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Recommendation to Accept the Report on Ensuring a Resilient Alameda: The Strategy for Planning, Implementing, and Sustaining Resilience and Consider Adding One Civilian Position Assigned to the City Manager's Office to Coordinate Disaster Emergency Services in the Upcoming Budget. (City Manager 2110)
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To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: John A. Russo, City Manager
Re: Insuring a Resilient Alameda: The Strategy for Planning, Implementing, and Sustaining Resilience, and a Recommendation to Add, in the Upcoming City Budget, One Civilian Position Assigned to the City Manager's Office to Coordinate Disaster Emergency Services
BACKGROUND
Currently there is much discussion nationally and in local government about creating "resilient" communities. Generally, this term means having the ability to get through a major disaster and to get back, relatively, to where the community was before the disaster occurred. Resilience shortens the period of time between the disaster and full recovery. This concept essentially parallels the proven paradigm of "Prepare, Respond, and Recover." In order for the City of Alameda to be "resilient" it needs to be better prepared for a major disaster, to be able to respond appropriately, and to be in a position to effectively execute a recovery plan. Resiliency requires not only local government action, but also requires that residents, other local institutions, and the business community be engaged and participating. Most importantly, Alameda will have its best chance at resiliency if City Hall and the community prioritize and sustain an ongoing effort to plan, fund, implement, train, practice, and update annually. In plain words: it cannot work if it's just a plan or a project; resiliency needs to be an ongoing program.
Many of the key elements needed to build a resilient community are already in place in Alameda. The City has an approved Emergency Operations Plan, an approved Hazard Mitigation Plan, an Unreinforced Masonry Ordinance, a Soft Story Ordinance, a Disaster Preparedness Coordinator to focus on getting City staff ready, a part-time Community Development and Resiliency Coordinator to focus on getting the community ready, an active Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and an active HAM radio (amateur radio) community. It also has working relationships with organizations such as the American Red Cross, the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD), the City of Alameda Food Bank, Alameda Meals on Wheels, and many others. Also, the new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is nearing construction. In addition to being the City's headquarters during a disaster, the EOC will serve as the primary venue for a plethora of year-round emergency related training for staff and community. It will be, in essence, the EOC and the City Resiliency Training Facility.
However, there are other key elements that the City must put in place to achieve resiliency. These include an Emergency Operations Training Plan and Schedule, a Hazard Mitigation Project Work List and Schedule, a Community Assets mapping program, a Debris Management and Removal Plan and Implementation Schedule, and a Disaster Recovery Plan and Implementation Schedule. This work needs to be integrated across staff and community and requires a dedicated staff member to coordinate and to accurately document all of Alameda's efforts throughout the program. The discussion below will explain why this coordination and documentation is crucial to Alameda's resiliency efforts.
Finally, the City of Alameda's Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) approved Hazard Mitigation Plan, which is valid for five years, must be updated this year and submitted for renewal in March 2016. The community process to update the plan is just as important as the resulting plan itself. The timing of this update coincides with the City's new efforts to build a resilient community.
DISCUSSION
This report will not get into the details of what kinds of disasters may occur or what may happen. There are established best practices on how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from all types of incidents, borne out of hundreds of disasters experienced throughout the country. Alameda needs to customize those best practices to suit its unique circumstances and needs. Hence, those details will arise from the community planning and updating process. This report, instead, sets forth the City's strategy to build a resilient community. The goals are to initiate the planning and training phases in 2015, and begin the implementation phase in 2016, with the ultimate goal to make the City fully compliant and eligible for all state and federal aid available.
The better prepared both the City and community are for confronting a disaster, the better Alameda will be able to respond and recover from one. Even so, in a major disaster, every community needs help. Alameda will call for mutual aid from our neighbors if available, as well as from throughout the state. Most likely, the State Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) will be activated to help respond, as well as FEMA. There is an old saying that "you don't want to meet your neighbors for the first time during a disaster." This is just as true for City Government. Alameda needs to know and understand the policies and procedures for receiving aid from the State and Federal Government, before a disaster occurs, and actively engage in practice exercises with these partners.
