EOC Plan greatly improved –
I was highly critical of the plan when it was introduced. It was over 200 pages long. It had a detailed organizational chart with more positions than the city had staff. Implementation would have required everyone to focus on the EOC at a time where everyone on city staff should be focused on citizens who are in trouble.
This plan is concise and flexible. This will be important as it is uncertain what staff will be available in the event of an emergency. Continued criticisms include lack of planning for evacuation, no mention of coordination or participation of Gold Ridge or Sonoma County EMS which both serve our community and will be critical in an emergency situation.
It is not enough to tell people to leave early, that may not be an option. There are tasks to be completed ahead of time. Alternative routes should be identified and agreed to across jurisdictions. Traffic lights should have backup in case of power failure. There should be a plan to control the lights to move traffic at the most risk more quickly. Because we are at the intersection of the two main evacuation routes for west county there should be a combined task force to make evacuation decisions and announce preferred evacuation routes at the time.
Gold Ridge likely has their own EOC and operations plan. Given that if an emergency happens at night 1 dispatcher and 2 patrol officers on duty may be the total city staff anywhere near the city at the time of the emergency. City Staff all live varying distances from the city and may not be able to get here for some time, if at all. Gold Ridge should be the primary EOC, city employees on duty should prioritize life saving and coordination of evacuation. The city EOC should be primarily responsible for coordinating communications. This is mentioned in the staff report and hopefully is underway. The city needs to be actively involved with Gold Ridge as we are not represented on their Board.
Plans are great but rehearsing the plans is critical. Tabletop exercises help everyone understand the plan and their role. It sounds like some initial efforts already have taken place and new ideas are surfacing. This is critical and should be done quarterly, some unannounced as the team learns their roles. Scenarios where limited staff are available will be important as a small team is quite vulnerable if people don’t show up. Everyone should understand all roles and responsibilities.
Overall, after years of attempts by prior police chiefs this is the first workable plan the city has had. Now there are opportunities to fine tune it, rehearse it and hopefully never implement it. Thanks to Sean McDonagh for this great work…all done while saving lives!!