Welcome everyone. I, Council Member
Walsh, call the February 24th, 2026 City
Council Services, Safety, and Parks
Committee to order. I am joined by
Deputy Council President uh Mart, and we
have an excused absence for our other
member, Council Member Nichols. The next
item on the agenda is public comment.
And I will just note that there is no
one in the room. And I do not believe
there is anyone online. So I will just
note um if anybody does watch this later
and wants to make comments, we always
welcome them by emailing uh city
councilwa.gov.
Uh next item of business, approval of
the minutes. The minutes were
distributed to the committee in advance.
Are there any corrections?
>> No.
>> Okay. Hearing none. Um the minutes are
approved as presented.
Okay. We have one item on our agenda
tonight and that is COM 0229
hazard mitigation plan update presented
by Jared Snyder, our emergency manager.
Um we are going to have staff
presentation, committee Q&A, uh any
public comments if there is anyone at
that point and then committee
deliberation and recommendation.
So Jared, we will let you take this one
away.
Thank you, council members. I'm pulling
up my presentation.
All right, does that look good?
All right.
Good casting. Okay.
Alrighty. Well, uh, first of all, hello
and good evening. Thank you for having
me here today. It's always a pleasure to
get the opportunity to talk about
emergency management and, you know, the
programs that we have here at the city.
Um, and really drill down deep into uh,
one of them today being the hazard
mitigation plan update. So the purpose
that um I'm before you today is to
really talk about a few things. One is
to review our draft annex to the uh
hazard mitigation plan provide fe to get
you all to provide feedback or direction
on our hazard mitigation strategies.
Help us with prioritizing that is and
then uh really recommending that the
full city council adopt the annex as
part of the King County regional hazard
mitigation plan or not of course. And
then finally at the end, we're going to
have a little bit of uh time to uh have
uh guidance and feedback provided on the
broader emergency management program. As
we heard uh via a council retreat, it
was brought up and placed on the uh bike
rack of uh ideas, if you will. So kind
of an opportunity to talk about what
we're planning on and some potential
areas for growth in the future.
So the direction needed is one recommend
changes or adoption of Isqua's hazard
mitigation plan annex and then give
feedback on the broader emergency
management program.
So uh let's talk about the first item
first um recommend changes or adoption
of our hazard mitigation plan.
Uh to set the tone and really describe
where this plan sits in emergency
management in the city. Uh as a
reminder, we have three major lines of
business, if you will, in emergency
management. The first being emergency
response, of course. You know, that's
really uh the bread and butter of or the
core function of what we do, making sure
that we respond effectively as a city to
emergencies uh and disasters alike. The
second is community preparedness. That's
making sure our residents are ready for
disasters. And then third is risk
reduction, and that's reducing our
long-term uh vulnerability to hazards.
And that's really the core of the plan
uh that we're talking about today. It's
it's almost like the work plan, if you
will. So, it's a very important part of
what we do uh in emergency management
here in the city. And so, I'm happy,
like I said, to take a deep dive into it
and kind of explain where we would like
to take our risk reduction efforts uh in
the city.
So, first, let's uh start from the top.
What what is hazard mitigation planning?
And um one, it's federally required. So,
it's a it's a federally required plan um
that's designed to reduce our risk
through targeted investments in
mitigation essentially um efforts that
reduce our exposure to our many hazards
that we have. So part of it is assessing
those hazards, what our risks are and
vulnerabilities and then finally you
know developing the okay what are we
going to do about it now that we have a
good uh grasp of what our of what our
hazards are and our vulnerabilities. Um
it also is an opportunity to engage with
stakeholders right individuals and
partners that is uh in conversations
about uh about resilience about
mitigation about our hazards. So, it's
uh it's an opportunity there. And then
really, like I mentioned, it's kind of
our work plan for risk reduction through
the next 5 years. It's a 5-year plan.
So, um let's talk about where we've been
with this planning process and and where
we are now. So, uh we have participated
in King County's base plan. Um and like
I mentioned, this plan is an annex on
King County's plan. So, they had it's a
regional plan. all jurisdictions within
King County um have the opportunity to
um annex onto the plan as well as
special purpose districts, fire
districts and the like. Um many have,
many have not. Um we are one that is
choosing to annex onto the plan.
Typically the jurisdictions that do not
annex onto the plan are the larger ones
like Seattle and Belleview. But for uh
medium to smaller sized jurisdictions,
it's uh it's truly the way to go as King
County cuts down a lot of the work
needed to to do these plans. So it it
makes sense. So I was actually part of
the steering committee for that uh plan
and we as such uh we had good
representation and um ability to kind of
get our feedback if you will into the
plan.
The next uh part of the planning process
is we convened an internal team um
internal of city departments um but also
external in a sense working with
partners like east side fire and rescue
and other community organizations that
we work with frequently in emergency
management to um document our hazards
and understand our risks. Uh the next
step was using that same group where we
started to strategize okay what are we
going to do about those hazards and
risks now that we feel like we
understand them. Uh after that we
drafted the plan of which you have seen.
Um King County and Washington state
approved our plan. They gave us back
feedback. We've since incorporated it.
Um and that's also part of the document
that you have. And then we're here on
the flowchart. So um each hazard
mitigation plan needs to be approved by
uh by the authoritative body for us
being city council. So um once it is
approved hopefully by city council then
we can move for federal approval where
FEMA signs off on our plan and says that
yes you have a true hazard mitigation
plan.
Um, so also just backing up real quick
too, I I want to I want to state like
this is very important also to not just
uh not just to develop these strategies,
but it also I I don't know if I
mentioned this, but this makes us
eligible for federal grants at many
different grant rounds and levels. And
so it's um it's a mechanism that we do
really need in place to really partake
in those uh opportunities, those federal
funding opportunities.
So what you see here is the hazards that
we plan for um within the context of our
annex. So we have two different
categories, natural and human caused. So
in natural we have earthquake, severe
weather. Severe weather is kind of a
catch-all if you will for like
snowstorms, bomb cyclones, uh uh things
of that nature, events of that nature,
landslide, wildfire, flood, and volcano.
And you know, you might be thinking, you
know, is lava going to impact the city
of Visquad? No, it's it's not lava. It's
more terra, which is like ash fall from
volcanoes is what we're planning for. It
can actually be uh quite damaging to
things like flat roofs, to mechanical
equipment, electrical equipment. Um
there is there is hazard associated with
it. In terms of human-caused hazards,
we're planning for hazardous material
releases, um health incidents, which are
things like pandemics, terrorism, civil
disturbance, a cyber incident, and then
finally a dam failure. And uh dam
failure might also come as a bit of a
surprise. Uh but some of our storm water
ponds are actually large enough that
when they have full pools, they are
considered to be uh dams by Washington
State Department of Ecology. And if they
fail, there could be uh downstream
impacts to residents, businesses, and
the community alike.
So the next step of the planning process
was to take a hard look at our hazards
um determine their impacts on our
community and then where we were
vulnerable. And so that group that I
mentioned that was made up of uh many
different city departments and partners.
Uh this is where things landed in our
ranking of things. Wildfire and
earthquake were the two hazards that um
that we saw that we have the highest
risk of of of having impacts really
within Isiqua followed by extreme
weather, cyber incidents, health and
volcano and then the rest you can see as
kind of diminishing in there. So that's
where staff ranked things.
>> Yeah. Question council member M.
>> Yeah, I have a question. So I'm used to
traditional risk management being
severity times likelihood.
>> Yes.
>> Right. So can you explain I I don't
understand exposure and susceptibility.
>> Yeah.
>> As compared to like I said traditional
likelihood.
>> Yeah. And so that's um that's great that
you brought that up. The risk equation
changed a little at the federal uh level
recently. And so the likelihood is
wrapped up into um vulnerability,
susceptibility. Now it's uh just a
rebranding if you will to some uh sense
of it. But, uh, really what they're
getting at too, right, is just like the
that, yeah, the likelihood of it, like
how what what are the odds that this
could happen here. So, that's a great
thing to flag.
>> Okay. And so these numbers you're
showing here, 1.74, 1.9, 2.19, these are
the risk numbers where you've multiplied
severity times exposure times
susceptibility.
>> That's right. Yeah. So, um, what we did
is we had every single staff member or
partner, um, who participated, um, go
through a scoring matrix and then we
added them all up, um, did these
equations and this is, uh, the results
of that.
>> Got it. Okay,
>> thank you.
>> Yeah, that that seems like a good
methodology.
>> Um, I did have actually one question
when in the section on wildfire. Are you
going to get more into details?
>> Yes, I I'll save it. I'll save my
question.
>> Yeah. Um yeah, we'll uh we'll address
kind of our approach to wildfire. We
have a mitigation strategy that
specifically addresses wildfire and so
we can uh cover more of it there.
>> I'll hold my question. Thanks.
>> Okay, awesome. Thank you.