Dealing with a major disaster is like assembling a complex puzzle--and all levels of government hold different pieces pieces. The pieces held by the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) and FEMA are well established and structured. Therefore, Alameda must prepare the City's pieces to fit into the broader puzzle. The steps the City takes to build a resilient community will determine whether Alameda will receive all the State and Federal aid available. The City must first make itself eligible to request aid by having the necessary plans in place, be qualified to accept aid by actually implementing its plans, and ultimately receive and keep aid funding by having the necessary documentation prepared to pass California's and FEMA's post-disaster audits. The City's pieces to the puzzle must be in place before a major disaster, otherwise Alameda will not be eligible for much of the recovery programs available. FEMA makes clear that "no assistance will be provided to an applicant for damages caused by its own negligence through failure to take reasonable protective measures."
The Major Pieces of Alameda's Resiliency Puzzle
The two major pieces of the resiliency puzzle are government and community, each with multi-layered segments and many smaller components. Government and community must work in concert and have interactions, especially during exercises and evaluations.
The government prepares and provides ongoing training to staff, establishes working relationships with other governmental agencies and utility providers, has plans in place and implements those plans' work lists, has agreements with local and regional providers in place, keeps abreast of legislative changes, and has active working relationships with community partners. The City already has a Disaster Preparedness Coordinator leading a team to accomplish this.
The community piece is more vast and diverse. It includes neighborhoods, schools, various segments of the business community, congregations, service clubs, non-profit service providers, the Housing Authority, the hospital, and so on. All need to play a role throughout Alameda's resiliency effort. The City has a part-time Community Development and Resiliency Coordinator leading a team to get the community ready.
These are the starting points, not the end points. As these efforts proceed, more and more pieces of the puzzle will be identified and incorporated.
Recommendation to add in the upcoming City budget one civilian position assigned to the City Manager's Office to coordinate disaster emergency services.
To fully accomplish resilience, the City must have an Emergency Services Coordinator dedicated to insuring that all this work is being performed on schedule, that plans are registered with State and Federal agencies on time, and that documentation is accurate and orderly. In addition, this Coordinator would be responsible for sustaining the work, year after year, and for continuing to seek mitigation grant funding, regardless of change over in staff or community leaders. One of the most important elements required to apply for, accept, and receive state and federal disaster recovery dollars, is to have all the correct documentation, from beginning to end.
The California Disaster Assistance Act limits the State share of any eligible project to no more than 75% of the costs unless the local agency has adopted a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan in accordance with the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act. For FEMA, the Federal share of assistance is not less than 75% of the eligible cost for emergency measures and permanent restoration. In both cases the City may get more than 75% in recovery cost if it is, first and foremost, eligible. Eligibility, however, only gets you in the door. The City must also qualify to accept the aid it is eligible to request. In other words, if you identified building X in your Mitigation Plan as a potential hazard but you did nothing to mitigate it, you don't qualify. And when building X crumbles in a disaster, FEMA will most likely say "you are denied." Again, FEMA makes clear that "no assistance will be provided to an applicant for damages caused by its own negligence through failure to take reasonable protective measures." On the other hand, if you identified building X in your Mitigation Plan as a potential hazard and you were in process of mitigating it and building X crumbles in a disaster, FEMA would most likely approve your funding request to replace it-- unless your documentation was not in order, in which case FEMA will still likely say "you are denied."
According to FEMA, documentation is required to:
1. Recover all of your eligible costs.
2. Have the information necessary to develop your disaster projects.
3. Have the information available, which the State and FEMA will need to see, to validate the accuracy of your projects.
4. Be ready for any State or Federal audits, or other Federal program reviews.
5. Provide Federal compliance data by maintaining all information on the alternatives that were considered for projects where an environmental or historic assessment was required.
The underlying theme here is that the City's entire resiliency process, from beginning to end, must be accurately documented, organized, and kept up-to-date to ensure that should Alameda need State of Federal aid in the event of a disaster, it will receive every dollar possible. This crucial work requires the full attention and time of an Emergency Services Coordinator to implement, maintain, and document the work identified and laid out in the plan. Too often, the hazard mitigation process ends with the plan on the shelf.
