2016 Clark County HMP Steering Committee Meeting Summary
2016 Clark County HMP Steering Committee Meeting Summary
Subject: / Steering Committee Meeting No. 3
Project Name: / Clark County 2016 Hazard Mitigation Plan
In Attendance:
*Phone / Steering Committee: Ben Feliz (for Dan Krebs), Carole Bua, Doug Koellermeier, Paul McGraw, Heidi Burkart, Jeff Sarvis, John Wheeler, Joseph Gehlen, Ken Alexander, Lauren Hollenbeck, Lee Knottnerus, Lynette Jackson, Mike Lewis, Mike Soliwoda, Scott Ouchi
Non-Voting Alternates, Planning Partners and Stakeholders: Hugh Findlay, John Allen, John Gentry, Pete McReynolds, Sean Smith, Stephen Eldred, Tom Buckley
Planning Team: Kristen Gelino and Rob Flaner
Steering Committee Members (or alternate) Not Present: / N/A
Summary Prepared by: / Kristen Gelino – 11/4/2015
Project No.: / 103S3893
Quorum – Yes or No / Yes (15 members present)
Item / Action
Welcome and Introductions
- John Wheeler, the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) staff person charged with supporting the planning effort, opened the meeting and facilitated group introductions.
- The Agenda was reviewed and no modifications were made.
- Handouts provided included: Agenda, September Steering Committee Meeting Minutes, Goal Setting Exercise Results (Handout #1), Risk Assessment Data Dictionary for Spatial Analysis (Handout #2), and Critical Facilities Definition (Handout #3).
- The September Steering Committee Meeting Summary was reviewed and approved by consensus. Kristen Gelino noted that she would fix a typo in a planning partner’s name before finalizing the document.
- No members of the public made a request to provide comment.
- Ms. Gelino provided a few administrative updates to the committee:
- The link to the shared dropbox folder had been distributed and steering committee members should let Ms. Gelino know if they have any issues accessing the documents. Because some steering committee members have indicated that they are not able to access dropbox, meeting materials will also be distributed as email attachments.
- The phase 1 jurisdictional annexes have been distributed to the planning partnership. Any questions on the templates should be directed to Ms. Gelino.
- After a brief discussion, the steering committee determined that a December steering committee meeting will be held on December 16, 2015.
- The steering committee was approved by an online vote of the planning partnership.
- Mr. Wheeler indicated that the planning partnership had expanded to include the Port of Vancouver. He indicated that the Port would also have a representative on the steering committee, Scott Ouchi.
Public Involvement Strategy
Ms. Gelino provided an overview of public involvement for the hazard mitigation planning process. She indicated that public involvement occurs throughout the planning process, but is typically referred to as two phases: phase one is designed to gage the public’s perception of risk and phase two is a presentation of the draft plan and request for comments. Public involvement in the planning process has already been initiated through non-governmental stakeholder involvement on the steering committee.
Mr. Wheeler reported that he had conducted a big publicity push the prior week. A press release announcing the process was distributed and picked up by several local media outlets, the project website was launched, social media announcements were made, a hazard mitigation related post was made on the CRESA blog, and an interview with the local public access channel was posted on YouTube. Mike Soliwoda reported that an announcement about the process was included in the annual outreach mailer sent to properties in the floodplain. Ms. Gelino requested that if any outreach was done by planning partners or steering committee members, a screenshot or link to the information be forwarded to the planning team.
Ms. Gelino went on to describe what phase one of the public involvement strategy will entail. She indicated that at least two public open house events will be held and a mitigation-focused survey may be deployed depending on steering committee preferences. The steering committee was open to developing a survey, so Ms. Gelino indicated that the planning team would develop a draft for feedback at the next meeting.
For the public open house events, Ms. Gelino noted that it would be preferable to “tag-along” on an existing event that has a mitigation nexus; however, if no such event is feasible the planning team will develop a standalone event. Ms. Gelino indicated that these open houses typically run a few hours and have a HAZUS workstation where residents can sit down to learn more about property specific risks and hazards, a presentation either at a set time or running in the background, maps displaying hazard risks, an opportunity to take the survey, and booths staffed by other groups who have a mitigation or emergency management nexus, such as Community Emergency Response Teams, the Red Cross, ham radio operator clubs, etc. Mr. Wheeler indicated that most of the outreach events that he was aware of had already passed for the year and that the planning team was seeking the committee’s input on additional events that may provide a good opportunity for outreach. During a brainstorming session several ideas and suggestions were made by the committee including the following:
- Publicity through the neighborhood association newsletter
- Fair ground events
- Library events and/or as a mechanism for publicity
- Disaster move night
- Holiday-related events
- A general request from planning partners for any events scheduled in their jurisdictions
- Plugging the planning process through exiting listservs, such as Vancouver Moms
- The Columbian – preparedness advisor article
- Daily Insider
- Gift fairs
- Home and Garden Idea Fair
- Field Day
- Flood news
- Real hero’s breakfast.
