Introduction of Ordinance Amending the Alameda Municipal Code by Adding Section 2.24 to Article II of Chapter II Related to Emergency Organization to Create the City of Alameda Disaster Council as Required by State Law to Obtain Legal Recognition as an Official Emergency Organization. (City Manager 2110)
Introduction of ordinance amending the Alameda Municipal Code by adding Section 2.24 to Article two of Chapter two related to emergency organizations to create the City of Alameda Disaster Council, as required by state law to obtain legal recognition as an official emergency organization. Hello. My name is Captain Sharon Oliver. I'm the disaster preparedness coordinator. Pardon? My voice decided to leave me right before I came. I'm the disaster preparedness coordinator for the City of Alameda and emergency manager. So what I'm hearing tonight is we're requesting that you adopt an ordinance to reinstate the city of Alameda Disaster Council. I do have a point of clarification as that went through, as the ordinance went through the process. There was a name change that did not get corrected prior to giving it to you. You should have a version with a line through that calls it the disaster council as opposed to the disaster commission. It couldn't be called a commission. There's other rules that go along with commission. So staff worked very hard to have it accurate for you to this evening and there was still a minor error. So do you all have your packet? Correct. So I'd just like to give you a little context for why we bring this and how the city of Alameda fits into a bigger. A bigger picture with the state and how we operate when it comes to emergencies and disasters. So the state of California works in what's called the standard emergency management system. That's seems for sure. That is how we respond to and organize ourselves in disasters. It's where our mutual aid agreements live and are played out. There's methods for requesting assistance and giving assistance to other cities through those mutual aid agreements. We operate in a chain of command type environment where if we need help, we go to our operational area, which is the county of Alameda. They have their emergency operations center in Dublin, California. So we we do many of these things to be a team and work together. But we also do these things to meet requirements from FEMA. FEMA has, as the years have gone on, gotten to the point where they're not willing to continue to spend taxpayer dollars if the communities aren't doing their part to be prepared. So when we bring these things before you, part of it is so that we're eligible for full reimbursement for disasters. They will always come and help us. But at the end of a disaster, they're going to audit us. And if we don't have certain things in place and we're not doing our part to be a prepared and resilient city, they will ask us for some money back. I believe it's at about 6% now. If everything's not in place and I'm not going to go through all those things tonight for the time constraint, but when it costs sometimes billions of dollars to help a community recover, 6% of that can be quite financially devastating to a city if they're not, you know, doing what they need to do. So we are doing what we need to do, I can assure you. Part of the things we need to do are have an operational plan. We have an emergency management plan in place. That's one of the things we have to do. We are currently working on a revision of the emergency mitigation plan. That's to mitigate hazards prior to, you know, identifying and mitigating those hazards. So we're in the process of doing that, that plan right now, and you'll see that in the coming months to be adopted. We're also responsible to train our staff, and we're responsible to collaborate with the community and train the community to the best of our ability. Those are things that are required for FEMA to give us the reimbursement and not ask for any of it back. We don't want them to ask for any of it back. So this ordinance is getting reinstated. And I want to just kind of let you know that the reason we're bringing it back is because it by accident got deleted. It was an oversight, the last council task staff with looking at boards and commissions and getting rid of some of the bureaucracy and red tape, I believe. And that's great because everybody wants to streamline as much as possible. The problem was in that streamlining, they got rid of the disaster council. So it just a brief history on the disaster council. If you're old enough and I'm not sure any of us are, I'm not going to admit to it. They used to call this civil defense. The term civil defense came out, I believe, around World War Two. Don't hold me to that. It was a way for communities to protect themselves and to rally their citizenry and their government to protect themselves in the event of war. That became disaster preparedness. That's what that term turned into. Some communities still use the term civil defense. The county of Hawaii uses the term civil defense in their preparedness efforts. The city of Alameda established a disaster council in 1947. They formally adopted that in 1951. That was to align with where the state was going in those preparedness efforts. That ordinance was revised in 1972, and you can see this ordinance was very old. And so when they went to clean things up, it looked a little musty and dusty. With that being said, it was still completely in effect. So in 2011 was when they with when the action got taken to clean up and that ordinance got removed. So what are the responsibilities of the disaster council? And when I when I talk to you about this, this is all about being standardized in the state of California . We can be really proud as Californians that the National Incident Management System was modeled after California's efforts in the way we work together. So we've been doing this a long time and we're good at it. And the. Government modeled after us. So that is the Council's responsible for planning efforts. So