City Council - Regular Meeting

tonight.

No, but it is not 147. It's 602. So at this point I would love to uh simply uh express the pledge of allegiance. And so if you are able to please join us in in the pledge.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay, with that I would love to call for roll call, please. Council member Ferrar Rivas present. Vice Mayor Lou present. Council member Gurnie here. Council member Dean present. Mayor Wellender here. Thank you.

Very good. Moving along. We did not have a closed session, so there is nothing to report and we're going to skip right down to the approval of the agenda. So my peers here, do you have any reason to change anything? And if not, may I have a motion to accept? I move and I'll second. Very good. And uh to that I do believe we've take a general vote or do you So all those in favor say I. I.

I opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Now, this is also the time in which we allow the public to come forward and speak on items not appearing on the agenda. And I'm just curious in the audience right now, how many hands might I see that would like to speak at this point in time? I see one. I see one. So, with that, I'm quite confident that we'll be able to do it all in one session, which is now. And just be advised that uh the items that um you speak on we will not be able to take any action on or even have any discussion. That does not negate the value of your comments but it just simply means that we cannot take any action on it. So with a limited uh number of hands I would welcome anyone to come forward. Uh ideally identify yourself and you'll have two minutes to express your thoughts. I'm Lynn Clary and I live on Rosalie Drive and uh wanted to say a few things. This is makes me nervous. I have been a volunteer on the Montini Preserve for almost 19 years. I usually get complaints about all the dead brush on the hillside, but lately I've received complaints about the removal of the Himalayan blackberry at the fourth street entrance to the preserve, which is on state property. I realize Himalayan blackberry is considered an invasive species, but in this case, it was destruction of wildlife habitat for the California quail that have flourished there safely in that blackberry. For years, hikers have enjoyed the quail and watched their several broods year scamper around the trail. Little guys about this big. Usually could see about 15 to 20. Made people smile. There was

also a spotted towi that lived in there. Beautiful bird with a beautiful song. There was no reason for the removal of the blackberry and I have watched a few of the stragglers zigzag back and forth in confusion where the former home was. The rest dispersed into the neighborhood or picked off by predators. The California state bird is brutally evicted from state property. Another little piece of Sonoma is gone. Thank you. Got time. Thank you. Anyone else here that would like to come forward and speak at this time? Well, I think I've set a record. Uh so we will now close public comment and bring it back. So, do we have any meeting dedications this evening? No meeting dedications. Then we will just slip down to reports and comments from my fellow council members about activities, meetings, etc. at this point. So, please

Thank Thank you, Mayor. Um so this afternoon I attended the um LAFCO meeting which is the local agency formation commission. Um I know the firefighters here are well aware of that commission but t today we took up um consideration of uh disadvantaged unincorporated communities which is uh commonly referred to as duck du. and um our our friend Fred Alabach was there who's been speaking to this issue here and elsewhere. It was nice to see Fred who now lives in Santa Rosa. Um it was an interesting conversation. This is about uh how these identified communities uh what would be the process um under which they we would be mandated to uh annex um communities uh that were uh designated disadvantaged unincorporated communities and we did look at the Soma Valley map um and were shown several areas that were uh designated. However, there also is a stipulation that there has to be 10 acres um that we are going to annex that has to be adjacent to these areas and that particular piece didn't sort of fall into place. So, the upshot of this I know it's kind of complicated but this has come up at times so so uh I thought I'd you know do my best to explain it. It it doesn't appear to be a mandate from that particular lens in order to incorporate those areas because they don't fall within the confines of the acreage connected to the duck connected to the city which does not mean that

there can't be other ways that the city might annex you know areas. The only consideration would be is if um we annexed um the regional park in which case that is adjacent to a designated duck. So um so that that is what came up at the meeting and um you know you can look at the the meeting minutes on it. We didn't take any action on it was mainly for information but primarily we looked at two areas in Soma County. one Sonoma Valley and the other uh Morland Rosland kind of area and we did have a discussion regarding how the freeway divides and whether or not we should look at that as a dividing line or not. It was kind of an interesting conversation um about the historical development of freeways and how they divided communities, but uh in the end we you know however they developed they're there now and they certainly are acting as a divider and we didn't see any reason to get rid of them um in in that sense. Uh although we'd like to get rid of some freeways but u anyway. So that was that. Um, the other thing is tomorrow there is going to be at the high school a discussion of road safety on State Route 121 and 8th Street East. Um, that will be at the Sonoma Valley High School Library tomorrow from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. And I think that's probably of interest to the community. And we got one of these. and um I encourage people who are concerned about that area to attend. Anyway, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Oh, just yes, I just have a quick update. Uh well and many of these all of these attended or other members of the council members as we attended on uh January 27th uh at the Sebastian Annie Theater a preview of the expansion uh of that of the theater which was good to see what they're going to do and the pro how many how long it's going to take for that to happen which hopefully is is not too long. Uh we also uh all we had the state of the valley happened uh this this last week on Thursday night and then also we had our city goal setting um on Friday. So when I reported at the last meeting on snow clean power uh there was something I did leave out that I think isn't important for people to be aware of because it's good good news. I always like to report some good news was that um that snow clean power made an agreement with US solar construction management um and so what they are going to do is provide the design services they're going to create a solar and battery project in Ukaya and that project is going on what was EPA super fund sites so people know EPA super fund sites this was previously was a wood treatment facility So it had toxic elements there. It's been since 2020 it is now considered usable area and so there will be a solar plant there and solar plant and storage um capable of providing 1.5 megawws which is a good amount um and about 48 hours of storage. So, just that and it's that's good for all of us because that helps us keep the grid healthy, the grid, the electrical grid which keeps all of our lights on when we need them. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. I have the one meeting to report that is the last th Thursday zero waste sonoma. This is a special meeting and also emergency in the meeting. The reason why we have the this meeting is and the in Ukaya in the west part of Ukaya we have a and compost and processing so called cold creek compost processing uh they have a mechanical problem for the two machines didn't work well and then the so that the production I reduced each week just only in the or each day just only in eight tracks usually uh we need 11 tracks. So the and the conte try to arrange a different alternative and service provider and the first of all they find out realology realology happy to do that is we needed however on the second day and recology they said no we cannot we got a warning from the enforcement said that here is not in the transfer in the center and if you higher than the compost is here it's the temperature it's a smell and we bother the people it will not compliant with the SB 1383 so under this kind of emergency situation and Sonoma zero the waste and find another two and different company that is the um northern recycling and Pacific Organics

X and if we using they service we have the additional budget. So total is $270,000. So the they don't have this kind of the and the barrel that the buffalo to cover this expenses. So they asked each and the board member come to and Santa Rosa the new building have this kind of and you know made a decision and we unanimously approve of this resolution also authorized executive director and sign a contract because this is emergency and from this case I'm thinking and so I suggest during the meeting and we need to diversify our service provider not only you know one or the two in case we have some issue right I said and we need and work closely and with the uh big company like a recognology because they have the facilities if they made some adjustment preparation they are able to hold the more the trash more compost the trash so another thing is I said you know I visited the meeting you know the 10 members from different cities come to here just for this we want to see little bit buffer for the budget I said do you have any in the budget they said yes they have 5% and you know buffer but they already use it up so the in the future and I don't think this kind of incident will happen if they can improve the management that is my report thank you

thank you very Since our last city council meeting, there's been several uh opportunities I've had to attend in the community. On um the 27th, I had a chance uh to uh attend a brief meeting at the East Sonoma County Services Center. Uh and it was a gathering of various uh providers for the homeless. And it was an opportunity to actually hear some voices that were sharing how challenging it is to navigate uh the process to get some in this particular case some mental health help. And it was a Zoom a hybrid meeting with uh the bureaucrats on Zoom, but there was good discussion and I appreciated the fact that I was able to actually hear and listen in person. The following day again was a Zoom meeting regarding the full board of uh the continuing of care and again topic was the homelessness and I'm going to sound like a broken record but once again the discussion is how are we going to do more with less funding that's coming this particular cycle and um we have no definitive answers other than the goal of not losing the providers that we've built up in the last few years. It was also mentioned that we had the state of the valley last Thursday which was the 29th followed by our goals. Uh want to let people know that if you missed our goals that it's something that is ongoing and that we'll be getting a summary of it um in about March, February. Anyway, it's forthcoming so you'll have a chance to review them as well. And the last item that wasn't reported

was that yesterday we had an opportunity to attend uh the board of supervisors meeting at the vets building. And I'm encouraged not so much with necessarily the content of the meeting, but the fact that our local supervisor brought the meeting down from Santa Rosa to Sonoma. So again, I think that speaks well of her commitment to being a good rep for not only the Springs and beyond, but also for the city of Sonoma. So I will uh let that conclude my comments and then um may pass the mic over to our city manager, please for his report.

Oh, sorry. Yes, this is the uh appropriate time to announce my appointment to the um historical preservation committee and I'm appointing Kathleen Kubold and I think she's going to be an excellent addition. She has direct experience and in the kinds of things historical preservation uh considers. So, so would you please

also I have the my direct appointment. I want to appoint and Joe Harry is here as the commissioner of our new department or new commission that is the uh parks recreation and open space commission. Thank you. Congratulations. It's always nice to have compadres that remind you of things that you forget. I too have a direct appointment. And uh the gentleman that I'll be appointing is also to the pros the park wreck and open space and it's a gentleman by the name of Joel Green. He's a a parent of two boys in athletics, been active involved in a number of u of city volunteer projects and I believe he will bring a good perspective to the already rich team of pros. So hence my uh conclusion and now I will give the mic over to our city manager.

