Minutes - Council Work Session - 04/09/2018

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in an emergency situation. He provided emergency examples and explained how the different roles would respond in different situations. He reviewed examples of incidents that are managed using the ICS. He stated that the City is required to have an Emergency Operations Plan and noted that he will be updating the plan later this summer. He stated that the primary Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is at City Hall in the Alexander Ramsey room and the Ramsey Fire Station 2 is the secondary backup EOC. He provided additional details on the function of the EOC and when the EOC might be activated. He stated that every incident that begins in Ramsey starts and remains at a local level, although if the City resources are exhausted additional help can be gained from the County, State or federal government if needed. He noted that there are certain steps that must be taken in order to gain reimbursement from FEMA, which begins with the Mayor declaring a local declaration of emergency and then would move up to the State declaration and Presidential declaration. He provided an overview of the roles and responsibilities of different City staff and City Council members during an emergency situation. Councilmember Kuzma asked if the new computer system used by the County has been implemented and if that is working well. Fire Chief Kohner noted that the system has been implemented. He stated that from an emergency response point the system is fully functional. He stated that the system is lagging a bit in the other system functions such as inspections. Police Chief Katers agreed that the additional functions such as analytics are not fully functioning. He noted that the most resources for implementing that system were focused on emergency response. He stated that the new system began mid-year in 2015 and noted that the previous data is still available in the previous system. Fire Chief Kohner stated that in terms of working with the media, the City Council members would be contacted and briefed by the City Administrator. He provided additional information on the Public Information Officer (PIO) for the City during an event. He noted that the PIO would depend on the type of event, explaining that for a fire event he would function as a PIO while other incidents would most likely use a PIO from the police department because of their experience with the media. Police Chief Katers stated that in dealing with the media the key takeaway that he has gained is that if the City is not the source of the information, the story will develop on its own. Fire Chief Kohner provided additional information on managing public information during emergency events. He noted that it is important during emergency events to speak with one voice. He explained that government officials must coordinate and integrate messages with on- scene Public Information Officers and other agencies. Police Chief Katers provided additional information on the data practice act as applied to law enforcement and which information is public, referencing Chapter 13.82. He stated that while they would like to have a flow chart for every situation, emergencies are dynamic and therefore it is important for the departments to work together and keep an accurate log of information. City Council Work Session/April 9, 2018 Page 2 of 5