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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/04/2006 Work Session City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2006 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Woodrow, Fitch, Ballew, Ralston and Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Interim Assistant City Manager Mike Harman, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. Councilor Lundberg was absent (excused). 1. Springfield Emergency Management Plan (EMP). Springfield Fire Chief Dennis Murphy presented the staff report on this item. The Springfield Emergency Management Plan (EMP) is an "all-hazards" document to guide local government in event of any type of disaster situation. The Basic EMP and an index of annexes will be reviewed. Contents of annexes are lengthy and are available upon request. Springfield's citywide Emergency Management Committee (EMC) completed a draft Emergency Management Basic Plan in January 2006 and posted it bn the city's (Springboard) intranet site. The Basic Plan is a work in progress, which will be updated as necessary. It will be supplemented by annexes, which give specific information about procedures to be followed by eac~ department for various types of emergencies. The document will exist in electronic format as it is lengthy and will be subject to continual update and improvements by the Emergency Management Committee and submitted to the City Executive Team for approval. Council is requested to acknowledge the plan and endorse it. Councilor Joe Pishioneri acts as Council Liaison to the EMC. Councilor Pishioneri met with the EMC on November 14 and gave recommendations on the December 4 presentation to the Council and subsequent Council Awareness Training. The EMC supports these recommendations, as listed in Attachment C. Special emphasis is placed on the role of elected officials Emergency Management, preparedness training, and the new Springfield Pandemic Influenza Annex (S). Chief Murphy said the document was the work of many people. The following documents were distributed: 1) Emergency Management Committee members; 2) Council Goals 2006; and 3) Emergency Management Plan Annex Assignments for the Council's reference. He acknowledged those that had served on the committee. The plan was available on the Springfield website. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes December 4, 2006 Page 2 Information Technology Director Rod Lathrop said the basic plan would be available on the internet and available to the public. The annexes were more department specific and would be on the intranet system, which was only accessible by internal employees. The annexes would be more secure on that site. He noted that the Mayor and Council were provided with a CD disc with the current version of the annexes. Councilor Fitch asked how the information would be accessed if the computer systems went down. Mr. Lathrop said they would maintain several paper copies. Chief Murphy said the CD would be provided in limited numbers to the Mayor and Council and EMP members. The document would be continually a work in progress. Councilor Ballew asked if emergency personnel could communicate if the communications' systems were down. Chief Murphy said there was several communications back-up available. He explained. All fire stations had generators to maintain some power. The development of the new Justice Center would have an adequate and up-to-date Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Most of the plan was included in the annexes. The Basic Plan provided the foundation for emergency preparedness. Continuity of community meant people would like to survive, know where to get supplies, school issues, etc. An annex was added to address those issues. The plan had five pre- ambled chapters, developed together with the City of Eugene. The coordination helped to make them work well together. There was a foreword, citation of authority, glossary, and acronyms. He discussed the electronic document. There was a hazard analysis followed by the basic plan. The basic plan would be moved onto the internet from the intranet, similar to Eugene's plan. He discussed the annexes which included specific directions. Chief Murphy discussed the need for emergency preparedness, especially following 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina. With the National Incident Management System (NIMS) training, all governments could speak the same language. He noted that Councilor Pishioneri had been instrumental in preparing Attachments B, regarding the training levels for elected officials and Attachment C, regarding the roles and responsibilities of the elected officials in the event of an emergency. Chief Murphy said that information was located in several locations in the document. He explained. Councilor Pishioneri discussed Attachments Band C. He thanked Chief Murphy and all department heads for their work on this document. He said it was a very understandable document for everyone. He discussed the need for the elected officials to make governmental decisions in times of emergency. Part of the responsibility was to understand the system. The IS 700 course would give Council a user level of training to help understand the document. This training would provide information on working with different agencies and the rules of engagement. He encouraged the Mayor and Council to go through that training, either on their own or during a work session. He recommended the Mayor and Council attend as many table top exercises that may occur to address emergency preparedness. He asked Council to read City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes December 4, 2006 Page 3 through the plan and annexes. He gave an example of a disaster and the importance to have as many Councilors available as possible to address issues. Councilor Ballew asked about emergency procurement and if it was in the plan. She asked about emergency hiring or reinstating of employees. Mr. Leahy said the existing City contract ordinance provided for an emergency. Councilor Pishioneri asked if the CD's were considered protected documents. Mr. Leahy said they were considered a public record. It would need to be determined what was exempt or not exempt from public disclosure. He said he had not had an opportunity to go through each of the annexes, but would be going through them and make an opinion on whether or not they were exempt from disclosure. If a document had mixed information, it was the public body's responsibility to separate what was exempt or non-exempt. He had provided the City