HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/15/2014 Work SessionCity of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday September 15, 2014 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg
presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Councilors VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston, and Woodrow. Also present were
Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith, Administrative Assistant AJ
Ripka and members of the staff.
Mayor Lundberg was absent (excused).
1. Review Proposed Draft Basic Plan of the Eugene -Springfield Multi -Jurisdictional Emergency
Operations Plan.
Ken Vogeney, City Engineer, presented the staff report on this item.
Eugene and Springfield Emergency Management, Fire, Police, and Public Works staff have been
working on a new Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) for the two cities. The new EOP provides a
framework for the cities to improve their coordination, collaboration and support for each other during
larger community -scale emergencies, as well as aligns with current practice at the federal, state, and
county levels for providing Emergency Management coordination and support. The proposed EOP is
comprised of the Basic Plan and numerous annexes. The draft Basic Plan is now ready for Council
review prior to formal adoption.
During the May 20, 2013 work session, Council was introduced to the idea of preparing a new EOP
for the two cities that will provide the framework for improved coordination, collaboration and
support for each other during larger scale emergencies. At that meeting, Council expressed their
support for this approach and directed staff to develop the proposed EOP.
In the past, staff has requested formal Council adoption of the full EOP whenever changes were made
to the document. Staff has found that this is not a very effective approach for keeping the document
current. In addition, the new structure of the EOP will lend itself to more frequent changes to the
numerous annexes, with only occasional changes to the Basic Plan. Therefore, staff requests
Council's direction on staff's recommendation that only the Basic Plan be formally adopted by
Council, with authority to approve annexes being delegated to the City Manager.
Consultant services were used to prepare the new EOP by assisting staff with developing the EOP
content, as well as the overall structure, formatting and editing of the document. These services were
primarily provided by the Oregon Office of Emergency Management using a grant from the Office of
Grants and Training, United States Department of Homeland Security. Additional consultant services
were procured by Eugene to help manage the plan development process, with Springfield contributing
$4,950 (25%) toward the cost of these services.
The EOC plan as proposed is compiled of five elements that can function as stand-alone pieces. The
first piece is the Basic Plan which includes the overall information needed to make the other annexes
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September 15, 2014
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and appendices work. Another section is Emergency Support Functions which is a different approach
for delivering emergency services. The ESF were adopted by FEMA, the State of Oregon, Lane
County, and Eugene and Springfield. Support annexes, incident annexes and operational annexes are
checklists for staff to use for delivering emergency response services.
Mr. Vogeney reviewed the Basic Plan. It was becoming more of a common practice for government
agencies to only publish their Basic Plans for the public because it includes information that
community would need. Many of the annexes were checklists on how staff personnel did the work,
including phone numbers and contact information. Making those available on the public side may
provide information to those that might want to disrupt services. Those annexes will be available on
the internal website for staff to view. The purpose of the Basic Plan is to describe our legal authorities
and why we are doing emergency response work. It also includes the context of how Springfield and
Eugene will work together. The Basic Plan describes roles and responsibilities from the Council
throughout the City organization. It includes how each agency activates the emergency operations
centers (EOC), and how those centers can work together.
Mr. Vogeney said the Basic Plan included six chapters: Introduction; Situation and Planning
Assumptions; Roles and Responsibilities; Concept of Operations; Command and Control; and Plan
Development, Maintenance, and Implementation. He gave a brief description of each. He
acknowledged and praised the City of Eugene staff for their work on this plan. They have done the
majority of the background work on this, and have volunteered their Emergency Manager to keep
track of all of the changes, incorporate those changes, and distribute them out to the rest of the group.
Mr. Vogeney said there is a method for how the response services are delivered. The standard
functions provided under FEMA's guidance are the first 15 listed in the chart. Staff at Eugene and
Springfield felt the last four items were important to add. The chart served several purposed: 1) to list
all of the emergency support functions (ESF); and 2) which department will be assigned a primary
responsibility, and which department will be assigned a support role for delivering those services. He
provided an example. The support annexes are currently under development. City of Eugene staff is
taking the lead on a debris management annex. Staff is building a new damage assessment annex, and
will begin work on an employee services annex. He described what each of the annexes would
include. Several annexes (Hazardous Materials, Terrorism, and Infectious Disease) are in the current
emergency management plan, but are being re -written into more of a checklist format. There are five
operational annexes: EOC Activation/Operations; EOC Position Roles and Responsibilities; Disaster
Declaration Process; Leadership Communication Plan; and Incident Command System.