>> Um so a big part of hazard mitigation
planning too is we also uh turn these
plans out to the community, right? Or or
engage with the community and hopes to
get uh some feedback on where they see
their priorities being, right? So, we uh
brought this big posterboard sized uh
really dot dot activity out to uh many
different community engagements asking
individuals or is where where what are
you most worried about as an Isqua
resident, right? What are what keeps you
up at night? And you know, it was
actually uh it was kind of twofold,
right? As you can see the collection of
the data here, right? you see that
earthquake, severe weather and wildfire
were really what the community was
worried about as well as cyber incident
which I thought was notable as fourth.
Um but it was also served as an
icebreaker right for our community to
talk about this work more in depth right
so it wasn't just a put the dot up on
the board right and then all right have
a nice day right it really served as an
opportunity to talk about um not only
like what we're trying to do with hazard
mitigation but emergency management in
general so uh the feedback that we
received I think was it was really
interesting and beneficial to our plan
formation
um I want to dive a little bit deeper
into mitigation
um in itself like why are mitigation
projects actually something that we
should be doing in Isqua and really it
it's a good investment. So it's been
well studied and documented um by FEMA
that every dollar invested in mitigation
saves $6 in future disaster costs. And
so that's a 600% return on investment,
right? That's a that's a pretty good
number when it comes to uh when it comes
to money, right? And so to that effect,
um, when we do have disasters, it
protects our general fund. It preserves
economic activity because we're able to,
you know, withstand disasters better. It
reduces insurance costs not only for the
city, but our residents through part of
the community rating system, um, which
is really speaking to flood insurance.
So, a lot of these actions that we take
can actually lower our residents um,
flood insurance costs, which is a huge
service. Uh, the next is it leverages
federal funding. Right? Like I
mentioned, there's many grants available
uh that we hope to take advantage of and
including following this big December
storm that we had. Um the initial damage
estimates for Washington state are $181
million of public infrastructure damage,
right? So that's jurisdictional damage.
And so what that means is following a
presidentially declared disaster,
typically 15% of that is made available
back to the impacted jurisdictions in
the form of grants. In this case, that's
$27 million in grants. And so, you know,
that's a huge opportunity, right, of
federal funding that we would like to
take advantage of here in Isiqua. And
so, um, that's just one example of a
grant round. Uh, the next is it protects
vulnerable residents, right? We can
invest in projects that specifically
protect our most vulnerable. It shortens
recovery time. You know, recovery time
is so essential for getting life back to
normal, businesses, right? continuing
business and the like. And uh really it
futureproofs our infrastructure too,
right? So it's it's an investment in the
future, right? Making sure that whenever
one of these events happen um we're
prepared to we're prepared for it and
that we don't have to go back and um
rebuild uh to the same extent we would
otherwise.
So I wanted to highlight just a few
examples in Isiqua of mitigation in the
past. And so um here's an example of
some flood buyouts here. What you see in
the red circle is two homes. Um, in the
next slide, you'll see that those homes
we actually bought out and have since
turned into green space. That happens to
be where we uh put our sandbag or one of
our sandbag filling stations uh
currently, right? To make uh available
to residents on the east fork that
typically flood out. Uh that's one
example. Two more here is a solar and
storage project at Isqua Center. So
recently we received funding through uh
Washington State Department of Commerce
to put not only solar panels but also a
battery system that will last for um
quite a while to power that building uh
following um following power loss, which
is great not only for the building
itself and our carbon uh reduction
goals, but it also keeps a generator, a
portable generator in our suite of
assets that we can use to, you know, uh
put either different resilience hubs or
pump stations or the Right. So there's
also trickle down impacts from uh money
that we spend in these mitigation
projects. Uh the last example I wanted
to highlight was Confluence Park and
this is a drone footage shot from the
December flooding that we have and you
know you can kind of see how there is
flood spilling into Confluence Park. Uh
you can't quite tell from this
individual picture but there's uh homes
right if you look at the top of the of
the picture there right that are that
are not flooded out but the park there
is behaving exactly how we like it.
Right. it's becoming um it has this
mitigation impact in our community and
um you know relatively low impacts to
the park itself but big impacts for the
community members that you know could
have potentially been flooded out by
this event. So those are just a few
local examples of some mitigation
successes that we've had. Um and I hope
that kind of serves as like a as a
catalyst, you know, for dreaming, if you
will, about what we could do in this
city when it comes to risk reduction.
So with that, um these are the hazard
mitigation strategies that our planning
group came up with. And I should note
that um FEMA requires that we have a
hazard mitigation strategy for each of
our hazards identified within our plan.
So there are some um that are smaller in
nature, right, to kind of tackle or very
niche, if you will, to tackle some of
these um uh more corner cases u for
hazards. Some of them are larger. And I
should also say too, right, um at this
point, most of these mitigation
strategies are they're uh aspirational
in a sense, right? We're we're not um we
can't commit ourselves to doing all of
them right now with our existing level
of funding, right? But these are the
things that we as um as a group, as a
planning group have come up with as
potential solutions to our risks uh for
these hazards. So, um, spending a little
bit of time on them because I would love
to hear your feedback on what you see as
potential priorities for us to, um,
maybe put at the top of the list, if you
will, uh, for our staff to start working
on or to potentially fund and future
budget discussions. I just wanted to
provide a brief overview of of all of
them. So, uh, the first and foremost is
critical infrastructure seismic
retrofits. So this is taking a look at
our critical infrastructure, evaluating
um it under our modern understanding of
our seismic threat and then really
determining what the best course of
action is thereafter. Right? So some
infrastructure will be fine, some may
need uh a retrofit to actually remain
functional following a maximum credible
earthquake.
The next is special flood hazard area
risk reduction. So this is uh this is a
complimentary mitigation strategy to uh
other plans that we have in the city and
a lot of the works that public works
does to reduce our um flood risk but
really what it's looking at is elevating
acquiring and mitigating repetitive loss
properties but also upgrading our
infrastructure for for flooding. I
should also mention too if at any point
if you want to drill down deeper into
any of these I'm definitely happy to to
take a break and stop. So, Council
Member Marts, um, this is the wildfire
risk reduction implementation strategy.
Um, so this strategy, it speaks
specifically to really adapting our west
of West of the Cascades communities and
finding mitigation strategies that work
for our community. Right? As as I've
come before and talked to council about
before, there's a big difference between
east of the Cascades and West of the
Cascades fire regimes. And so making
sure that our strategies that we do do
are uh tailored to us here at Nisqua.
But it's also implementing our wildfire
evacuation time estimate study results.
So these uh chiefly the main things
called out in the mitigation strategy
are our evacuation routes. So doing
formal studies on um the viability of
the engineering behind them, making sure
that uh the roads up in Forest Grim and
the Highlands are studied and we can see
uh take the next step of implementation
in those. And of course based on what we
find, right, then that's when we can um
work them into a potential capital
improvement uh project or or the like.
And so this is our big wildfire uh
project.
>> Yeah.
>> Great. What's the timeline?
>> Yeah. So, this plan, right, is uh this
is, if you will, the work plan, right,
of our of our risk reduction efforts.
And so, I'm hearing that this is a
priority and some communication that
you've also sent to me. So, you know,
this is if this is the direction that
council has, we can we can put this at
the top of the list. Now, of course, we
don't have um currently funding, right,
like set aside for for doing those um
formal studies, but yeah,
>> to be clear, wildfire and I think
earthquake are the two highest in your
risk management. So, it's not like
council member Mart is asking you to go
down a rabbit hole on some project of
his, right? These are this is one of the
two areas that that your own analysis
said we need to be the most pro
proactive regarding. Absolutely. Yes.
Sorry, I I apologize if I implied that.
>> I just wanted to be clear for anybody
who might be listening that that it ties
back to the slide we talked to a little
bit ago where you know civil
insurrection and volcanic hazards are
nothing compared to earthquake and and
wildfire hazards. Those are just a whole
different level both of um impact should
they happen and likelihood of occurring.
>> Yeah, that's that's that's exactly
right. and you know and the staff agrees
yes to your point with that assessment
and so
>> so what I'm hearing you say is that um
although
um you said it was uh FEMA requires that
we have plans I guess it doesn't require
that we execute those plans
>> no and so yeah which is
>> that's hilarious
>> yeah it is it is right it's it's an
interesting um honestly I think it it
shows that these plans right in
themselves like I said are a little more
aspirational but I should say the staff
is is quite committed to to mitigating
and um this is these efforts I would say
uh with that federal big grant funding
round that's going to be ma made
available right these are the types of
opportunities that outside of our
existing budget right those are the
things that we can try to take advantage
of to push the timelines on our regular
funding mechanisms to make these things
happen faster and so um that's
absolutely a priority right wildfire was
our number two in that in that risk
assessment So that's the type of project
that we would like to prioritize moving
forward. Now the timeline of course um I
didn't answer your question about the
timeline only because you know um we
don't have a solid one yet for when when
we would get those more formal studies
done but um working towards that is uh
is what I'm hearing and and is one of
our priorities. So, so, okay. So, if
earthquake and wildfire are the two most
serious ones, um, is there a point where
and and you're saying that we're not
going to we're not going to delve into
our what we've outlined for FEMA and
until
>> or until the council funds that
activity? Yeah. Is there a point where
we get an alleart list where it says we
need $437 for this and we need $827 for
that? Yeah. So what our plan is to
incorporate these mitigation uh projects
into the next CIP budget round. And so
um that which is yeah thank which is
actually something where it it
legitimizes this plan right to your
point uh council member Marts of making
it less aspirational and more concrete
right and then it'll be in the regular
uh funding process. Okay. And so if
we're serious about these things, we can
we can actually take those those normal
steps and not have to explore these uh
roundabout methods, right, of funding
and the like. So yes,
>> Jared, so on some of these particularly
on the two top priorities, can you talk
a little bit more about the individual
like implementation plan? So like for
the wildfire risk reduction on page 45
of the annex, it talks about two-year
objectives, five-year objectives, and
long-term objectives. I assume that came
from staff. Does it connect anything
into
our existing budget or CIP or is that
just kind of the next step that you
envision there?
