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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 307-07Pal C ty a ager s TO: FROM: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENTS: CITY MANAGER’ S OFFICE FIRE DEPARTMENT POLICE DEPARTMENT DATE: 3ULY 16, 2007 CMR:307:07 SUBJECT: RECOM~MENDATION FROM POLICY .A~ND SERVICES COMMITTEE TO ADOPT EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN RECOMMENDATION The Policy & Services Committee and staff recommend that the City Council adopt the City’s revised Emergency Operations Plan as presented with this report (Attachment A) and direct staff to return by December 2007 with amendments to the plan to incorporate additional information addressing community, notification and neighborhood preparedness. BACKGROUND On May 8 and June 26, the Policy & Services Committee reviewed drafts of the City’s Emergency Operations Plan and received comments from members of the public. The two reports to the Committee and the minutes are attached to this report (Attachments B and C). DISCUSSION The Committee discussed the draft plan at the May- 8 and June 26 meetings and voted 4-0 on June 26 to recommend the plan to the Council for adoption. Staff responded to public comments made during the meetings and incorporated additional information into the plan, as appropriate. Staff has specifically identified some areas that will require additiona! work with the community over the next few months to address concerns that have arisen. These issues include: work with Palo Alto Neighborhoods on neighborhood preparedness and incorporation of the Bloc~eighborhood Preparedness Coordinator concepts into the City’s response plans; community notification procedures resulting from implementation of the new- Community Alerting System and furore discussions with the Barron Park neighborhood; and response to an3’ recommendations stemming from the work of the Palo Alto/Stanford Red Ribbon Task Force on Disaster Planning. CMR: 307:07 Page 1 of 2 It is important for the City to adopt this revised emergency plan because it meets new requirements put into place after 2001. The City’s current plan is almost ten years old. Without an adopted and updated plan, the City will not be eligible for federa! funding should a major earthquake or other disaster occur. The plan presented in Attachment A addresses the key federal and state requirements for local emergency plans and is tailored to Palo Alto’s unique conditions and circumstances. RESOURCE IMPACT Resource impacts associated with emergency preparedness and updating/maintaining the City’s Emergency Operations Plan were identified in the May 8, 2007 Policy & Services Committee report on this topic. POLICY IMPLICATIONS This report is consistent with existing City policies and with the Council’s desi~o-nation of emergency preparedness/planning as a top priority for FY2007/08. ENWIRONMENTAL REVIEW This is not a project requiring environmental review- under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Attachment A: Attachment B: Attachment C: April 24, 2007 Policy & Services Committee Report and draft May 8, 2007 Minutes (April 24 meeting cancelled - item continued to May- 8, 2007 meeting) June 26, 2007 Policy & Services Committee Report Draft City of Palo Alto Emergency Operations Plan - June 2007 (CD- ROM only; hard copies available in the City Clerk’ s Office) PREPARED BY: Kelly Morariu Assistant to the City Manager APPROVED BY:NICK MARINARO FIRE CHIEF CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: LYN2qE JOHNSON POLICE CHIEF HARRISON ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER CMR: 307:07 Page 2 of 2 - At~acl~ent A TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL ATTN:POLICY AND SERVICES COMMITTEE FROM: CITY MANAGER DEPARTMENTS: CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE FIRE DEPARTM_ENT POLICE DEPARTMENT DATE: APR~ 24, 2007 CMR:213:07 SUBJECT: REVIEW OF DRAFT EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN RECOS~MENDATION Staff recommends that the Policy & Services Committee review and recommend to the City Council for approval, with any suggested changes, the City’s revised Emergency Operations Plan. BACKGROUND Section 2.12.080 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code outlines the requirements for the preparation and adoption of an emergency plan for the City. The Fire Department has primary responsibility for preparation of this plan, which must be adopted by Council resolution. Local governments in California are required to develop and maintain emergency plans that provide for the effective mobilization of city resources to respond to declared emergencies. These plans must follow the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS), which enhances inter-agency disaster response coordination. The creation of this system stemmed from the Oakland Hills fires in the early 1990s where inadequate inter-agency coordination led to undesirable outcomes. The City’s emergency organizational structure must comply with SEMS requirements to ensure eligibility for state funding of emergency response-related costs. More recently, in February 2003, the President issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5, which mandated the Secretary of Homeland Security develop and administer the National Incident Management System (NIMS). This federal system provides for a consistent nationwide approach to disaster response at the local, state and federal levels that complements and builds upon the current California SEMS model. All agencies within the United States are