HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019.09.18 Wildfire Safety Commission Minutes AGENDA FOR A MEETING OF THE WILDFIRE SAFETY COMMISSION
Wednesday, September 18,2019 11:00AM to 1:00PM Training Room, Ashland Fire Station#1, 455 Siskiyou Blvd
I. CALL TO ORDER 11:02AM
II. INTRODUCTIONS
a. Steve Asher, Charisse Sydoriak, Doug Kay, Bruce Moats, Tonya Graham, Stephen Gagne, Chris
Chambers, Katie Gibble
b. Public: Pricilla Franco, David Lane
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: August, 2019
a. Approved as submitted, all in favor
IV. PUBLIC AND GUESTS FORUM
V. ADJUSTMENTS TO AGENDA
VI. CITY COUNCIL CHECK IN, including Ad Hoc Budget Committees; Fire Inspector. (Tonya)
a. Ad-hoc committee has begun to meet. Goal is to improve efficiency in departments. The working
group on resilience and revenue sources is underway.
VII. OLD BUSINESS
a. Fire Season Campaign/Jefferson Exchange/Farmers Market(Tonya)
i. Looking better because of Charisse. Tonya will be building on Charisse's document,
which is not ready for this week, but for next meeting.
b. Report from Doug re Farmer's Market, any news?
i. Doug not present at today's meeting.
c. Drone Detection Program update (Chambers)
i. Chris is talking with Chief Shepherd about continuing drone program moving out of fire
season. Not as worried about fire danger now that it has rained for several days. If
stopping drone program now, will save money to continue drone program next year, or
use to support burn projects by identifying hotspots on upcoming burns.
ii. Steven requests statistics on findings. Chris estimates 6-7 camps identified throughout
Lithia Park with the drone this year, including one where police identified person who
had warrant out for his arrest. Drone area was expanded to include Acid Castle and
Lawrence properties in patrol. This property is not as prone to illegal camps, but
historically there has been more activity along TID trail.
iii. Steven and council requested formal report of statistics of findings.
d. Discussion: evaluation of last meetings' Electric Utility Wildfire Safety presentation by Tom
McBartlett and Christina Kruger from Pacific Power. Related progress report from Steve Asher
i. Steven: evaluation of visit— did we get info we needed? Any follow up for individual
cases?
1. Asher: On follow-up. Completed over 1000 feet of cleaning up under power lines.
Would like to follow up after Lomakatsi work is completed before walking the
power line. There are approx. 20 trees Lomakatsi won't touch. Will call Gene
back and walk after. Should be able to follow up next meeting.
2. Chris: specification used for cutting—PPL doesn't cut certain sized trees. But
these trees need to be cut rather than topping every few years, because then they
die. Trees Inc would need new contract to let them deal with larger trees and not
leave fuels behind when they leave.
3. Steve Asher: knowing where tree cutters will draw the line in terms of diameter
needs to be discussed with the land owner, rather than assuming. Let the property
owner know they have that option, because there is continued concern of fuels
being left behind.
11. Stephan suggests have Kristine back to see if they are agreeable to making changes to
agreement to landowners. Would updates include info to landowner informing them of
trees that may need to be removed in the future—allow landowner to make more
informed decisions.
ill. Pricilla: suggests a middle ground: establish a standard that is more fire resistant. There is
a right of way under power lines...is it actually up to homeowners to decide what trees
get cut and don't? There should be a standard so that landowners don't have veto power
over something that is essential to reducing wildfire hazard. This standard would
eliminate negotiation time between multiple landowners.
iv. Asher: In regards to Pricilla's suggestion, land owner does get notice, then more specific
secondary notice. So that component of Pricilla's plan is already established. Suggests
adding into notification the Specifications of the treatment and to add note "if you have
questions, contact us (contractor) to answer your questions". Steve also noted his concern
that the power company will cut above the phone line, but not below, and the phone
company will not do anything. Steve and Stephan agree that next step is to let Kristine
know about this idea and this concern, and bring her back to the commission to discuss it.
e. Wildfire Building Code update: Medford City Council and Plan for Ashland(Chief Sartain)
i. Chief Sartain is out of town. Steve sees kickback from community—community doen't
see as an issue in Medford, so they may start by identifying in areas that are WUI areas
and implementing in those areas first. Medford does not look at themselves as a"whole
city is WUI community"
f. WIRE (Wyree) and Interra Portal update (Chambers)
i. Chris: talked with Wire folks. Ask of group: if we end up owning this database, is this
portal going to be able to connect to our database system. Will we be able to make
changes to the database quickly or slowly.