>> That that is the next step. So, I am
yeah, I'm really hoping that this this
plan, right, doesn't become shelf art is
a term that we sometimes use with plans,
right? I I really want to operationalize
it and make it a normal part of the the
potential um options that we have to
fund. So, yeah, those those two-year and
fiveyear plans and long-term objectives,
right, or those goals, rather, uh that's
part of the standard that King County
puts out as like a mitigation annex. So,
we have to follow those. But uh this
sounds like a good opportunity to just
talk about like how we plan to go about
uh keeping track of our progress towards
these mitigation strategies. And um what
it looks like is there's a p point of
contact assigned to each of the
strategies, right? And um I'll have
yearly check-ins with those point of
contacts to see progress and many of
them happen to be uh projects where I am
the lead for as well too. And so um
we'll have a uh internal tracking sheet
of our progress towards those objectives
and um we're happy to share back our
progress right as we march towards those
goals through the through the life of
the plan. So yeah
um great. So I'll continue uh to talk
about the mitigation strategies or
highlight a few more of them but uh the
next up is Isqua Police Department civil
disorder training. So, uh, this is to
really establish standardized and
recoccurring training for our, uh,
police officers to make sure that they
feel confident in, uh, responding to
civil disturbances.
Next is resilience hub imp
implementation. So, um, as you may know,
we have resilience hubs uh, scattered
throughout the city if we're working on
expanding them further. um they're meant
to be uh locations where people can go
to in any disaster, hoping that the
lights are on, a place where people can
receive some base level of support,
right? And so we are um hoping to expand
that network and make those locations
even more resilient to disasters, right?
So that strategy really speaks to the
work that we are partnering with
sustainability on to make sure that um
they are they are available and that
they can be these like um these these
cornerstones of resilience in our
neighborhoods if you will.
Uh a community GIS hazard viewer is uh
speaking to the need to really get this
information out into the community.
Right? You you'll see in the plan that
we have these maps of these hazard
areas, right? But that's not a very
user-friendly way of going about finding
information and the potential impacts uh
to the community. So we'd like to create
a hazard viewer where residents um and
businesses and even city folks too,
right, can have this one place where we
can see hazards and understand uh better
understand our risk and incorporate them
into our planning.
The next is city building, seismic
analysis and retrofit. So um we talked
about critical infrastructure. This is
the city building side of things. And so
I should mention that um we've been this
is one strategy that we carried over
from the last plan. Um we've done some
work on it already. We've received
funding through two grants to do sizing
assessments on some of our buildings
being uh city hall, the public works
campus, and then the next round that's
coming up is um really parks buildings.
So community center, senior center, uh
Pickering Barn, and the ops building uh
that facility shares. And so we've
found, you know, over the course of
those studies, right, about some of the
upgrades we need to make to city hall.
And so once um once we get through the
rest of these assessments, that'll help
us prioritize actually or justify rather
going after these bigger, larger seismic
retrofit projects um and really taking
that those studies to the next level, if
you will.
City critical infrastructure energy
resilience. So this is also a carryover
from our last uh plan. And really this
just speaks to the need to have
resilient power systems at our critical
facilities being buildings and
infrastructure to make sure that they
remain operational. Right? I brought up
the senior center with the solar and
battery um storage, right? But our goal
is to to really have um these key
elements of our infrastructure hardened.
I mean the bomb cyclone was so revoly,
right? And just how strained um we can
get right when when we're faced with
these long power outages.
Uh the next is post wildfire development
and high-risisk debris flow zones. So uh
this is about updating our land use and
development regulations to to really
take a hard look at what do we do um
with an area after a wildfire has burned
uh through it or conversely what happens
if a wildfire burns um upstream if you
will from a development. And the reason
we think about that is um you may have
seen or heard some communities in
California dealing with um mud flows
right post wildfire. And so um even if a
community isn't necessarily impacted by
the flames um they can be impacted by
landslides or landslide like situations
following a wildfire. So taking a good
hard look at that and making sure that
you know we have a plan um when it comes
to when it comes to those debris flow uh
flow zones.
The next is a carryover too. So this is
addresses um s and tsunami modeling in
lakesamish. And so if you're unfamiliar
with a s it's essentially like a bathtub
effect of like water moving back and
forth. And so um this is a uh this is a
strategy to take a harder look at that.
It's kind of nested. It's part of
earthquake as well too. That's the main
instigation instigator um if you will
for siches. Um and so we actually
historically have engaged UDub trying to
study this um as a potential project.
There was some initial interest but um
we're we're still going to keep we're
still going to attempt to study that but
it's a little bit in lurch.
Enhancing air quality and chemical
detection near vulnerable populations.
This is our uh hazardous materials
release. um mitigation strategy. So
deploying detection capabilities near
high-risisk corridors and vulnerable
populations to enable faster response to
hazardous area releases. Um we have
transportation corridors, a major one
I90 that runs through our community. Um
there is a lot of hazardous materials
that cross through a Siqua every day.
Not to mention we have pipelines and
facilities that also house a
considerable size of um hazardous
materials uh just on the dayto-day.
Deputy Council President Martz.
>> So,
as you're discussing all these things,
>> um, these are all things that you could
do if we wanted to fund them.
>> Correct.
>> Right. So, this is all these are all
you're you're showing us the menu and
you're saying if you want the sea bass,
here's how we would prepare the sea
bass. Yes. If you want the lobster,
here's how we would present prepare the
lobster. None of this is necessarily
things that you are going to do
otherwise.
>> Correct. Yeah. And so
how do we
how do we decide? They all have price
tags associated with them and as you've
mentioned earlier some of them have
higher probability times severity and
others have lower probability time
severity. You know there was a point in
this city where one of your predecessors
thought a seash wave um was a was a
serious risk because we have the ground
fault uh that runs into the city which
is capable of producing seash waves. Um
clearly you know in the score that has
been given in this sewaves are not
considered near the top of our risk
setup. So how do we how does this work?
Like it seems like at some point we have
to get
>> the menu at some point the waiter asks
us what we want to order, right? And we
say I want the sea bass and I want the
lobster and I want um the uh Caesar
salad but only if it comes with the
anchovies, right? And so when do we when
and how do we do that? Yeah, I I love
that analogy. Thank you for that. That
really I wish I had said that. Thank
you. But um that is so I would say this
is maybe your opportunity to hear a
little bit more about the menu items if
you will under this analogy, right? Um
but also uh I would say the budget is a
big opportunity to order, right? But
two, you know, if directed like I'm
hearing some priorities already emerge,
right? we um we have some capacity to
chase some of these mitigation
strategies with things like grant
funding, right? And so I am constantly
on the lookout for for grant funds and
apply frequently um for them, right? I
think we've done three three grant
applications for a new generator at city
hall, right? We've mentioned some of the
uh other senior center improvements,
these seismic studies, right? So even
outside of funding, right? if if you
order right uh wildfire risk reduction I
I'm going to listen to that I'm going to
hear that right and say okay when I'm
seeing these grant opportunities you
know that's that's the project I'm going
to put forward we in theory we could put
all these forward in grant rounds right
we could we could submit every project
that we have in hazard mitigation plan
we don't have capacity for that you know
in emergency management right with our
current with our current um staffing and
just resources but you know Um that's an
option right we can we can we can
develop um whatever one of these we
would like to like to try to get right
um and and order that if you will so um
I should say too priorities can change
as well right so this plan is considered
a living document right so if there is
new mitigation strategies new efforts
new critical vulnerabilities that make
themsel um aware to us you know like we
can change and shift our our priorities
in that. So this is one opportunity but
um really you know there's many too also
I welcome any any feedback or any um
direction really at the course of the
life of this plan. So,
>> so Jared, to build on the lovely
analogy, um it sounds like this annex
says we are required to put together a
menu
>> of all of the potential hazards and how
we would mitigate them, but it will be
up to city council if we adopt this and
then at a later date to encourage its
inclusion in the CIP to budget for
spending on those items and to provide
our feedback on what are the most
important ones for going after things
like grants that will help put those
items on our plate.