required to comply with the NIMS guidelines in order to receive federal funding for disaster planning, CMR: 213:07 Page 1 of 5 training, response and recovery.Compliance with the guidelines also ensures the City’s eligibility for state disaster funds. The City Council adopted the current Emergency Management Plan on January 11, 1999. The adoption of this plan brought the City into compliance with the SEMS model of emergency organization. The emergency plan is the official document that describes the City’s responsibilities and the processes used to carry out emergency operations. Since 1999, the City has updated its plan to reflect responses to and planning for new types of local and national disasters that have occurred. In 2000, the Severe Winter Storm and Earthquake annexes were added to the plan. Following the 2001 terrorist attacks, the City completed a Terrorism Annex to the plan. The creation of the new National Response Plan (NRP) and the NIMS federal emergency organization model has necessitated a more comprehensive update to the City’s emergency plan. The federal government created guidelines for local government compliance with the NIMS requirements in December 2005. Since then, City staff have been working to update the emergency plan. On February 12, 2007, the Council reviewed an outline of the plan document as well as particular sections of the plan related to the Council’s role as representatives of the City during a disaster and community-partnerships/coordination. Comments received during that meeting are incorporated into the revised draft of the plan. DISCUSSION Attachment A to this report provides the Council with the draft Emergency Operations Plan as of March 2007. This plan follows state and federal guidelines for organization and content. Most elements of the plan are standardized in nature and are consistent with other local government plans. The plan is organized in the following fashion: !. Introduction A.Background and assumptions B.Scope C.Authorities and references 2.Hazard Analyses 3.Concept of Operations Phase I: Phase II: A. B. C. D. Phase III: A. B. C. D. Preparedness Response Activation of Emergency Plan/Emergency Operations Center Alert, notification and implementation process Leadership/Continuity of government NIMS- and SEMS-based emergency organization and functions Recovery Operations Concept of operations and organization Damage/safety assessments Documentation Disaster Field Office (DFO) CMR: 213:07 Page 2 of 5 E.Disaster assistance programs F.Disaster Assistance Centers G.After-Action/Corrective Action Reporting Phase IV: Mitigation/Prevention Training and Exercising Multi-Year Strategy Program Management Annexes A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I.-Q. R. Glossary Council emergency procedures Operational checklists Emergency Operations Center (EOC) procedures Local Hazard Mitigation Plan Recovery phase information City Attorney templates Organizational charts Hazard-specific annexes Maps The City has chosen several areas of the plan on which to place additional emphasis, namely the Council’s emergency roles and procedures, community alert/notification procedures, and community coordination. Annex B of the plan presents a revised draft of the Council’s emergency procedures that incorporates comments made at the February 12 meeting. It is important for the City to adopt this revised emergency plan because it meets the new requirements put into place after 2001. The City’s current plan is almost ten years old. Without an adopted and updated plan, the City will not be eligible for federal funding should a major earthquake or other disaster occur. This draft plan addresses the key federal and state requirements for local emergency plans and is tailored to Pato Atto’s unique conditions and circumstances. Staff recommends that the Policy & Services Committee provide comments on this draft and recommend approval of the plan to the City Council. Staff will incorporate comments made into the final draft presented to Council. If there are other important, but non-required emergency planning elements, that the Council committee members feel are not sufficiently addressed or are missing from this EOP, staff would like to identify those supplemental elements and develop a timeline for returning to Council following adoption of this required plan. Communitw Preparedness and Response Plannin~ One supplemental element already identified will be a community response plan. Recognizing the importance to the City of community partnerships and coordination, staff recommends creating a separate community response plan that stems from and supplements the concepts in the City’s Emergency Operations Plan to address community participation in disaster planning and response efforts. This plan will look at all phases of emergency preparation and planning from the Community"s, rather than the City’s perspective, and could address, among other issues, the role of volunteers in a disaster (both spontaneous and registered), the future of the Citizen Corps Council, partnerships with the business community, and the Red Ribbon Task CMR: 213:07 Page 3 of 5 Force and any successor goups. The community plan could also focus on ways to enhance community alert/notification procedures. At the March 1 Red Ribbon Task Force meeting, staff presented information regarding the City’s response capabilities during a major disaster and also discussed the idea of creating a subcommittee to work on the community response plan. Staff recommends that the Council move forward with the adoption of