SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
CITY HALL, 291 N. MAIN STREET
PORTERVILLE, CALIFORNIA
MARCH 17, 2023, 10:00 AM
The City of Porterville is allowing for and encouraging electronic participation at City Council Meetings. Porterville City Council Meetings will be live streamed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5KuhSrNMNL9nwHJVtnJvvA Alternatively, this meeting will also be available via Zoom using the following information Topic: City of Porterville – Special City Council Meeting of March 17, 2023 Please use the following link below to join the webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83334483654?pwd=ZDdZRHFRUVdvY1FYaGROSEU2TnF3QT09 Or via Telephone: 1-669-900-6833 Webinar ID: 833 3448 3654 Passcode: 875182 Call to Order
Roll Call
Pledge of Allegiance Led by Council Member Weyhrauch
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
This is the opportunity to address the Council on any matter of interest, whether on the agenda or not. Unless additional time is authorized by the Council, all commentary shall be limited to three minutes.
SCHEDULED MATTERS
1. Ratification of Declaration of Local Emergency
Re: City Council ratification of the Declaration of Local Emergency made on March 13, 2023, concerning the significant weather event and impacts or likely impacts relative to increased flow of the Tule River.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
This is the opportunity to address the City Council on any matter scheduled for Closed Session. Unless additional time is authorized by the Council, all commentary shall be limited to three minutes.
CITY COUNCIL CLOSED SESSION:
A. Closed Session Pursuant to:
1 - Government Code Section 54956.9(d)(3) – Conference with Legal Counsel – Anticipated Litigation – Significant Exposure to Litigation: One (1) case in which facts are not yet known to potential plaintiff.
2- Government Code Section 54956.9(d)(4) - Conference with Legal Counsel - Anticipated Litigation - Initiation of Litigation: One (1) case.
RECONVENE OPEN SESSION AND REPORT ON REPORTABLE
ACTION TAKEN IN CLOSED SESSION
ADJOURNMENT - to the meeting of March 21, 2023 at 5:30 p.m.
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the California Ralph M. Brown Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, or to be able to access this agenda and documents in the agenda packet, please contact the Office of City Clerk at (559) 782-7464.
Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to this meeting and/or provision of an appropriate alternative format of the agenda and documents in the agenda packet.
Materials related to an item on this Agenda submitted to the City Council after distribution of the Agenda packet are available for public inspection during normal business hours at the Office of City Clerk, 291 North Main Street, Porterville, CA 93257, and on the City’s website at www.ci.porterville.ca.us.
Item No. 1.
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA – MARCH 17, 2023
SUBJECT: Ratification of Declaration of Local Emergency SOURCE: Administrative Services
COMMENT: As the City Council is aware, Mayor Flores in conjunction with the Acting City Manager declared the existence of a local emergency within the City of Porterville on March 13, 2023. Said Declaration was made pursuant to Chapter 9 of the Porterville Municipal Code, and in response to the increasing threat to life and property in the city caused by a series of storm systems striking California and in particular the Porterville area, impacting Success Lake and significantly increasing flows of the Tule River. A copy of said Declaration is provided herein.
Pursuant to the California Emergency Services Act (California Government Code 8558 et seq.) emergency declarations must be ratified by the governing body within seven days of being declared. The Act also requires that the emergency declaration be renewed every sixty (60) days to remain in effect.
RECOMMENDATION: That the City Council:
1. Does hereby find that the aforesaid conditions of extreme peril did warrant and necessitate the declaration of the existence of a local emergency; and
2. Approves the delegation of authority for the command, leadership, and management as the Incident Commander for the XTU OES Preposition/Mobilization in Tulare County.
ATTACHMENTS: 1. Draft Resolution
2. Exhibit A
3. California Government Code 8558
Appropriated/Funded:
Review By:
Department Director:
Patrice Hildreth, Deputy City Manager
Final Approver: John Lollis, City Manager
RESOLUTION NO. ____-2023
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF PORTERVILLE CONFIRMING THE EXISTENCE
OF A LOCAL EMERGENCY
WHEREAS, Chapter 9 of the Porterville Municipal Code of the City of Porterville provides for the ability to declare the existence or threatened existence of a local emergency when the City is affected or likely to be affected by a public calamity; and WHEREAS, conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property have arisen within the City of Porterville caused by severe winter storm systems striking California, and in particular the Porterville area, beginning in late February and continuing into March bringing damaging winds and historic precipitation, including rainfall in the Southern Sierra Nevada mountains already impacted by above-normal snow levels; and WHEREAS, it is forecasted that additional storms will continue to threaten the Porterville area, bringing additional rain, significantly impacting Lake Success which is above capacity, and significantly increasing flows in the Tule River that create or will likely create conditions of extreme peril; and
WHEREAS, Mayor Martha A. Flores in conjunction with City Manager John Lollis did declare the existence of a local emergency within the City of Porterville on the 13th day of March, 2023, which is subject to ratification by the City Council within seven (7) days. A copy of said Declaration is attached hereto as Exhibit A.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council does hereby find that the aforesaid conditions of extreme peril did warrant and necessitate the declaration of the existence of a local emergency; and
BE IT RESOLVED that said local emergency shall be deemed to continue to exist until termination is proclaimed by the City Council of the City of Porterville, State of California.
PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED this ______ day of March, 2023.
_______________________________
Martha A. Flores, Mayor
ATTEST:
John D. Lollis, City Clerk
____________________________
By: Patrice Hildreth, Chief Deputy City Clerk
State of California
GOVERNMENT CODE
Section 8558
8558. Three conditions or degrees of emergency are established by this chapter:
(a) “State of war emergency” means the condition that exists immediately, with or without a proclamation thereof by the Governor, whenever this state or nation is attacked by an enemy of the United States, or upon receipt by the state of a warning from the federal government indicating that an enemy attack is probable or imminent. (b) “State of emergency” means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state caused by conditions such as air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, cyberterrorism, sudden and severe energy shortage, electromagnetic pulse attack, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor’s warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake, or other conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy or conditions causing a “state of war emergency,” which, by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat, or with respect to regulated energy utilities, a sudden and severe energy shortage requires extraordinary measures beyond the authority vested in the Public Utilities Commission.
(c) (1) “Local emergency” means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the territorial limits of a county, city and county, or city, caused by conditions such as air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, cyberterrorism, sudden and severe energy shortage, deenergization event, electromagnetic pulse attack, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor’s warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake, or other conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy, which are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of that political subdivision and require the combined forces of other political subdivisions to combat, or with respect to regulated energy utilities, a sudden and severe energy shortage or deenergization event that requires extraordinary measures beyond the authority vested in the Public Utilities Commission. (2) A local emergency proclaimed as the result of a deenergization event does not trigger the electric utility obligations set forth in Public Utilities Commission Decision 19-07-015 or its successor decisions as related to deenergization events. A local emergency proclaimed as the result of a deenergization event does not alter the electric utilities’ Public Utilities Commission-approved cost-recovery mechanisms for their own costs associated with deenergization events.
(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 537, Sec. 1. (SB 468) Effective January 1, 2023.)