Great. Thank you mayor and I will follow up on the goal setting. Last Friday, the city council held goal setting and thank you for all the work and effort you put into that. Uh we are pulling together those results of that meeting and we will post the draft version of those refined goals here shortly. Um we'll have a website dedicated to that so the public can see what the draft uh language looks like from out of that meeting and my plan is to bring that back to you on February 18th. Uh so the next council meeting we'll bring that back to you for consideration and adoption of those goals so we can get those to our boards and commissions uh so they can start working on their updating their work plans based on your direction um moving forward. And then only just one other thing uh we just released our um news item today that the tw 2026 student creative artist applications are now open. So we have up to $5,000 in awards for that work. Um, you can reg go online to learn how to submit and the deadline for that is March 18th. So, please check our website if you're interested or if you know somebody that might be interested. That's all I've got. Thank you. I am disappointed that our legal counsel is not here in person. However, he is available on Zoom and so I now turn to our counselor for his input if any.

Thank you, mayor. No, I do not have a report given that I just saw you guys last Monday. Thank you. Ironically, like a few public speakers, we have uh no consent calendar items this evening. So, we're going to skip right down to the um public hearing of which we only have one regular calendar item for the council and that's 9.1 and that item is a study session to discuss the programmatic assessment of emergency evacuation routes for the city of Sonoma general plan safety element update. And at this point in time, I'll turn it over to our director of community development, Jennifer Gates. Thank you, mayor and council. So, Jennifer Gates, community development director. Um, so tonight, um, it's it's coming. It just takes a hot minute. So, tonight we're going to have a presentation on our results of the programmatic assessment of the evacuation routes. this came before you um in May of 2025 that um it was identified that we needed to do this um and so we amended the contract um with our consultant for our general plan Denovo Planning and um they are here. So Ben Richie is here again and as well as Faren Pierce who's the subconsultant that actually prepared um the assessment. So you're going to hear tonight from both those. So Ian Barnes with Fair and Piers is going to present the results of the study, what is the study, and then Ben Richie will present on um how it integrates with our safety element. We also have Chief Cutting and Chief Acre um and Chief Acres's team um to talk about local response during emergency and to answer questions that may come up around um our local

response. So with that um are are your screens working? No, I went too fast. There we go. All right, so whoever's first. All right, Ian.

Great. Thank you, Jennifer. Uh members of the council, good evening. As Jennifer mentioned, my name is Ian Barnes. I'm a principal transportation engineer with fair and peers out of our Paluma office. Um I'll also just note that I'm a Sonoma County native. Uh have participated as an evacuee and evacuations before. So I have a very uh healthy understanding of what it means to be in some of these uh some of these events. So first a little bit of background on Assembly Bill 747 uh which was signed into law in 2019. This came out of the campfire in 2018. As you may remember out in Paradise during the evacuation during a very swift moving wildfire, uh unfortunately we did have some fatalities during the evacuation which raised some questions about the viability and hazards and how they interconnect for a multitude of scenarios but first out uh borne out by uh wildfire. So Assembly Bill 747 requires and unfortunately sorry I cannot I do not have my glasses with me today. There we go. uh that upon the next provision of the local hazard mitigation plan or the safety element that there is a review and update of the safety element to identify the evacuation routes and their capacity, viability, and safety under a range of of emergency scenarios. a piece of follow-up uh legislation, Assembly Bill 1409, basically recottified AB747, but also required that the safety element identify and consider evacuation locations. So AB747 asks us to fund ask us some fundamental questions. Why are people evacuating? Where do they want to go when evacuating? And what routes would they take to get there? considering congestion effects, both recurring day-to-day congest congestion as well as evacuation related congestion. Now, it's important to realize that evacuation assessment is coming in a

variety of flavors these days. This this assembly bill 747 assessment is a transportation planning exercise. It is a stress test of the roadway system to identify the routes that residents, employees, and visitors in the city would use to evacuate. This study is informed by fire, police, and other experts with the city uh substantially more so than other uh studies that you may have seen uh recently in the area and ultimately identifies how implementing actions for the general plan update can address uh improvements on evacuation routes. It is also a starting point for discussions with the county and uh CALR because like for many agencies in Soma County, evacuation conditions do not exist in a vacuum with respect to the city limits. It's also important to note what this AB747 assessment is not. Uh it is not a SQA evacuation analysis even though it uses similar methods and analysis programs to perform the work. It is also not an evacuation planning study. It's purely focused on transportation planning and it does not study every conceivable evacuation scenario, but the analysis is designed to stress test the roadway system in the city and the surrounding environment such that the surrounding environment affects operations on the city roadway system. And so when we say stress test, we are looking at a a number of highly conservative scenario setup items altogether. Again, all based on expert opinion. Instead of looking at day-to-day typical traffic conditions as the basis, we did a big data exercise to set the basis at 4:30 p.m. on the Friday before Labor Day, considering harvest season, considering high uh amounts of tourist traffic as well as high amounts of just typical traffic congestion.

associated with commute traffic uh in the valley. We are testing the proposed 2050 general plan land uses for the city, but also by studying that 2050 horizon year. We're also considering the evacuation demand generated by other land uses outside the city boundary such as for the county's housing element or to the degree that say a revised city of Paluma general plan, you know, sends traffic uh for computers uh back and forth kind of on this part of the county roadway system. In addition to these background scenarios, we are assuming that all of the residences are occupied. All of the workplaces are occupied and essentially all of the hotels, the tasting rooms, the retail developments are fully occupied in these scenarios. So it is a full stress test in terms of the land uses being occupied throughout the city and beyond. The background traffic and land uses are per the Sonoma County travel demand model. So the reason why we use this as a basis is so that the analysis is consistent with other transportation planning efforts within the city and also countywide going forward. This analysis method combined with a 15minute timestep dynamic traffic assignment simulation kind of a jargony term there. This is in line with the state attorney general's best practices for the uh for conducting these analyses. Based on our expert opinion uh on these scenarios, we studied three evacuation scenarios. The first being a fire sweeping out of the northwest or down the valley of the moon causing a fairly large evacuation pattern as well as the closure of Highway 12 and Bennett Valley Road to the north. Second scenario is a fire coming out of the north kind of due north uh and heading southbound towards

the plaza area. And then the third scenario is one sweeping out of the northeast. And also in that scenario, Highway 12 and 121 towards Napa would be closed in that scenario. As I noted previously, the stress test simulations simulate traffic congestion at a 15minute interval. Up here, we have static images of what that stress test looks like. Um, in the appendix of the uh technical memorandum that was submitted to the city, we have static images of each of those 15 minute simulations. These simulations tell us where the bottlenecks are forming, where the hotspots are forming, and how those hot spots change over time as the evacuation demand loads onto the system, passes through the system, and then eventually exits the system. I'll note that not every single roadway in the city is included in this analysis. This is partially a function of how typical transportation planning applications are done and also just the fact that there's a lot of degrees of freedom in an evacuation. And so um we want to make sure that in a stress test we're really focusing on the key evacuation routes. So the findings, this stress test shows that demand during evacuations really starts to congregate towards the bridges over Soma Creek and other capacity constraints. What's unique about the city's roadway system compared to some of the other agencies in the county is we have the grid system within the city, then progressively fewer roadways out of town, and then all the demand funnels onto uh a very limited handful of state highways. This is in contrast to a city like Santa Rosa where demand goes to the freeway and then you know there's six lanes on 101 and so you have a very high capacity system. So in this case, improving evacuation capacity through

targeted improvements would be very helpful where the demand congregates to help accept uh additional uh demand and flow throughput. For example, at uh Levonia and Fifth Street West as people trans go west, cross the creek and head out towards Arnold Drive. This analysis also showed that hardening of the of the traffic signal system is going to be key. When a traffic signal goes dark and turns into a four-way stop, uh you essentially lose half the capacity of that intersection. Um so battery backup would be beneficial to stop that from happening. But there are other technology solutions out there to allow for remote signal control from say an emergency operation center in Santa Rosa to change the traffic light timings on the fly to better flush uh the congestion out of the city and into places of safety. I'll note that the city of Santa Rosa received Cal OES funding to do that along Highway 12 between Oakmont and Rinken Valley and that system that was after the 2017 fires. It was in place by the 2020 glass fire and uh as city staff noted it tend it tended to work very well. Uh and finally the hardening of the state highways is critical to evacuation mobility for the city because of congestion spillback. Obviously the CALR facilities are not in the city's direct control. But as we noted um you know the city's uh congestion pattern does not necessarily uh is not necessarily in a vacuum considering the evacuation of other land uses adjacent to the city limits. So which roadways received consistent congestion across the scenarios? Spain Street, Napa Street, Leveron Road and Napa Road, Broadway, Fifth Streets uh west and east. Uh and essentially these roadways with direct connections to Highway 12, Arnold Drive, 8 East, Napa, Watma. Perhaps not

surprising if you if we think about how folks uh leave town. The analysis uh recommendations uh are all policy and implementation program related. So uh while we have a policy column, these are all policy related. They are related to demand, capacity and as I noted uh policy. So on the demand side, uh an implementing step or a policy step could be to develop traffic control plans for key locations to promote evacuation egress, working with the fire districts or the county EOC to stage the evacuations and to consider evacuation planning for new developments. On the capacity side, reviewing the roadway system for counterflow. So using the uh using the adjacent lane to flow through like a lot of agencies on the east coast do for hurricane evacuations or shoulder running um in a lot of cases where you need to preserve the reverse direction lane uh for emergency vehicles, maybe targeted widening of the shoulder to form two lanes. uh prioritizing back uh traffic signal backup and remote control or investigating adaptive control whereby the signal automatically changes its signal timings based on the uh traffic volumes that it sees approaching the intersection. We would also note that it is also imperative to maintain evacuation options for vulnerable populations. Um there are of course folks with limited mobility options throughout the city and uh they need to be planned for during evacuations as well. Then on the policy side, you know, pursuing redundant and resilient evacuations communications infrastructure, the time it takes to get the word out that an evacuation occurs is part of the evacuation time. And so minimizing that uh communication gap is very important. uh maintaining a culture of preparedness throughout the city and

then uh pursuing federal and other evacuation funding opportunities for example cal oes grants to uh harden and improve the transportation system for evacuations. Ultimately these recommendations go into the general plan. With that I'll pass it over to Ben Richie.