the City’s EOP as presented in Attachment A and allow the deve!opment of a community response plan to continue on a separate timeline. RESOURCE IMPACT While staff believes that the interdepartmental Steering Committee for emergency preparedness is still the most effective approach to emergency and disaster planning, it has become clear in the past year that resources are stretched to achieve what is required in this area with current staffing. The temporary addition of contract staffing in the Police Department and City Manager’s Office has been helpful. However, the Police Department staff work has focused primarily on homeland security and the contract in the Manager’s Office is very limited in scope and duration. Staff will be evaluating the adequacy of resources in this area during the 2007-09 budget process. Staff is working with School District staff on plans for an alternate Emergency Operations Center (EOC). As discussions progress, staff may identify infrastructure and equipment needs for outfitting this alternate EOC. Staff is also investigating the cost and space requirements for storing emergency food and water supplies for employees during a disaster of varying len~hs. Staff received a preliminary report before the holidays on these issues from a specialized consultant and will be analyzing the options for proceeding with this type of emergency supply procurement. The City must also periodically update its emergency plan in accordance with State guidelines. The update process requires a significant staff time commitment from numerous departments. This process can also identify areas where disaster planning or training is deficient, leading to requests for additional resources. POLICY IM_PLICATIONS This report is consistent with existing City policies and with the Council’s desig-nation of emergency preparedness/planning as a top priority for 2006 and 2007. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW This is not a project requiring environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Attachment A:Draft City of Pato Alto Emergency Operations Plan (distributed with the April !6, 2007 Council packet- additional copies available in the City Manager’s Office for review-) CMR: 213:07 Page 4 of 5 PREPARED BY: Kelly Morariu Assistant to the City Manager APPROVED BY: NICK MAR1NARO FIRE CHIEF LYNNE JOHNSON POLICE CHIEF CITY lVLANAGER APPROVAL: EMILY I-L&RRIS ON ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER CMR: _1a:07 Page 5 of 5 Special Meeting May 8, 2007 Chairperson Cordell called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. in the Council Conference Room, 250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, California. Present:Barton, Cordell, Drekmeier, Kleinberg (6:10 p.m.) Absent: 1.Oral Communications None. 2. Review of DrafL Emergency Operations Plan Assistant to the City Manager Kelly Morariu said it was important for the City to have an updated and adopted plan that incorporated the National ::Incident Management Systems (N:I:MS) requirements, which helped to insure the City maintained eligibility for Federal funding. Staff recognized there were some elements of the Emergency Operations Plan that could be enhanced, primarily around community notification and alerting and that staff would continue to work on these elements over the next six months. The recommendation was that the Policy and Services (P&S) Committee provide comments and recommend that the Council adopt the Plan. Council Member Cordell asked staff what had been ddne with communication and what was the plan. Ms. Morariu said staff did a lot of work with notification to neighborhoods. Staff wanted to make sure the plan addressed the concerns of the neighborhood associations. Council Member Cordell asked how closely staff worked with the neighborhood associations and the timeframe. 07/05/08 P&S:I Ms. lVlorariu said staff is working with a subcommittee to focus on the community coordination efforts, The subcommittee included neighborhood leaders and volunteers and it was estimated that the work would take six to nine months. Council Member Drekmeier asked whether the Chili Cook Off and other events would be included in the outreach. Ms. Morariu said neighborhoods were planning the Chili Cook Off as a separate event from the Emergency Plan preparation. Council Member Drekmeier asked about the timeline for the new phone notification system. Police Department Technical Services Coordinator Sheryl Contois said vendor demonstrations were completed last week for the two final vendors, and staff was meeting with neighborhood groups and City personnel. A recommendation would go back to the Council on June 4, 2007, as to which system would be selected. Implementation would be approximately 30 days following Council’s approval of the contract. Chair Barton asked how the plan would be disseminated and who would be trained to use the plan. Ms. IVlorariu said the introduction section of the plan included a distribution list of all the neighboring agencies in the County Office of Emergency Services. Emergency Manager Barbara Cimino said Emergency Operations Center (EOC) training had begun on many aspects of the plan. Exercising the entire plan would be through the Golden Guardian Exercise on November :[4, 2007. Chair Barton asked whether there would be the ability for the City to find out what worked and did not work in other disasters such as the tornado in Kansas. Ms. Cimino said she was a member of the International Association of Emergency Managers who collected all after-action reports. She would share that information with the Fire and Police Chiefs. After the reports were reviewed, best practices were implemented. The State provided guidance on some of the best practices. 