03272025 City Council Workshop with Emergency Management

Meeting Minutes - Version 1.0 Organization: Shady Cove Emergency Management Commission (SC-EMC) Meeting Purpose: Workshop With City Council & City Administrator Meeting Location: Shady Cove Library Scheduled Meeting Date & Time: Monday 3/27/25 6:00 – 8:00 pm Natalie Swendener is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: SC-EMC & City Council Workshop Time: Mar 27, 2025 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87078214543?pwd=c6kDY8BkILcFn3D1pt9sQbolzUNlLz.1 Meeting ID: 870 7821 4543 Passcode: 129357 Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kcX1rFGnRq 1. General 1.1. Call to Order __________6:01_____ (time) 1.2. Roll Call: Name Seat Position Status Jay Taylor 1 SC-EMC Chair present Nancy Martin 2 SC-EMC Vice-Chair present Natalie Swendener 3 SC-EMC Secretary present Mike Martin 4 SC-EMC Member present Paige Winfrey Council Liaison, Council present Member Jon Ball Mayor present Kathy Nuckles Council President present Steve Mitchell Council Member present Michele Parry City Administrator present FD4 Chief Crume Fire District 4 Chief present Guests present none Zoom attendees None 1. Introduction 1.1. Pledge of Allegiance 1.2. Statement for meeting being digitally recorded, start of recording. 2. Overview of Agenda & Summary of work to-date by SC-EMC ** presented by Commissioner Jay Taylor The SC-EMC has been working on framework documents that we think provide a good start on the checklist approach that the City Council has asked for. Our work to-date includes a draft incident action plan, governance review and several meetings with key partners at Fire District 4 and Jackson County Emergency Management. Before we start “diving in” to more specific action items and before we start making detailed plans for the various emergency scenarios we wanted to have a checkpoint with the City Council and City Administrator to make sure we’re all on the same page and going in the right direction. 3. Incident Management Levels & Incident Action Plan (IAP) ** presented by Commissioners Mike & Nancy Martin This discussion will use the supporting documents “Incident Levels for Shady Cove 2024 0223 Version 2.0” and “Incident Action Plan 2025 0223 Version 2.0”. Both documents were provided in advance to workshop participants, it is recommended that attendees read through these materials in advance. Link to OneDrive Digital version: Incident Levels for Shady Cove v2.0.docx Link to OneDrive Digital version: Incident Action Plan - 2025 0223 Version 2.0 local SC 2025 0208 Base Document.docx Main Topics: • Updates to Incident Levels based on comments from FD4 and Jackson County Emergency Mgmt • Incident Action Plan 2.0 for Water Emergency & how this document will be used. • Review expectations for how Emergency support personnel are assigned (per the IAP) and who has authority to assign. ** MINUTES NOTES: See item 5 for summary of City Council feedback on the Incident Action Plan and Incident Management Levels. 4. Review Lines of Succession & Inconsistencies in Governance Documents ** presented by Commissioner Natalie Swendener This discussion will use the supporting document in Appendix A titled “Workshop_LinesOfSuccession_Overview”. The language within Emergency Management Ordinance 33 and within Shady Cove’s 2012 Emergency Operations Plan will be reviewed, with an emphasis on inconsistencies between the two documents. The overall goal will be to provide background information the City Council & City Administrator so that they can make decisions offline about improving the succession language. MINUTES NOTES: The key take-away from City Council was that neither the City of Shady Cove’s Emergency Ordinance 33 nor the 2012 Emergency Operations Plan was valid as a governance document. This was a bit of a surprise to the SC-EMC. The City Council explained that there is essentially no such thing as a line of succession for City policy in an emergency. The 1998 Shady Cove City Charter was cited as a reference, and it was explained that there must always be a quorum to officially conduct city business. The Council’s feedback  was that Ordinance 33’s line of succession is incorrect, and the City Charter specifies a quorum for decision- making even in emergencies. The City Council also noted that – per the City Charter – only the City Administrator could task City personnel. As a result, they were not comfortable with the Emergency Manager lines of succession in the 2012 Emergency Operations plan. Mayor Jon Ball asked the City Administrator to remove the 2012 Emergency Operations Plan from Shady Cove’s website. Council President Kathy Nuckles asked the SC-EMC to review the City Charter, and “research Oregon laws” to understand what emergency powers the City could legally invoke. https://shadycove.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/The-Charter-of-the-City-of-Shady-Cove-1.pdf 5. Guided Discussion -- Forming an ICS Team as an Emergency Develops ** presented by Commissioner Natalie Swendener The goal of this topic is to provide a guided discussion of how an ICS can be stood up and staffed, as we move through Incident Levels 1 & 2, and into the early stages of an actual incident (Level 3). This discussion will build on the previously presented IAP but will focus on the reality of how to staff within a limited set of resources. The discussion will also focus on aligning expectations of what support the SC-EMC is expected to provide and what support will be provided by City Staff and Council. This will use additional supporting documents that will be provided during the workshop. Main topics: • Walk through possible scenarios requiring a larger ICS footprint. • Walk through an ICS staffing exercise and review the roles that could be staffed by the City Administrator (the Emergency Manager). Which roles make sense to retain, and which should be delegated? • Walk through the roles of the Incident Commander & Operations Lead and explain how these roles work together. Under what circumstances would both roles be needed? • Review the ICS roles for Planning and Logistics. Given the City’s limited