Title
Disaster Council Meeting Highlights of January 27, 2012
Body
CITY OF SAN LEANDRO
SAN LEANDRO DISASTER COUNCIL
Friday, January 27, 2012
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
San Leandro Senior Community Center
13090 East 14th Street
San Leandro, California
HIGHLIGHTS
Committee Members: Vice Mayor Michael Gregory; SLzUSD Board Member Isabel Polvorosa; Marla Blagg, Christy DeMaria, ACFD; Cary Neaback, Alameda County OES/OHS; Ali Cannon, SLUSD; Karen Langmaid, Dan Bates, SLzUSD; Lars Eric Holm, CARD; Aaron Rezendez, PG&E; Terry Garrison, Alameda County Schools
City staff present: Jacqui Diaz, Interim Assistant City Manager; Luke Sims, Community Development Director Kathy Ornelas, Community Relations Representative
Public present: Mitch Huitema; Jason Sweeney, Daily Review
The meeting was called to order at 8:35 a.m.
1. Self Introductions
Members of the Disaster Council introduced themselves and the agencies they represent.
2. Sub-committee Report on Discussion Regarding Establishing Emergency Shelters at School Sites
Kathy Ornelas reported that the sub-committee of City staff, representatives of both School Districts and the Red Cross continues to meet to discuss the process of opening an emergency shelter at a school site. The City and school districts have been reviewing the MOU requested by the Red Cross for use of facilities as shelters, and have been updating building surveys of the sites that potentially could be used as shelters.
Terry Garrison, who is staff to the Alameda County Office of Education and is tasked with helping all schools in the county maintain emergency plans and readiness, has agreed to present a table top exercise in the coming months for the City, schools and the Red Cross to give a practical understanding of how a shelter will be established at a school. She would like to include neighboring school districts, charter and private schools in the exercise to get as many trained as possible, and to establish relationships between the agencies for mutual assistance should it be needed in an emergency response.
Staff met with Terry after the meeting. She agreed to check with both School Districts' calendars to find a suitable date for the exercise, which will hopefully be in May. The City has agreed to host the exercise at the Marina Community Center, depending upon the Center's availability.
3. Discussion on Goal Setting for 2012
The group brainstormed on topics and projects that the Disaster Council could consider for future meetings. Given that this calendar year will be nearly half over by the time the next Disaster Council meeting occurs in April, it was agreed that the discussion could go beyond 2012 for topics to consider.
The list of topics is attached to these highlights. The group will continue discussion of these items at the April 2012 meeting to establish which items should be scheduled for each future meeting.
4. Committee Member Comments (Roundtable)
Marla Blagg introduced Christy DeMaria as ACFD's new CERT Coordinator. She is facilitating the six-week CERT training class in San Leandro that started this month. More than 90 residents are participating at this time. The group asked what neighborhoods in San Leandro are represented in the class. As follow-up after the meeting, Christy reported that those participants who identified themselves from a particular neighborhood listed the Broadmoor, Mulford Gardens and Washington Manor. Marla further discussed with the group how, in the future, the City and ACFD might collaborate on promoting the Map Your Neighborhood project further in the community.
Lars Eric Holm from CARD commented on the importance of communication with parents, and that training is equally important for school staff for their own home preparedness planning.
Karen Langmaid from SLzUSD reported that the District is looking to expand training of their staff at all levels, not just for disaster response.
Dan Bates from SLzUSD commented that he recently attended training for addressing the needs of students with special needs, and how important it is to include disaster response planning for residents with special needs.
Kathy Ornelas reported that an EOC drill is planned on March 16 for City EOC personnel. It will be a real-time drill in that EOC participants will receive notification that "a disaster has just occurred" and will be ordered to report to the EOC to determine how long it takes the organization to get the EOC up and operational after an emergency has occurred.
Vice Mayor Gregory concurred that the real-time drill concept is valuable and should be considered for schools, students and parents as well.
5. Public Comments
Mitch Huitema, a resident of the Broadmoor neighborhood and parent of a student at Roosevelt Elementary School, commented on the complexities of getting parents prepared to support the schools following an emergency and coordination of release of students to authorized family representatives. She emphasized how important drills are to get people trained.
6. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 a.m., with consensus that the next meeting will be scheduled for Friday, April 27, 2012.
San Leandro Disaster Council Goals/Projects for 2012 & 2013
(these are listed in no particular order)
· Create a directory of critical emergency response partners and partners within the Disaster Council and share with all members.
· Identify active CERT groups in San Leandro. Expand CERT to all neighborhoods.
· Provide copies of emergency plans and emergency contact rosters for all Disaster Council members and share with all members.
· Share information about redundant information and communication systems used by the member agencies.
· Establish a training calendar listing trainings being offered by member agencies and emergency response partners.
· Provide a table-top exercise for HAM/RACES radio operators from member agencies. Report to the Disaster Council when trainings occur.
· Schedule an overview of the HAM/RACES/AERES operations with member agencies.
· Coordinate a full functional EOC exercise to coincide with the next county-wide exercise.
· School Preparedness:
o Help schools to organize fundraising for emergency supplies for schools and for education materials for families.
o Reach out to charter and private schools to include them in the Disaster Council.
o Schedule a presentation by Roosevelt School and parents' group to hear about their preparedness planning/
o Discuss non-traditional ways of addressing the need for emergency preparedness support for the schools and students.