07105/08 P&S:2 Chair Barton said he heard that the National Guard in Kansas was not able and trained to respond in the way it should have been and asked whether there was anything in the Plan about the National Guard. Ms. Cimino said the Plan addressed people brought in during the EOC training and drills. Cities were limited within regulations, policies and guidelines that were state-driven in order to access the National Guard. Council Member Kleinberg said she had been at a meeting where they were discussing the response to the Kansas tornadoes. The search and rescue team from Menlo Park had difficulty getting help in Kansas. She questioned the current status of operability and the situation in terms of back up for operability of communications. Ms. Contois said Palo Alto had primary and backup channels that had broad ranges of coverages. The equipment was backed up by an uninterruptible power supply. The City was part of a set of regional radio channels that could be moved at the State level or through Countywide access. The City had back up plans by way of telephone capabilities and computer dispatch systems that gave information sharing capabilities. The City had solid mutual aid plans within the Fire Department and Fire Service that supported the City’s communications capabilities. The City would have vulnerabilities in a catastrophic event, but the City was better than most because of the backup capabilities. Council Member Kleinberg questioned the results of a catastrophic event. Ms. Contois said the communications capabilities withstood the Loma Prieta Earthquake. There was no loss of the communications system. Council Member Kleinberg said that Greensburg, Kansas, did not expect a catastrophic event and wondered how Paio Alto planned for a catastrophic event. Ms. Contois said in terms of communications capability, a catastrophic event would be an event such as Katrina that annihilated or removed the entire radio infrastructure in the region, which would include Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, and San Mateo County. There were five other cities in Santa Clara County that operated in the same radio spectrum as Palo Alto. Council Member Kleinberg asked whether the five cities would be vulnerable to communications failure if there were a major earthquake with flood and fire. 07/05/08 P&S:3 Ms. Contois said the City operated in five different bands of the spectrum that existed for public safety within Santa Clara County. There were approximately 60 radio channels between Police and Fire that provided immediate access. Palo Alto had existing microwave systems that created loops and rings of communication capabilities with other jurisdictions. Sharing radios with neighboring cities was important. Palo Alto had satellite phone capability that was directly connected to the State of California. Council Member Kleinberg asked what would be done to insure the official responders were willing to use volunteers. Ms. Cimino said there would be a spontaneous volunteer center plan program where volunteers were trained to run the center, perform the intake, and look at credentials. Council Member Kleinberg said she wanted to know about the use of volunteers prior to a disaster and what was done regarding the skill sets of the volunteers. Ms. Cimino said the Disaster Service Worker Volunteer Guidance Book included a list of classifications that could be covered in the field. Council Member Kleinberg suggested a monthly updated list of people with certain skill sets such as construction, engineering or medical. IVls. Cimino said a Statewide meeting would be held in the Bay Area on May 11, 2007 to identify criteria to determine credentialing for volunteers. Once the credentialing was set by the State, the cities would start the data bases for volunteers. Council Member Kleinberg asked how long the process would take. Ms. Cimino said the City did not want to go off in the wrong direction. The deadline to get the information to the State was July 14, 2007. Police Chief Lynne Johnson said in the case of a major disaster, credentials would not be required. The relationship with the neighborhood associations would be important because the neighborhood coordinators would be the ones who had the list of people in their neighborhoods who were in construction or were architects, and that information would be relayed to the City. Council Member Kleinberg asked whether there would be liability issues from the Police Department. 07/05/08 P&S:4 Ms. ]ohnson said there might be but in an emergency situation it would be more important to consider saving lives. Council Member Kleinberg asked about the City’s plans for Mental Health services for the newly homeless or foster care for children. Ms. Cimino said that the long term recovery would be an issue. The City would work with all the community based organizations (CBOs) to help the vulnerable populations. On May 23, 2007, all the CBOs from Palo Alto and throughout the County were invited to a day long workshop at NASA on how to coordinate with cities after a disaster. Council Member Kleinberg asked about plans for housing people or providing mental health and medical services to people. Ms. Cimino said tents would be set up to house people on a temporary basis. Ms. _Johnson said the City had a lot of work to do especially with medical and mental health. A concern was what would happen with