staff, it’s possible this might be a shared role. Delegated authority for ICS roles to direct resources is critical – how would this work in an actual emergency scenario? What are the limitations? Are there other individuals who should be on a list to be “tapped” for these roles? • Discuss the role of the Liaison Officer, and the resources available from Partner Agencies. Discuss feedback from Jackson County Emergency Management on getting resources from RVCOAD (RV COAD Rogue Valley Community Organizations Active in Disaster) and other partners. If time permits, we will also touch on the following topics for general planning during an emerging incident. • Stand up of Emergency Operations Center (EOC) – options for location • Use of SC-EMC Contact List for tactical information. MINUTES NOTES: General comments from the City Council for Agenda Items 3 & 5. A. When reviewing the Incident Levels, the City Council initially had some difficulty understanding which scenarios would require the City to take responsibility during an emergency. It was noted that there were many instances where City Hall could receive a call for an issue that was not the City’s responsibility, or was an issue that would fall under the Sheriff’s department or another agency. Councilor Steve Mitchell recommended adding an additional line item to the SC-EMC’s document to ensure that there is a process to officially vet or verify the emergency. The SC-EMC clarified that they understood that not all calls to the City would require generating a formal Incident response. Instead, the SC-EMC tried to explain that it is better to think about Incident Levels 1 & 2 as a means to quantify situational awareness of an emerging issue. As part of the guided discussions in Agenda item 5, the following scenarios were listed as possibilities where the City may want to invoke the Incident Command System for managing an emergency. • Wildfire approaching the City and its environs (where there is “Ready, Set Go” advance notice) • Aftermath of a wildfire that has impacted portions of the City • Extended power outage with localized storm damage and/or flooding • Landslide blocking a City-owned road B. The City Council was extremely concerned about the implications of staffing an Incident Command System and managing an Incident at Level 2 or Level 3. The primary concern was that the City had only minimal staffing and could not realistically maintain even a small organizational ICS structure. Mayor Jon Ball stated that “the city can’t handle this. We would go from the Level 1 directly to a Level 4 and skip Levels 2 & 3.” What this means – essentially – is that the City would immediately recommend handing control to Jackson County’s Office of Emergency Management, or other related agencies such as the Sheriff’s Department or Fire District 4. In response, the SC-EMC noted that Jackson County Emergency Management views their role differently (SC-EMC recently met with the county). Per Emergency Manager Delaney Richards, Jackson County was there to assist the city and does not necessarily expect to fully take over. When the city declares and ratifies a State of Emergency, that allows the county to then request resources from the state. The county is also willing to send out county resources and/or assist in any way prior to the ratification being made. However, Shady Cove should not expect to disengage from the emergency. It was noted that in a larger event County and Fire resources may be fully engaged and they also have small staffs. SC-EMC emphasized that the City should still remain engaged as needed to provide support. Commissioner Natalie Swendener noted that in a larger emergency managed by the County/State, if the City does not maintain a presence and advocate for itself it could be last in line for assistance. Fire District 4 Chief Crume provided an analogy that compared City emergency management to a person providing food for themselves. He noted that in a person’s daily life, they can get by without learning to cook and can order take-out. He compared his organization (FD4) to a Michelin-starred restaurant that can provide expert meals, however he cautioned that “everyone should know how to make their own grilled cheese sandwich”. He noted that during the 2020 Obenchain fire, he and his entire team were actively engaged in fighting the fire, and could not have provided any additional emergency management services to the City of Shady Cove.  C. The general feedback from City Council on the draft Incident Action Plan and guided discussion was that it was complex and “a little overwhelming” to understand. The City Council mentioned that they would like a simpler checklist for actions; City Administrator Michele Parry commented that she did like the ICS organization chart provided in the IAP. 6. ADJOURNMENT 6.1.1. Recap of any new action items generated during this meeting. (a) SC-EMC was asked to review the City Charter (https://shadycove.org/wp- content/uploads/2019/04/The-Charter-of-the-City-of-Shady-Cove-1.pdf ) and research Oregon law and provide feedback to the City Council (via the City Administrator, Michele Parry). Note: The SC-EMC will accept the action item to review the City Charter and provide feedback to the City Council, and we will provide a limited review of Oregon Law. However, once we provide feedback to the council, we recommend that the City engage the services of their legal representative for further clarification. (b) The City Council has an action item to provide guidance on what types of emergencies City expects to have a role in managing. (c ) Mayor Jon Ball asked the City Administrator to remove the 2012 Shady Cove Emergency Operations plan from the City website. (d) The City Council & City Administrator Michele Parry will have an action item to review the workshop and provide next steps and further direction to the SC-EMC. (e ) Chief Crume recommended changing the reporting requirement wording within the Incident Levels to use the term “After Action Report (AAR)”. This is the term traditionally used within the ICS system. 6.1.2. Meeting adjourned at: __________8:20___________________________.