I mentioned the emergency management plan or sometimes called the operation plan. That council guides that planning. We have one in place. It's bones are good. But if you were really to sit and read it, you'd see that it's getting outdated. It mentions things like the alert and warning system, which we've taken down. It does not address alerting to the community through Nirsal, which is now what we have in place. So there's some things that have just changed. It mentions things like VHS tapes and, you know, technologies that are quite old. The bones of it are very good. And we need to drill down and we are in the process of doing that. But the disaster council would review those plans and then bring them to you for adoption. The council would review any mutual aid agreements. We currently have a signed agreement from 1950 that is current to be part of the mutual aid agreement. So we're not out of compliance with that at all. But if there was major changes, it would get reviewed by the council. It directs the emergency organization, which is essentially that council. And those who are assigned to work in our emergency operations center coordinate efforts between agencies such as Red Cross. Also I have here Coast Guard, Marines, things like that, other response agencies. It's a place for all those agencies to come together, to work together in our planning and our response efforts. It allows the city to recall city employees as disaster service workers. This is the ordinance that allows us legally to have them come back in. It allows us to command the use of citizens and pressed into service by police and fire personnel in a disaster. And they're covered as disaster service workers. It also allows us to organize and coordinate the use of our affiliated volunteers. And when I say affiliated, it's they're they're known to us. So Alameda Search is one of the programs that the fire department oversees. And it has grown to be a robust organization that is integral to our response matrix. Those are affiliated volunteers. So they're people that are known to us. There are citizens, they've had training and they have chosen to be available if they can, to assist. So that's some of the things they do. So the new ordinance, since we lost the old ones, we took the opportunity to rewrite the new one. And part of why we we why we rewrote it was because it helped us align with what we already do day to day in the operation of our city and our emergency operations center. So the city has it. And stop. If I go off track, please. The city. The Council has assigned the city manager to run daily operations. So in this ordinance, you might notice that the city manager is called the director of the ordinance. The city manager is also the director of the Emergency Operations Center. So it aligns with the way we do business. I also might add that, you know, although we took our ordinance away accidentally, we are not the only city that did that. Other cities went through the same conflict and felt that it was old and got rid of it only to find they needed to reinstitute it. The city of Berkeley had a similar issue. I was speaking with my counterpart about the challenge and they rewrote their ordinance as well in place with the city manager as the director of the disaster council. So who. Who are. Who are members on this council? Our membership are people who have a strong background in response and planning. So it's upper management of the police department, the fire department, the public works department, AMP. And I call those four agencies our response agencies. Those are the groups that of city employees who come out when there's something going wrong. We all have daily activities, but we show up amp when we have storms and fires are down. They come out in the middle of the night to repair and restore power. Public Works comes out at any time of the day or night to fix a broken sewer mains and and you know interact with you say might if we have a water main breaks and if we had a disaster they would be working side by side with police and fire and the EOC staff to put our city back on its feet and restore services. So I call those our response agencies. They're used to working in the mutual aid system. They have mutual aid agreements in place. They understand planning and response because that's what they do. And then we bring in our partner agencies that also our response partners. That's the Red Cross, Coast Guard, Marine, East Bay mud, which is our water service, PGE And just to name a few, Alameda Hospitals sat on the board before because they're an integral part of our response and a partner in serving our citizens in that way. So those are generally the people that we have on this council, and they are professionals in their field understanding, mutual aid agreements, planning and that process. So it's a high level council. Anything that goes through them, you might have read the ordinance comes to you for approval. So never are you out of the loop on what this council is doing. It always comes to you for approval. Some things are going to come to you soon for approval. We're going to update as soon as we get this ordinance back in place. We've been working on it, but we'll work even more diligently because there'll be a team in place to update our emergency operation plan, which is critical. The Public Works Department is working on debris removal, so there's a lot of us already working to drill down and update these plans. So that's pretty much how that works. I wanted to touch, though, on our emergency operations center and how that's organized because this ordinance does will get us in an alignment with the way we operate already. So the city manager is the director of the Emergency Operations Center and makes decisions in conjunction with the police chief and the fire chief because they are a little bit more of an expert in response and can guide the city manager. But it's a team effort. The people who are assigned in that in those positions are predominantly department