Thank you very much. Um mayor council Ben Richie Denovo Planning Group. uh we are preparing your general plan. So it's great to see you again. I'd like to preface this by saying we have had an opportunity to work with Ian and Fear and Piers on a number of plans and a number of jurisdictions and they are genuinely the best at what they do at these analyses. So a big report came to you this evening and I want to talk about how we have used that and incorporated that into the general plan that we're preparing for you right now. So a number of policies and recommendations came out of the AB747 report. We have incorporated many of them into your general plan itself in form of policies and implementing action items and we have also used the general plan as a tool to call for further implementation of these policies and recommendations through general plan actions. Your general plan has been drafted. The the version that's out on the street right now that you're reviewing that you haven't voted on yet. It is robust. It's thorough. It touches on fire and emergency evacuation through many many lenses. Um this is required to go through review through CalFire. Uh we've written a number of these and I will say personally this is the mo most robust and specific one we've ever drafted. So in terms of addressing the issue of emergency evacuation and fire hazards, we come at it through many lenses. So specifically the general plan includes goal SE2, which is reduce wildfire risk and protect life, property, and essential services through fire safe planning, development, infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and long-term community resilience. We address these through policies aimed at the topics and issues of mapping plans and wildlife risk information, wildfire risk information, land use and fire safe

development standards, fuel modification, defensible space and vegetation management, access, roadway standards and evacuation preparedness and fire protection, water supply, emergency services and inter agency coordination. So as you look through the draft safety element, you will see it's organized by the topics I just listed and we have policies and action items implementing each of those. We have also prepared uh what's called an SB99 safety and evacuation analysis. This is another state requirement. So we have done a detailed mapping review of all areas within the city to identify residential parcels and areas within the city that may have less than two points of ingress and egress to be used during a wildfire or emergency evacuation incidents. And that analysis and map is included in your draft general plan and inform the policy that went into it. And lastly, I would like to emphasize that any future development projects or applications for development within the city of Sonoma, they are required to comply with the standards contained in your draft general plan as we've written it, as well as a range of state requirements related to fire safety and emergency evacuation. One example of that is public resources code section 4290 which lays out everything from roadway widths to lengths required for dead-end roads and more or less how roadways need to be established designed and function in terms of emergency vehicle access to residential areas related to emergency evacuation. So I will be available for any questions. But lastly, I would like to bring up uh police andor fire to talk about context in terms of how this study was reviewed and uh lessons learned and just to provide a more human context from the experts on the ground in terms

of how this works in Sonoma and I'm not clear on who is speaking to that. Thank you.

Good evening, uh, mayor, council, staff, and, uh, community. Um, so, yeah, uh, Steve Akre, uh, fire chief, Sonoma Valley Fire District, uh, proudly serving, uh, most of the valley, including the city of Sonoma. Um, we have we have done a lot of really good, meaningful work since what we all experienced as a community in 2017 and then with the Glass Fire. um afterwards which affected much of the north part of the valley. Um I'll I'll keep the comments kind of directed and brief but happy to answer any questions at the end. I can I can go on for quite a while on all of the different uh improvements that we have done as a service. And when I say a service, it's not just the fire service. It's our partners in law enforcement and the department of emergency management. Um it and it runs the gamut. It's alert and warning systems and methodology. Um it is vegetation management, resiliency. There a lot of different things. But to the to the point um right at hand right now um we we did not have a very robust system in place in 2017 of um evacuation zones or even methodology or processes and how we were to notify. So I'm going to break those two up just a little bit. Um, one is right after 2017, we did countywide. We established evacuation zones. And they weren't big zones. there. Um, a lot of planning, a lot of thought went into how we designed those zones and how we identified them um to be meaningful for it considering things like the

number of uh people there, the the exiting and access roads and and how we would get people out effectively in a in the case of an emergency. We also went through this exercise for the city of Sonoma. So the police chief at the time and I with along with the city management um went through and we designed what the zones were and establish them for the city of Soma and that was a separate exercise than what we did countywide because the city's its own its own you know governmental entity right and the same thing went through with the other cities uh within the county uh so we We relied on common sense, uh, traffic patterns, um, our main arterial roadways, um, and we also relied a lot on fire history. Um, you know, for those of us that were here in 2017, we know that the valley was basically surrounded by fires. We had five different fires that were that were affecting the Sonoma Valley. So we use that and not just 2017, but we looked back. There was a fire in ' 86. There was a fire in ' 64 and 46 and 23. And so we we really looked at that fire history and tried to apply what we had learned and experienced to the evacuation zones and then our processes. Um so the next thing so once we have the the zones that that's one component of it right um the next part of that is how do we exercise that you know what is the process to say you know zone 1C it needs to be evacuated so we worked uh at the at the fire chief

level and again with partners with uh law enforcement the sheriff's department as well as DEM um and our dispatch center redcon How do we actually, you know, make that happen? And we we really trained a lot. We we established policies and we did a lot of training with fire commanders and we do it in partnership with law. We do what's called unified command, which is law and fire at the same at the same incident command post. Um, and we do a warning and then an order. And we we are now really really good at practicing that. And we've done it in training and we've done it in real life. And so what we will do is when a when an incident is happening, we will we will start the fire commanders like evacuations is like right at the front of our minds, right? Because life safety is our ultimate priority. And if life safety is at risk, we have to devote resources to protecting life first and foremost. And if if we are not ahead of the curve in getting people out on their own, then we have to devote fire and law and other resources to try to get them out, which in turn puts us behind the curve in actually trying to bring the incident to a successful, you know, to mitigate the emergency. So we now have orders and warnings. We will warn and then we will order in that in that sequence. And so what that does in what we have seen in practice is it's not this big evacuation like this big

big area that has to be evacuated all at once. It's incremental and we do it strategically and those that are at the most risk get an order. You are ordered to evacuate right now. And then those that are potentially at risk get a warning. And so what that does is it it I believe in and in practice we've seen this. It it alleviates uh some of the congestion that we will see in some of the worst case scenarios when everybody has to evacuate at once and what that does to our roadways. If we do it incrementally, there's less all at once. And and our big focus is we need to get people out of harm's way. So we understand that once someone is out of that environment where fire is right at their, you know, right at their home or their property and heavy smoke conditions, we get them away from that. They're now in a safe spot, right? They're not immediately threatened. And we we understand that it's difficult to be stuck in any sort of traffic as you're trying to evacuate, but they're still in a safe spot. They haven't made it to their final destination yet, their final destination point, but they're still out of harm's way, and that's our goal. And so, um, we have used that, as I said, a number of times. We've done that here in the valley. Um, I don't know, some will remember a number of years ago, we had a pretty fastmoving wildfire that was down on Highway 121 at Cornerstone. And so, we used that process to get people out of

harm's way very effectively. Um, we've used it this last year. Um, I mean, we we've used it many times since this this system was implemented. Um, another one was there was a fastmoving wildfire this summer um in the Todd Road area that was heading towards uh Sonoma Mountain. We use that very effectively there. We've not had any deaths since 2017 in fire incidents where people are trying to evacuate. So, I I think that's a really good sign. and a testament to the system that we put in place. The next thing I will say uh that I'll move on to and sorry that was that was a bit long but um notification methods. This will be a little bit quicker, but um in 2017, we basically had like the reverse 911 um method of alerting people and that was using landlines to notify houses through their regular landline telephone. Hey, you need to get out. There's an emergency. We recognized that that system went down pretty quickly and so it was not an effective system and so that was one of the things that we worked really hard on um to improve over the next couple of years after 2017. few of the things that we've done. Uh so alerts, right? Um that's the one where we sign up for or we've actually we've actually grown to where we're not just a um a subscription um opportunity, but we use things like our utility bills to actually subscribe people to. So it's not an optin system anymore. It's an opt out system now. Um And that was a learning process. Uh we