>> Yes.
>> Continue. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And I should say too, right,
um this this is kind of a jumping off
point if you will too for these
projects, right? Like for example, if we
do get a grant or um do get funding for
one of these projects, you know, part of
our regular internal process is to come
forward, right, to council to talk about
that project, you know, and so um this
isn't like uh to your point, Council
Member Mart, right, if you if you want
the anchovies, right, there will be
other opportunities to provide feedback
and more direction on each of these
individual projects um just through our
regular uh mechanisms that we have
within the
All right. Um, so the next one is, uh,
upgrading HVAC and air filtration and
resilience hubs. And, um, this is about
really improving indoor air quality. So,
MV 13 air filtration is the really the
level that you want to filter wildfire
smoke that makes um, air clean, if you
will, that uh, vulnerable populations or
even just regular individuals can feel
comfortable breathing that air. Uh today
right now we actually don't have a
facility that has that level of air
filtration. Um we're working towards
that hopefully on the community center
but really you know expanding that level
of options for our community members
right is um something that we would like
to do specifically at our resilience
hubs being community facing uh uh
locations.
Um all right last four. So um create
public facing dam failure evacuation and
warning materials. So, um, as I
mentioned, um, many of our community
members may be surprised to hear that we
have, uh, dams, if you will, um, within
Isiqua that have, uh, that are a risk,
right? And so, it's a hazard that we
just typically don't think about, talk
about, or really, um, socialize, um,
that broadly. And so this strategy
really speaks to making sure that we
have evacuation maps that residents know
that they live in these damundation
zones and then provide some guidance on
what they can do to better prepare
themselves.
Next is developing and exercising a
cyber incident response annex. So this
is creating and regularly testing um a
response plan to protect our critical
infrastructure and systems and maintain
um and maintain just government
continuity during these attacks. I
should say this is really just a piece
of our cyber um incident like response
uh catalog, right? There's much more
work that goes into this than just this
one strategy, but that's something that
we picked out as a potential uh area
that we could strengthen in in
coordination with our regular cyber uh
incident plans.
>> Yeah, I was just going to ask on that.
Council member Nichols had um questions
about that. sounds like a plan to
respond, but we also have other things
that we do uh that are preventing
and things like that obviously. So,
>> yes. Yeah. And if um council member
Nichols or council would like more
information about you know just how we
we are prepared for cyber um attacks.
Yeah, we're happy to share uh more
information.
>> Thank you.
>> Great. Um next is planning for prolonged
regional transportation and supply chain
disruptions. So, this is a plan that
really speaks to our need to be uh
self-sufficient following a major
disruption of transportation corridors.
Um, you know, it seems somewhat
far-fetched sometimes, but I mean, you
take the December flooding and it was
quite interesting to see, right, we lost
eastbound 90, SR 900 and um and then
Isqua Hobart, right? All had disruptions
on them. And so it was quite uh revoly
in one moment in the EOC where in the
emergency operations center where we're
like wow our our really our only option
is to go west you know from the city.
And so uh this strategy speaks to just
making sure that we're prepared that we
have a good list of capabilities local
like know our local vendors and
contractors have good uh relationships
with them and implement some agreements
hopefully even with them. And then
lastly uh training for city staff on
suspicious activity reporting. Right.
So, this is making sure this is speaking
to our terrorism um hazard, but uh
providing city staff with training to
recognize and appropriately report
suspicious activity to enhance that
early threat detection and prevention.
Um so, those are our mitigation
strategies as they exist. Now, as I
mentioned, um this is a living document.
New mitigation strategies may be added
at any point in the lifetime of the
mitigation plan. Um and uh this, like I
said, these are jumping off points,
right? like if we start to pursue these
strategies more in depth, we can alter
them, we can change them and really uh
make sure that they meet the needs of
the city.
So um the options that we have today are
one to adopt the the annex and so that
maintains our grant eligibility for
programs like the building resilient
infrastructure and communities grant
flood mitigation assistance and hazard
mitigation grant program funding which
is that post- disaster funding pool. Um
it also helps align our mitigation um
plans with climate infrastructure
planning and of course our budget as
we've mentioned. Um the second option is
that we do not adopt the plan. Um we
lose our eligibility for those uh FEMA
hazard mitigation dollars but um you
know that certainly is is an an option
as well.
So, our proposal and recommendation is
that we do um adopt our hazard
mitigation plan um and that it goes to
the full city council.
So, uh real briefly timing next steps.
So, we're here today at the committee
review. Uh we anticipate or hopeful for
full council adoption this March. Um
after that full council adoption, we'll
submit our plan to FEMA. Um they may
provide feedback. they likely will not
at this uh juncture. Um and then after
uh plan approval, that gives us the
eligibility to apply for those grants to
seek that funding. Um, and then finally,
once our plan is approved, we're going
to um further engage with the community
and making sure that the the plan is
public, but also showcase and bring the
community in in these hazard mitigation
efforts that we do choose to prioritize
and make sure that they uh stay involved
in mitigation and and also just show off
some of the work that we are doing in
the city, right? And and making sure
that people see the work um that that
this uh that we are doing to make us
more resilient.
So with that, that brings us back to the
direction needed. So, uh, do you
recommend any changes or adoption um, to
our hazard mitigation plan as it stands?
And I do have those questions from
Council Member Nichols, too, that we can
address maybe um, at the end after
you're
>> Yeah, I've got those listed as well. So,
um, all of that. Um, Deputy Council
President Martz, do you want to start
with any feedback on the hazard
mitigation plan annex?
Um
well, if I understand it right, I think
it all comes back to uh the slide that
you showed with the risks uh results
from staff hazard and risk assessment.
Um and I think that as a policy matter,
can you go back to that slide? Yes. Just
so that we can
>> refresh our memories on it. There we go.
So really the question is how far down
do you want to go on that list? Mhm.
>> Um, you know, if we were, uh, you know,
exceedingly wealthy and had people
sitting around with nothing to do, you
would do all of them, right? Um, and,
uh, so I don't have any, I don't have
any questions. We're sort of, um, are we
this at the point where we're just
>> Yeah. either feedback or you're good
with any adoption?
>> Yeah, my my feedback is that we should
get going on both the earthquake and the
wildfire ones. I think those two are I
mean extreme weather we already I think
have plans for those. Um health
incidents and cyber incidents are hard
to predict and we don't have knock on
wood god forbid um uh a serious volcano
risk right around here. So wildfire and
earthquake are really just a whole
different class right for folks who
don't know we have a surface fault that
runs from Banebridge Island uh
underneath basically I90 all the way
into Isiqua. it's capable of producing
greater than 1g uh earthquake events and
um uh we absolutely need to have plans
for things like that. Um subduction
fault events are um a regional problem
with regional solutions.
>> Um and then wildfire as as we've
discussed uh you know we are uh have um
quite a bit of risk associated with
wildfires during the dry season when the
fuel loads go up. So, I personally would
like to see us getting going on both of
those. I'd like to see, you know, if
it's if it requires subsequent funding
by the council. Um, do it. I mean, you
know, bring it before the council, let
the seven decide. Um, and then, uh, and
then execute on it with timelines. I I I
think that both of these things are
absolutely critical. I really appreciate
you putting this together. This is the
most comprehensive conversation about
risks in the city that I've seen in 17
years. Um, but now it's and speaking as
one of seven, like let's get going on
these two risks that are that are just
qualitatively different than all the
other risks. But I'm interested to know
what my fellow committee members think.
>> Yeah. So, I've got my feedback. I also
have Council Member Nichols feedback.
So, excuse me for going long, but I'm a
community emergency response team
member. So, emergency management is kind
of my thing. Um, first of all, I think
this is a fantastic report. Um, I love
to see not only that we have a good risk
assessment and calculation, um, but that
we also got community feedback and that
we are looking at specific hazard
mitigations,
um, and things that we can do in each of
these areas. it's a lot more difficult
to just look at it and say prevent
wildfire versus we recognize that there
are specific hazards that we can
mitigate in that area that will make us
a safer community. So I like that
approach of this report. Um, I think
from my perspective, um, I might want to
think a little bit more about the
impact and exposure of flooding in our
community. While it only we only
experience flooding in the valley floor
areas as much. Um, I think that
doesn't take into account the idea that
most of our community either uses
resources or services or schools or
other things in those areas.
>> And so that is it it discounts the fact
that those areas are used by the entire
community even if their personal
property isn't impacted by it. Um, and
we've seen quite a bit of flooding that
has had a full citywide impact even if
it only has exposure in those areas. So,
I might I might have personally
calculated that a little bit differently
that way. Um, when we are thinking about
investments and use of city funds, I
really want to be careful to focus on
projects that have a large scale impact.
