Hello Council and Senior Staff, Nice to see the Council last night, along with many of the Senior Staff. I especially liked these suggestions that I heard: 1. Study Session with the MP Fire Protection District. One topic would be discussing the City's use of the CERTs that they train. (One can obtain CERT training elsewhere, so the MPFPD did not train all the CERTs living in Menlo Park.) I'm curious about the role of Ryan Zollicoffer. He is the current liaison to the District's CCM/CERT Advisory Board. The presentation showed him as part of the vEOC. I also heard that Zollicoffer is under some type of contact with the City. 2. Discussing a needed Chain of Command for MPC Ready volunteers that goes into the vEmergency Operations Center. 3. The need to start considering Phase 2 for the City and volunteers after the Shelter-in-Place is lifted. Council Member Mueller talked to this issue somewhat and a fuller Council discussion is warranted. I wanted to know more about what the UK is doing with their trained volunteers to help with Phase 2 in the UK. It sounded like some could help us with needed training. A key topic was the use of volunteers in the City's disaster preparation and recover. Thus, I found it extremely unusual that the staff report and presentations did not include a section with existing Policy on this topic. These policy references are found in the City's Municipal Code, Safety Element of the City's General Plan and the Emergency Operations Plan, V2. I have previously sent you and the Senior Staff the links and specifics. When discussing the City's use of Volunteers, seems to me that the information shared with Council should have started with existing Policy to frame the discussion. I found the meeting informative, but too light on specifics in key areas. These include what each member of the vEOC is doing. However, I heard enough to know that there could be synergistic opportunities with MPC Ready's Block Coordinator Recruitment drive. For example, Rebecca Lucky is the schools and non-profits liaison. I wanted to know more about her efforts and to see if she could include BC recruitment drive information in her outreach. There are other examples. It also sounded like at least a few of the Staff efforts could be re-purposed towards greater needs, such as helping with communications related to COVID-19. I'm also attaching a very powerful editorial in the New York Times: "Vulnerability highly intersected with race and poverty in the U.S" At your next meeting, I hope to hear Council discuss a concerted plan focused on helping the City's most vulnerable residents. Lynne Bramlett Co-Chair, MPC Ready https://www.mpcready.org/ Cell: 650-380-3028 application/pdf attachment: NYT_Race_Vulnerability.pdf