still have Nixl um that many are familiar with. Um and then we we've done the WEIA alerts, the wireless emergency uh alerts that we get on our phones. Um and and that's an important one to remind people of that you got to make sure that when you go into your phone settings that you don't have that turned off because that uh that is a thing. It can happen. Um and then one of the other unique things that we did, I think cutting edge and I think uh one of the um one of the other speakers mentioned how progressive Sonoma County is in the field of emergency management and preparation and making sure that you know we do get our community out of harm's way in a safe manner and keep them safe is uh we we subscribed uh or entered into a contract with the National Weather Service. And so we have uh we've implemented the Noah the um Noah radios, the weather radios. Um that's a great alerting system that reaches places um that is otherwise not reachable even with the best of cell services. The Noah radios will reach places that none of the none of the cell services can um can reach. And that's a it's a fairly cheap Noah radio and you can put it on alert so you don't hear anything unless there's an emergency that pings that radio and alerts you. It it helps with our um with our other uh our communities that need our community members that need a little bit more that whether they're hard of hearing. Um they have things like bed shakers, believe it or not, that will connect to the Noah weather radios and alert people that may be deep sleepers or hard of hearing, uh have a hard time waking up in the middle

of the night. Um, so the National Weather Service now when when there's an emergency, we being law enforcement, fire, DEM will hit the National Weather Service in Monterey and they have canned messages that they will hit and send out immediately saying, "You are in harm's way. You need to evacuate right now." And then we that gives us a little bit of time to craft a more specific message to the community that it will come as a followup. So um lots of improvements in that manner and we we still try to get out the message many different ways as we can to sign up for these different methods. Um, we encourage people to, you know, don't rely on one method to be alerted. You know what, have some redundancy, have some duplicity with that. Sign up for a couple of different methods and make sure, you know, especially those that are in areas with poor cell service. Really consider the Noah weather radios. Um, because they're not uh they're not as susceptible as uh as cell service. even when you have good cell service, they're not as susceptible. Um, unified command, I think I already talked about that. Um, that's something that's always been there for us with law enforcement. Um, you know, we partner really strongly together on any sort of emergency, whether it's a law enforcement centered emergency or a fire centered emergency. You know, we're partners in public safety. And you know what? We're absolute we absolutely work together for the best interest of all of our community in keeping them safe. Um, another layer that has been added to our unified command since 2017 is having our

department of emergency management um been a being a part of that now. So they will send the department of emergency management um duty officer to integrate with us uh at that unified command post and then they are kind of the conduit to help make sure that all of these messages and processes um get accomplished in the best way possible. So with that uh can I turn it over to you for the next and anything additional?

Thank you. the sake of sounding slightly redundant. Um I think it's important to be that way in these situations. Um in 2017 when the fires came in, uh we were well underprepared, well undertrained, understaffed for such a a tragic and devastating um unnatural event. And what I will say the benefit to that came out of that was lessons learned. Uh the evacuation zones were a gamecher. Uh I've been a part of each of these um tragic situations since the 2017 fires and actually the 2015 fires up in Lake County did the exact same thing. Uh we learned some lessons from 2015. Not enough. I certainly would have said this will never happen in Soma County. And now look at us uh what seven, eight years later and we've had how many of these events? The benefit to having such a strong leadership within DEM fire and law is that we've taken every bad situation and the mistakes that were made and we've had lessons come out of that and we train now. We train every year. Uh law enforcement trains every sergeant, every supervisor and deputies in understanding the zones, evacuation zones. uh understanding that and is the very last thing on there is life safety, but that's our priority is to get to the uh closest point of a of a fire and the closest evacuation zone and work our way out from that. The traffic flow, as we said, as I said in that last bullet point, is important, but getting people into their cars is our critical point that we work hard to be better at. From the law enforcement

perspective, fire has their focus. They have to get to the fire and stop it from becoming bigger. The studies that you have in front of you, amazing studies, they show the strengths and weaknesses of the roadways. They show the uh potential traffic flow. If you were to ask me today if a fire came in in the same way that are described in some of those studies, it would be very difficult for me to tell you the direction that we would send people because the predictable in this case is very unpredictable and there's so many circumstances that change. So where we have improved is in this unified command. While we've always had as as Chief Achre said, we've always had a unified command. I will tell you, I don't think on the law side, we took it as seriously as we do today. Having been through these scenarios where we had a unified command, but it took a while to get to that point. I'll tell you, when I hear there's a fire and any watch commander hears there's a fire anywhere in Sonoma County, the first thing a watch commander does is we jump in our car, we turn our lights on, and we race right to the closest fire commander that we can marry up with so that we're in direct communication and we can move forward. and the best way to make sure that we get all lives away from the closest point of those fires and out of fire's way so that they can get into them. The uh evacuation zones are perfect because as the chief said, they give us little pieces that we can take away from the dangerous the most dangerous areas and then start working away from there. That helps us with traffic. It really truly does. It's not going to eliminate traffic congestion. It is not going to eliminate stopped traffic away from the emergency and away from the immediate threat of the fire. Once we have people out of homes and we're confident that we

have enough staff in that immediate area, we start to shoot ahead with some with law enforcement ahead of the traffic to open up those intersections. As you heard about the uh CALR's ability to regulate traffic signals in away from the fire, we also sometimes have to go out and manually do that. And so, but that is secondary because we have people in their cars. They are traveling away from the threat and we are able then to assess a better location to direct them. And all of this training and all of the experiences that we've had have just made this so that now today if you tell me there's a fire, I am so much more confident that both sides of us and DEM once DM DEM is online and with us, we can we absolutely can save lives and do it in so much more efficiency than we ever have in the past. The studies are amazing. the plan is is absolutely spot-on. Um, and I hope I hope you get to look through all that and I hope if you have any questions, you do ask. This is a topic that we all hold near and dear to our hearts. We have a lot of experience with it and at the same time uh the the planning and all this time that's being put into this is essential to saving lives.

Very good.

So, with that, I'll I'll just wrap it up. Um hopefully what was articulated by uh Chief Cutting and Chief Acres is they were instrumental in developing the assumptions that went into the AB747 study. I hope it came across the the study that's before you today is through the vacuum of a stress test of the roadway network. We had the opportunity to have multiple conference calls uh with both of the chiefs and city planning staff and city management. What was abundantly clear to us is that we were operating through the vacuum of we are simply doing the exercise of stress testing your roadways and when an actual emergency occurs they are dealing on such a higher level with so many more nuances. So our hope is that this study contributes to their available information and in no way is meant to be a replacement or supplanting to what they have learned through institutional knowledge, historical events and experiences. So, we have done our very best to take the findings from this very focused roadway network stress test study, provide that information to your emergency responders and your first line defense, and also ensure that your general plan, which will lead you through 2045, 2050, incorporates the best practices and recommendations. So we'll be happy to answer any technical questions, policy questions or aspects related to implementation as it relates to our topic item to this evening. So thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. So I'm going to bring it back to the dis and just simply say this is our opportunity to again study session no action but an opportunity to ask questions or to seek clarity. Sure, I'll go first. Um, so I have several questions. So, first, um, who are the members of the Department of Emergency Management? And it's interesting, is there any is there anybody here today that's part of the Department of Emergency Management?

Um, no, there is no one here tonight from as a representative of DEM. Uh the Department of Emergency Management was a new department uh that was formed after the 2017 fires um with a direct report to the county administrator. Um Chris Godley was the former director who had done a lot of work to move the department to establish the department and move it forward. The current director is uh director Jeff Duval and um back in September um Chief Cutting Sheriff's Department reps, myself, Calire, and Department of Emergency Management uh we did a presentation on evacuations um to the um SBCAC. So they're they're not here tonight.

Yeah. And so you can So then my next question, you could probably answer this. Uh, I I I love Noah. I think it's a great service, but I am concerned about Noah because I think that they've been targeted for administrative cuts and how will that potentially affect the services that they're providing us that we're depending on.

Uh, thank you for that. Yes. Uh there's there's a number of areas uh within our service, Noah being one of them that uh that we're concerned about and keeping a very watchful eye on. Um so far we have not experienced any um any cuts or any um service gaps with Noah or the National Weather Service. Good. But that's and but you will continue to keep an eye on it. Did you Brandon want to address that too?

I just wanted to add u so Noah is one tool right uh it we have zero assumptions that uh when we send the messages out that they're received. So from an evacuation perspective we still evacuate homes even if they have been notified through Noah or WEIA or any of the other alert systems. We still we still have a duty to go to every resident. Uh the uh through many of the programs we've offered, we have tags, and I didn't actually bring one in here with me tonight, but we do have tags for property owners to mark at the end of their driveway so that we know they've evacuated or not. It allows us to bypass some locations and get to the next place where there isn't a tag. So even if Noah isn't that tool available to us at the time, we're still going down every one of those driveways to make sure that um as as Chief Achre talked about the uh alerts, the bed alerts um the number of elderly people that we have residing in rural Sonoma County uh is is a lot and in Sonoma, the city proper, we have a lot. So we have to notice, we have to make notification. Um I mean in in prior evacuations we've kicked in front doors of people's homes believing them home be and they were and so that is the process we have to go through. So the more alert notices we have the less of that action we have to take and we can spend time on the people that actually need personal contact.

Great. Thank you. And so you can probably stay up there for a second too. So and so also uh for uh Chief Achre. So this analysis that has been done and you've reviewed it is what if any new information has this analysis brought that has affected what what your current planning is because I look at this and that was my first question is like you know they have all these little zone areas in there too like they break everything up and like how does that relate to our zones but but mostly what are key points from this analysis that have challenged your thinking or reinforced your planning.