management and just below management. We're a small city, so we have really two full teams that can respond to the emergency operations center. Now, the council plays an important role. Your role, however, is not in the actual EOC. Your role is to make policy decisions. Appropriate funds be the face of the city in speaking to the public. You work closely with the PIO, the public information officer, to disseminate critical information to our citizens about what we're doing and what we. Would like them to do and to provide services. You also work closely with the city attorney to make sure that we don't step outside any legal guidelines with disaster response. The other thing that this ordinance talks about is declaring a disaster. Now, the city manager in our emergency operation plan is capable of declaring a disaster, as are you capable of declaring a disaster. The city manager is required to come back and will come back. I know you will, because you live in town. And so when we when the city manager and the staff decide that we need to declare a disaster, we would like to do that early. And then it comes to you for ratification. I want to clarify. She's our interim. We're in the hiring a long term, and I'm not sure where that person would be living. So this should not be based on having a city manager that lives here. I'm sorry. It's not. But all all employees come back as disaster service workers and all people assigned to the EOC would get messaged and would be required to come back apologize. So it aligns with how we do business in the emergency operations center. You will be kept abreast of everything that's going on, an integral part of decision making at the highest level. So I don't want you to feel as though this somehow goes around your authority. Everything comes through you. So with that being said. I would open it up to any questions or comments. I understand we don't have speakers on this one either. All right. Questions. First, we're. Just in the membership of the. Of the. Emergency operations team and the disaster council would consider including the Water Emergency Transit Authority because they'll have their EOC at the new building on the point. And is there any consideration and that's peripheral to the ordinance because the ordinance doesn't specify it. But as you get to those type of issues, once this is approved, will you be asking guidance? Absolutely. Or when you started putting the implementation steps in place? Because I can see that also the mayor, Ed, has resources that will be very valuable during the disaster, and I'm hoping that comes back. I think in my read of this, it allows that, yes, flexibility and adaptability depending on what ends up at that end of the island as well. So I'm just hoping you consider that, I think, to get this in place sooner rather than later. Allows us to start the implementation process and we can adjust this if the implementation process demands it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, we're always doing outreach to all the. You know, partner agencies. So transportation, I, you know, I gave you a short list. AC Transit is also one of our partner agencies, so and we're in agreement with them to assist us in many cases. For example, if we had an active shooter event at a school, they're, you know, able to come in and help us move students and things like that. So we partner with a lot of agencies. That was a very short list and on certain topics we definitely want to have input from various groups. I've been working just to let you know, I should preface this so the city is responsible for a disaster from the start to the end. So even though we get assistance, we're responsible for all of it. So we're responsible for sheltering and feeding any of our displaced citizens and pets. And pets and at risks that risk community as well. So we've been in conversation with the animal shelter and bringing in interested citizens to talk about what sheltering pets is going to look like and how we might do that. I've been talking to Carey Parker on the Commission for Disabilities about the you know, how how are we going to plan and what does that look like? They're the experts in disabilities. So we need to involve all the community input to really effectively plan. So the council's a high level group to move these plans through. But the public outreach and the input is important at all times in my office is my door is always open. I work closely with people who come through cert and those are the people who are tend to be compassionately interested in assisting us with planning efforts around the pet's disabilities. I've had people interested in helping to provide training in more languages than just English. So really to be a resilient community, you need input from everybody. So I've actively reached out. We have a resiliency committee in place right now. Mr. Biggs is one of the members on that to help us address some of those issues with our at risk population and the communities that we serve. That group has supported much of our planning and in fact we identified it, identified that we needed to reinstate the disaster council one to be in in line with the state of California, in the way the whole of the process works. And to also affect the the, the things that we need, such as being able to call our employees as disaster service workers and things like that. Before we continue, it's almost 1030 and we're going to need a motion to consider our remaining items. Six E, which is the workers comp for disaster workers and six F Alameda Theater marquee. And we need four votes to approve that. We have a motion. That moved. Second. Second. All those in favor I. Motion passes unanimously. All right. So thank you on that. Now, bringing back member Ashcroft. Was there a question about the unanimous per your. Everybody. Nonverbal group. I'm thank you for your report Captain Oliver. And I'm mindful of the fact that your voice is leaving you as you speak. Just a quick question. You mentioned the search program, which I've been meaning to take part in. Can you tell us if you know when the next training will take place? We don't have the schedule just yet, but we're very close to producing that. We give the class four times a year that it's a course, contains seven modules and it's 21 hours of training, and we usually give two in the early part of the year, take the summer off because we don't always fill the class and then give to later in the fall. So we will we should have that out by the approximately the first or second week of January. For the public. They always ask us about that. Thank you. No. I'm a. Member. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Captain, all of you, for your presentation and much appreciated. I think we have a difference of opinion, though. It seems to me that the city charter imbues the mayor and the council with certain powers when it comes to emergency situations. What we're talking about here in the Emergency Disaster Council isn't just a planning body, but it's a it's a body to take action during the course of some kind of a. We don't want it to ever happen to some kind of emergency. It seems to me, though, then, that the mayor and the vice mayor, at least two members of city council, ought to be part of the of the of the people who make up decisions, because at the end of the day, we're a democracy. And then the people who are elected to be the voice of the people are the council members. We don't disagree with the fact that the expertize lies with you and the city manager and your understanding and how all the processes work and the relationships with the emergency people from from beyond Alameda. That's that's not questioned. That's not you know, no one challenges that. But I would say, though, that that if we're going to live up to the meaning of the very first definition of of what it means to be the mayor of Alameda under Article six, Section six, dash one, that there has to be a role for the mayor. And it is it asked the council. He didn't ask me to make this raise, this issue. The issue, actually, that I raised way back in the EOC meeting, I think any council member or any mayor would would exercise enough judgment to recognize that they have to defer to in the in the in the moment of a of an emergency. They have to defer to the experts, to the people who are saving lives. So we understand that for sure. But I do believe that there are that that the council, through the mayor, has to be involved in the disaster disaster council itself. I don't I don't think it's I think that's there's no for me, there's no other way to interpret Section six, dash one. I do know that there's Section six. That's one of the charter. And as I understand it, you could take the city council could take control of the city at any time. And that's you're right. There is always the possibility that. The the people who work for the city would for some reason not come to work for the city. And you would you must take control of the city. That would be something you would have to do as citizens in council. However, we don't generally do business quite that way, and it's not to leave you out at all. I'm I'm excited that you're that you have an interest in preparing and planning that you would want to be on the council. The ordinance ordinance that went away by accident had the mayor as the director of the council. It can be either or. But because we do business generally where the city manager is given the day to day operations and emergency management, this alliance's. With that being said, the last time that council was in place and this isn't referring to you, you're very involved. Council. We never had the mayor attend any meetings. And we went through a few mayors while the council was in place and she was on back who was at the time captains on Beck was the disaster preparedness coordinator, and he ran the meetings. So with everything coming through the council. That's neither here nor there. But it was really more to align this ordinance with the way we operate generally and the way it's presented in the emergency operation. I think what I'm getting at, though, is in the moment of an emergency hire emergency, when decisions have to be made in terms of, you know, how you are going to make recommendations to deploy staff. I mean, let's say there's a even forbid something happens at the Port of Oakland, at the airport, and then at the same time, something happens at the at the tube on the west end of town. Certain decisions have to be made in terms of how to deploy certain limited resources. And you guys have the expertize to make the recommendation. But I think for it to be legitimate, there has to be some involvement by a representative from the city as elected. That's my only point. When it comes to disaster. I'd like to speak, but the rest of you, you've already had an opportunity to. I'd like to how? I want to respond to what Councilmember De Saag said, but I'll be happy to take my turn at that after you speak. And then also on the speak. That's why I wanted to speak to this, because you just shared that under the prior. Counsel if. Actually the term commission is what's been being stricken and term council count added. Was it ever referred to as a commission? It has always been council, yes. Okay. So. Okay. And then under the prior council document. That document is not included here. So we don't have anything we can't compare. Right. But I see as the red line version that actually just substitutes the word council for commission throughout the document that I don't have the document that you're referring to what it used to look like. And I think that needed to be included so that we could compare whatever especially substantive changes that are being proposed. And we don't have that information in front of us. Can. So I don't know what else is being changed. And it sounded like this was just an error, that it was removed and it's being brought back. But in fact, it sounds like it's being brought back with what I would call substantial