Manager's office and Chief Murphy with the criteria to determine a document's standing. Until they had been examined by the .City Attorney, th.ey would maintain them as exempt. Chief Murphy said the annexes were changing documents and would continue to be a work in progress. Once completed, Mr. Leahy would need time to make a determination. The basic plan would be available to the public, but would also be continually updated. Councilor Pishioneri confirmed that Council should treat the CD's as confidential until they hear otherwise. Mr. Leahy said that was correct, but couldn't give a guarantee of what was or wasn't exempt at this time. Councilor Fitch discussed the use of text messaging in case of an emergency. She referred to a recent disaster in Hawaii and that .text messaging went through when calling didn't. Mayor Leiken agreed and noted another instance when text messaging worked rather than calling. Mr. Grimaldi said that assumed all that needed to be notified had the capability to receive text messages. Councilor Pishioneri said that issue would be discussed shortly. Mayor Leiken discussed the hydrogen leak that had occurred and the coordinated efforts of Police, Fire and Life Safety and Public Works staff. He had been to the EOC and seen the professionalism and calmness of City staff. One of the things he recalled was that Chief Murphy suggested having the Mayor speak first to the media, with assistance from C~iefMurphy and Chief Smith. He said it was good to have a representative of the community. That event was a great exercise. He asked about funding for the Reverse 9-11. Chief Murphy said that Community Emergency Notification System (CENS) was operating and Springfield was a participating agency. That presumed land lines were free. The current CENS City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes December 4, 2006 Page 4 was capable of dialing cell phones and was ready to go through another upgrade. He discussed surge capacity issues. He said one of the lessons learned from the hydrogen leak exercise, was the evacuation. The Geographic Information System (GIS) staff was able to indicate a plume radius on a map of the area. The public wanted to hear from the elected officials. He said that would be practiced sometime before June 30, 2007. Staff would like to give the Council advance notice and try to get the majority of the Council present for such an exercise. Mayor Leiken said the City Manager during the hydrogen leak, Mike Kelly, was actually on vacation when that occurred. City staff proceeded wonderfully. Councilor Pishioneri discussed the chain of command which made things run smoothly. There was now a unified information system among agencies. Chief Murphy referred to the Thurston High School shooting and the Joint Information Center (He) that was set up to handle that situation. It was an intuitive move on the staffs behalf to create an information center off-site. They had since learned that was the subscribed method for dealing with that type of situation. Springfield had been challenged and fortunate to apply this to real life situations. Councilor Ballew asked how Springfield would interact with the County and the responsibilities of each. Chief Murphy said that was part of the plan. He discussed Y2K and how that was set.up. He explained the responsibility of each jurisdiction and the role each jurisdiction would play. He discussed the EOC centers for Eugene, Lane County and Springfield. He discussed the interaction of the EOC's. Springfield was fortunate because of the many intergovernmental agreements (IGA's) with other fire and police departments. Smaller communities had a primary responsibility to participate and work with the County when needed. Councilor Ballew asked about water districts. Chief Murphy said the School District, Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) and Springfield Utility Board (SUB) had plans, but the lead agencies were the cities and county. In the FY06-07 Council Goals, it was indicated that an IGA would be established pertaining to emergency mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. That had not yet been done. He said the document was the result of a significant effort by the team. He said it was a great starting place, but the annexes would continue to be in the works. They wanted to let the citizens know there was a basic plan. Councilor Pishioneri indicated Council may have an interest in how we disseminated information. The federal government was the authority on pandemic influenza, so Springfield's website had a link to the federal authority on the pandemic influenza. It was set up in a friendly way on the City's website. Other information was accessible from the City's website. He cited some examples. Councilor Pishioneri said under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), there was a program for families for family emergency preparedness. He said it was worth searching around the website. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes December 4, 2006 Page 5 Councilor Ralston noted there were other websites that had similar information, such as church websites. Councilor Pishioneri said FEMA's site was a great beginning point. Chief Murphy said there was a segment of the federal preparedness for the faith community in general. Some large church or religious organizations had personalized it for their people. Councilor Pishioneri recommended taking the IS 700 first, and then proceed to others. Councilor Fitch said she was impressed with this work and said this was a quality document. Mayor Leiken said he served two years in the domestic preparedness work group and Springfield was at the top in the way we handled emergency situations. He commended Chief Murphy, Chief Smith, City management and Public Works. They should all be very proud. Mr. Lathrop asked if the CD worked for everyone. Yes. Chief Murphy said the EMC had a budget for about $13,000. He said they had brought a specific need to Council to create a local stockpile, but they had not yet expended those funds. Staff had been doing a lot of research first then would expend those funds. They would bring preparedness information to Council during the budget process. CouncilorPishioneri said everyone had done a great job. Mr. Grimaldi thanked those Councilors that had turned in their priority of services documents. He said staff would accept them today or tomorrow for those that had not yet turned theirs in. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:43 pm. Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa Attest: Amf::.tAu-tw- City Recorder .