So, uh, the the traffic from my perspective and I'll I'll let Chief Aker speak to the fire side, but the on the evacuation side, we have to evacuate people regardless of the roadway conditions. Uh, I believe the best some of the best information that I've read through this is that there are some improvements that some of these roadways can can have. There's some technology that we don't currently have. you heard the description of Highway 12 and the CALR control. Um those those downstream um activities that that that I've learned a lot about through this process uh are essential in keeping traffic going away from and not bottlenecking into a threat zone. So from my perspective, the the some of the greatest information I have is it gives us the ability to look from a sort of an overview into our roadways and understand that there's some things that are that are done well right now and there's other things we can do better. We have this has been a practiced experience in the Sonoma Valley and in the city and in all other parts of Sonoma County. So this is not new information. It's it's just a way to look at it and make some very meaningful improvements towards life safety down the road downstream.

Great. Thank you. Uh I would I would echo that and just uh from my perspective I I'll I'll be brief with this but um what this study and this process did for me was um it didn't present a lot of new information for us but what it did was it was an inclusive process that I think validated what we have all seen and what we feel. So this study really that they they took a lot of time working with Chief Cutting and I and our staffs to really understand the modeling and what the fire potentials were. The fire potentials that you see in the study are very real. They they have happened. They're they're not something that's picked out of the sky somewhere and tried to be applied here. So um so I think from that part of it I look at this as being a very valid study and process having gone through it and I I would say that you know it is kind of worst case scenario with the with the traffic flows and whatnot. Um, you know, we've we've seen many of us have seen what those traffics are like when we are under evacuation circumstances. And um, again, we've we've been able to evacuate effectively uh, even when we didn't have as well and as robust of systems that we now have in place. Um, it's also a call um, that we we never stop with this. We don't rest and say, "Okay, we got this." Right. So we we do see the pinch points that are identified in the study for traffic and it's something that Chief Cutting and I and others have been working on and it's

it it's reinforcement that that work needs to continue and it's like with tra with CALR with county roads and others to be able to try to increase that flow at those pinch points in whatever manner we can do whether it's the battery backups whether it's the remote signaling some of those things. Um, we we still have work to do, but we're we're on it. We're we're we're doing it. So, I'll let others ask more questions. I may come back, but thank you. Thank you very much.

And if I may, the only thing I would add to that is the prep preparation of this study was required by state law and we did it and we did it to the rigors and requirements of state law and in meeting with uh Chief Acres and Chief Cutting. One thing that was actually encouraging to us is that the study did not necessarily reveal anything that they did not already know in terms of how to plan, how to evacuate, how to respond. You know, we we looked through this narrow lens of traffic. And then we had conversations with them and it's crystal clear that there's so much that goes into this. And what was actually reassuring is that we didn't find any golden nuggets of like, oh my gosh, we had no idea that this roadway wouldn't function. we they were involved in the assumptions, the reviewing of the methodology and the results and it was actually comforting that when they read the report they're like yeah that's we know that's what it would say and so uh we actually found that quite validating in terms of the fact that you know we we had to go through the rigors of the state law requirement but it was validating what your emergency responders already know and already are planning and accommodating for. Thank you.

Thank you mayor. Thank you so much. Very comprehensive. Uh we are learning. Uh my question is does this the plan applying to another disaster the flooding or possible earthquake or just a fire like a fire?

Yeah. Uh great question council member. Um, yes, the the evacuation zones, the processes, all of the unified command, all of those bullet points that were up there. I know the I know the big concern for the community because we've been affected by it most recently, right? Is is wildfire, right? So, that's that's what our focus is on. But this this is an allhazard, if I can use that term. We use it internally. Um this is an allhazard plan and response. We we will utilize evacuation zones, um notification methodologies, um all of that in any type of emergency that affects our community where we need to get them away from a hazard and harm's way.

Thank you. Uh my another question is yeah uh this presentation and show us you're paying more attention on vulnerable population that is great yet we mentioned you know senior people in the Sonoma and average age much higher than county or statewide you know I'm not sure uh this kind of senior age uh how the impact you know our speed for evacuation Because my understanding is if you're older and move it was slower but you are become more mature more cooperated. So I'm not sure when you prepare this plan did you consider these kind of the factors?

Absolutely. Um, we've always had vulnerable populations and that's a that's a part of what we respond to day in and day out and and not under like largecale emergencies, but on the day-to-day emergencies and how do we how do we best serve, you know, any, you know, any element of a vulnerable population. Um, so so we know we know how to do that. we're good at it. And uh one other thing that I would add um and then I'll turn it over to Chief Cutting if he has anything else to add. But um one of the things that we have is we have a database countywide

um through um Coastal Valley's EMS, uh our our medical provider, um that oversees medical services, emergency medical services in the county. We have a database of those that are medically vulnerable. And so, um, whether it's a PSPS or a, um, weather emergency alert or notification, those folks get notified ahead of time. And, and we have that database to be able to go in and check on them, those most they're like the most vulnerable of vulnerable. um and we have the ability to reach them and to it and we know where they are in the county in the city and we we can take special efforts to go meet them. Um the other thing that's happened uh since 2017 is um a real emphasis on you know as as was mentioned Sonoma has a very uh very big uh elderly population. We also have a number of assisted living and specialty care uh facilities in in town and that was something that we together, you know, we when and I say we the collective we um police, fire, city uh have really placed a big emphasis on connecting with each of those facilities in making sure that their statemandated evacuation plans are in place. um if they need assistance with developing those or updating those um our deputy chief Trevor Smith and his firerevention bureau are are engaged with them. And so um we're trying to do this. You know, again, as Chief Cutting said, you know, there was a lot of lessons learned from 2017 and it it's too many to say in one meeting, but but that's an important one that that we do

recognize and we've made some really big efforts and and progress in making sure that those vulnerable populations are um are cared for and safe. Thank you, Chief.

Anything? I just want to add that uh the evacuation zones were created for this very reason so that we can uh the likelihood and I'm not a fire science guy but the likelihood that these really fast burning fires are going to start in the city and stay in the city or are pretty unlikely. they're probably going to start out in the out in the county and blow in towards and so for the city's uh planning perspective and I know uh this conversation goes well beyond the city limits but from the city's perspective the evacuation warnings the orders are at the se at the at the hotspots and then the warnings are beyond we do have good coordination with the facilities u that are in the city had meetings with several of them over the years since I've been here and they are all very in tune to paying attention to orders and warnings in the outlying areas as it's coming towards and they are well advanced beyond what they were in 2017 as facilities to ensure that they have transportation for all their all of their people and to start getting people out as quickly as they can. Uh we we did not have that same experience in 2017 uh in greater Sonoma County. there were many many horrible situations that occurred as a result of that and I think those lessons were learned not only by us but also by those care partners who are caring for those um agent population that we all care about.

Thank you. Uh my another question is you mentioned about the database uh that is very valuable and information uh these kind of database does it contain any the household with the autos or vehicles this kind of information some the household if you don't have car or

the the database that I was referring to is specific to those with um medical conditions and a lot of it is medical conditions that require uh assisted devices, whether it be oxygen or other types of treatments that they need to to have on a daily basis. Um and and those are our most vulnerable. Um and so those are the ones um that we that we track through that database. I I think it I think nothing nothing replaces as much as we can as much as we can try to plan and try to take care nothing takes the place of neighbors helping neighbors very honestly and that's one of the one of the tenants that we do we have we we do our public education program scope which is uh Soma citizens um prepared for emergencies organized and prepared for emergencies we've We've had that program for well over a dozen years and we updated it after the 2017 fires. And that's one of the big things that we that we encourage folks is to is have that connection with your neighbors. Have someone that knows your number, knows your condition, knows what your needs may be. So if if we do get into that spot where where we do need to warn or order you to evacuate, that there's some help there. Thank you again. Very encouraged. You're welcome. Thank you.

Thank you. So I somebody could answer this hopefully. Um so does AB747 apply to the county as a jurisdiction? Ian, if you want to jump in, but I'll botch it, but the short answer is is upon the next update of the county's general plan safety element, they'll be required to do their own AB747 analysis. And if you have anything to add, please chime in. Yes, they did uh they did actually adopt an AB747 analysis with their safety and environmental justice element update last year.

Okay. Um thank you. Um, and has there been any effort to overlay what their work showed and ours? Uh, actually we were the consultant on the AB747 analysis for the county. So, okay. All right.

Yeah. Um, and I guess my concern or question with regards to evacuations is some of the roadways clearly are outside the city that are probably most capable of being improved. And so with the burden on us to start making improvements, um what has CALR's response been to working with cities on this? Any anything to date?

So I think Santa Rosa is a shining example of that between Oakmont and uh Kalistoga Road. You know, Highway 12 state facility, part in the city, part in the county. Um I can tell you through my experience working with CALR District 4 highway operations and the traffic forecasting branch, you know, they're very amendable. They understand the role that their roadways play uh for, you know, regional and subregional mobility and also the role that they play in the evacuation system. Okay.

All right. Thank you. When there's an evacuation notice given to a zone, um is it simultaneously providing warnings to neighboring zones if it if it's suitable? Uh yes, if it's suitable. So the through unified command those decisions are made. they you know uh you've heard a lot about dem and dem it does does come online and that's sort of uh sometimes you know an hour two hours into it although they may be ramping up really it'll be the onseene watch commander for us and uh fire command that will make those decisions initially obviously the if we have an evacuation order there will always be a neighboring warning that will go out it's it's usually a prediction that's coming from fire as to the most likely uh next immediate area. We may have two zones that are ordered and and two two or four zones that are warnings, but yes, uh we don't just evacuate one zone without placing another in a standby ready standby mode. Yeah, I don't remember who made the comment about neighbors helping neighbors, but it seems to me that as we train the community that um it makes a lot of sense that if you get a warning, you should probably think about evacuating and and I think a lot of people would see that as a inconvenience, but uh it may be very helpful. And having said that, I'm thinking about adding more cars to the roadway. But um anyhow, that's, you know, I'm just making a comment.