Santa Clara County cutting mental health services drastically. Council Member Kleinberg said the City could have amateur neighborhood helpers who had a minimal amount of sensitivity training such as teachers. Her understanding was the City of Menlo Park offered Palo Alto the use of sharing its EOC. Ms..Johnson said most of the people on the Emergency Preparedness Steering Committee toured the Menlo Park facility and would recommend use of the facility as a back up. The facility had a significant number of tents and other necessary equipment. Fire Chief Nick Marinaro said the question remained as to whether the Menlo Park facility was seismically safe as an essential services facility. Discussions had been held with the School District who offered use of the new addition at Gunn High School. Menlo Park’s EOC would be beneficial as a regional site, and the issue needed to be resolved. Council Member Kleinberg said she wanted the Menlo Park issue resolved as soon as possible in order to move any related costs into the current budget cycle. Mr. IVlarinaro said the estimated cost was $7,500. 07/05/08 P&S:5 Council Member Kleinberg said she was interested in how the City could move to a training module for the PANDAs to handle a pandemic flu. Ms. Cimino said the cities and Health Department met two weeks prior to go through the Train the Trainer module for a pandemic flu module. Doug Moran, 790 IVlatadero Avenue, said the plan was heavily oriented toward the EOC. The plan was to train the general staff with the assumption of having an army. The conversation about communications appeared to be about communications between City workers without a strong sense of communication with the residents. The City needed people who knew how to react and understood the philosophy of what was going on. Annette Ashton, 2747 Bryant Street, referred to pages 48 and 48 of the draft Emergency Operations Plan which mentioned other organizations but did not mention the neighborhood associations. An in-depth list should be included when the plan was revised. A vision statement would be needed for the whole planning effort including how the community became involved. An ongoing organization accountable for planning was suggested. The City needed to recognize the roles of the block preparedness coordinators. The use of spontaneous volunteers should be encouraged and organized. More work needed to be done on the process and protocol during disasters. Arthur Keller, 3881 Corina Way, said he heard there might be lists of people who wanted to volunteer. Maintaining current lists of doctors, nurses or architects was not realistic. Policies and procedures needed to be created for communication so that residents could be resources rather than liabilities. Identifying needs that might exist and identifying where people would self assemble would be helpful. Alice Smith, 4284 Los Palos Avenue, said she organized her neighborhood and provided them with the draft Emergency Operations Plan. Fifteen residents from her neighborhood organization volunteered to become block captains. Having a detailed inventory of what was available in the neighborhoods was important but people needed to know how to use the information effectively. Council Member Cordell said the Emergency Operation Plan was before the Policy and Services (P&S) Committee for review and suggested that the P&S Committee take action at the next meeting to recommend adoption by the Council. Staff was asked to remind the P&S Committee whether the comments made by the community were incorporated in the plan. An e-mail was received from Art Lieberman who raised good issues regarding hazardous material 07/05/08 P&S:6 incidents. Staff was asked whether it had an opportunity to look at his suggestions. Ms. Morariu said she would forward Mr. Lieberman’s comments to the Fire Marshal, Council Member Cordell asked for a report back regarding staff’s follow up of Mr. Lieberman’s comments. Mr. Keller’s comments about communication with the residents needed further input. Ms. Morariu said the intent was to include communication with neighborhood association leaders. Council Member Cordell questioned when the plan would return to the P&S Committee, noting that the agenda indicated, "Review of Draft Emergency Operations Plan." Chair Barton clarified the P&S Committee could recommend the Plan to the Council for approval with comments and additional changes. City Attorney Gary Baum said that was correct. Council Member Drekmeier said the P&S Committee should review the Plan again prior to recommending approval to the Council. Council Member Kleinberg said she was concerned about verbiage of the Council’s role. References were made in the staff report (CMR:213:07) about limitations on the Council’s involvement and that the Council’s responsibilities would be programmed. The Mayor and Vice Mayor would provide calming leadership. Chair Barton said a neighborhood organization would be more effective if a disaster were to occur during the evening or a weekend. During the weekdays, the neighborhood organizations would have some value. Ms. Cimino said people had to take care of their own homes that might be damaged, Chair Barton asked when theitem would return to the P&S Committee. Ms. Morariu said meeting dates would be discussed at the end of the meeting. 