in an email uh to to me
today. So I'm happy to just address
those um now if you will. Um is that all
right, Council President Marts? Okay,
please.
>> Okay, great. So uh I believe the first
question pertained to that Washington
state individual assistance fund and uh
whether the long-term health of it is um
is viable as you know much of it was
depleted during the December flooding um
for this most recent Yeah. flooding
incident that we had here in western
Washington and and I would say the same
thing you know is um I'm I'm unclear
personally if you know the state will
have budget for it. It is kind of a
notorious difficult bar to reach for
vulnerable populations to actually get
those funds. Um I know it's uh sometimes
been unders subscribed for that reason
um in some of these major incidents but
you know that's something that you know
obviously we um we'll be watching
carefully because it is a great resource
right to some of our most vulnerable um
residents.
Uh the next question pertained to um an
element of our comprehensive emergency
management uh plan that called out the
um essentially there is provisions in
there to allow residents to support us
in emergency response. And so what this
speaks to is Washington state has an
emergency worker program of which we use
um residents who have training um in our
community emergency response team teams
to like learn some advanced disaster
skills. It allows them to support us in
our disaster response while being
protected under Washington State LNI
actually. So, it's a great program that
allows um people who who do want to help
the city to help us while also not
putting themselves uh in jeopardy. And
then um your final question was about
what are we doing to uh prepare and
provide for people's um mental health
during uh disasters, right? And uh what
are some of the programs that we have?
Well, uh we have an initiative called
Resilience Hubs here in Isiqua. They're
a group of community uh groups that are
active in really disasters and the
community. Uh we've recently done some
disaster mental health uh first aid
training with some of those members to
equip more staff and community members
with just a baseline knowledge of um of
how to help one another during um during
disasters. Additionally, our human
services department or division has been
exceedingly helpful in disasters just
with this very thing. during the bomb
cyclone at these resilience hubs, we had
some of those human services uh staff
members there and just kind of providing
on the on the ground counseling, you
know, and just anecdotally, we heard
from a lot of residents that, you know,
that was maybe the best part of of the
bomb cyclone was just that togetherness,
that ability to talk to one another in
those resilience hubs and really just
share, right, in this um really crazy
event, right, that was happening uh in
the city. So, hopefully that answers
your question. If you need any more
information on any of them, I'm happy to
Yeah. Uh share.
>> Thank you so much. No, that covers it.
Appreciate it. Great.
>> Council member Walsh.
>> Thank you. I have a few questions,
Jared. Um I'll start with the resilience
hubs. Um I noticed they're not
specifically mentioned in the CMP. It's
kind of become a practice and something
that the community relies on. Um, do we
have a sense of like how we make that
official and whether or not when a
resilience hub would be launched, how
they would be staffed, things like that?
>> Yeah, that's a that's a great question.
That's actually um so we are in the
process of updating this comprehensive
emergency management plan that's uh
actually on the work plan for this year
for emergency management. I actually
hope to take some of the lessons that we
learned from this uh tabletop exercise,
right, and plug them in to make our CMP
even better. But uh one of the things
that will be added is resilience hubs.
And so um we also um beyond the CMP, we
also have a resilience hub partner
partner guide that um helps these hubs
really understand how to be operational,
staff themselves, right? Some of their
own internal challenges uh during
emergencies. And so we that's one of our
main things that we work with them on
honestly is just getting their own um
organizations like prepared right to to
be active uh within them. When we do
activate, we also have a landing page
online that kind of highlights some of
the things and the amenities at them. Um
when they do become official resilience
hubs, we add them onto that landing
page. Um but it is something that we do
want to continuously share with
community, right? That they are aware of
these resources and just make sure that
we open them up, right? um as as
frequently as possible when we do have
yeah disasters and the like.
>> Okay. Um can you talk to us a little bit
about the EOC? Yeah.
>> Um where it is, when it gets launched,
and how council members get updates from
that. I've been very impressed with um
your updates off of that and um city
administrator Bob Quit's making sure
that we are kept informed. But I think
it would be good in advance of an
emergency for everybody to know um what
that looks like.