Mr. Vogeney said a plan was prepared under contract by the State of Oregon with Ecology and
Environment. Using this plan as a starting point, the cities put in a lot of work and coordination to
bring the two cities together to create this Emergency Management Plan. Eugene hired a consultant
and Springfield paid 25% of the contract in the amount of $4925 plus staff time. The document is set
up electronically with links imbedded, and will be updated electronically.
Councilor Wylie asked for an explanation of whole community planning, and access and functional
needs population.
Mr. Vogeney said the whole community planning is a concept that FEMA requires in all of the
emergency planning work for the cities. That is to include input from throughout the community. That
is part of the reason .staff is bringing this to Council. During this process, they have invited other
partner agencies to participate in numerous meetings and provide input. The access and functional
needs is to recognize that there are people in the Springfield community with access and functional
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needs that must be addressed as part of the planning work. As they continue to move forward, the
goal is to reach out to those citizens and bring them into the planning efforts.
Councilor Moore asked about Lane County's role in a disaster.
Mr. Vogeney said Lane County has its own Emergency Operations Plan with many of the same pieces
as that of the two cities. The city plan has things specific to the two cities. They spend a lot of time
with Lane County's emergency manager on coordination of different activities. Next week there is an
exercise at the Eugene Airport and Lane County will be involved in that training. This plan is focused
on the two cities, but is very much connected to Lane County's plan. Staff from Lane County
participated in the planning meetings for this plan.
Councilor Moore asked if it would be a seamless operation between all jurisdictions.
Mr. Vogeney said the goal is to be more seamless, and they are working on ways to improve that,
including training exercises. This Plan is new and the majority of staff from both cities has not yet
received training on this plan.
Councilor VanGordon said he was pleased to see that a printed version of the plan would be on hand.
He asked who was responsible to declare an emergency for property outside the City limits, but inside
the urban grown boundary (UGB) - Lane County or the City.
Mr. Vogeney said Lane County is legally responsible for that area. Because the County does not have
the resources for much of the response work, they contact the cities for support per the
intergovernmental agreement.
Councilor VanGordon asked where the Fire Chief would report.
Mr. Vogeney said if an emergency occurs, he will report to the EOC in whichever city he is in at the
time. One of his other command staff will staff the other EOC.
Councilor VanGordon asked if the fire department would act together or separately.
Mr. Vogeney said they would respond as one. The Swanson Mill fire was an excellent exercise in
regard to the emergency response and communications work. All of the coordination for the Fire
Department was occurring in Eugene at the 9-1-1 center even though the event happened in
Springfield. They brought in rural agencies to backfill the Eugene stations. It worked well.
Councilor VanGordon asked about adoption of the Plan.
Mr. Vogeney said his recommendation would be for Council to adopt a resolution that would approve
the Basic Plan and delegate authority to the City Manager to approve and execute the annexes that go
with the Plan. Those portions of the Plan would be changing more regularly than the Basic Plan.
Councilor Woodrow said she is comfortable with that approach.
Councilor Ralston said the State and local plans must all work together. Local jurisdictions do take
precedent over the State, but can ask for help.
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Councilor Wylie noted Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and how unprepared they were for that
disaster. She asked if the cities' emergency plan went into the detail of evacuating people and
providing food and water.
Mr. Vogeney said there was a lot of discussion about those details, but they were not yet in writing.
There are a number of things that had been identified as part of updating the multi jurisdiction natural
hazard mitigation plan for Eugene and Springfield. He will bring that to Council for approval near the
end of the year. Many community groups were brought together to talk about vulnerability by area,
how they would address food supplies, etc. They need to look at how city government can influence
the private sector in order to support the community. Similar discussions will be held with partners
regarding fuel, water, and electricity.
Councilor Wylie said she was in San Diego when they had the fires and had to evacuate and take care
of the needs of over a million people. Because of their experience, they did very well. It is very
important to have answers because citizens will come to Police, Fire and the front offices looking for
help. The role of the city is to encourage those answers.
Councilor Moore said educating the general public to be prepared is also important. She asked if that
was part of this plan and who had that responsibility.
Mr. Vogeney said that is part of the Emergency Management Program and September is National
Preparedness Month. Springfield has an emergency management website that has a lot of information
for people to prepare themselves. Springfield and Eugene host public gatherings and inviting the
public to hear preparedness talks. They also have Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
trainings at no costs. Neither Springfield nor Eugene has addressed the evacuation planning issue
other than to say something needs to be done. Lane County has started that work for a large scale mass
evacuation for the central Lane County area. That work will be added to the city's emergency plan
once completed.