California Specialized Training Institute
The Strategy to Insure a Resilient Alameda
Resiliency is not an insurance policy the City can buy off the shelf. Creating a resilient Alameda requires that the City work at, earn, and maintain its resilient status, so that when a major disaster occurs, the government and citizenry can respond and recover, and receive all available State and Federal funds. The strategy is to take incremental and orderly steps to plan, implement, and sustain a resiliency program for Alameda. The universe of disaster preparedness is so vast that it is impossible to wrap your arms around it all at once. The full picture of what is needed cannot be seen yet. As the City learns more about what State and Federal guidelines require, and as the City engages more and more segments of the community, the full picture will come into focus. By taking small yet steady, constant, best practice based steps, the City will reach a comfort level of being as ready and resilient as possible. Building upon the key elements already in place, Alameda can assemble the remaining pieces of the puzzle over the next two years. The City began taking these steps in the fall of 2014 and this work will become part of the required community planning process for the 2015 Hazard Mitigation Plan Update, due in March 2016. Beyond that, the City will continue into the implementation, training, and evaluation phases. Most importantly, staff will report back to the City Council annually starting in April 2016 on progress made, changes needed, and any legislative changes to date. The initial steps and schedule are as follows:
The Hazard Mitigation Update Planning effort is being supported by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC). The steps and draft schedule are as follows:
ABAG draft schedule Spring Summer Fall 2016
Why the new EOC and City Resiliency Training Center is integral to insuring a resilient Alameda
The City of Alameda, in its 2010 FEMA approved Hazard Mitigation Plan, identified the need for a new EOC as a reasonable protective measure mitigation project toward assuring Alameda's ability to manage any disaster events. It is essential to have a full-size, dedicated EOC rather than an insufficient-spaced room to be borrowed in the event of a disaster.
The new facility will serve two primary functions. One, it will be the Emergency Operations Center, the headquarters, for disaster response. Two, it will serve as the City's resiliency training center year-round.
When a disaster strikes, the EOC will provide the appropriate space for the City to coordinate and execute the response and recovery efforts necessary. The current space in the Police Department basement is inadequate to be used as an EOC, for two main reasons. One, it is the briefing room for the Police patrol shifts. Police would need the room during a disaster to ready its field staff. Filling the room with EOC personnel would interfere with Police work. Two, the space is not set up to operate as an EOC. It was designated on outdated assumptions about what makes an effective EOC. It is not large enough to host the number of people, activities, and up-to-date equipment necessary during an EOC activation, and it is not configured for the various group functions that occur during activation.
During an EOC activation, which could last days or weeks, there would be approximately 30 City staff occupying the building. The duties range from the command staff to operations, planning, logistics, public information, and finance. The City Council would also be there, as well as members of the media. There would also be representatives from the specialized volunteer groups such as the Red Cross, HAM radio operators (amateur radio), the CERT coordinator, the AUSD representative, and the City's community coordinator. There may also be representatives from outside agencies, ranging from other cities, the County, Coast Guard, Cal OES, FEMA, as well as other technical experts. Depending on the disaster event, any or all of these outside agencies could be required in the EOC. Also of significance, the new EOC will have up-to-date information technology and communications equipment currently lacking in the Alameda Police Department (APD) briefing room.
Finally, the EOC will serve as a year-round training center for disaster/resiliency related training of staff and community members and organizations. The trainings will include personal and family preparedness (Make a Plan / Build a Kit / CPR-First Aid), CERT training, Incident Command System (ICS) for community responders, shelter and feeding operations, family services casework, damage assessment, disaster health services, and so on. Such trainings will be conducted by staff collaborating with organizations such as the American Red Cross and Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters (CARD).
Potentially, the training center could host regional disaster trainings that could generate some revenue to defray continued training costs for Alameda. These include training sessions by the County and the State, for topics such as disaster mitigation and recovery.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
This report is for informational purposes only, there is no financial impact at this time.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This report is for informational purposes only.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This report is for informational purposes only.
RECOMMENDATION
Accept this report on Insuring a Resilient Alameda: the strategy for planning, implementing, and sustaining resilience, and accept staff's recommendation to add, in the upcoming City budget, one civilian position assigned to the City Manager's Office to coordinate disaster emergency services
Respectfully submitted,
Alexander Nguyen, Assistant City Manager
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Elena Adair, Finance Director