Your point's well taken. You I mean, you you bring up a point of we if we put an area in a warning and the and the warning is heated immediately by people and we've been putting information out. Uh Sarah with the city's put out a lot of great evacuation notices types information and being prepared. You know, people need to have back in, you know, prior to 2017, who thought they needed to have all of their personal belongings, you know, in a in a ready to go box or bag or whatever that they could throw in a car and leave. Today, it's a different day. I think we've all experienced that. Whether it's and as you heard, earthquakes, floods, fires, uh those are the three biggest ones. and you may have to get out of your house even faster even before warnings. Downstream traffic, you can't stop it. Um I, you know, I wasn't out here in the valley during the 2017 fires. I was in Santa Rosa and I I made a movie about it off my body camera. I can show you the stop traffic to get on Highway 101, which nobody would have thought was underbuilt for uh a traffic scenario like this. Everything is underbuilt in a in a true emergency. As long as people are traveling away from the threat, we are doing the best we can at that time. And this area has the ability to travel to remove people from the threatening zone and away from those fires.

Thank you. You look like you wanted to say something.

Just add something real quickly. Uh absolutely agree with all of that. The what we have now is we've got tools to better ensure safety of our community. And so through the evacuation zones and the orders and the warnings, um, we can utilize that and apply that based on whatever the situation, the specific situation is. The specific fire is never going to be the same. If we're looking at a wildfire, it's never going to be the same. The wind conditions, the intensity of the fire, the rate of spread, all of that, it will never be the same as there. No, no two will ever be the same. But what we can do to Chief Cutting's point is if if we have a rapidly expanding incident, we can do orders, you know, two, three zones ahead and warnings three zones past that, we have the ability to do that. And that's what our incident commanders um all practice and train on is to be able to identify those situations and you know do a proper size up and then apply the tools in the right way. So thank you

thank you uh thank you for all of this work. Um it's really great. Uh I want to um ask a question a little bit about prevention. Um on the section which is called demand um there's a bullet there that says underground utilities to prevent downed wires on main evacuation routes. And um I think this is something that I think we all would like to see happen in every community and every street. um where are we with that or how uh how do we move towards that?

Where's PG&E? Where are they? Give it a go. Yeah, sure. Okay, thank you.

Trevor Smith with Sonoma Valley Fire and the Fire Marshall. Um hello, mayor and council, city staff, and the public. Um to your question, we have all of these studies and documents and they're designed for a purpose. They're designed so we as leaders, all of us know where we have to focus resources and what partnerships we can build. Without these documents, we can't seek grant funding. We can't go to our partners like PG&E and identify issues. So, we're identifying that stuff so we can build those strategic partnerships, be eligible for the grant funding dollars that are out there at local, state, and federal levels and uh try to affect the change. But this study shows us where we can affect the greatest change. So, I think that's the value in it.

Yeah. Have you identified specifically where in Sonoma Valley in general um util underground utilities would be most useful? I think anywhere where overground utilities are present, especially in areas with high winds are are critical. Um, I can't speak to a specific area, but we could focus some research and stuff on trying to figure that out. But especially along the major arteries and roadways, that would be a good place to focus, but also in densely populated areas, especially in the rural sections of our community, right? To protect the most most lives,

right? because we know that that has been a cause of of some of these things. Um, as part of this, did we identify um evacuation centers? I mean, we're talking about moving people away from the fire or from the incident, whatever it happens to be. Um, is that already embedded in here as to, you know, I know we use Sonoma High. I mean, are these is this already sort of ready to go? Not based on this document, but there's planning for all of those things. This document was mostly how do we stress test this system to really identify where our efforts are going to go? Where can we make the biggest effect of change?

Yeah. Because these people are going to go, where are they going? Yes. But Department of Emergency Management along with sheriff's office and fire departments are identifying those uh places. Now, it's depending on where the incident is, which way the incident's moving, where is the smoke going, where's the hazardous material or whatever else. So, it has to be a dynamic decision, but having those pre-identified places within a community is always helpful and

constantly working to identify those places and additional places when necessary. And um my final question um at the moment is I was um intrigued by this traffic signal situation that apparently is working in Santa Rosa and it says to investigate it. Where are we and you know perhaps it's a city manager. I don't know where where that question should be directed. Um are we planning on doing that with our signals in the city? It's a technology that that I've learned a lot about in this process. So, uh we will continue that conversation. I don't know where the answer is right now, but we will find that answer and we'll project it out to you guys as soon as we have it.

Okay, great. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. May I?

Sure. Absolutely. just uh one of your questions uh was PG Gene and uh PG& um has done a lot of work to underground those areas that are most vulnerable. They have also done a tremendous amount of work in being able to remotely be able to isolate power and that's been a a really big improvement since 2017. Um to your other question about you know where are our most vulnerable spots um I would say there there some of our uh one way in one way out areas and they may not be directly in the city but I know this body looks at things more globally here in the valley and we we look at things like Mission Highlands which will come down into the city. We look at Geroke Road. We look at Seventh Street East. we look at Louisville Valley, those are one way in, one way outs. And so those are those would be if I was standing in front of PG& today, um that's where I would say some of those most important in addition to our main traffic arteries. Um those where people could be trapped without a secondary way out. Those would be the ones that I would say are the most important.

Yeah. Very good. Uh I'm in uh I'm very much encouraged with what I'm hearing and it's principally driven by the fact that I'm hearing that a lot of what we have included is based upon the experiences of 17 19 and and more. and the fact that the information has been gathered by our local experts and not from Sacramento. So, I'm I'm very much encouraged with that thinking that it will indeed have uh I'm going to give it much more credence. And I guess uh that might be the silver lining of unfortunately having those experiences, but being able to take those experiences and and and create that that roadmap going forward. I trust that uh whatever this report gets folded into the general plan update that we can now check the box of the state requirement that will put them to bed. But more importantly is that we will successfully I believe you've alluded to this Ben that that you we're going to be able to fold all this this significantly learned experience into uh our update and that it will then uh be something that we as a council can have great confidence in because the other thing that's going to come up in the foreseeable future in a variety of shapes and forms is projects are going to be brought before us And one of the most consistently expressed concerns is that of safety and evacuation. And it's going to be in my mind for me and hopefully shared by the rest uh to to have the confidence to know that we have a document that has been what you might almost call time- tested and that uh we'll be able to use

that as a filter and a lens that we can look through as to whether or not we support a project or not. So I see that as being of great value. So I guess that was more of a statement than it was a question. But um when there's an incident uh I know that in the past we had a local EOC that was set up. Now if the incident is broader I know there was another command center and and when does Sonoma get triggered and when does say the county get triggered? Is it based purely on geography?

So that uh great question. One of the things that we learned uh from 2017 was uh 2017 we opened the city's EOC and the city EOC um functioned really really well after not having been activated for quite some time um and did a a really really good job of informing our public and um providing resources to those that needed. One of the one of the highlights was um coordinating the evacuation of the Sonoma Developmental Center residents. That was there were still quite a few at that point in time. Um so uh it it was what we learned from that though was that it and this is similar to some of the other you know initiatives and just the kind of philosophy that I believe this council has is that you know the the city the city has the resources and and the connection with the whole valley right and so the valley looks to the city for information and um and connectivity. And so one of the things that we did after 2017 was we really made some um some deliberate efforts to include a uh once the county deem was formed. Uh one of the county deem uh members is a liaison to the city of Sonoma and the city of Sonoma EOC. So we're able to so it anytime one of the city EOCC's is uh whether it's the city of Sonoma, city of Paluma, Santa Rosa, whatever um whenever they are activated in an EOC, there's a trigger for the county to activate as well. And in that process, we are now better connected and

coordinated with the county EOC, which which then has the ability to connect with the state EOCC's with uh office of emergency services and elsewhere.

Great. Thank you. Um, I think it was expressed that um, we have limited influence as far as how we can harden some of our areas that fall within the city limits, but uh, a lot of the outlying areas are going to be very influential on our success of evacuation. Um is it fair to say that um because of the past events that we're all growing in the same direction in terms of the county and the cities so that it isn't you know so the hardening aspect is going to ultimately benefit all of us and I'm hoping that um that there is that attitude throughout the county because we're dealing with yourself that is involved in a fire district not just Soma City and you likewise under contract with a sheriff's department that in we truly are going to be working in a a real con considered way um to be as prepared as possible.

We are for sure the the partnerships, the the relationships, the coordination and collaboration that we we experience now is is marketkedly different than where we were in 2017. Great. Great. Great. before I turn it over to the public if we have any more. So please.

