4.7.2026 Fall River City Council - Committee on Public Safety

My boo.

Hey.

Hey hey hey hey hey hey.

and call to order to the public safety meeting April 7th, 2026 at 5:00 pm.

Clerk, call the role.

Uh, councel here.

Councelor Reposo, here. Chair Peek here. Open to the pursuant to the open meeting law. Any person may make an audio or video recording of this meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised such recordings or transmissions are being made aware whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

First item on the agenda, citizens input. Anybody sign up? Nobody for citizens input.

Item number two, minutes from the March 19th, 2026 meeting.

Motion to approve. Motion to approve.

Made. Second. Second made. All in favor?

I.

I. No opposed.

Item number three, resolution committee on public safety convening with the chief of police to discuss vehicular vandalism in the President Avenue in Madison Street neighborhoods. This was adopted on 114th of 2025.

Uh deputy.

Sure. Uh, Deputy Chief JTH [ __ ] from the For Police Department.

Good evening, Deputy. Um, I had come across this. It was a resolution filed by councelor Hart. Um, has there been any other concerning issues in this neighborhood neighborhood that have come up post um, the resolution being filed?

I think this was an isolated incident involving a juvenile that was going through crisis that kind of had an outburst. So, we're able to mitigate that. Uh there's a group home nearby that was uh the source of that juvenile.

So we worked out the terms with them.

Okay. Yeah, I had read the reports from it. Um I'm okay with um motion leave to Yeah. Grant leave to withdraw. You make the motion, council.

Yes.

Motion made and second. All those in favor?

I No. Thank you, deputy. Um you might as well.

Yeah, you might as well have a seat.

Motion lift item four from the table.

Motion to lift item four from the tables made and seconded. All those in favor?

Okay. Item number four, resolution committee on public safety convened with representatives from the MBTA, the city of Fall River, and any other interested parties to discuss safety and noise concerns around the commuter rail. This was tabled on May 19th of 25.

Um, we have nobody from the MBTA.

Correct.

Any other interested bodies? No. Um, go ahead. Councel.

Yeah. So, just just talking about this, I know there was an article today um in the Herald talking about um capital improvement plan at the state level and they announced that there was uh they're looking to get 6.8 million to reduce South Coast rail noise problems. So, I know this resolution and some of the complaints around noise mitigation is is the concern here. So, if there's any

update to what's going on about that, um there's some good news on on that part.

Okay, I yield.

Thank you, deputy. Any complaints for noise in that area regards or safety concerns to the PD?

No, not that I know of.

Negative. All right. I think appropriately be Oh, go ahead, council.

I still have heard from some residents uh concerns about the noise in the neighborhood. I know that some neighbors were offered I believe some type of window replacements, but not all neighbors. Um and so I know I personally have received some complaints from residents outside of the MBTA area.

Okay. Um as of late, you have last month. Yeah.

All right. All right. I was going to leave to withdraw, but you if you're receiving um recent complaints of this, I'd rather hold it. So maybe a motion to table this item future meeting.

So made second.

All right. Motion so made and seconded.

All those in favor?

Item number five, resolution committee on public safety convene with the administration, police chief, fire chief, chief of emergency medical services, chief of emergency management agency, the administr administrator of community utilities, the interimm director of the department of community maintenance, the director of city operations, and the director of traffic and parking to discuss the development

of a strategic emergency response plan adopted March 10th of 26. I guess everybody can come down.

No, she sent me.

Yeah, excuse me. Oh, thank you for coming down. If everybody can just state their name for the record.

Chiefs, Chiefs, uh, EMS, Ann O'Neal, Souza, mayor's office, Paul Furland, the administrator of community utilities.

Uh, Richard A, EMA director, chief of special services, deputy chief, JTOR from the police department. Thank you guys for coming down. So, I had filed this resolution after the the blizzard. Um, I know the three of us were able to play some what of a role in it with you guys. Um, and I've got to see it work firsthand. Okay. And with any emergency or any situation, you always take a take away what could do

you could do better or what you could have that would, you know, um, make us more prepared for a future emergency.

So, I had reached out to Chief Aguia um right after the storm and was picking his brain about an emergency operations center um and we had a discussion and he had informed me that we have one up at the uh fire headquarters on Commerce Drive. So then my brain started to work, you know, even further as to what we could do in the city to be better prepared. Um, so I think this was the

first step to bring everybody to the table um that would be involved in a situation like that and at first bounce back and forth some ideas or opinion um and then go from there. So I did put in the resolution that we had 90 days to report back to the council. Obviously that's um negotiable. It just depends on how the timeline goes. Go ahead council.

So I I just one question I have and I don't know who can answer it. Maybe uh Chief Agar can. As far as the centralized location is concerned, I know during the snowstorm it was utilized over Commerce Drive. I guess my only concern is that did it meet the needs of what was needed at the time and if not, what what are some investments that possibly could be looked into um down in in that location?