3. Recommendations for Council Term Commencement Following Elections 07/05/08 P&S:7 Attachment B TO:HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL ATTN: POLICY AND SERVICES COMMITTEE FROM: CITY 5IANAGER DEPARTMENTS: CITY MA_NAGER’S OFFICE FIRE DEPARTMENT POLICE DEPARTMENT DATE: JUNE 26, 2007 CMR:284:07 SUBJECT: CONSIDERATION OF DRAFT EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN AND RECOS~clENDATION TO COUNCIL ON ADOPTION OF THE PLAN RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that the Policy & Services Committee review and recommend to the Ci~ Council for approval, with any suggested changes, the City’s revised Emergency Operations Plan. BACKGROUND The City Council adopted the current Emergency Management Plan on January, 11, 1999. The adoption of that plan brought the City into compliance with the SEMS model of emergency organization. The emergency plan is the official document that describes the City’s responsibilities and the processes used to carry out emergency operations. Since 1999, the City has updated its plan to reflect responses to and planning for new- types of local and national disasters that have occurred. In 2000, the Severe Winter Storm and Earthquake annexes were added to the plan. Following the 2001 terrorist attacks, the City, completed a Terrorism Annex to the plan. The creation of the new National Response Plan (NRP) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) federal emergency organization model has necessitated a more comprehensive update to the City’s emergency plan. The federal government created guidelines for local government compliance with the NIMS requirements in December 2005. Since then, City staff have been working to update the emergency plan. On May 8, the Policy & Services Committee reviewed a revised draft of the plan and received comments from members of the public. The Committee asked staff to return with a new draft of the plan that incorporated both the public and Council comments where appropriate. This report CMR: 284:07 Page 1 of 5 provides an overview of the comments received and how staff has or will address these comments. The attached draft of the Emergency Operations Plan (Attachment A) incorporates edits as described below. DISCUSSION The following section provides staff’s response to the key public and Council comments received at the May 8 Policy & Services Committee meeting. Copies of the original correspondence received in advance of the meeting are included as Attachment B. Typographical corrections: Corrected the Palo Alto Neighborhoods (PAN) website address on page 79. Corrected the spelling of plume in Annex L, page 2. Added PAN to the list of community notification entities on page 49. ~(aterial suggestions." 1)Media notification of State and Federal officials of problems in Palo Alto - There was a suggestion that the City’s plan should include outreach efforts to media outlets outside of the Bay Area to ensure that Palo Alto receives attention and coverage. Staff a~ees that this may be important in large regional disasters where media attention will focus on San Francisco and San Jose. To address this issue, staff has inserted the following paragaph on page 49 of the plan: "Depending on the nature of the event, PIO staff will identify the extent of any media outreach. A list of media contacts is maintained in the EOC. In a major event, an outreach effort may expand beyond traditional media outlets in the Bay Area to include other public agencies outside the Bay Area, other public information professionals, the Red Cross and others. Each event will warrant a strategic analysis of the most appropriate and effective mechanisms for accomplishing the City’s public information goals. These event-specific public information goals will become part of the incident action plan for the event." 2)Comments regarding hazardous material incidents - The second document included in Attachment B contains several concerns and comments about the characterization of hazardous materials incidents and response. Staff has placed special emphasis on the edits to the Hazardous Materials Incidents Hazard Analysis section and Annex L of the Emergency Operations Plan. Attachment C to this report is a strike-through version of these two sections that identifies the edits made. In reviewing the comments made related to hazardous materials response, it is important to explain the context of the Emergency Operations Plan. The EOP is a broad policy document that establishes the framework for City disaster response. Each operating department then deve!ops its specific department operating plans and guidelines based on the context set by the EOP. CMR: 284:07 Page 2 of 5 The Fire Department serves as the first responder for any- hazardous materials incident. The department maintains a variety of local, state and federal documents that establish the response standards and guidelines for line personnel. The comment made regarding the identification of who has "responsibility for responding to what" is an appropriate question and has been clarified in the plan. The Fire Department is responsible for incident command, scene management, hazard control, containment and mitigation of hazardous materials incidents until the staff is relieved by another agency having jurisdiction over the event. With hazardous materials response (or any type of emergency response), it is very challenging to create a laundry list of "typical" incidents and the anticipated response to these incidents. Each incident would need to be modeled individually depending on factors including: time of day-, prevailing winds, type of release, etc. It is more reasonable to establish a general framework for emergency response that will allow adaptability to many different types of emergency situations. This is what the draft EOP attempts to