Yeah. So I thank you very much and this is all very helpful. So I had a question in regards to uh just uh reading the whole report but also kind of emphasizing what went into the data analysis. And so you know certainly it's very clear you know you're you're looking at t you know the timing of this very you know high level of concentration of people in the city potentially and you know events and f you know all of those different things. But in regards to and I believe also it does take into account any development that is already in our general plan that that would put in add into that like the numbers of new people that would also potentially be evacuating. Does it also address you know because one there's one particular question of concern around Sebastiani and whether or not that develop you know that potential development if it's ever developed or whatever we want to call it right now it is an idea if that ever idea comes to fruition was was that analysis also included I just want to make sure kind of for the public record that we're talking about like all of the you know that type of information that went into the data analysis. So uh so that people can feel assured. Yeah, I think it's for you Ian that the stress test or for for for you for you. Uh

it it's both of us and uh Ian's going to tell me he based the analysis based on the land use map that we provided to him to run through the traffic model. So, that was a long- winded way of saying the Sebastiani property being redesated as Sonoma mixed use, which is currently shown on your draft general plan. So, in layman's terms, Sebastiani being developed, was assumed for the cumulative condition of your general plan, which is the model that fear and peers ran. So, it was a 2045 scenario. It assumed growth throughout the region. It assumed growth within the city of Soma which was based on the assumptions of a level of growth including the redesation of that parcel. So the traffic engineer will tell you it did not get down to the level of detail of that many vehicles on this intersection. But the assumption that Sebastiani had been redesated and allowed to develop was encapsulated within the overall growth assumptions within the city which is what was modeled. So I hope I answered

no. Yeah. And I appreciate that and I just think it's important for us to emphasize that for the public to understand all of the data that went in to make sure we're really looking at the best stress test. It it was looked at with Sebastiani not being in its current condition but being in a future developed condition as shown on the draft land use map that this council has not adopted but is shown in public right now.

Yeah. And then the only other thing on some of the maps it shows like that there's certain areas. I think it's area 174 or whatever. I'm going to get very specific here, but um that um also it's kind of the flows it the uh the map that shows u by the you know the different numbers you have for each of these little districts. they don't always show that they're accounting for uh individuals coming from areas that are just outside of that. So like I'm looking at it's a northeast fire, right? And you're looking at Level Valley and all of that. I'm assum I if I just look at that I'll go oh they take into account all those people. I'm assuming from what I read that it does, but I just want to make sure also once again just to inform the public, these are some of the questions that I think could come up.

Ian can jump in at any point, but the modeled analysis on the roadway delays was based on the regional travel demand model, which assumes traffic flow beyond just the city limit boundaries of Soma. So it accounts for what's occurring outside of the city limits and the volume of traffic. Not only what exists today, but what's projected under the model to exist 20 years from today. So it was a future look at the regional traffic growth and how that would contribute to the roadway network in addition to the city evacuating all at once. And so for example, I think it's like I'm sorry my glasses won't make this. I can't see what that zone

164 I think it's 170 what is it 170 32 32 that all of those that are 178 161 164 yeah those ones so when we see the other maps I understand that those areas so will the county be the one who's responsible for those they're part of our zones as well too right so just to be clear I just think when people look at maps and they see certain areas are not in are grayed out. You're like, "Oh, well, what's happening with them?"

Yeah. So, the the the three scenarios that we ran were based on expert opinion of, you know, zones that could go together. Um and so uh yes so in these cases here we are assuming that it's not just the city evacuating it would be other environs evacuating beyond just the city limits uh in coordination with uh uh the the chief's opinion on uh various fire scenarios. So um again it would be you know it it's likely that some of the zones in the hills would probably go at the same time as the city. So, we wanted to stress test the network considering the city evacuating at the same time as areas just beyond the boundary of the city. And so, as Ben was noting, uh the zones highlighted on these maps are the ones where we're calculating evacuation demand. The remaining zones that are grayed out still generate trips on the roadway system, but they generate trips, you know, based on typical travel patterns, not evacuation demand. So, we kind of have to balance between there are zones that are called for an evacuation and then the areas beyond those, they still generate traffic like they like they typically would. I guess

I I think that speaks to the worst case scenario because in Ian's example, uh you could have zones on the travel model that are not being called for evacuation, but the background traffic assumed with coming home from work or dropping kids at soccer, that's still plugged into the travel model. Whereas if we were all in an evacuation scenario, I might not be driving to soccer practice. So, it's likely that we've overstated the uh actual background traffic on the roadway network just based on human behavior uh in response to an emergency. Great. Thank you. Anything else? Any more questions?

Can I add just one thing to that too? The um you know your zones, they they aren't inclusively connected, right? So if say up Norbomb Road a fire is coming moving eastbound from the top of Norbomb Road, we're starting to look at 7th Street, Loville Valley, uh the higher points where an evacuation is and notification is if not impossible too late. Uh so we try to be early on that too. So that's where a lot of the unified command predictions are are coming into play and the communication between law and fire and DEM and EOCC's as we get to those points. But it it's not just because you're not connected to one of those zones doesn't mean that a zone uh two over may not be a an evacuation order based on on traffic flow and ability to get in and out of those areas. And the the very last comment I'll make is when we ran through these assumptions and scenarios and tested them with the Chiefs, the feedback was, hey, if you're trying to tax this network on paper through the computer model, like sure, you've come up with the worst case scenario, but please be aware that's not how we do this. And the message to us was, look, it it comes in phases. It comes in waves. We're getting information. We go zone by zone. We give orders. We give warnings. They couldn't comprehend or comprehend is the wrong word. They couldn't tell us that a realistic scenario was drop everything, all zones evacuated at once. That's simply not how these emergencies play out. It's not based on historical information and practices. So we do feel confident that we what we presented in the analysis is an almost hypothetical worst case worst case scenario in so much that everything stops, everyone's traveling, everyone evacuates at once

and that's not how it will play out, but we've tested the roadway if it were to go that way. Any more questions? If not, I would like to then turn and open it up to the public. And if you'd like to uh address any questions, comments, please do so.

Good evening, Mayor and Council and staff. Thank you very much. Um I have a reaction and a suggestion. My reaction is only two words. Well, and thanks to all of you who have done all of this preparation. Fantastic. Uh my suggestion is I um think the general public would really benefit from having this information and I would suggest on a quarterly basis that you sort of saturate every possible means of communication that the city has. his website. It's KSVY. U the little blurb for the last week in the Sonoma or whatever. Um and something about preparation and something that's that's been done. I know human human nature, human behavior, that term was mentioned just a moment ago, uh is that we really don't think about these uh scenarios on a daily basis. we should, but we don't. And it would be useful to bring it to our the public's mind uh on a regular basis to tell them what has been done and what they could do to help. Anyway, thank you very much. Thanks again.

Thank you.

Anyone else would like to come forward? I see a couple movements. Mayor Wellender, council members, staff, members of the public. Um Tom Conlin, uh here in a personal capacity speaking tonight, but also serve on your climate action commission, which frankly has not given this matter as much attention. Climate adaptation has not been although it's within the scope of our work, it really hasn't been a focus up until now. And I uh we hope to be working on that this year. I um I want to say I'm pleasantly surprised that this assessment is as robust as it is. On reading through it today, I had heard some prior chatter about the county's uh safety element from members of the community who were disappointed with that work. Um, and I'm curious if the methods have changed between what was presented for the county and what we got here because this does feel to me like a fairly uh I'm running out of time already. Um, I have sent in some written comments. The report is sobering. 15 and a half hours to get everybody out is a long time. I agree with the finding that scenario one is a probable reasonable worst case scenario, but I also think that the possibility of a firestorm that closes both Highway 12 and the route to to the north as well as to the route to the east is a black swan event. It's not modeled in here. I don't ask that it be because I think the demonstrated coordination between the players that would respond in that situation is what we're getting out of this exercise right now. So, I'm actually quite pleased at the conversation tonight. So, I agree with

Chief Agger that the report's assumptions are conservative. Um, the consultant did state that this does not meet SQA threshold. So, I'm curious how the general plan will do that in this area. That that question I don't believe has been answered tonight yet. Um, and my big concern is that the report does not appear to be fully recognized yet in the text of the safety element draft. And so for example, there are many great granular recommendations in Faren Pier's report that we don't see outline the specific policies and actions in the current draft. In fact, the uh policy SE2Q appears to be tacked on at the last moment referencing the fair and peers report. It um there's actually a typo in the naming of that. And so I think the safety element could be much stronger if these recommendations were more carefully integrated. Um in general about the safety element, if I may beg another 30 seconds.

Sure.

Thank you. Um most of the policies and actions appear to apply primarily to new construction and I believe more effort should be paid to our existing building stock, our existing residents and visitors. Um the the current draft feels to me like it was put together before SB514 uh which Chris Cabbaldon our our representative brought forward this past year. The the text does make reference to PRC 4291, but SP 514 made substantial edits to that, in particular, adding home hardening in addition to defensible space as a co-equal uh responsibility of of uh all of us to be prepared for. Um so I'd like to see the word home hardening added to the safety element in where it belongs per that law. And then Jack raised this issue and I'll I'll reiterate it. The safety element makes reference to at risk populations, but fair and pure is more specific, I think, with talking about populations with as with access and functional needs. And we do need to know who the people who are going to have the hardest time getting access to a vehicle to get out and having plans for how to deal with that. But I I'm generally very supportive of the work that's presented tonight. So, thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. and and and before the next speaker comes up, would staff like to or the consultants like to make any comment based upon questions raised?

Yes, I'll speak to two points. In terms of the SQA review, there is a pending EIR which will address all aspects related to SQA and emergency evacuation. So Ian and Fen Piers had correctly needed to clarify that their document was not intended to be a squa analysis. That is largely prepared. it is underway and it will be presented to the council and the community in the coming months. So, SQUA is coming. And then in terms of all of the recommendations from the AB747 report being in the general plan, we have tried to strike the correct balance between the granular and the general. So, the general plan incorporates many of them, not all of them. And much like many other implementation tools at the city, uh the general plan will reference this report. It will reference its series of recommendations. And my staff and I were actually looking at the general plan draft this morning and we have a little bit of clarifying language in the draft to more closely tie it to helping use the general plan to reference this as an implementation tool. So the connection is there and we're strengthening the connection.