Councilor Wylie said this was especially important to her. When she ran Willamette Family Treatment
Center, they often had about 100 people staying with them and she needed to know how to get them to
safety and provide for them in an emergency. There are many levels to consider. She appreciated the
work they were doing and encouraged him to push for answers to these questions.
2. Enabling Amendments to the Eugene -Springfield Metropolitan Area General Plan ("Metro Plan").
Len Goodwin, Department of Public Works Director, presented the staff report on this item. He
introduced Emily Jarome, special counsel to the City of Springfield and one of the main authors of the
document.
HB 3337, adopted by the 2007 Legislative Assembly, requires the City of Springfield and the City of
Eugene each adopt separate urban growth boundaries. The City of Springfield adopted such a separate
boundary in 2011. The City of Eugene is planning to adopt such a boundary as part of its Envision
Eugene process, now underway. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 197 requires, among other things,
that a city adopt a comprehensive plan applicable to its Urban Growth Boundary. Current provisions
of the Metro Plan are inconsistent with that requirement in that they subordinate local land use plans to
the Metro Plan. Accordingly, it is necessary that the Metro Plan be amended so that each city has the
ability to independently replace provisions of the Metro Plan with separately adopted local
Comprehensive Plans over the next several years. This will not affect the ability to retain those
provisions of the Metro Plan which the cities agree are regional in nature, particularly those elements
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which do not regulate land use within a UGB. Staff of each city and of Lane County have jointly
prepared amendments to accomplish that purpose. This has been done with the assistance of Special
Counsel Emily N. Jerome. These amendments will allow each city to proceed to adopt elements of
local Comprehensive Plans on their own schedules and have those elements take precedence over the
similar Metro Plan provisions as they are adopted by each city (and co-adopted by Lane County as
appropriate).
Mr. Goodwin said Springfield is not prepared to adopt a Comprehensive Plan today. That project will
take several years. The residential element has been adopted, and the Council is in the process of
adopting the Urbanization and Economic Elements and the possibility of an urban growth boundary
expansion. Those are only two elements of a full plan. To make it possible for both cities to proceed
in an orderly fashion, staff feels that a change in the precedence role is needed. As each city moves
ahead to adopt part of its new Comprehensive Plan, that plan takes precedence over the equivalent in
the Metro Plan. That allows both cities to continue to rely on the Metro Plan for those things they
haven't dealt with yet, but allows each city the independence to make their own long term planning
decisions. Council will have a number of opportunities to look at this and discuss it in more detail. A
joint Planning Commission meeting of Springfield, Eugene and Lane County is tentatively scheduled
for October 23, and a joint elected officials meeting with the same jurisdictions is tentatively
scheduled for November 10. Tonight is an opportunity for Council to see the document, review it and
ask any questions now or during the joint meeting. The first step in this process is for the Council to
initiate the change in the Metro Plan during their regular meeting. This is an exciting opportunity to
make a major change in how this region thinks about how the cities relate to each other, and is very
important for Springfield.
Councilor VanGordon asked if text would be removed from the Metro Plan as each jurisdiction
adopted those sections separately.
Mr. Goodwin said part of the adoption process for the City would be to include a section stating that
`these sections in the Metro Plan no longer apply to Springfield'. Once both cities adopt the same
sections independently, action will be taken to delete those sections from the Metro Plan.
Ms. Jerome said it is specified in the Plan. The jurisdiction taking action after the other jurisdiction on
a particular section has the authority to delete that section on their own based on provisions in Chapter
IV.
Councilor Moore said it sounds like there is more involved in the separation of the UGB's than
originally thought.
Mr. Goodwin said it was a change in a relationship. It is very unlikely they will ever eliminate a
regional plan, but are working out a process where the Metro Plan will become something that does
not constitute a land use regulation. It will regulate things like emergency management, or economic
development as an example. It is true that there are a lot of things that followed separating the UGB.
Councilor Moore said there has been an immense amount of work on this, and it sounds like that will
continue for several years.
Mr. Duey provided next steps for both items discussed. Mr. Vogeney will bring forward the Basic
Plan (Emergency Management), separate from the annexes, for adoption sometime this fall. For the
Metro Plan amendments, Mr. Goodwin will bring forward a motion during the regular meeting to
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initiate those changes. That will allow him to notify the Department of Land Conservation and
Development (DLCD).
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:43 p.m.
Minutes Recorder — Amy Sowa
Christine L. Lundberg
Mayor
Attest:
Amy Soa
City Recorder