Yeah. Okay. So, in um 2006 when uh the EOC used to be a government center here, right? Mhm.

And then when fire headquarters was built in 2000, well, 2002 was built in 2006, uh, Mim came down, Doug Forbes, I have the letter here, and he looked over the EOC where we were going to presently have where we have have it now at fire headquarters. So, he determined that were the best location for many reasons.

Reasons being it's off Route 24, easy access.

Number two, the parking lot across the street. We can use it for helicopter if we had an Atlanta helicopter.

We could use it for storing pods for supplies if we had long-term situation.

We have an office facility there. My office is there. The fire chief is there. EMS was there. Uh next door we have uh shower facilities. So if it was longterm, we could use that facility to stay there. So that's why that was chosen to be um at fire headquarters. So we've probably used that since we've had it four or five times. Uh believe it or not, when we first had the EOC, we had

it um equipped with laptops, with phones, so forth, so on. But what happened was um because that stuff got stored in a closet and I guess they were window eight or 10 at the time 15 years ago whatever it was um they became obsolete of course and we had a phone system kind kind of like this where we could plug phones into the jacks and everybody had their own phone.

So over time Mima said that if everyone brings their own laptops they have their own information for that department in their laptop. So that's going to suffice.

Then it came to phones and the chief and I spoke about his IT guy could bring phones down but as we all know once again um everyone has their own cell phones with all the contacts in it that they need.

So um MIMA made a decision that because all this stuff has to be approved by MIMA.

We can't just say what we're going to do, right? So they said, "Well, then we'll allow cell phones to be used in the EOC."

So my opinion um is that that is probably the best place for it for easy accessibility off the highway. We have ample parking in the back as you all know. Um and not to be repetitious, but we have all the facilities that we need.

showers, kitchen. We have we can even put CS if we have to put CSS in in one of the offices because we have the commissioner's room. We can use that as a um just to put CS in there. So, um in my opinion, that would be the continue to be the place to be. Can we do improvements? Can we update some things?

Of course. And I think we should be looking at that to update the facility rather than trying to move the facility.

Um when you talk around about going down to the Cape um when they have catastrophic situation down there um FEMA and the bunker has a full-time operation center the southern part of the state Florida so forth on that area they have full-time operation centers because they have a lot of situations down there not like us here so when we have to implement it I think the problem is that we have to

let all department heads know. And what I did was I I wish to have the people was here because right from the EENT plan it describes everybody's duties for each I can pass this out to the people.

I can pass to everybody. I have plenty of copies. So I indicated page whatever page is indicated is your department.

What your responsibilities are for a catastrophic situation and to respond to the EOC.

May I see that chief?

Yeah, absolutely. So all this stuff is in this eent plan book. Okay. So I just pulled these pages out. Um I we can pass this around. We have because um so it even explains uh what the mayor's roles are even and EMS medical um police department public works medical and health department. Um it doesn't it doesn't describe anything regarding the water department because I feel as though Mima thinks water become

comes under the public work umbrella all all in one school department um planning department believe it or not planning department plays a big role in all this stuff as well.

So if you when the front page indicator if you go to your page it kind of describes what your responsibilities are. Okay. And this is what MI requires when we have the EOC opened up through the internet command structure. That's how that works. Um, so I think the thing is what Mr. Pekkin was trying to get at that everybody understand what their roles are and when we have to pull the plug on a catastrophic situation,

those people have to report to the OC.

And you saw firsthand once we did the thing worked flawless. It went like a it went clapwork, right? And I think that's what everybody has to understand that we all have to get the chief did a great job, right? EMS, um, fire department, the state was there, as you know, National Guard. So, we all worked as one team and everything fell into place the way it had to be. Um, could have there

been a few more people there with their responsibility roles? Probably. Okay. Um I just want to mention National Grid too. So National Grid um when we have a situation like we had the snowstorm, I have a contact directly with National Grid. They assign a case worker to me and any situation that we may have um power outages. For an example, I'll give you an example. Um we had um Hillside

Street, we had um Corental Health. Okay.

We had a situation down there. There was wires down, a tree down. So, in order for National Grid to get down there, the street had to be plowed. So, I worked it out with um um Mr. Olivera to get a plow down there.

Right.

Once we had the the street plowed, I called my contact back. They went down within 20 minutes to restart the power.

Okay? Because that's a medical facility.

So, they had to have the power right away.

We had a situation, another situation in the Columbia Street, um, River Falls Assistant Living lost power.

So, it's it's it's ironic because they don't have a generator there to support the building. So, if the power goes off there, which happened two or three times already, um, they depend on national grid to go down there right away to restore the power. So once this the street was accessessible, which it was Columbia Street, um I called Chuck back and they went down there and they restored the power right away. So the

point I'm making is as every piece of the puzzle fell into place. Okay. When Chief Font needed assistance from the National Guard, we notified the National Guard through the webc. They came down and they assisted Chief France, right?