Thank you.

Um Jennifer Gates, I'm just going to add a little bit more to that. Um we um I'm working with Sarah Tracy who has um been working with um emergency management and doing our hazard mitigation um update. And so technically this law was really tied to the updates of hazard mitigation plans and um not necessarily the safety element. However, it was decided by the county and some of the participating jurisdictions that we were not going to do it as part of that project, but rather each jurisdiction would do it under their own safety element updates because it's an eitheror. But a lot of that granular could really feed into our draft hazard mitigation plan that we have currently going. And so Sarah and I will work on implementing it in their as applicable or other locations. Thank you for that clarity. Any other comments before I open the

K, you've been patient. Please come forward.

Ken Stokes, again, thank you. And I would echo the comments of the prior speakers about the quality of the work and the uh uh the amount of effort, coordination that's gone into it. Very impressive. I think uh the comments from staff probably answered part of my question, which is granularity and specifics about Miss Sebastian. You raised it. Thank you very much. um within the EIR element is well is there ever a point where it's goes too far? Is there a red line drawn at some point which says that for example a development of 25 homes per acre over 50 or over 20 acres goes too far or is the ER going to come back and suggest that mitigation efforts like this would be considered? In other words, is an analysis like this ever to say we're at maximum capacity, especially when you look out 25 years. Uh, and you simply can't put more in or you can't put more than X in. That I think is going to be the key concern of my neighbors, particularly up low valley up Geroke. Uh, they've got to get past my house to get out of town. They'll be behind me. Uh, and they'll be behind the residents that are potentially at it within the Passion area. Um, so I I can understand the hardening the other kinds of mitigation efforts. From a practical standpoint, this report is very hard to read from a layman standpoint. I don't know what it says about current conditions versus future conditions, whether I've gone from X hours to X plus 10 hours. You cited, I think, a number of 15 hours to completely evacuate. If I was stuck in a fire zone for 15 hours, I would be very concerned. So um it's I understand that the baseline is important to to lay down do the analysis and understand. The question is will tapping on the brakes be one of the mitigation efforts in in terms of development or andor will there be a stop sign in terms of we reach some level of capacity within certain areas that we just shouldn't be building or we shouldn't be building at a potentially higher density than is proposed. Anyway,

I'll leave it at that. Thank you. And I believe that's worthy of at least some comment if it could be addressed to some level.

Yeah, I think the the basic response I would give is that the EIR will look at a future buildout condition of the city of Soma which encapsulates a variety of potential growth. It could be duplexes added in backyards. It could be vacant parcels that are developed. It could be the development of Sebastiani with the new land use designation. It looks programmatically citywide at the general level of buildout but does not analyze a specific project with those adjacent intersections and that specific proposal any future application for development that the city were to receive and I'll simply say it. So post general plan adoption, if you get a development application for Sebastiani, the general plan does not approve or entitle that development, it would go through development review. It would need to look at the adjacent circulation pattern. It would need to look at the roadway connections and configurations, and it would need to clear and pass through SQA. So this does not provide blanket coverage for all hypothetical future developments, but it does look at what the city as a whole could look at in terms of total volume, which would include potentially Sebastiani in terms of how it's shown on your land use map, which is now Sonoma mixeduse commercial business.

So a specific project brought forth with an application then would require a specific EIR

not necess I will parse out words here. It will require review under SQA. There are degrees of the level of analysis needed. An EIR being the highest level. It does not necessarily predispose it to needing an EIR, but it must be cleared under SQA. So when you have a programmatic EIR and a project comes in specific with the or consistent with the general plan, it has to be reviewed under SQA. It has to be looked at for sight specific impacts. It does not necessarily trigger an EIR but it has to be reviewed under SQA and that is a critical distinction because there are degrees of level of analysis

and that's typically done as staff evaluation that comes and makes a recommendation as far as what elements may or may not have to be addressed.

Absolutely. Staff would receive an application determine it's subject to squa and now once subject to squa there are gradations of the degree of analysis, but first and foremost, is it consistent with the general plan? And are there peculiar sight specific impacts? And based on the start of the analysis, it's, you know, choose your own adventure, the fork in the road based on what the analysis tells you, will lead you to the correct and mandatory environmental document, be it an exemption, a mitigated negative declaration, or an IR. So, yes, SQUA, potentially EIR, but not for sure.

Okay. Very good. Okay. Um, closing the the public portion of it and bringing back to the dis for additional comments or questions. We do uh I believe they're asking for some type of motion this evening. Um,

wait a sec. It says right here, ask for a motion. Please clarify, please. Do we not need a motion? We do not need a motion. So once again, being mayor is a very humbling position here as I continue to stumble a little bit. Uh I do want to though before we close this raise a question about what was brought up by the public and I agree that u this is a very hot topic because of uh the uh experiences and the events of the past 10 12 years. So I would like to give some thought to the consideration of a public forum or um an opportunity for the public to come and hear. My my question is or my request would be I think it would need to be tailored to how it's presented and what information is presented. Uh this had a specific need tonight and I'm not sure that that needs to be replicated, but again that's something that I'd be looking to staff and our professionals to come back with a possible consideration. So um with that uh we will then uh move on and once again I'm proven wrong. We do have a second item 9.2. Now with that I it's just simply the appointments to the climate action commission cultural and fine arts commission and the parks rec open space commission. And I'd like to turn this over to our city clerk please. Oh I'm sorry. One second. Thank you very much for all the hard work and effort you put into this for everybody involved. It was greatly appreciated and uh I am moving forward with much greater confidence of where we're headed. So, thank you. Now, please.

Thank you, Mayor Council. This item tonight is, as you said, to address vacancies on the climate action um commission, the cultural and fine arts commission, and the parks recreation open space commission. It's important to remember that these are all um appointments that are made by a majority vote of the council and are not um as opposed to your direct appointments, which as we know, we made three of those this evening earlier. The um openings that we're looking at this evening are the youth members for the climate action commission and the cultural and fine arts commission as well as the at large position for the parks and recreation um and open space commission. We received um one application each for the two youth positions. Um, as a reminder, youth positions, they are they must be 14 years of age, um, but no older than 18 years of age at time of appointment, and they serve a, um, two-year term, and must be a resident of the city or Sonoma Valley, which is the Sonoma Valley School District. the um at large member is can be either a city resident or a valley resident as our other um at large member on the pros is a valley resident. So we've met the requirement that one member shall be an atlarge member. They serve a two-year term and we received three applications for this position. However, um one of those applicants was appointed as council member Dean's direct appointment this evening. So Joe Henry is no longer um in the consideration. And with that, the council can take these as if someone wants has thoughts on individuals, they can do this individually or they can do it in one motion or two motions, youth member and then the atlarge member,

whatever the council's desire is. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. I I do have one question about the youth appointment. Is it to my memory correct that they simply serve parallel with the academic year or is the expectation that they serve the entire 12 months?

They serve actually they start in October and when we first um had this position we had them um coming in in August but we were getting no applications because most of the students at that time we found are either on vacation or um you know they're not that. Um, so we changed it to October 1 as a start date of their term and they serve two-year terms. With the most recent um change to your policy, I believe it was in January of 2025. You change the two that to a two-year term.

And so the expectation is they'll be uh serving on an as needed basis through the summer even though they're not in school. Okay, great. Thank you. I'm going to turn it back to my um fellow council members. Do you have a biased or preference on how you would like to see us move forward? Because I don't. Mr. Mayor. Um, as we have uh one um one applicant in two spots that are available, I'm um I would like to to move that we appoint um Calvin Stevens and Emma Ferrar to um the Climate Action Commission, the Cultural Fine Arts Commission, respectfully. Okay. With that being a specific, is there a second?

I Okay. Uh, does this elevate up to a roll call? So, let's just simply say for what's on the table, nobody does need public comment. I'm sorry. This is a rough night. I'd like to open it up to the public for any comment regarding the motion on the table. Uh, we're excited at the climate commission to have a youth commissioner. Thank you very much. Very good. Positive comment is good. We'll take that. So uh all those in favor of what has been put forth say I

I opposed it motion passes passes unanimously. So that leaves us now to the parks and wreck at large. And Mr. Mayor, just for clarification, as um Joe Henry was a direct appointment, um it we now have one spot available. Is that correct? Or are there two at what is what are we looking at here? One spot. You have one spot. One

one atlarge spot. Okay. Um, I would like to move uh that we appoint Lisa Kolaruso to that spot. Very good. Is there a second to that motion? I'll provide the second. Uh, any further discussion or comment? And before it goes, I've learned my lesson. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, so we'll do the same thing by voice. All those in favor say I. I. I.

I. Opposed. It passes unanimously. So, thank you very much. Mayor Wellender, before we move off of this topic, I just would like to put a um a plug out for additional applications. We're always taking them. We do have a um still a few openings on the CFAC, the HPC, and the PROs. Um and those are direct appointments. So, they would be to be members or residents of the city for those. But we're always taking applications, and we hope that you'll apply.

Very good. So given our rather special group of limited public, I see we have no need for a second public comment period. So with that, I will simply adjourn this evening's meeting. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, say I can't hear it. I mean, are you saying that there it's too loud? You know, honestly, other than the