>> Yeah, absolutely. No, great great
question. Yeah, so the EOC um it lives
currently at Isqua Public Works. Um it's
one so the advantage of the EOCC is it's
one location, right, where all
responders can come together and be in
one space physically um but also
virtually. Now we do have a virtual
component on Teams, right? because it is
albeit a bit of an unders sized room for
the size of staff and number of staff
that we have now. Um but there you know
you'll find representatives from every
department within the city and
oftentimes partners like East Side Fire
and Rescue who are key to to the
response. So uh in the EOC you'll find
um multiple what we call sections. One
focuses strictly on operations. One is
planning for the next operational
period. Uh one section is tracking the
finance like how much we're spending. Um
another section logistics is ordering
the goods that we use. And then um as
we've mentioned the joint information
center is also in that EOC where you
know they're thinking about what
information we can get out to the public
scheduling press conferences and the
like. Um was that all the elements of
your question?
>> How does council get updated?
>> Yes, definitely. So, you know, like I I
mentioned, the city administrator and
the deputy city administrator are really
uh your best link to that information.
Every incident's a little different,
right? Like some require more um I would
say probably more involvement, right? Or
less uh from council depending on what's
happening. Um so it can come in a
variety of ways, right? whether it's an
email update, you know, in some cases or
um as I mentioned, yeah, really uh
Wall-E and Autumn are the best people to
kind of address like how that
information will come depending on that
situation. While you have some add
>> uh thank you, Council Member Walsh,
members of the council, good evening.
Um, you know, we're committed to make
sure you have information first. So, as
soon as we know something has happened,
uh depending on the time of day and
depending on the severity, we're going
to get a hold of you, uh via text
message, via a phone call, just to say
something has happened. Uh and then I
think as Jared has mentioned, then we're
kind of off to individual different uh
um events depending on what's going on.
Uh but you have uh the mayor's
commitment, the administration's
commitment uh to keep you posted. Uh, as
you know, we do operational uh update
meetings with the EOC uh usually about
twice a day uh sometimes more
frequently. Uh, and we're committed uh
to making that information available to
you as soon as possible after that. Uh,
and then really it just kind of depends.
Uh, but the the real watch word for us
is uh we don't want you uh to be in the
community with neighbors asking you
what's going on and you not having the
latest information. We don't want you to
turn on the television and see something
that uh you haven't already heard about.
Uh and that goes with, you know, natural
uh things like snowstorms and rain
events that may not rise to this level.
Uh but if we know there's going to be
community concern or any kind of press,
uh we want to make sure you have it
first.
>> Great. And that's been my experience. So
it's it's working well. Um Jared, can
you talk about any practice or um ways
that you try and make sure that we are
prepared for emergencies? Um because
obviously you don't want to be doing the
training in the middle of an emergency.
So what does that look like for the
emergency management group and how often
does it happen?
>> Yeah, you know, our goal right now is to
have one annual exercise. Um, we've
actually had, as I've mentioned, a few
disasters here, um, locally that have
caused us to activate our EOC, which
happen to be, you know, the best way to,
of course, you know, learn those skills.
Um, we're working on creating a more
evergreen training system, too. Right?
So, outside of those exercises, creating
some online uh resources, right, to
where if people are deployed to the EOC,
they can watch videos and such, right?
to become uh like a just in time
training is kind of what we what we tag
it on as. Um but yeah, making sure our
staff is prepared for for whatever
emergency it is is is very that's a it's
a big part of what our emergency
management program is is focused on. Um
so yeah,
>> great. Thank you.
>> Yeah,
>> Council Member Joe,
>> thank you. Uh Jared, thank you for the
presentation. It was um very uh
informational and in depth. appreciate
that. Um, citizen emergency response
team. Um, how many uh, individuals do we
have participating in that? And could
you talk a little bit about how they are
deployed if it were a city-wide
incident? Um, you know, are there two in
each zone or however you put it
together? Or if it's just a a creek
incident, let's say the main stem of
Isqua Creek, how would they be deployed
in that particular case?