And I think a confluence park flood
storage is a really good example of that
rather than things that are necessarily
related to individual properties such as
mitigation for repetitive loss flooding
properties. That being said, if we
combine it with then taking that and
making the river creek a safer place
overall, I think that balances out. Um
similarly I would be hesitant to invest
city funds in things that were new
planning areas like the lake seamish
s and tsunami modeling um because we
already have a lot of planning and
understanding of many of these higher
>> risk areas. And so that would be my
preference there.
uh the critical infrastructure seismic
risk. I think this is a really great
um addition and it seems to be an area
where we can not only make investments
but also code changes about what needs
to be made as a requirement for future
infrastructure. And so that would be one
that I would want to maybe follow two
different paths on. One a budgetary one
a um code and policy. Um, when I'm
thinking about the report, one of the
things I had a hard time understanding
was how we're handling all of our 2020
uncompleted items.
>> Mhm.
>> Um, do those continue into our 2025
plan? How do they rank in priority
compared to the list? You know,
>> how is that handled? So when we're
looking about the report, I would say I
want to see the 2025 mitigation
strategies maybe earlier in the report.
Better explain what happens to the 2020
strategies.
Um I would love to see the list of
strategies ranked from high to low
>> or alphabetical. Right now I couldn't
tell why something was in a certain
order. Um, and then on each individual
mitigation page, I would really like to
be able to see the priority, okay?
>> High, medium, or low. Um, be so that I
didn't have to scroll all the way back
up to that list to understand how it,
um, fits in.
>> And then my final piece of feedback is
on the topic of how do we make this
actionable? So, I'm glad to hear you've
already mentioned the CIP. That was um
my th first thought for that 2-year and
5-year objectives. Um I'm wondering if
there is an idea of having emergency
management called out as a separate
category much like parks and
transportation are or if the idea would
be to fit it into categories. I know we
already have on our CIP, we recently did
um the capital improvement project plan.
We already did um something that gives
us
what is it the selection criteria and so
all of these projects would fit very
well in the life and safety um category.
So I can understand how they're going to
be scored but I would be interested to
be able to call out like hey emergency
management is this area that isn't just
about parks or transportation. It's
really kind of its own category.
>> Um, let me see if there was anything
else in those notes.
Yeah. And then toward that idea, could
the hazard calculations be used, the
risk calculations in our CIP
data? Um, because I think that would be
a really useful way of showing how
important this project is.
All of these are going to score very
well from a life and safety aspect, but
earthquake and wildfire should have some
sense of more important than necessarily
terrorism or landslide projects.
>> So that's my feedback. I can go on to
council member Nichols or if you have
any thoughts there.
>> Yeah, I guess um the first thing I'll
address is kind of the old mitigation
strategies, right? And so, um,
truthfully, the previous iteration of
this plan was mostly written in a from a
public works perspective. And so, many
of the strategies, um, were kind of it
was mostly incorporating work that
public works was already doing, you
know, and using it as a lake to justify
uh, grant applications. That probably
the one caveat to that is maybe uh, the
C theert um, strategy that's pulled from
from there. But again, you know,
emergency management used to be in
public works. So, in some in some extent
too, um I would say we're we are funding
CERT already like we're well supporting
that. I would don't I um don't know what
more we would call out in a specific
strategy other than like all the other
work that we're doing with C existingly.
So I think you know for the old
strategies you know some of them we did
carry over right like the energy
resilience and some of these add-ons
actually that we tacked on to the plan
in like just the last couple years uh
like the wildfire the energy resilience
and um and some of those we did tack on
and so some of them got continued but um
the other ones the older ones I'm kind
of personally okay letting them expire
and if there is maybe elements that we
do want to pull out right like we can
but you know Um, Council Member um,
Walsh, I think it's a good point of like
we need to have some accounting of the
work that we do to or almost like a a
record if you will, right? To cuz I
don't want to lose some of the wins that
we have, right, when we just move to the
next plan and, you know, and and not
highlight some of the good work that
we've done. So, um, maybe there's a
potential way that we could still
incorporate them too in that sense. How
does that sound?
>> Okay.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah.
>> Let me go on to Council Member Nichols.
Um, so he brought up some of the same
things that Deputy Council President,
uh, Martz did about, hey, there's no
cost estimates. This isn't, you know, a
budget. Um, and so he said it would be
really useful to see at least rough cost
tiers um, before this is brought before
full council or a commitment to deliver
them shortly after adoption. And I
think, you know, I would be interested
to know how do you think that works with
this plan versus accomplishing that
through another method like the CIP.
>> Yeah. And so, um, we talked internally
about a potential approach. So, we can
incorporate cost estimates if you will,
you kind of using like a scale of like
$1 sign through, right? If to kind of at
least give a sense of how much these
projects might cost, right? and and that
te's up our ability, right, when we do
go to like CIP, right? We can really
hammer down and hone in on what those
actual costs will be, but it still
incorporates that, you know, bird's eye
view of of what some of these costs are.
And and you know, initially we actually
did have we were thinking about cost
estimates, but it got kind of tricky
with some of the ones like even the
seismic assessments for critical
infrastructure, right? because it's like
we may find that we're in pretty good
shape for, you know, a good amount of
the water towers or we may find that,
you know, oh my word, you know, we need
to have multi-million dollar projects.
And so there's I think staff were kind
of struggling honestly with that that
cost estimate part became a little bit
of a stumbling block. But what we can
commit to though is incorporating I
think that that range if you will um or
like that symbol symbology a little bit
to just give us a sense of how much
things will cost and then in when we do
go to CIP or grant applications of
course we'll like drill down into a real
hard number. Does does that sound
sufficient?
>> Yeah, deputy council president.
>> What I I I worry about timelines when
you start talking about CIP grant
applications. I worry that we're going
to build a plan to build a plan to build
a plan and that when my term is up in
3.8 years, we still won't be done with
these,
>> right?
>> Um so, uh you know, as an administration
um that has an emergency management
person, um these these both of these
things are desperately needed. So, um,
you know, it would be weird to say,
okay, well, here's the t-shirt size on
these, right? Like wildfire is a medium
and earthquake is a large and uh that'll
be some monies at some point in the
future. you know, I mean, CIP can take a
very long time and then the actual work
itself takes time and then any uh work
that we decide to do as a result of
those plans takes time and again I come
back to my 3 point eight years and um
wanting to have this resolved long
before my next this current term is up.
So that that's my concern in in in this
whole conversation is
>> um
>> you know the sense of urgency of of
getting going on something like this on
these two. I think you've correctly
identified these two as really being a
different level of risk than other um
emergency situations that we could
possibly have. So how do we how do we
get it going? how how do we get the
scoping activity um the decision and
then the execution in a reasonable
amount of time
>> um and what is a reasonable amount of
time right I I don't think you're I
don't think all this is leading you to
saying yep and I'll have all this stuff
done by the end of the year like that's
not what I'm hearing at all
>> right yeah and I think that's um that's
a challenge that we have right but like
I said this is in some sense you know a
third of our work plan in emergency
management right so this is this is what
we're going to working on you know and
for so that's my time it's other staff
members time it's not just me right
there's other departments too so
>> I I thought it is if we move forward
with it
>> oh yes if we if we move forward with it
yes
>> assuming we move forward
>> yes should yes thank you
>> yeah and I think I will clarify this
kind of gets glombmed alto together in
this presentation but the first half is
really about this hazard um and
mitigation plan and then the second half
is and what else should we be doing with
emergency management? Where should our
focus be? And so I'm hearing very
clearly we have two very high
priorities. And so I definitely want to
drill down when we get into that on
being like, okay, what's next?
>> Yeah.
>> Because it isn't just taking them into
the CIP. No.
>> Um so okay, um let me just continue
through Council Member Nichols. Um he
talked about performance measures. So
each strategy includes metrics but none
have baselines, targets or reporting
cadence. Um and he references that hey
some of the 2020 stuff didn't get
completed. Um so is there a sense with
other plans we have kind of created some
of those metrics or targets. Is there a
sense in here of what we want to
accomplish? Not just here's a hazard
hazard and here's a mitigation strategy.
>> Yeah. What what I would say is that you
know these strategies truly are the the
jumping off part point, right? Um for us
as a city um so as we embark in like in
these individual strategies more
seriously, right? Like all those kind of
classic project management, you know,
tools, measures, they they will be
applied, you know, to to these efforts.
um this plan is is um mostly guiding if
you will, right? And a little less
tactical is the way that my brain thinks
of it. So um yes, so all so those will
be um part of our part of our strategies
if we choose to move forward with them.
>> Okay. Um he also mentioned community
engagement. He said,40
touch points is really impressive, but
there was no sense of how many of those
were Isiqua residents. Um, and so he
also mentioned he didn't see any
evidence of outreach to renters,
non-English speakers, or residents in
map flood zones, or the wildland urban
interface um, populations most affected
by the hazards. So, it would be good to
know if there was any targeted outreach.
>> Yeah, I thought those were really,
really good points to bring up and
honestly, I think it's opportunities to
grow in our community uh, engagement.
And um what I would say too is that
hopefully you know this is this is not
the end of our hazard mitigation right
this is just the beginning if you will
and so whichever you know what what our
strategies when we start to implement
them you know we're going to look for
that community feedback we're going to
look for that more targeted community
engagement and so um I love that I loved
highlighting those points and I think
it's a really good thing that we can
carry forward with us into the future.