11. Doug Kay: where do our changes go now? Tonya- It is Beta version, and currently the
changes do not go anywhere. Asks where will requests go down the road? Those are
plans that need to be decided.
111. Chris: goal may be for this Fall for portal to be rolled out in 2 months, one month for beta
testing then release to the public.
iv. Stephan brings up concern that community members should know if your neighborhood
is "red rock, green rock, yellow rock" in terms of risk. Chris noted that on red/green
system, this goes against what we do as a fire department. Decisions in an actual fire
event will be more than this assessment. Dan Dawson: this has had no influence on my
neighbors. Even if we could all see all of the mapped information about wildfire risk. It
may impact insurance, but insurance companies are already doing this.
v. Chris/Katie: make goal to have the language of website portal by next month.
vi. Tonya: we know that there will be homes that will be passed over. If we go down this
path, how will neighborhoods move the needle? In future, e.g. two years down the road,
we should make this an open system. This may start coming into real estate
conversations. Could become contingency, and there may be need for real estate buy in.
Charisse: being able to see that property score as a new homeowner may be useful if
combined with an overall awareness campaign throughout community, could make a big
difference. Goals and priorities: amplifying staffing and support.
vii. Stephan: request of Chris—clarify the cost of support for a Firewise assistant. FEMA has
position built into grant application. FEMA could fill that staffing and support, but maybe
not for attention to the "green" houses.
g. Plant List subcommittee status (Chambers)
i. Meeting needs to happen by the end of October needs to happen Charisse would like to
be on that committee.
VIII. NEW BUSINESS
a. WSC signups for Forest Lands, etc.
i. Stephen requests to add: Report on misunderstandings on Ashland's Finances. Town
council has authorized staff time to come up with coherent response to this
misinformation. Now a work in progress. Within next four weeks hope to have final
comments back. Stephan requests Katie determine if we should present this to Firewise
Leaders. Kelly would like to have various gatherings, answer questions with video.
Schedule neighborhood meeting in Stephen's neighborhood to go over city finances.
Aiming at changing the views on city finances in the public before these items come to a
vote in spring. Rotary and Firewise could take this info back to their communities.
11. Home inspections that include a fire report during homesale: Ross Valley has had that
program since the 90s. Stephen has been talking to real estates in Morin county—has
penciled a draft to meet with realtors on Tuesday. He would like to craft similar program
that realtors can support. Reach out to realtor leadership in the community. In Morin
County, realtors liken this program to being like going to dentist—realtors hate it but they
think it's a good idea. Tonya—important to what extent have realtors already been
talking about this subject. Asher notes that this is a bigger question, being asked in areas
throughout the PNW). Relators may like the idea of something else to support their
potential buyers.
IX. REPORTS AS TIME ALLOWS (2 min each)
a. Forest Lands Commission Report (Priscila)
i. Charisse asked about the parks commission's presentation about forest plan? Priscilla notd it
was well received but devolved into what forest service was vs. wasn't doing. So not many
questions about Ashland's Forest Plan came up. People are interested in bigger picture.
b. Tree Commission
i. Charisse—Tree commission Oct 3 Siskiyou Room ComDev
1. Last commission meeting, August: one question about the 200 sq feet in ordinance
11. Bruce Forest Lands Commission Oct 8
c. Chamber Wildfire Task Force (Smoke/Evac/Business) —(Katie)
i. Reported back to chamber board, creating new communication plan
d. Art on Fire— anything new? (Franco)
i. Class starting on October 2nd. Actual class will be in Medford. AFR has stepped up — Sara
Jones helping bring together field trips 1 on fire ecology, 1 Ashland's Forest Plan, 1
prescribe burn visit. Class is a trial run, and hope to do an After Action Review to see how it
will work in the future. Potentially could be feature in future First Friday art walk.
11. Request for messages about Firewise. Not promoting any one agencies message, but how
does art convey those messages. Monty Dalic—has been commissioned to make art for
agencies
X. WSC 2019 GOALS AND PRIORITIES preliminary pre-inservice discussion as time permits
a. Structure of in-service meeting
i. Will be meeting at 5:30 not 5
11. Tonya, whiteboard of framework of meeting last time. If rest of group would like to see
that function again—yes— so lets brainstorm structure of meeting.
111. Ideas: state of the WUI, what's being done, what has been accomplished/current
situation. Brainstorm, looking forward, what would wildfire situation,preparation and
mitigation moving forward, then create specific ideas and actions for Ideal World of
Ashland in future.