accomplish. Staff from the City Manager’s Office and Fire Department are currently working with the Barron Park neighborhood and CPI to develop a mutually a~eeable notification and response plan for hazardous materials incidents in this neighborhood. Elements of this plan may be applicable to other hazardous materials situations and may be included in the EOP at a later date. The City will most likely not receive notification of any type of hazardous material release until severa! minutes after it has occurred. It may take up to another six minutes before any first responders arrive on scene. It is therefore incumbent on residents to have appropriate shelter in place equipment and training for these types of emergencies. City staff understand the significance of this issue but currently have limited, if any, enforcement mechanisms for requiring businesses to expand notification and response procedures. Facilitative problem solving involving both the affected businesses and the neighborhoods is the best approach for resolving these issues. The City can and will, as was suggested in the comments, identify- ways to educate the public about appropriate shelter in place procedures. In addition to working specifically with the Barron Park neighborhood, the City will continue to work with Palo Alto Neighborhoods (PAN) as it finalizes its Block Preparedness Coordinators (BPCs) concept. The BPCs wii! eventually serve as a critical link between the neighborhoods and the City in emergency response. These coordinators would maintain relevant information about their neighbors, thereby assisting first responders with identification of those residents with special needs (the handicapped, elderly and children) during a disaster. The relationship between the City and the BPCs is still under development and will be incorporated into the plan at a later date. The City does currently maintain a registry program for hearing impaired residents that can be accessed through the City’s website. One additional comment made regarding hazardous materials facilities focused on requiring these facilities to have trained personnel on hand at all times with the ability to respond to an incident and who are authorized to notify the City immediately of any CMR: 284:07 Page 3 of 5 releases. Both State law and local ordinance currently require immediate notification of local emergency response personnel in the event of a reportable release or threatened release of a hazardous material. These laws also require businesses to maintain procedures for mitigation of a release, evacuation plans and procedures for the site, and annual training for all employees on safety procedures in the event of a hazardous material release or threatened release. Mapping and identification of hazardous materials facilities." At this point, the plan does not explicitly identify any of the City’s hazardous materials facilities by name or location. It generally discusses the proximity of the Stanford Research Park and the Industrial Park east of US 101 to residential areas and other areas with sensitive populations. The City currently has approximately 500 businesses with annual hazardous materials permits. These businesses maintain varying quantities of hazardous materials with varying levels of toxicity. The challenge then becomes determining which of these facilities to identify specifically in the plan. First responders have access to detailed business information through a variety of mechanisms as they arrive on scene to any emergency. This information helps guide the emergency response approach taken by City staff. The maps currently included in the Emergency Operations Plan are public maps not typically utilized by first r~sponders. As discussions continue regarding neighborhood notification and response plans, staffwill commit to working with these residents to refine the content of these maps. As mentioned at the May 8 Policy & Services Committee meeting, City staff will continue to work on several elements of the plan over the next six months. These elements include: work with PAN on neighborhood preparedness and incorporation of the Block Preparedness Coordinator concept into the City’s response plans; identification and use of spontaneous volunteers; community notification procedures resulting from implementation of the new Community Alerting System and future discussions with the Barron Park neighborhood; and potentia! incorporation of recommendations stemming from the Red Ribbon Task Force’s work on disaster preparedness. RESOURCE IMPACT Resource impacts associated with emergency preparedness and updating/maintaining the City’s Emergency Operations Plan were identified in the May 8, 2007 Policy & Services Committee report on this topic. POLICY IMPLICATIONS This report is consistent with existing City policies and with the Council’s designation of emergency preparedness!planning as a top priority for FY2007/08. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW This is not a project requiring environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). CMR: 284:07 Page 4 of 5 Attachment A: Attachment B: Attachment C: Draft City of Palo Alto Emergency Operations Plan -June 2007 Public comments received for May 8, 2007 Policy & Services Committee Strike-through version of Annex L to draft Emergency Operations Plan PREPARED BY: Kelly Morariu Assistant to the Ci~ Manager APPROVED BY: NICK MARINARO FIRE CHIEF L Y-N~TE JOHNSON POLICE CHIEF CITY MANAGER APPROVAL: EMILY HARRISON ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER CMR: 284:07 Page 5 of 5