From:
To: City Council;
Subject: Input for the Fire Town Hall
Date: Monday, September 25, 2023 3:49:45 PM
Thank you for taking my input. Three things:
1) Rohnert Park combines Police and Fire operations. This should be studied as Sebastopol is even smaller in size, and could offer many reductions in overlap. 2) Sebastopol does not participate in mutual aid in the same way other communities in Sonoma and Marin do, so more resources are needed to stand up individual town services - from dispatch to records to management to operations.
3) There are dozens of CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) certified residents in Sebastopol. The Map Your Neighborhood program isn't bad but spotty, but serves a whole other purpose - more social network than emergency response.
In Napa, where I lived before Sebastopol, CERT is a force multiplier for the first responders.
We were sworn in after a certain amount of training, on a perpetual basis. I ask the City Council to ask the Fire Chief to stand up and reinstate support and training of CERT. It doesn't replace MYN, but is a demonstrable way to add to the way the city can respond to fire, earthquake, toxic spills, tsunamis and (!) hurricanes. We live in "disaster playland"! Respectfully,
Judith Gilbert