Um and we had them there for four days to assist us in that we needed that help. So the EOC works the OC at the location were working that location. It's just a matter of we have to just tighten this up a little bit and we have to make people aware that and this this has to come from the mayor. So the chief executive officer has to pull the plug in and say listen

the EOC is going to be open.

You you you you you have to be there or send a representative of your department to be there to represent you and that way then we can communicate. So can I ask a not to cut you off but let me ask you a question in regards to the blizzard ultimately who estat who who made the decision to set up the command center at Commerce Drive?

I did.

You did? Okay. So did essentially you f they the process that happened was based on what is here.

Is that correct or no?

To an extent.

Okay. To an extent but it wasn't wasn't done fully.

Once there was an operation that was done fully. Yes. Yeah. It was 100% in operations. There was um so what happened was was this what what triggered this a state of emergency? The trick of this was this once so once MIMA so okay all the requests go through the webc okay even though the governor okays the the units that came down the request goes to the webc once web once me knew that we were

getting trucks 52 pieces of equipment from New York y I received a call from them said listen we are going to send out representative MIMA to work in the OC with you side by side to coordinate all these efforts with the state.

And I said fine. So Matthew called me and he said, "Chief, I'm on my way down here. Where can I meet you?" So I said, "Well, meet me at Bishop Connley High School. That's where we're staging, right?"

So from that point on, he said to me, "Where's your EOC?" I says in the process of being opened right now at fire headquarters.

So I says to the mayor, I says, "Mayor, we're going to move everything down the fire headquarters. We're going to work from fire headquarters."

He would agree with that. He had no problem with that.

Because I think he saw at that point this is going to turn out to be something that bigger than us, right?

And from once Mim was down there working with us, um, as the chief can allude to, he did all the imple submitted all this stuff for us and he was great with us.

He worked as a team with all of us. He worked at DOT, he worked with EMS, he worked at me, he worked with the police department, he worked at the fire side, um he worked with um McInness from the state. So all those pieces came together and it worked out fine. So there was no there was a real disruption because don't forget when we first got that storm the first day we got they loed

what 41 inches of snow and we everybody was like in the fog right so people couldn't get out of the house out of their driveways until we got moving and I was working the EOC quite frankly out of my house the request that went in for um Chief France for the National Guard I actually did that for my house so because I couldn't out of my driveway, right? And once I got my

driveway clean, soon I five minutes later, they plowed me right back in again.

So, I had to plow it out again with my snowblower to get out of my driveway to get down to my office to look at my phone. I had 100 phone calls pending, right?

And then um trying to get into my office was another challenge, but that was besides the point. But after that is when we got everything pretty much cleared. And then when the trucks were coming down, when they called me that the truck was coming out, coming down that morning, then I knew we had to get something in place.

Let me ask you a question just I don't want to belabor this point anymore than needs to be, but what triggers the establishment of the EOC? A state of emergency?

State of emergency automatically.

So right off the bat, whenever we have a catastrophic situation and can attest for this, I always have the mayor sign a declaration. Yes. Okay.

This way here, it gets the ball rolling.

All right. So then I submit that to MIMA. I fax it to them. So they have that on file. Right. And then once the mayor declares that, we could open up a CC for any situation.

All right. Whenever I felt or feel the need for it.

Um we've done it many times in the past.

Um but this situation that I knew that it had to be opened up. There was no question about it.

Yeah.

Okay. That's fine. I mean, I I obviously I'm gonna have to read this over, but I don't have any further questions this time. I yield.

All right, Council Daniel.

Thank you. Um, so when I review uh this document, how long has this document been around? Uh, 20 years, I'm sorry.

How long has this been in place? This Okay, so the ESM plan is has been around forever. Okay.

Okay. It's been around forever. Every It's always being updated because it's a living Bible. Okay. Everything changes.

The department has changed. um mayor's change, city council changed. So every everything within this city pertains to the emergency is in this book.

Point of clarification, what is the revision date on this document?

When's the last time was updated?

I think that's the question my colleague is asking.

January 2026.

26. Thank you.

And I'll tell you why. Because there were some changes that had to be made.

So the police chief for an example once the police chief um was reinstated I have to make the change in that because now I have to submit that to Mima. Mim Mima has a copy of this book. So it's it's not like it's on a you know it's on a um a thumb drive. Um but technically at one time when this book was printed in um in um 2020

uh no it was 20 yeah 2020 every city agency had one of these books. You may have one in your office.

police I know everybody had one of these books we made copies everybody it's outdated now because since then everything has changed right we have mayor's changed we have department has changed you know I mean everything changes so it's it's it's always it's a living document and it's always being updated I'm constantly updating it and sending information to to MIMA when the police

get the accreditation they contact me to make sure this is updated In order for the police to get a full accreditation, the eent plan has to be updated. In order for the fire department through FEMA to get grants, this has to be updated. So, this book plays a role in city government as well.