changes that are not being disclosed here. I understand your question there. I guess the term substantial changes is one I don't know. I you know, it's maybe subjective. The change was to add the city manager is the director and the assistant city manager as the vice chair in my position as the assistant to the vice chair so we could continue to hold meetings. The State requested we add at least two times a year. The rest of it came out of a template from the state and it is. Almost word for word. As I remember it, what it was before. So the only change was to align it with the way we do business and what the emergency operation plan matrix for the emergency organization says. Okay. So I. So I would have preferred and just any time staff bring something that's coming back with changes, we need to see the original document so that we know what's being changed and the public has also has that right then to see it. In regards to the proposed change. I think when this issue came before us in regards to the EOC, I think that there was discussion at that time raised by member de SAC and. And the chief, there was discussion. I did not have the opportunity to review the tape. I don't think it was discussed in the minutes from what I could tell. But I think we did have a discussion back then that the mayor and I actually think council would be somehow included in the EOC, and that went to why we needed a larger EOC accommodate everyone. So I didn't have a chance to review the actual tape on that. But then we do have the charter and the charter language. And this is your. The proposal is silent, completely silent as to the languages in the charter. And I think that that has to be addressed, whether or not you're proposing to not. But, you know, somehow and I think there should be a legal opinion or discussion about how does this respect the charter, because we cannot change the charter. We as a council can't change the charter. And the charter is fair. In regards to there is a statement that the mayor takes command of police and fire departments and governs the city by proclamation whenever council determines that public danger or emergency requires such action. And that is not even addressed here. And I feel like that needs to be addressed because you have two documents that I think actually conflict with each other. And I don't think it is appropriate if we have an emergency, if we have a disaster, we really do need to have planned in advance who is doing what? What is the role of the mayor? What is the role of the city manager? If the city manager is acting as this director? And so I don't think it is appropriate to be silent. I think it is something that needs to be addressed and we need to have council weigh in. What is the charter provide? How does that align with what's being proposed today? So I'm not comfortable without having that issue addressed here. And then another comment is it does speak to that. The city manager, I believe, would be making the says as be appointed by the director, which then it would be the city manager under this with the advice and consent of city council. And I think maybe that would be nominated by the director, if that's what that is, and then confirmed by council. But it doesn't it's not real clear even what council's role is there if it comes back to council then for confirmation or what that is. So I, I think that that also needs to be clear how we are, how people are being appointed to be on this commission. And then in regards to the cert when it's offered, I think it'd be nice to come up with a time. I would also like to participate. I know Member Ashcroft has already said that when I've looked in the past, it's offered on Tuesdays, which we are never available for, and it's like four or five Tuesdays in a row is my recollection of Saturday. So I know we do we weeknight series twice in the year and on weekends or twice in the year. Okay, so I'd like us to be able to look at a date other than a Tuesday for it. I think we heard two, two weeknights and two Saturdays or two weekends. Right in and having it not be so we weekends. Well, I'd like to schedule something other than to see if we could roll around our instructors. So, yeah, it's not perfect and trying to accommodate counsel so those of us that are interested could participate in this training also. All right. Member Ashcraft. Thank you. I am happy to have the city attorney take a look at reconciling the language between the charter and the language of this ordinance that we are clarifying. However, I think that in a disaster, in an emergency and you just stop and think about in this country, in our state, in the world, some of the things that have happened recently really require our first priority has to be the safety of our citizens. I want to put that safety into the hands of trained professionals who have done this for years, who know how to respond in an emergency. And I am happy to take my cue and my direction from them. I think we would be doing a disservice to our citizens to say that somehow an elected mayor and council should be the ones to be giving public safety direction on how to act. We don't have the training. I think it takes a certain temperament also to be cool and calm in any situation, and that's what you do when you know for a living you run into burning buildings and you, you know, follow the sound of gunfire. We I don't think any of us has that kind of training. So if we need some clarification, I understand, you know, the city charter. But again, first and foremost, the reason we're doing this is to keep our citizens safe. And I think that we place that responsibility in the most capable hands. And I don't disagree with that. Like I said, you guys are the experts, but. Now, part of our democracy involves elected officials. And it's and it's explicit here in our charter. I think the mayor or whomever else is part of if. If she or he is part of the disaster council would exercise incredible discretion. And in Austin, an understanding, you know who does