After discussion Ms. Gelino indicated that the planning team would follow up on the suggestions and provide recommendations at the next steering committee meeting.
Purpose, Goals, Objectives and Actions
Ms. Gelino introduced the Goal Setting Exercise Results handout. She provided a brief overview of how the goals, objectives and actions will be developed and utilized in the planning process. Ms. Gelino reviewed the purpose statement that had been drafted at the prior steering committee meeting and reviewed the results of the goal setting exercise. After discussion the committee approved the following goals (note: goals were slightly edited by the planning team for clarity):
- Reduce and prevent the loss of life and property.
- Protect public services and critical facilities from the impacts of natural disasters.
- Increase public awareness of vulnerability to natural hazards and educate on risk reduction strategies.
- Promote community resilience.
- Protect environmental resources and utilize natural systems to reduce natural hazard impacts.
- Pursue cost-effective opportunities that support multiple objectives whenever possible.
The steering committee determined that three of the goal statements that were not selected should be reconsidered as objectives:
- Use new infrastructure and development planning to reduce the impact of natural hazards
- Address issues of isolation
- Pursue cost-effective, multi-objective opportunities whenever possible.
Additionally, the steering committee determined that the purpose statement should be slightly revised to capture the multi-jurisdictional, collaborative aspect of the planning process:
Define natural hazard risk and, through collaboration and partnerships, establish strategies and actions for reducing the impacts of disasters in Clark County.
Ms. Gelino indicated that the November homework assignment would address objectives development. Objectives are more refined statements that will assist the planning partnership with developing actions.
Risk Assessment Update
Ms. Gelino introduced the Risk Assessment Data Dictionary handout. She indicated that the planning team had completed Hazus runs for the scenario events that the steering committee had agreed to at the previous meeting and was now working on the non-hazus hazards. Ms. Gelino noted that the planning team was in the process of acquiring data for the portion of the City of Woodland that falls outside of the County border and would run the hazus analysis on that portion of the planning area as soon as the data had been received and processed.
Ms. Gelino indicated that the planning team had a few items to update the steering committee on regarding the non-hazus hazards. She indicated that two landslide datasets had been acquired by the planning team from two different sources. These datasets are overlapping, but are not coterminous. Ms. Gelino indicated that the planning team had merged the two datasets and would use the merged data as the basis for the analysis. It was also noted that these datasets are considered to be the best available data at this time, but there is a lack of information on landslide runout. Ms. Gelino indicated that this would be noted as an issue in the plan and an explanation of runout would be provided.
Rob Flaner then briefed the committee on the various datasets that had been acquired for wildfire risk. He indicated that the planning team recommended using the Clark County GIS dataset because it has risk zonation and is tied to the permitting process. He indicated that an issue with this dataset is that it may not cover all of the incorporated areas, so the planning team may have to extrapolate information into these areas. It was noted that the City of Vancouver also has a dataset that could be merged or used in conjunction with the County-wide dataset. It was also noted that the planning team would need to look to see if any similar data was available for the Cowlitz County portion of the City of Woodland. It was decided that the planning team would continue to look into these issues and additional information and mapping would be presented at a subsequent meeting.
Action Items for Next Meeting
The action items identified during the meeting were reviewed.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 PM. The next SC meeting is:
November 18, 2015 at 10:00 AM
Clark Regional Wastewater District
8000 NE 52nd Court
Vancouver, WA 98665 / Kristen will fix the typo in Hugh Findlay’s name before finalizing the September meeting summary.
Steering committee members and planning partners should send links or screen shots to any social media posts about the HMP.
The planning team will follow up on the suggestions for public involvement and will provide recommendations at the next steering committee meeting.
The planning team will distribute the objectives development exercise.
The steering committee will complete the objectives development exercise.
The planning team will continue to evaluate the available fire data and will provide additional information to the steering committee at a subsequent meeting.
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