Okay. Um there's a notation on the first uh page here that says um and I quote, "A continuity of government COG plan annex should be developed to fully address these needs." is referring to some of the prior uh sentences and to augment this plan. I'm just wondering if that was ever established at any point if the uh chief executive has ever established that plan that annex.

So that's what this pertains to if that's your question.

Okay. Okay. So that step just in particular was fully completed that and that book somewhere it covers that all required reports and records of emergency operations activities will be submitted to and received by the chief executive official and and so this is just this is just a very small portion yeah of this entire book.

So the stuff you just spoke to it will explain all that in here in depth.

Okay.

And I can give everybody a thumb drive of this um if you'd like. Okay.

The the the other thing that I just want to point out is the mitigation book who Mr. Ferlin knows this very well that this is also always being updated and I think was in the process of being updated as well, right Paul? Recently we we updated it a couple years ago.

Yep.

Yeah. So, so this kind of mirrors this somewhat where it talks about flooding, tornadoes, wildfires, stuff like that.

Though this is the hazication book that we are um this has to be done also by law I would imagine. Right. to the surfet, right? You could speak to this because you Yeah. No, with the hazard mitigation plan uh that goes through uh MEMR and FEMA, it's approved by them. Uh every five years uh requirement that it gets uh that it gets updated. So, um typically they they won't provide some

types of mitigation funding. So, we've gotten a lot of flood mitigation funding through uh the hazard mitigation program. You need to have an updated plan to be able to get that funding.

Yeah. And and Without this being updated and this being updated, we will not get fiddle money as he just mentioned because these things have to be upkeep kept up. And um the hazardous annex books as well is another book about this size on hazmat response that in order us to get hazmat grants that has to be updated. I didn't bring that book with me because I couldn't carry everything.

Um so that's another thing that we have to keep updated and to keep an eye on that as well. Mima all this stuff is generated through MIMA. MIMA played a big role in city government and people don't realize how much of a role they play in city government. Um where they're the watchd dogss over all of this stuff that we do and that's why we're allowed to get a lot of police grants, federal grants, fire grants,

mitigation grants, so forth. Uh one big thing they're always on top of is the as Paul can relate to is the dams, right?

They're always on top of the dams in the city. How update they give you money for the dam repairs and all this stuff.

without this being updated, you won't get a dime.

So, let's speak to when you make updates. How do we communicate that to everyone so that they are aware? I know you're updating the book. Do we push updates? Like, I get, you know, emails that, hey, the terms and conditions have changed. Sometimes they just reference you to a link. Sometimes they actually say, here are the key summary changes, I guess. So, um, rather than, you know,

obviously forcing people to read the whole book all over again, do we kind of summarize for the relative departments what those changes are when we make the changes or Yeah, I mean, so when we first started, when we first did the the full plan like this, okay, there's a lot of pages in there that people don't have to particularly have to worry about.

The pages that every department head should worry about, I condensed it. okay to a small small smaller um folder and it it spoke to stuff such as this.

Um but when you look at this is just this is just to uh tip of the uh iceberg. Okay, all these issues in here will explain it in this lower half in more depth.

So the thing is um I think in in my feeling everyone who for me fire department police department public works so forth they all know their jobs okay this is a template to follow and it's a template for the city to follow.

So, but anybody wants to look at this book, I I can very easily make copies of thumb drives because I have everything in my office hanging up on a thumb drive that's in this book. Um, but to print the whole book off, everybody that's, you know, kind of Do you have a digital version maybe perhaps could be available?

So, the digital f is on them drive and I can just send it out. It's just it's the same the same thing. I can just put attach it to your email, whatever.

Okay. and you'll get the whole thing.

Uh, one question I have, um, page 2-7 talks about how we do or should, uh, conduct annual exercise of the plan at least once a year. And I'm just wondering if we've been keeping up with that when the last one prior to this blizzard may have been. Obviously, the blizzard itself was probably So, we referring to what? Uh it says uh the EMD will coordinate an annual review and revision of this plan with all elect

all all involved officials and conduct an exercise of the plan at least once a year. Exercises provide practical controlled operations experience. I'm just checking to see if we do that with the departments.

So basically that's what this meeting is about, right? To update all this this stuff. And if every department had that's why I printed all this stuff off each each department had that who this applies to. So they as far as like a tabletop exercise or sometime a walk through. I think the last time we did one was last year we actually had a televised MBTA was down here. We had all the stakeholders at the

table. We walked through um a tragic event, a mass casualty event and we kind of talked through it. That's kind of what a tabletop exercise is. Um, from the police department's perspective, as Mr. Aguia has alluded to, uh, we're an accredited agency. So, the police department has a living, breathing document that kind of mimics that in a much more, uh, ompic version. It's a little thinner, um, but it's cleaner.