>> Great. And then his last piece was just
noticing that the CRS rating uh
discrepancy on different pages. So
>> it was a good catch. Yes, we we are a
community five and working towards a CRS
rating five working towards four.
>> Fantastic. So with that, I think um
generally I have heard both from council
member Nichols in his um comments but
also between the two of us general
support for this annex plan for the
hazard mitigation plan and um so is
there any other feedback you need from
us? A sense of when it's going to come
back to council and whether or not we
want to put it on consent or regular
business? Thank you.
>> Well, I I just want to foot stomp this
again. You know, there's a I'm a movie
guy. There's a scene in the social
network where uh he says, "If you had
invented Facebook, you would have
invented Facebook, right? We will have a
wildfire and earthquake plan in place
when we have a wildfire and earthquake
plan in place." Right? And so I want to
have a wildfire and earthquake plan in
place. Um we to do that we have to
begin, right? Yeah,
>> we have to accept the annex and we have
to say we want to see the t-shirting of
the efforts.
>> I want a wildfire and earthquake plan in
place as soon as is reasonable.
>> Yeah.
>> So that's, you know, whatever that looks
like. Um, I just worry that again it's
we're building a plan to make a plan to
have a plan and uh, you know, this this
is really this is super clear guidance
why wildfire and earthquake plans um,
need to be the core of our response. So,
um,
I just wanted to foot stomp that. Yeah,
>> foot stomp away. Absolutely. still need
to uh approve the annex so that we can
qualify for grants and because we kind
of just need to do it. Um and so are we
good to adopt this and do you have a
sense of consent or regular business?
>> I am absolutely excited about adopting
this. In terms of it coming back on
consent or regular, I guess I would ask
the administration if they have a
preference. I think that this report was
clear enough that I I would be
comfortable as a junior member of this
committee um to tell the other uh four
council members who weren't part of this
process that um the the the uh the
committee uh
video makes it very clear why we want to
move forward with this and not having it
be regular. But if the administration
comes back and said no, we're super
excited about having this on regular
business that
>> Okay. So, it sounds like we are in
support of this coming to full council
and comfortable with it being on consent
unless the administration has any reason
not to. We always like to highlight the
great work of our emergency management
team, but it sounds like we've got the
rest of the presentation to talk about
all of the other things that we want to
foot stomp and deliver the plans that
council is going to make demands on. So
take it away.
>> That's a perfect Yeah. tea up. So um
yeah, so the second part of the
presentation is to yeah give feedback on
really our broader emergency management
program. Right. We've we've kind of
heard that, you know, from the mayor but
also from the council retreat that
emergency preparedness efforts, you
know, are a priority and something that
we should think about. And so I just
want to share um with this committee a
little bit about what's on the current
work plan, some of the things we're
thinking about, and then really
opportunities that I see as um growth
areas to really bring our emergency
management program to the to the next
level, if you will. So a little bit of
background. So things are changing in
emergency management. One, disasters are
happening more frequently, right? right
on this bar graph that you see here on
the left side of your screen, right? You
can see this increase in climate driven
hazards um where there's been declared
disasters in the last 5 years and you'll
see severe storm, flood, and fire are
really the three captured there, but
also all of their declarations. And so
those are typically the nonclimate
driven ones. But um you'll notice that
bar graph is growing. And you know,
anecdotally, right, I will even say from
my almost three years here, right, we've
had some pretty serious um incidents.
And so um that's just following the
trend um for the state. Um two the
background context is FEMA is also
changing uh very drastically. So there
has been huge reductions to uh disaster
uh response staff to um preparedness
efforts and really uh funding their
system as a whole is is changing. And so
what the uh federal government is asking
is that local jurisdictions shoulder
more of uh emergency management and what
was typically FEMA's role. Um local
jurisdictions are asked to to take
bigger parts of that. And so um some of
these u some of these things that we've
enjoyed from FEMA being um having
leadership in in emergency management
are starting to wayne. And so, um, one
of the best or one of the most recent
examples that hit home for us, right, is
the bomb cyclone. You know, that was a
disaster that was large enough that
would have qualified us for public
assistance funding in uh, previous
understandings of what our of what our
thresholds were, but uh, no longer,
right? That that bar has moved to about
to be six times higher than what it was,
you know, um, just a couple years ago.
And so all that to say is, you know, the
need for us to be prepared for
emergencies, effective in our response
to, you know, um, pursue these risk
reduction activities, I think is it's
it's higher, right, than than what it
was even a couple years ago, just
because the landscape has changed, uh,
so drastically in a short period of
time. Um, so we've talked about, you
know, risk reduction and in depth,
right? But there's the two other
pillars, emergency response and
community preparedness that we'll take a
little bit of a diver deep dive into. Um
now, so here's what's really on the work
plan this year, if you will, for uh
emergency management. And so this is
specifically uh talking about emergency
response, which is protecting life,
property, and environment during and
after emergencies large and small. So uh
we are updating our comprehensive
emergency management plan uh this year.
that is our foundational document that
describes um how we respond to disasters
and emergencies within Isiqua. That is
um it outlines duties, responsibilities,
operations um really uh our our our
guiding document for emergencies. So
that's getting updated this year. Um
this summer we have some large events
that are happening here regionally. So
we're getting ready for them. they are
chiefly uh the 250th anniversary of the
US and then also FIFA World Cup, right?
So um they happen to coincide at the
same time. So two large events that um
you know we want to make sure that our
community and our visitors and um and
everyone really is just has a safe and
um and good time at those events. Next
is resilience hub expansion. Um, as I've
mentioned before, we're trying to get a
resilience hub in every neighborhood
within Isiqua, right? So, that looks
like working with uh community partners,
organizations, and to really not only
identify new locations, but strengthen
them, make them more resilient, and uh
support them so they can so we can count
on them when disaster does strike. And
then lastly, um I'm excited to to come
back before council and do some uh
emergency management training and
exercise with you all at some point,
right? Kind of going over uh what your
role is in emergency, some of the powers
that you have and really getting an
opportunity to exercise uh those and and
have a um and yeah have some after
action items taken from them. Next is
community preparedness. So this is um
about informing and readying the
community for disasters. So our really
our chief um way that we go about this
is serve our community emergency
response team of which we have
volunteers that go through a course that
equips them with skills that can uh not
only serve them their families but also
their neighbors and you know um it's in
community preparedness but we also use
them in emergency response as well. You
know supported us in the bomb cyclone
and in flooding alike. Um doing
everything from filling sandbags to
handing out flyers and flood cleanup
kits. So they they they truly do a lot
for our community. Um of which our C
program has grown um immensely. You
know, we we offer five courses now every
year um as opposed to the two that we've
uh traditionally offered. Um our
volunteer numbers are almost up to 400
um for cert. And so it's quite it's
quite the cadre and uh we have a lot of
great people who are fired up and
engaged uh with it volunteers speaking
that really help drive that. So, um,
that's not all just emergency the
emergency manager, right? I my hats off
to these community members who really
have championed this effort. Next is
wildfire preparedness, right? So, we've
done the wildfire evacuation time
estimate. Um, we still want to socialize
those results more broadly, make sure
people understand evacuation, can get
prepared. Um, ready, set, go is a
countywide program. Um, it was actually
used in the flooding, too, to for
evacuation levels. Um, but we want to
make sure people are ready for
wildfires. So, we're talking about doing
more wildfire trivia nights like that we
did last year. Uh screening of more
wildfire documentaries and um really
updating also our online resources where
people can learn about these things. Um
including a GIS map that shows
neighborhood by neighborhood um what
your evacuation routes are and um what
you should consider. So um those are all
efforts that were that are underway for
community preparness specifically for
wildfire. And then lastly, we want to
invest in more just general uh trainings
and engagements for the community,
right? Cert is a big commitment for some
individuals, right? But we want to make
sure that we have uh smaller, more
frequent touch points with the community
um that can help uh educate and make
them aware of our of our many hazards.
And so, uh, we're we're looking for
we're kind of revamping, if you will,
some of those efforts, getting away from
like the traditional just seminar style,
but going to places where people already
are, right? Like wildfire trivia is a
good example of that. Showing up where
people already hang out and doing, uh,
education kind of that way. So, um,
that's all part of community
preparedness this year. And then, of
course,
>> one second before we go, Deputy Council
President Mart. So, I just I I want to
make sure I know wildfire prepared
there's a lot in wildfire preparedness.
Um I I want to make sure that it's not
like, hey, we have some pamphlets you
can read about how to, you know, cut
brush away from the base of your house.
Like I just I just want to walk you
through a scenario, right? A house fire
on the south side of Squawk Mountain
during a high fuel load day leads to a
wildfire that starts that moves north
coming up over the top of Squawk
Mountain, right?
>> The city needs to have a plan.
Obviously, Epher is, you know, first
line of response on something like that,
but the city, you know, IPD, uh, public
works, you know, the city has to have a
plan in place for an event like that,
right? We don't have anything like that
currently, right?