what. At the end of the day, yes, you run into the buildings when there's fires or heaven forbid, you know, for the police when there is violence going on. You guys are there. We understand that. But I think there is a role for the or a mayor in in in an emergency situation so that the experts who are making the decisions or executing the decisions understand that they've got the complete backing of of the public. And in emergency situation, you know, you can't obviously gather all council members to suddenly have a meeting. So that's why we have at least one person on council, and that would be the mayor. And I think that was the understanding as to why in the previous rendition of the disaster council, the mayor was involved. So let's not pretend like the mayor was never involved. Now, I don't mean to pretend that. In fact, I think I attended a disaster council meeting on behalf of Mayor Afzal when I was the vice mayor. You may have. I would like to point out that the emergency management plan has been adopted by the council. So that's part of why the alignment was going forward, is to get our documents in alignment. You know, the the topics you're bringing up, you know, other cities have language that's similar to what we're proposing and have emergency management plans with there are councils doing what I explained to you was the role that is a standard operating procedure for all the cities that I know of within the state because we work under Sams and we work in a particular way with requesting. But we're a charter city. And the fact is, is that this has been handled differently in the past in this city, and that was not brought to our attention before this was raised, you know, during this conversation. Vice Mayor. Yes, I think that's a substantive change that needs to be taken back and incorporated in this with the and my preference is that. We reconcile the this ordinance, including the language that's in the charter. And I think the charter does separate operations from policy as as a document. And I'd like this to go back to include that separation as part of the lead into what I consider as a good template for operational purposes. And bring it back for another first reading. My brother. Did you want to speak? Yeah, I. I'm trying to compare the two, and, you know, I don't see any conflict between the two. The charter says discussing the mayor changing a word. He or she may take command of the police and fire departments and govern the city by proclamation whenever the council determines that public danger or emergency requires some action. There's nothing in in this ordinance that takes away that authority. Or silence. The mayor to. Continue to do that, continue to call the council together and create a proclamation that allows her, in this case, to take over the police and fire departments. And we also put in a check in to 24 six that if the director of emergency services actually declares our proclaims a existence of a local emergency and or issue such a proclamation, if we're not in session that the Council has the authority to ratify the proclamation within seven days. So we do retain the authority. I'm just worried that if we have a situation like an active shooter situation where you have to mobilize, like in San Bernardino a few weeks back when the whole city was basically shut down, that we need to have somebody do this quickly. You know, that's not to say that, you know, once the mayor is able to arrive at the situation and or the council is able to be called together in any LC or whatever, you know, that we can't, you know, assist in that direction. But, you know, I think we need to be able to have emergency response as quick as possible in some of these emergencies. And we're not really taking anything away. It's just allowing the city staff that's in charge of and leads emergencies to allow to handle them right away without waiting. You know, and I do look at the main priority or duties of this commission is to develop emergency and mutual aid plans and agreements and ordinances and resolutions, rules, regulations, so on and so forth to implement these plans. So, you know, we're not turning over no control of the city, you know, to some rogue elected body. You know, we still retain authority over it. And I don't see where these two these two that the Section 6.1 of the charter is in conflict with this ordinance. Vice Mayor And I don't dispute that this provides the framework for doing that. In fact, in the example that you gave on the San Bernardino, there's active a just ordinary police operations are going to be expanded when when the full event is known. And I think that's not incompatible with what's here and what's listed in the charter as far as the declaration of an emergency and. Basically having the city council and the mayor take control per the charter in the event of a citywide disaster. I'm just asking that. We take the language that's in the charter and. Basically embedded. As in the appropriate section of this ordinance to make sure that that hierarchy is understood. I think that's the genesis of what Councilmember de SA brought up is that that hierarchy is proscribed in the charter and until that charters change we have to recognize it as the front end of the declaration of a citywide disaster. Well, I want to see what it used to be, because we have a we have a history of doing this. When Alpizar was mayor, he went to these meetings. There was a way it was it occurred. I'd like to see what that document provided. And I'd like this to be handled like we do all the time when we're making revisions. You red line, we see the old one. We see the new proposals very clear what the changes are. And I think that that needs to happen just like it normally does happen. I think that that should have been disclosed today. I think it's very important we have that. I think it is substantive. Who is leading this council that is substantive? Well, let me make sure to say, I believe that the past practice of including the mayors in the