And I think one of the things that I can be proud of as our agency during any type of critical incident, uh, we kind of gel in understanding like an EOC can be something at a car accident, it could be something at a homicide scene. So, it's something that the police department is used to doing day in and day out. So, when we were part of the EOC uh for the storm, it's something

that just comes second nature to me and our agency. So, I think ultimately the questions that you're making is that that that document is something that's a guiding light. But to your point, um I think all department heads have to understand like what the guiding principles are in this and we've had a lot of changes in our government on all levels. Um, but there's functional elements of ICS that need to exist at

EOCC as it pertains to, you know, who's got command, who's in charge of operations, logistics, finance. So, some of the feedback I have is like we had all these vendors coming in from wherever some were just selfinitiating to come in to help us and we were kind of struggling with the onboarding of that. So, if we truly honestly kind of had a tabletop exercise and walk through like, okay, if this ever were to happen

again, the role is this. we're going to need so and so from whatever it may be um the auditor's office, the CFO present or at least available on a video conference and what's going to be the onboarding process for a new vendor um and keeping track of that because I think there were a lot of um cross contamination of stuff where like we had the ability for instant response because

we had MIMA sitting at the table and they keep track of all of their stuff very methodically. So, we were getting like a spreadsheet of what resources and assets they had coming in from everywhere, not just within the state, but from Connecticut, New York, and who the vendor contact was and all that stuff. And with the city, um, we could probably emulate that and do a better job with tracking that because we relied

on a lot of our vendors to just selfinitiate, whether it was, uh, you know, the building commissioner making some phone calls because he has contacts. I mean, we have a lot of close-knit businesses that support us day in and day out with whatever we need. Um, but the ability to set standards like what's the rate on this piece of equipment? What is the amount of hours you're going to put in and keep

that as a finance role in administration and kind of separate and delegate those tasks and it would have run a little bit smoother. I'm not saying it didn't run smooth. I think having everybody in that room uh were able to triage a lot of the problems and get the answers quick um to kind of backtrack on the phone situation. Uh cell phones obviously have uh revolutionized the world. Um but you

still have to have some landlines. So the Mr. Aguar had talked about our IT department working with the city's IT department. Over the last 5 years, we've upgraded all the phone systems in the city. So literally from my desk in the PD, I can dial an extension as if I'm sitting in this building and call somebody. Uh we have the ability to kind of create a call center there. So, we were just talking before this meeting

about having kind of a a response bag with phones ready to go and what's the what's the deployment of that? That was something I can honestly say we didn't have a plan with that. We had cell phone issues up there though. There was some capacity issues when everybody's on their cell phones. So, um I think the big thing that we can learn from this is that the ICS system, this free training

through homeland security, that's something that everyone should be familiar with on a department head level, even on the executive level. And if you just understand those functional elements, then things kind of fit in.

Um, I don't think anyone dropped the ball, per se. I just think that this was something unexpected. Uh, we were crippled in the sense of the amount of snow we had. Uh, so regardless if we had an EOC from Tuesday of the week prior or the Sunday before the storm, there was going to be a point where the city of Forever was going to raise a white flag and ask the state for help in the state

of declaration of emergency.

And I think with Mr. Aguire doing that as quickly as he did and the contacts that the administration has with the the the uh the state government, we were in the spotlight very quickly and were able to get a lot of resources that other municipalities didn't have.

Like the chief mentioned everything with EOC is mentioned in this book as well. So I can copy that out for everyone as well what the EOC I mean incident command system is all about.

talks about logistics and finance and all that stuff, but I didn't get into that because I just didn't break that down.

All right. My final question, not so much around the departments, but just around the dedicated shelter, and I I don't know who's best to speak to this, maybe it's the administration. Um, but I think my understanding was the dedicated shelter in this storm uh was Cus Middle School. And I think just seeing the conditions on my own street and I couldn't get out for 4 days, you know,

that's if I had to get to that place, I I probably wouldn't have been able to.

So, I'm just wondering futuristically if we think, you know, if there's a big forecast, maybe, you know, maybe we need a secondary location like Dery or or some place in the north end as well as the south end or or something more central. I think it just kind of I don't know if anybody even ended up at Cus just with the conditions. No.

So we have we have five locations in the city. Okay.

The one that we always choose is CUS only because um it's accessibility like any other school. Okay. We have the silly school.

We have JY High School. Jeff High School is a cash magy shelter in case we have to have a thousand people or more.

Right.