>> Yeah. No. Uh, great questions. So, our,
uh, community emergency response team,
uh, we've had about 2,000 people receive
the training over the course of its, uh,
inception. Now, how many of them are
active is around 250ish,
we would say, and then about 90 are
registered as uh, what are called
permanent emergency workers. So speaking
that uh kind of LNI protection status,
right? We can actually pre-register
people um to make sure that they have
that even before a disaster happens. And
so those I would say those 90 are truly
our most dedicated uh core when it comes
to uh C um and their activities. Now uh
with that being said, we are offering
many more courses and trainings than
we've ever had um in the past and we are
seeing just such high demand for them
honestly from the community. We have
weight lists for every single class that
we that we have and that we put on. Um
and so it is something that the yeah
that the community is certainly I there
is there is a desire for more engagement
there I would say and um so it's a it's
been a great resource for us as a city
and bolstering our response uh where
they are. Um for that reason we have you
know many throughout all the different
neighborhoods. It's actually speaking to
one of our long-term plans is like we I
hope to have a resilience hub uh and
walking distance from every community
member in Isiqua, right? That's the
goal. And so since these C members are
all Isqua residents, the goal is that
they will get familiar with their
nearest resilience hub and then say
there's an earthquake, right? they they
can deploy to their nearest resilience
hub and serve as like an emergency uh
shelter worker if you will or help at
that site, right? To to help people get
back on their feet with just those base
emergency needs. Uh each of those sites
is also we're working on getting
resilient communication in all them. So
we'll be able to contact uh make contact
with them in the EOC. And so um yeah, we
have them everywhere, right, which is
great. And so uh we're building those
bridges between the resilience hubs and
searchs to ser to serve as that surge
force. And so um we're we're really
excited about kind of the future
evolution of that of that bringing those
two great programs together in that way.
In terms of call out, we use um we will
have them we call them out really when
there is um a need, right? That kind of
exceeds the capability of our own
internal staff. That isn't necessarily
something overly technical, if you will,
right? Like we're not asking, you know,
them to go out there and dig fire lines,
right, during a wildfire or, you know,
conduct traffic. Um so the way in which
we call them out is typically via uh we
have an internal alerting system called
code red. We'll send it out over that.
We also turn on a radio system um
established by some of our uh really
great radio volunteers that can direct
individuals to wherever you know the
site is or wherever we need help in a
large scale catastrophic emergency. But
then also you know kind of the more
traditional emails and text to right we
we do have access to all that system as
well those systems as well. Great. Thank
you. It's nice to hear that we have such
a a wide core of people that are willing
to step up in an emergency.
>> Yeah.
>> Deputy Council President Chang.
>> Great. Um well, thanks so much Jared for
this presentation and I think I just
want to uh you know dive in a bit more
on some of the answers you gave to
Council Member Joe just now. Um
specifically, I'm really interested in
this concept of having resilience hubs
in every neighborhood. Um, so I'm
curious, you know, how many we have now
and how many you think we'd have in this
future state and, you know, with CERT
volunteers, what's the distribution we
have of them currently, right? Do we
have them evenly distributed in some
neighborhoods? Are there some
neighborhoods that have more than
others?
>> Um, but I'll start with those two and
then I have a few more.
>> Okay, great. Yeah. So, we we have about
seven locations right now that are
identified as resilience hubs and um
three of which are cityowned um sites
and four of which are community partner
uh owned organizations. And so, uh it's
a it's a fairly good network. I would
say we have um we have pretty good
coverage in the city. Where we're
missing right now is actually more on uh
the west side of the city. So we're
missing um one in Talis if you will,
Montro and South Cove, kind of that
area, one to serve uh that those
neighborhoods. Those are that's kind of
our gap area right now. And so that's
something that you know um this is a
joint project with sustainability um and
that we're working on to to make some of
those partnerships there and uh get
establish more sites there. Um, in terms
of distribution, when we've done uh when
we've done a study of it, it it pretty
much mirrors actually like where the
density is in Isiqua of where our
searchs are, right? So, up in the
highlands, we have a lot we have a good
amount in Talis. Um, a good amount down
here, you know, in Oldtown. Um, uh, a
really strong core up in Providence
Point as well. Um, we got some really,
uh, passionate volunteers up there. Um,
that's where one of the resilient hubs
is as well is Providence Point, so it
makes sense. Um but yeah, that's kind of
where where they all are typically.