disaster council was to respect a Section six, dash one. But that being said, I think the disaster council itself, the way that it unveiled because of its, for the most part, planning nature. Many mayors didn't attend the meetings simply because, well, we're not subject matter experts for the most part, unless you're, you know, the former mayor of Fremont, who is a former police chief. So I think in that situation that the issue is just simply attending the meetings and and, you know, recognizing that we are, in a way, the fire department and and the police force are are. Quasi martial arts. So we would be the civilian body and somehow we have to reflect that. That's all I'm saying, is that they that they were the mayor was involved in the disaster council before. And I don't see any reason why the mayor ought not to be involved today if she or he so decides to attend the planning related meetings. Fine. But at the point in time when there is an emergency, I do see the mayor as the rallying point. First for the experts to come together for them, for the citizens and general to say, okay, well, that's the mayor. That's why we elected she or he to bring us to. Rally around, so to speak, during some times, obviously, that a mayor isn't going to run into a. Building on fire. Or, heaven forbid, if there's a violent situation, we understand that. It's not that. It's. It's. No, I think I said formidable. Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So I just want to make a couple of clarifications. I think one of the reasons why the ordinance was not included in here is because it's not an act of ordinance. That ordinance is no longer in effect. But that's the reason, I think, why Captain Oliver did not include it. So we will bring it back. But that is kind of the reason why it was not we're not redlining a current ordinance. The ordinance doesn't exist right now. So this is a brand new ordinance, but we will bring it back. I think the other piece to remember is, you know, I think there's some discussion about, you know, back when, you know, Mayor Bizarro was here, that was a long time ago. We have very different standards now, as Captain Oliver said with Sims. That's a structure. That's a very technical structure. This is a technical group, the city manager. It's not not going to be me. It's going to be your director of emergency services. That's who needs to be directing the in coordination with the with the police and fire folks and public works. And, you know, I work with those people. The city manager will be working with those people every single day. And so that's part of the reason why that the city manager needs to be the director. The director has that relationship. It's a longstanding relationship. It's a stable relationship. It doesn't come and go with the elections. That's why that director needs to be the city manager. So I would argue that I mean, I understand that the you know, the mayor and the council obviously need to have absolute oversight of what the director does and what the council does. But that council is a day to day. It's a technical advisory group. They're meeting with PGE. They're meeting meeting with, you know, ECB mud with WETA. We have relationships with those folks. We work with them all the time. And so I think that's the reason that's sort of the argument of why I think we need to keep this at the at the city manager level . However, we will bring it back. We're happy to do that and I think we're happy to embed. I don't think that would be an issue with the state to embed the charter language in, you know, just the very check. Yeah, I don't think that would be an issue. So it's very clear that, you know, we have this language in our charter and that the council and the mayor have this authority. But I do believe that the director needs to be the city manager who has those relationships, who are working with those organizations by day to day basis. I think we need a legal determination on that issue. Well, actually, it looks like, okay, we do have to respect this charter. We cannot as a council change the charter or the intent. Well, let me give you one example where there was an emergency situation and, you know, no one talks about this. But, you know, actually, Mayor Spencer did a pretty good job when we had the ruckus here in city hall several weeks ago. You know, she you know, a lot of people, people clamoring, yelling. And then when people when bodies were thrown around, you know, she stood out there and, you know, people respected her for that, for standing up and saying, okay, this is how we're going to go forth with the meeting. And things calmed down in a way that one could argue that that was a quasi emergency situation into which she stepped. And to me, that that just indicates that the natural leader is the mayor of Alameda, recognizing that the day to day functions are subject to the city manager. And in times of emergency, the fire department heads and the police heads. So? So, yeah. Do you mind if I comment on that? Excuse me. Sorry for my voice. That's why you're. You're an integral part of what we do in the emergency operations. And are you. Are you. Are you seeing the public? You are calming their concerns. You are the policy makers. You play an integral role. An integral role? Well, we're leaving to the professionals in the emergency operations center is the management of the boots on the ground, things that are happening in real time. So that that's the piece that we do. The piece that you do is calm the citizens, make decisions properly, funds, make sure that everything the city needs, they get that your citizens needs are addressed. That's that that is your role and is your role in the emergency operations center. The emergency operations center are not the people who are doing the response. They're managing the overall welfare of the and supporting what's going on in the field, getting their arms around what's happening through our. Response agencies, public works and police fire. Input from the citizens