We have the F school. We have the dorman school. So all these shelters have to be approved by the Red Cross. They have to come down and approve it. Um handicap accessibilities bathrooms feeding facilities, and it has to it has to meet um their requirements.

When I knew the storm was going to be hitting, um we have our own rehab trailer with CS with blankets with what with all the supplies, sanitation supplies that you need. I had that brought to the school. It was already there.

Um, I went to check it out once they started plowing the snow.

Mr. Pico had a path going from Bay Street around Global Mills Avenue around the school to the shelter. So, it was already because he knew that we were going to use that. So, that was already already taken care of. Okay. Um, the reason we haven't done Dery as of yet because the Red Cross has not approved the new Dery High School. The old Derby High School was approved.

April 22nd, we're having a shelter operation drill with the Red Cross and they chose CUS School because they like the way it's set up.

Right from the back of the school, you walk to the main door, you walk into the cafeteria area, and all those tables can be moved out of there and put the CS.

So, we can put 50 Cs in there. So, they like that that location for that. Um, I spoke to Mr. Pico yesterday. So, the drill is going to take place on the 22nd, 8:30 to 1:30 um on school vacation. So, they want to actually do a live drill in case they have to um operate the um the shelter at the school. So that's why that was chosen um that particular school. It's a

preference for the Red Cross. Why it's their preference, I don't know, but um they like that that location. So hypothetically, we were very fortunate we didn't have mass power outages in this storm. I think that would have compounded things. But hypothetically, let's say uh a good portion of the Flint lost power and they needed, you know, for days, right? Two or three days potentially. How would Flint residents

or Maplewood or North End residents get to Cus Middle School? Because, you know, I think it would have been a problem the amount of way we had the shelter in the city. I mean, it would have been a disaster. I mean, the main street steer this back towards the emergency operations, not so much the shelters that we have. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Um, you know, the main streets were clean, but side streets would they're pretty precarious for a couple of days, right?

So, it been tough for anybody to get anywhere, I think. We kind of addressed that at the EOC in the conversation we had around people that had to have sustaining life medical uh services brought to them. So we were reaching like the 48 hour mark and there were people that needed dialysis.

So if you think about power outage, it's similar. So I think we we met with the National Guard, we kind of pivoted and we used in a more transport method with them. So they were moving patients to areas and we were doing a lot of logistical planning. So, I think with that said, if we needed to move a mass amount of people to a shelter, we probably would have identified something

closer to the Flint and then we would have worked on the National Guard helping us and getting the resources in here that we would need to to move a lot of people quickly.

Yeah, because we have a lot of shelters that have been approved.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Thank you. Appreciate you.

So, I'll uh I'll comment when I first went to the EMS office in the heart of the storm. Um the one thing that I did notice and I think that we should come up with a solution for sooner than later is the initial response. So an emergency response is called or emergency situation is called who are the emergency contacts right away. So in my line of work if there was an emergency

you had a checklist A B C D and E and emergency preparation. I didn't see that and not like you had said it's nobody's fault. Nobody has seen 41 inches um of snow ever. And we've been blessed to avoid a lot of big, you know, um just situations in the city that could have gotten a lot worse. Gabriel fire was bad, but god forbid it could have, you know, um if we didn't have the

personnel that we did. So, I I was missing that structure when I first got there that I'm used to. So if there's an emergency called automatic phone calls, police chief, fire chief, EMS chief, you're obviously already involved in this. And then them or their design report to the EOC. That way the communication is fluid. Everybody's around you. Um and that's what took place later on um a couple of days later

when you had the EOC established. Um I was lucky enough to be there and you you were all there. Um you had Annne answering phone calls from constituents.

You were doing your EMS. you were a godsend, deputy, um, to be there. Um, just with the logistical aspect of it, just holding it together in one room and keeping it all there. And if you have a question, all you got to do is turn your head. And then from there, I would say you would get to your um, have those departments because each department, I would assume, has their own SOP for emergency response, the police

department, fire department. So that initial call and then you activate your department heads. They go there and then they initiate their plans and then you make your secondary phone calls to the water department and your other essential services. So that's kind of the structure I'm looking for here and then iron out the logistics after. And I know it says in here that it's an executive branch function. So I have

talked to the mayor right after the blizzard about this and he seemed he was interested. He had actually brought up the Nagel Auditorium, the vocational wing there as an idea. Um, I think moneywise and just for the uh to expedite this process, we already have one that's approved. So, if we can upgrade to that, unless anybody else feels differently. The only thing I'd like to add, counselor, on the topic of

EOCC's. So, uh, you know, I I believe in the city is going to be moving in a direction where we're going to have larger events. I mean, this summer is lining up to be one of the busiest on the waterfront that we've had. the amount of events that we're going to have just at the gates of the city which is kind of turning in the mecca of special events is uh as a city we should

look at a mobile command postg is uh aged is it was bought grant money but this is one that needs to fit all aspects whether it be EMS fire police dispatch make that the command post so obviously you know uh the sheriff's department had a very large one I think we need one at that scale because uh one of the things we're working on right now as the police department with these

special events is to the thing you just led to an operational plan. So when someone wants to have a special event at the gates of the city, this is the cookie cutter. This is the brochure.