>> Cool. And then um I guess I had a
question on you know, do we do stuff to
keep cert volunteers engaged during
non-emergency times?
>> Yeah, absolutely. And that's um you know
that's one of the the fun things that we
do try to do or one of the fun parts of
the program, right? We try to deliver
supplemental trainings. Um we've
recently even been doing some
appreciation nights uh for them which is
great. we get them um an annual
appreciation uh event where it actually
recognizes how many hours they've
volunteered. We're uh partnering with
other jurisdictions too when they have
emergencies uh of actually making um our
C members available as a resource uh to
them uh if they're registered emergency
workers. Uh so for example, we've been
working a lot with search and rescue um
lately, King County Search and Rescue
and getting some of our uh members out
there, right? because uh our members
really want to use their skills, right?
Which is which is pretty great. And so
if we can find them more opportunities
like that, we will um long-term goals.
We also are trying to have like monthly
engagements where they get supplemental
trainings, whether it's guest speakers
or the like. But you know, just
currently um we don't exactly have CERT
is very like volunteer um powered too,
right? So, I want to say, you know,
often times it takes individual members
stepping up to make kind of additional
things happen with our with our just our
current level of resources, you know,
here in our emergency management
program, but CR is really volunteer uh
powered, which we have some incredible
volunteers in there that help Yeah. with
that stuff, too.
>> Awesome. Thank you.
>> Yeah.
you mentioned earlier um legal jeopardy
and um I had a question around what is
so I'm this is just my own interest I'm
a voter right and so voters are required
by law to respond if they're in a
response area around an an ongoing
emergency and they're shielded by the
good Samaritan law um for for the legal
ramifications of being part of the
emergency response. What is what is that
more generally in the in the public if
we had an emergency tomorrow? There are
folks who are part of there are folks
who have structured roles in the city,
but there's also folks that are just
that will just be responding to their
neighbors and to you know go fill
sandbags, right? There was a there was a
sandbag activity back in December for
instance. Yeah.
>> Right. And so what is the what is the
legal jeopardy legal framework around
like the good Samaritan law and others
in responding to emergency situations?
So, so when the public can understand
when they should feel free to go ahead
and and and be generous and be involved
in these emergencies and when they
should step back and you know,
>> right,
>> be more cautious.
>> Yeah, great great question. And so, you
know, it's within your training, right,
is kind of the caveat of that uh Good
Samaritan law, right? So, if you um if
you're performing CPR, for example,
right, on someone that you've and you've
never had training for CPR, right, that
could be a potential uh issue. Now, you
know, um for a lot of things that we're
asking, you know, or neighborly
activities, you know, for whether it's
helping someone load up their car,
right, for a wildfire evacuation or
such, right? That's that's all covered
within the Good Samaritan law. And like
you drop their vase or something like
that, right? that's that are things that
are protected right cuz that is within
your um common you know understanding
knowledge right your competencies right
can you carry something and so you know
I don't want to make it sound like there
is very many barriers but for some more
more of the advanced things I would say
right like uh there is that that caveat
within the good Samaritan law now for
our operations right in which the
sandbagging um example is a great one so
if we have members of the public who are
interested in supporting us in um
emergency response. We can actually
register them as temporary emergency
workers is what it's called. And they
are given those same protections of LNI
and and a broader span of um of uh
protection from legal uh issues that may
arise by getting registered. So we
actually registered quite a few people
just temporarily um during that
sandbagging uh incident. And like the
bomb cycle, we had those community
cleanup events, right? We would every
every time we had one of those, I think
we registered about five or six people.
And so if we do um want to, right, if we
do have an instant where we want we have
like a high volunteer rate, right, from
the community that want to help out, um
we can we can certainly register them to
make sure that they're covered and that
we can, you know, uh let neighbors help
neighbors um to some extent. So yeah,
>> great. Thank you. Any follow on
questions?
>> All right. I guess not. I guess we're
ready to move into CM O293 then
executive or emergency management
tabletop exercise.
Sounds good.