>> Um, so that's what I think of when I
think of wildfire preparedness. I mean
there is also the cutting brush away
from the base of your home, but you know
part of our challenge is that Squawk
Mountain is steep and the things that
you can do in Wan that
reduce the risk of a wildfire to your
home um we just can't do here. Right.
>> Right. Um so it's about evacuating
people. It's about you know critical
minutes um you know during an event like
that. Mhm.
>> So that's, you know, that's got to be
part of our wildfire preparedness.
>> Yeah. And thank you for highlighting
that. That's it'll actually be called
out as a specific annex to our
comprehensive emergency management plan,
too, is is evacuation to really hammer
out those rules and responsibilities.
We've um one change that we've had from
even last wildfire season is we have a
uh uh a pre-w wildfire checklist, if you
will. So whenever we have those uh red
flag days or critical fire weather, we
actually get together department by
department in a coordination call and
you know bring up all the things to
consider, right? Like do we have keys
for the right gates to open up these
emergency access roads, right? Like
what's our plan for alert notification?
So yeah, thank you for highlighting
that. you know, there's there's um room
to grow there and and I I really expect
the CMP, the comprehensive emergency
management plan, we're going to hammer
out a really all those smaller details,
but we're taking we're taking steps on
that, too. So, but thank you for
highlighting that.
>> All right. Thanks.
>> Yeah.
Okay. And risk reduction, um we we just
took a deep dive into this, so I'm just
going to brush over this quickly, right?
But of course, our hazard mitigation
plan is um nearing nearing uh officially
being completed. The seismic assessments
I've mentioned on some of our city
buildings. And then of course the
infrastructure improvements at
resilience hubs being the solar and
storage um backup and um air filtration
upgrades at the community center.
Whoops. Okay. So with that um with each
three categories, here are the three um
major ways that I could see us growing
our emergency management program. Right.
So um expanding our incident command
system and emergency operations center
training. Um this is really speaking to
making sure that we have as many people
in the city trained up on how to work in
an EOC and uh emergency environment. And
this really addresses that that need
that FEMA is pulling back, right, from
this model where they're coming in,
right, with a big team of 80 people to
come support local jurisdictions, you
know, in a big disaster. You know,
that's that's not going to happen
anymore, right? And so we need to make
sure that from top to bottom, our staff
feel confident working in that EOC and
have a good handle and make sure that,
you know, we don't get overwhelmed by by
a large incident. And so, um, that's
>> Can I ask about the the FEMA piece for a
second? Yeah. Because my understanding
is that one of the things that's
occurring right now is FEMA is moving
more to a block grant type situation,
right? If you look at the total
emergency fund expected distribution in
2026, it's a little bit less than 20,
it's less than 2025, but it's about the
same as 2024. But my understanding is
what really changes is that they're
trying to move again towards a block
grant type system which would cause the
states to have to look at their own for
instance insurance policies and you know
instead of
>> I mean I'm not going to carry water for
the you know the way the feds are doing
things but there is a
>> you know they're still spending FEMA is
still spending a lot of money but that
it's going to go out as block grants. Is
that our understanding as well? And if
so, should we be asking more of Olympia?
Right.
>> Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. I think
that is that if that is the way that
they roll things out, I think that is a
very good next step is to make sure that
olymp that that trickles down, if you
will, to local jurisdictions. There's
some fear, right, that um Washington
State Emergency Management uh division
has been uh really underfunded for for a
long time. And there's this sense that
um or I should say a little bit of
concern in local like jurisdictions that
you know the state will will mostly keep
those keep those funds right and that it
won't really um come come down the way
that the feds are envisioning. And so I
think that is an advocacy opportunity.
You know um there is still so much that
is up in the air when it comes to FEMA,
right? like they were supposed to um
they have convened a council over the
last year that was uh to make
recommendations about how FEMA can
change, right? Uh that report was due in
December, but um it's gotten delayed
till to March of this year. So, we're
kind of holding our breath waiting to
see until March to see what actually um
comes to fruition with FEMA. But we do
know, right, that like staff we do know
staff reductions are happening at FEMA.
That's for something that's for certain,
right? But the actual um future of what
yeah those block grants look like or how
that might um that money might be
repurposed to local jurisdictions I
think is what we're all kind of holding
our breath for. So yeah, thank you for
flagging that, Council Member Mertz.
>> I I just know that being glass half
full, the idea here is I'm going to pick
on another state, right? Florida's
needed insurance reform, hurricane
insurance reform for decades, and they
haven't had to do it because they've
papered over the problem with FEMA money
every time a hurricane comes through.
Right. So, again, playing glass half
full um and giving the benefit of the
doubt. You know, the hope is that with
this the the grant, you know, going to
block grants, it'll cause states then to
have an incentive to fix their houses,
you know, so to speak, with insurance
and and whatnot. So, it just seems like
>> tracking that and seeing how that
impacts our legislative agenda and
making sure, you know, there's very few
cities that have the the kind of uh both
both this earthquake and the wildfire
risk, right?
>> There there aren't many cities in
Washington state that have our risk uh
level.
>> So, making sure that the state does the
things that they need to do to put their
house in order for when the time comes.
You know, it's a shame if we can't count
on FEMA the way we used to count on
FEMA. But if that means we need to count
on the state and ask the state to step
up more, then we need to count on the
state and ask them to step up more.
>> That's a that's a great um option I
think opportunity. So yeah, thanks
thanks for sharing that. Um so the next
area for growth is really after action
item followup from from the flooding and
from the bomb cyclone that we that we've
recently had. you know, we have a lot of
items that we could that we've learned
that we could grow in, right? But we um
just admittedly don't always have all
the all the time and all the staff
capability to chase down and pull all
those, you know, threads and make sure
that, you know, we're fully implementing
our lessons learned. So, that's an area
for growth really deepening EOC
emergency operations center subject
matter expert bench strength, right?
Like, so as mentioned, you know, I'm a
division of one, right? And I'm I'm the
full-time nerd, you know, for for
emergency management, right? And so
while we have people who are highly
capable of operating the EOCC that are
not me, right? Um having another person
too, right? That really has the time to
invest um to to really understand these
systems, the intricacies, um I think is
something that would be a boon to the
city, if you will. expanding
interjurisdictional mutual aid. So, um
we can lean on other jurisdictions and
and their emergency management staff as
well um to as a way to make ourselves
more resilient, right? We have we have
neighbors and as council member Martz
mentioned, you know, has um we have a
lot of risks and sometimes a lot of
things happen in Isqua that are not
happening in other jurisdictions, right?
And so what we can do, you know, with
with more resources is actually train up
other jurisdiction staff on h how to
operate in our EOC um within our
structure. Other jurisdictions do it.
Kirkland's a good example. They invite
all like kind of neighboring emergency
managers once a year to come and learn
exactly just the I mean it's all instant
command system, but learn the nuances of
their of their EOC. And um that's
something right I see as an opportunity
for us too.
um in terms of community preparedness.
So CERT are some of our you know real
community champions if you will of commu
of uh preparedness. So uh but they're
volunteers and we want to make sure that
they're engaged and we want to make sure
that they're passionate and continue to
be those um those voices in our
communities really sharing sharing about
uh disasters and how to get more
prepared. So we want to keep them
engaged with monthly engagements. So
that's bringing in, you know, PSSE to do
downwire training. That's, you know,
bringing in the speaker who's gone
through a wildfire in Eastern Washington
to share some of their high highlights,
right? So offering those things to our
CE uh members uh will only I think serve
us to kind of strengthen that that
advocate that we have in the community.
Neighborhood level education campaigns,
right? Like each uh Isqua is interesting
in the sense where each neighborhood has
a very unique risk profile, if you will,
right? So wildfire is a really big deal
in the highlands, squawk talis, right?
But flooding, you know, it's a it's a it
has a higher impact down here in the
valley, right? So kind of tailoring that
message, bringing that to a neighborhood
level, right? Um I think would be a
really good way that we could make our
community preparedness uh efforts just a
little bit more engaging, right, for
residents and really bring it to home.
Um increased offerings of citywide
trainings engagement. So I've mentioned
this a little bit too but just increase
the frequency right that we have these
uh these trainings. um in terms of risk
reduction. So uh mitigation strategy
implementation you'll you'll notice that
there's a lot of uh mitigation
strategies that are assigned to me in
the mitigation plan right but um as
mentioned you know it is it's mostly it
is me who mostly works on on many of
those and so having um having more help
implementing those and then really grant
writing right grants um many of those
applications are uh quite lengthy
technical ownorous and you know
sometimes you don't always get them
right so there's there's not that
return, but there's there's more grants
out there than we have the resources to
apply for. And so, you know, that's
another potential area that like um
future support could help us with,
right? We could actually have someone um
helping write more grant applications
for seismic infrastructure retrofits,
right? For wildfire, uh you know, um
evacuation route studies, things like
that. you know, try to take advantage of
those big pots of money, you know, that
are that are actually out there. So, um,
those are some of the areas that I see,
right, as potential areas for growth,
but I would love to hear, um, the
committee's thoughts on on just, uh, the
emergency management program, some of
the areas for growth, and really where
where we're going now. So,
>> Deputy Council President Smarts, do you
want to do any more foot stomping?