This is what we do. If you expect x amount of people, this is what we need for police resources and that's the way it goes because I'd ra I'd rather have it and not need it than need and not have it. If there's an actual issue and I think the Mr. Agak can talk about homeland security and mass events with people that are showing up in a certain area. We have to have the resources

there. So we can't eb and flow because it creates inconsistency with coverage, right? So if we do a slim down coverage for one event, then we we want to go to a certain event and say this like well that other event got only this many police officers, this many EMS. There's got to be standardization so that way it's consistent. you want to have an event, this is what happens. This is

what we do. And it's mainly for the concerns of the safety of the citizens as well as the visitors to the city. But I think a mobile command post that is shared amongst every entity in the city would be a great investment.

Yeah, I agree. So, when I brought this up to the mayor, that was the first thing he said to me, a mobile one, and I think it's a great idea. Uh, with the waterfront especially, and that's going to be um, you know, we're going to build that up over the next 10 years. It is good to start now with a plan in place.

Um, I think that's a great idea. If we could collab the two ideas together as we go, maybe we can get both out of them, you know. Um, council repos.

Yeah. And I would just advocate I agree with the deputy. I think a mobile command center is a smart idea. If you go go to the Exfinity Center in Mansfield, for example, they have a a setup there where all the safe public safety departments there are facilitating all their actions out of one area. I mean, it's a it's a building now. There used to be a trailer, now it's a building, but which is great. Um,

so I would advocate, you know, we talked about capital improvements if this is something that falls under the police or kind of collectively as a city something that we should a look into. How much would it cost? What, you know, the investment is clearly worth it. And to the deputy chief's point, what's going on at the waterfront's only going to continue and only continue to grow. You

look at the July 4th celebration of the fireworks and how many people are down there. Having some sort of mobile facility to do what you're saying is is not only the function, it's also the point that it looks like a waypoint.

People can see it from a distance. So that's where help is. So, I'm just going to go there. We do a good job with the Holy Ghost feast and all these things of putting our resources all in one area, but I think if we have that command post and it's equipped to facilitate everything, then it's definitely an investment that's a no-brainer.

100%. Yeah. And I would support that as well. So, I yield. Thank go ahead. Uh, Chief, so I think Chief Bacon must have spoke to you about the red Kova trailer, correct?

depends on what they're talking about, but yes, we do have a red um co trailer right now that is could be retrofitted for this season. It wouldn't be a big expense to retrofit it until we could possibly look at getting something else that we could put some um investment into to get it up to where it needs to be, at least for now. Um, I feel like the biggest part of

having a mobile command center or I think what was lacking in, and I don't mean this disrespectfully because we're all probably guilty of it. This hit us on the side of the head and we didn't see it coming. I think that we lacked communication, I think, and having all your department heads and the essential personnel like in the same place would make them aware of what you have going

on and I would be aware of what he's he has going on. So if everybody have is having struggles, at least you're kind of in the same area and then you can prioritize um the things that are that are the most important.

Yeah, I agree. So where is where is this co trailer? Where do we store it?

It is if I had quote how big is it?

Oh, it's big.

It has cameras. You can see it has outside cameras. It has everything.

Well, that's an idea now, isn't it? We don't use it for anything else.

You could use it for communication. You could have there's enough room in there to to do what you need to do for now until we can get something better. Okay, you would like we can discuss or we can have a meeting and see um what would be the best way to retrofit it. We may even have some of the stuff that we would need to get it up and running for now

and at least we would have it for the season.

Yeah. No, that's a good idea.

I like that. Um so I don't know what we would ultimately come from this. Um maybe because the endgame here is to implement some type of policy through the executive branch on a recommendation. Correct. So maybe we can come together um the department heads, you guys are the best to ask when it comes to public safety. You know, you're it. So maybe come up with some type of plan um for like the an operational

proced like a procedural plan and start there first. So if we, God forbid, have an emergency next week, it's already there, you know. Um, I don't know if Chief that's something that you would have time to maybe Yeah, I mean write up something as a we can be in touch through uh email too. I think if we all work as a team because um we south coast rail the chief was there the

chief was there u we had a tabletop exercise and we strategized all this stuff what we're going to do if something should happen how we going to how we going to handle this so every department we even have met every department knew what they have to do and this is a good point that you just mentioned so I think if we all sit down and strategize how we going to do this

and it's like the chief mentioned how we can improve that trailer or think about buying something in the future because I think that has a bunch of radios in as well. Communication, right? So there it's already there. I mean, it may temporarily work because it has to be pulled around until we get the funds to really have something good. Yeah, but I think it has a TV in it and everything.