that we get in taking that all into account. Getting our collective arms around it and through stems in our mutual aid agreements, through the operational area in the chain of command, which is very strict the way we do it. We get resources to assist us. So this isn't to take away your authority or your ability to command the city in any way. You could take command at any time. That's what I'm clear about. The Charter City Council can take command at any time. This is an operational level where you put the people who have the most training and background and experience into manage the incident and everything comes through. You and Mr. Mayor, I think that's that's at the root of it. You mentioned what the operational side is, and I think having. This ordinance was entitled organization and creating. The Disaster Council has to have that context included in this ordinance, and I think that's what we're looking for. And I don't count what happened on the fourth is as particularly relevant to this. I think if we go back to when the plane crashed here in the seventies, there's an interest in video. That's I don't remember where I saw it, but it it featured the emergency response that happened with footage. And I think it was Mayor Lacroix. Yeah. That was prominently featured there. And it had it. He wasn't out there pulling the fire hoses and keeping people back, but he was there on the site and the council had some action. And I, I think that's what the charter intended. And the true operation and those operational decisions are not the council's and they're not the council's. This isn't day to day. So that's not what we're asking for. I think we're asking is to provide the context of that section of the charter. Two. What happens operationally when you implement this disaster council and start doing the day to day tech technical work that's needed to execute when it happens? I appreciate that. And where I was at 11:00, in which case we need a motion to continue beyond 11:00 on the. Back end. Of those in favor. I. I. I. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Member Ashcroft. Thank you. So I will certainly look forward to clarification language as far as taking control of the situation. I would want that to be the entire council's vote as opposed to just the mayor. And I think it's it's all well and good to look back to an incident that happened in the seventies. But in some ways it's quaint. I really do think that I mean, without sounding like an alarmist. The the magnitude of emergency situations that a community can face are they've risen to such a level. I mean, I do remember the term civil defense and I do remember the drills in school when we got under our desks and , you know, covered the back of your neck and that was going to help you withstand nuclear attack or whatever it was. But we live in a different world and so on, and we all have sufficient egos that we ran for office. I get that. But part of our duty is to make sure that we're making good, solid decisions. And I agree with the vice mayor. The operational part is something that we as a council don't have expertize in. We can certainly as a body together direct certain policy. But I'm I would be very concerned if if there was very much of a departure from what you've presented to us tonight. But we'll look forward to this coming back to us with some. Kind of motions or. Just direction. Remember what it is you want at anything? Yeah, I think they're compatible. So I guess we'll come back with advise language. And then, you know, I kind of agree with the vice mayor. I mean, a fire flood, a storm epidemic. You know, as you know, however, the mayor performed during that or war or threat of war, you know, that paired two things doesn't that was really not a right. That was an arrest of two people. So I. I just like to end this my, my, my comments by just saying that, you know, I've always tell Chief Larry and Chief DeLong of Chief Long sorry that, you know, whatever your professional judgment is, I'll go with that, because at the end of the day, you guys are the people who are dealing with lives, people's lives, lost limbs. And I respect that. But. What you're getting from us is pushback. And my hope is that, you know, you take a look at it, but, you know, whatever your recommendations are. City managers, the police chiefs, the fire chiefs, and yours as the emergency person. You know, I'll certainly respect that. But I just wanted to make sure to say, hey, there is this 6.10, I understand. And I and I believe that that will all get handled. What I want to say to you, as I appreciate that you take the responsibility of planning a preparedness so, so much to heart, it is very important to have everybody see the value of it. We won't be prepared if we don't all work together as a community and bring in all the comments and and decisions that are made. It's it's imperative because, you know, me standing here with my person, personal background and experience can't can't make a judgment for, you know, different ethnic backgrounds and disabilities and the people who love pets and all the all the things that we are now required to address. It takes everybody with a commitment to making our city resilient and able to withstand anything that comes along. And the goal is to be able to stand right back up and go on with our lives. That's our goal. And it takes everybody working towards that to make it happen. And just one more comment. We have a resolution that comes right behind this ordinance. It was the resolution for the disaster service worker, which has got to be part of the ordinance. So we probably don't need to go on with that. That's good, because your voice is going to give out. I know. And I know you would vote for that. Second, sorry. So we'll defer. It's all like kind of one part. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Very much. In which case, then we're going to move on to six Askew. Update on council referral regarding Alameda Theater Marquee Lighting. That'll be Miss Potter.