I don't know about footsteping but um uh
because it's a topic we haven't been
discussed yet this evening but uh have
is part of emergency management um
hardening of our systems against uh uh
disaster um I'm I'm thinking here a
little bit about water and and uh uh
earthquakes but more specifically power
systems right my understanding is we
have four separate power systems in the
city and basically anytime anybody looks
sideways at us, Squawk Mountain loses
power, right? Because ours comes over
the mountain mountains from from the
east side. So, um have we looked at how
um you know, we have had over the last
20 years a number of multi-day
situations where squawk has lost power
for three, four, five, six days. Once
you get to like six days plus, you know,
food storage is a big issue and and and
whatnot. So I I don't see hardening of
uh of utilities in this list.
>> Yeah. You know, and that's where we have
opportunity to partner with PSSE on, you
know, being the the main provider. And
so I think our energy resilience
strategy does call out working with them
more and, you know, really advocating
and and seeing if there's opportunities
to collaborate, right? and and some of
those grants, you know, the
collaboration between private and public
uh entities are uh they help you, right?
And so really engaging PSSE and saying
like, hey, you know, if you if you are
willing to, right, we can chase this
this money together. So that's certainly
an area where we can um where we can
look into uh more and partner with PSSE.
>> Yeah, I think that would be I think that
would be important. I think there's been
a long conversation about in general the
quality frankly of the power in some
parts of the city but this whole system
of having four completely separate it's
it's great if those four systems um
backs stop each other but they don't
right
>> right it's just you get the one that you
get and if it goes out and it goes out
more on squawk than it does any place
else um you're just out of out of luck
for a while
>> so I think that would be an important
addition
>> to the
Anything else? Otherwise, I've got a ton
of notes. Um, first off, I would say I
really appreciate taking this moment to
sit in what are we doing for emergency
management? What are those three
category areas of risk reduction,
preparedness, and emergency response?
and what does the council and in this
case the services safety and parks
committee think are the important areas
of feedback for you? So I would say um
my priority is emergency response. Um I
think it's really important to recognize
that nobody can do that except for the
city. Nobody is going to be able to
seismically retrofit our infrastructure
so that all of the residents can be
insured that we can maintain ourselves
in the midst of an emergency. Um the
second is risk reduction. You know,
there's some things that individual
property owners can do, but a lot of
them again are city tasks, but sometimes
they're going to require additional
funding. And so that's why I would say
emergency response is really the bread
and butter, the thing that we need to do
as well as possible. And then finally,
community preparedness because community
members themselves can choose to do that
work. Um,
so when I'm looking at those three
categories for emergency response, I'd
like to get more information about our
plans for resilience hub expansion. Um,
I saw that being really important in the
bomb cyclone. Um, I know there have been
plans to do expansion into other
neighborhoods. I'd like to get a sense
of what the timeline is for that, what
actions we're taking, what needs we
might have in order to make that happen
faster because from my perspective,
that's a really important priority. Um,
I also agree with your idea that the
incident command center and uh the
emergency operation center, I probably
have some of those letters wrong. Um,
training plus afteraction follow-ups are
really important. I'd like to get a
sense if we have the budget and the
staff to support that. If not, I think
that is a really high priority for me to
understand how we can do that emergency
response better. Um because as you said,
you are one person and I know you have a
baby and you're going to get sick
and so having
a backup
in that case I feel is really important.
So the the cross trainining, the after
of action follow-ups and the sense of do
we have the staff um needed there is
important um for risk reduction, you
know, with the hazard mitigation plan.
We talked a little bit about this um as
far as could this be a separate part of
our CIP to bring awareness to the
investments needed and the
opportunities. But I'd also like to
think about our investments there in the
same way that we do the pavement
management and the concrete management
plan in that we have a sense of what are
the needs
>> and what investments do we need to do on
an annual basis
>> to maintain. So we not only have a sense
of what our entire needs are, but also
what's our target
>> for each of the years. And that helps us
then look at and go, oh, we had a really
rough year and we reduced some of our
spending in emergency management, so we
need to catch up there
>> rather than just seeing these as
necessarily individual projects. I think
this gives us a better sense of what are
the budgetary needs. Are we investing at
the correct level? Um,
and maybe are there different investment
needs within certain disaster
categories? Um, that would kind of give
us a higher level sense of to be fully
prepared for an earthquake.
>> Here's all of our needs. Here's what
we've done. to be prepared for flooding,
you know, and some of that is going to
be in the risk reduction section, some
of that is going to be in the emergency
response, etc., etc. Um,
and so toward that idea,
I think the focus on earthquakes and
wildfires is really important.
I will foot stomp here and say I don't
want to just see another plan for this.
I think the hazard mitigation plan gives
us some specific recommendations. And so
I'd really like to see action on some of
those so that we can say at the end of
that 3.8 years that look we've moved the
needle forward in these four areas and
this is why you're safer. Having a plan
doesn't necessarily do that. Um, now
it's probably going to be important in
the coordination of Isqua Police
Department and East Side Fire and Rescue
and our emergency operations center and
things like that. Um,
but gosh darn I want to say we have done
things and made a difference on specific
action. So that would be my focus. um in
that area. And then finally, I'd like to
see emergency management be a bigger
part of this committee's role. I think
this can be a really great way for us to
push this forward and make sure that it
is a focus. Um council member Nicker
Nichols when um talking about the hazard
mitigation plan recommended that we get
an annual report on hazard mitigation
metrics and progress. And so I think
that could be a great way to involve the
committee and make sure that we are just
continually beating the drum on how
important this is for resident safety,
for mitigation so that we're not seeing
expenses down the road, um, and for
really making sure that we have the risk
reduction there. So
feedback, any any thoughts, questions
on that or do you have what you need?
You know, I think that that sounds great
and I think that's a that's a great
vision honestly for of how we can, you
know, not just make an emergency
management um you know, like shelf and
just pull it down when we have an
emergency, right? But make it part of
the regular business that we do in the
city. And so I very much thank you for
that feedback and um definitely heard
and I personally feel like I got really
good direction um from the committee
tonight on on where to go with emergency
management. So thank you both.
>> Great. So I don't think there's any
action here. I guess I will um do a
little side eye to deputy council
president Martz in that this was
something that leadership council
leadership asked us to discuss here so
that it could then kind of filter
through and we could figure out maybe in
our planning and our agenda setting what
are some of the things that we should
focus on. So, I will hope that we can
get the feedback from council leadership
that all of this was useful and there is
an action that this is going to take in
the future once you guys have digested
it all.
>> I don't think there's anything here that
uh I I don't think there's anything here
that council leadership can go chew on
to go do a particular thing. I think
that we have made clear um that we the
annex makes sense and that we are
properly sensitized to wildfire and
earthquake issues. And I think that the
two of us have made super clear with
council member Nichols um concurrence
that we want to see progress on all
this. So respectfully, I don't think the
ball's in the council's court. I think
the ball is in the administration's
court with this feedback um to figure
out how and when um it wants to come
back to tea up um
you know uh whether there's going to be
an ask directly of council from general
fund or whether you want to say we want
to take six months and try to pursue
grants you know but I I see it as a
thing that for the administration to
come back based on the feedback we've
provided today. Yeah, maybe I'll just
ask that if you'll keep an eye on the
agenda as it gets set and just, you
know, think about emergency management
occasionally. Uh,
>> you know, I do.
>> I know you do. And I'm giving you, you
know, the
>> as the committee chair, I will, uh, I
will, uh, seek to, uh, to perform that
task as part of being a leader, part of
the leadership team.
>> Excellent. Um, Autumn, anything that you
need from us on this other than the
general feedback and sense of urgency?
>> No, the feedback tonight's been super
helpful. Thank you.
>> Okay. Excellent. Well, um, we are
supposed to also initiate public comment
um, in a sense of this, but there is no
one in the room and no one online.
>> No, we we have had a virtual caller for
a while. Yes. Okay, we have a virtual
caller. So, I will just note um that we
would welcome public comment. If you're
on the phone, press star three. If you
joined by computer or smartphone, look
for the hand icon or send a chat to the
host. And I will just wait a moment and
see if we have anybody who wants to make
comments
virtually online.
And are we seeing anything?
>> Not at this time, chair.
>> Okay. Well, we always take um comments
by email. So, you can always email city
council isawwa.gov.
And so, that is all of the pieces there.
Um, final piece of business,
announcements. Do my fellow committee
members have any announcements to make?
No. Okay. Our next committee meeting
date is April 28th uh 2026. Our March
17th meeting has been cancelled and a
planning, development, and environment
committee meeting will be held that
evening instead. And so there being no
further business, the meeting is
adjourned at 8:36 p.m.
Thank you.