So, it's pretty well all set.

I think that what we I think that what we need to understand and to to allude to um Deputy Chief's point is that we have to have a plan that entails even the smallest of events to the biggest of events because there are things that can tax to city services that may not be 41 inches of snow and like like I said consistency and knowing what you need to handle that situation and what's your

best course of action for each department head so everybody's role I mean Ann did a great job with the phones during the um snowstorm but she was going with two phones I just feel like and I think there was a lot of redundancy in phone calls not by any any fault of anybody's but I just think that if we create a plan that's consistent so that everybody knows what their role is and how they

should react in any situation.

Council proposal.

Yeah. So, I'm going to go back to Deputy Chief War's idea and I think it's it's valuable of this committee to show some support behind an idea of a mobile command center.

Um, so I'm going to make a motion to have this committee send a letter to the mayor um supporting the concept of a mobile operation center. and if it's possible to look into either if it's looking into something newer or retrofitting what um what Chief Font is referring to. I think this committee would agree that that's a good step forward considering we are looking at a a larger um attendance in different

events across the city as it grows. Um I'll make that in the form of a motion.

Motion also made and seconded. All those in favor I the public safety committee will be sending a letter to the mayor. Yes.

Yes, sir. That is the motion. And and just Oh, you want to do the vote? I'm sorry. Motion second.

All set.

Sorry. Um and then just to the interim city administrator, if you could pass that along to the mayor as well. Uh absolutely.

That would be excellent.

I did just want to mention too that before any event that we do have in the city, we always have a a free meeting.

There's always all the department heads, public safety especially along with our inspectional services division, our food inspectors, uh the mayor's office and representatives where we do plan prior to any event and they the the chief or her design will let the the office know or the event coordinator what they need as far as public safety personnel. Um, and we've streamlined our process for a

number of events. Um, and made a a better application for we called it a parade permit before, but now it's a full event planning application where there's a lot more information gained.

So, having a centralized location at an event like that would be great. But there is always a meeting that goes forward. It's not just weather related emergencies. It's just anything that happens, any type of uh events going on in the city throughout the year.

Correct. And and I would ask obviously in the spirit of this resolution I think council of Pekkham is looking for um any updates or essentially any additional information that can be put into this.

So in the spirit of the resolution I think it would be helpful if in this conversation and your analysis of the post blizzard situation if there's any recommendations as deputy chief made to add to this plan and and supplement plans to be ready to pull when you need them. Um it would be helpful if if you guys as as executive have that conversation and then possibly come back to this committee to report back um if

there are any changes needed and then from there this committee along with the council if we need to support in any financial sense to make some of these things happen then obviously I think I as one person would support um that that process. I yield. Yeah, I think this is a good starting point because again we everybody did a good job there in the blizzard. Um, but we could always

improve and I think there's a lot of room for improvement. There are a couple of ite uh issues I I know I I talked to a couple of you about them that are kind of sensitive in nature, but they can also be rectified um with this resolution. So, you know, it uh kind of tackles the issue from all angles. Um, with that being said, we're going to go forward with your motion and we have

nothing else on the agenda to a anything else.

Well, entertain.

So, when know we have a large scale event within the city, I have to report that to the fusion center, the state police fusion center, so they can be aware of how many people we're having with in in a large group.

Anything over a thousand people, I have to report to them. And we are mandated through an evacuation plan. So, geeks to Portugal, Holy Ghost feast, um any large event event, I do an evacuation plan and I have to send that to Mimmer as well.

So, as far as public safety goes, we're on top of things in the city and if it's fire, EMA, EMS, um I think we're very good at it. Um can there be some improvements? Like, you know, we all discussed, of course, there can be improvements, but as far as trying to um follow protocol, we do a good job of that. Um, but they can be improvements for the REOC and they will work on that

command center. We'll work on a command center.

Yep. There's improvements in everything and especially with technology upgrades and everything like that, you know. Um, if we let it we could build it today and then in seven years have to upgrade it again. So, but it's something that needs to be done because nothing in the city's worth doing without it being safe, you know. So, I'd like to stop here if nobody has anything else.

I just put these two documents together.

This is from EMS's perspective of a strategic plan and kind of an afteraction for Blizzard. So, if we could just have you like review them and if there's questions or if you want to discuss it and if you have emails or whatever or if you want to discuss it at the next meeting then maybe we can work on some of the particulars or if there's anything specific that highlights or jumps out at you, let me know.

Thank you.

Motion to table.

Motion to table's been made.

Second and seconded. All those in favor I I.

Motion to adjurnn.

Motion adjourn been made and seconded.

All those in favor?

I.

Have a good night everybody.

Hey hey hey.

pain.

Hey