1. Provide Katie with maps, discuss, beyond Firewise, what's been done. Priorities
of fire department of what needs to be done to keep this community safe.
2. What are our plans for the next year.
3. Doug this may be too high level. What are recommendations that we can make to
council—small bites. A good example of a small bite is the most recent example
being the city ordinance. Consider bite sized options of what is accomplishable
within a year's timeline. Stephan: Understanding of tonight, goal is to give ad
hoc committee as priorities for budgeting significant items for several years
moving forward. What are critical things that alley needs for Ashland? Goal of
tonight's meeting is to get that birds eye view. What do we think it will actually
take to change the wildfire risk in this town. If incremental change isn't going to
get us there. We do have a work plan from last meeting, is there anything fully
checked off— should make this a goal today. Is it greater consistent staffing, bury
some electric lines? Then the working group will take this list and lists from other
working groups to make decisions. Forest outside of city limits is "part of the
package". This is connected to ad hoc committee to find efficiencies before taking
this up for vote. Where can we find resilience and cost savings before taking new
ideas to the public.
4. Doug notes that he wants this Commission to re-focus: on ambitions and project
goals rather than updates. Goals of helping ad hoc committee going to voters is
most important right now.
5. Charisse: what has been accomplished in previous meetings like this one coming
up this evening? What were last year's goals and priorities? What should we not
dwell on?
a. In past years: work moving forward to inspections during home sales
b. Nuisance weeds over one acre: GIS gave us list of properties and that's it.
This could be something we put umph behind moving forward. Could be
another item for Brian in inspections following up on.
c. Fire safe business license for businesses, contractors, landscapers:
i. There was one class for nurseries, and classes at individual
nurseries side. Katie will need to pick up these classes.
d. Illegal camping as fire issue; drone program has been major
accomplishment
i. Changing camping culture—Katie may pick up
e. Electric utility risk— "stuff is happening"
f. Wildfire simulator: Stephen—has talked to manufacturer and has gotten a
discount to purchase.
g. Hardening facilities
h. Assistant for Katie
i. Fire campaign
This is plate of ideas that we brought forward in last in-service.
iv. Strategic goals and ways to meet those goals
1. If we are trying to make strategic plan for committee this would be what we do.
But this committee is more tactical. Lots of little things are tactical, how do we
define/articulate strategy
2. Doug—what is impact of each idea we have? Is there community buy-in?
3. Tonya—change people's fire perception. Need to get movement. Campaign
helped change how people they think about wildfire
a. Charisse: are we staying with this goal: waking people up? Is that our
vision as the committee?
b. Tonya - Start by revisiting our overarching conclusion from last time.
How have we moved from where we are to what we want. If city decided
to put something forward, this might be part of this commission's work.
c. Charrise: is tonight's meeting to ID what we could get the biggest bang for
their buck
d. Tonya: We send our info to working group, who are pulling lists from
variety of commissions. So prioritizing is the goal. Everything on the list
does not need to include the "How"but we do need a ballpark number for
the costs of these things.
i. When is this information"due"? Early October, next couple of
weeks. Goal needs to be before next meeting. Charisse notes that
we may need to brainstorm alternatives to funding each of these
items.
e. Not enough support in city, need to look outward to state and federal
sources to help create a fire adapted community. FEMA and FAC funds
both do that.
f. Fire inspector coming into town may need to be something that goes onto
this list. There is a national requirement that there be an inspector in town.
Idea that inspector would pay for themselves. Businesses are already
stressed by smoke, adding more fees may induce backlash. This inspection
is part of inspection fees, but not doing as many as we should. Chief
D'Orazi projected we are 10 years behind.
4. Chris and Katie are currently at their limit, we could discuss trading off our tasks
but we cannot take on more
XI. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING
a. Next Commission Meeting: Oct 16, 2019, 11:00am-1:00pm (Station 1)
XII. ADJOURN
XIII. AGENDA ITEMS FOR upcoming meetings
A. City Budget misunderstandings resolved to allow increased support for future Wildfire-related funding
a. Status of FAQ resource re Ashland City budget issues & factual history vs urban legends
b. Forum
c. Discussion of budget issues at next gathering of FireWise community leadership
B. WiRe/Intterra Data-Chris-- model to better describe the "exposure rating" and combine it with the Intterra data
set... On screen presentation?Plus update on interface portal and social survey.
C. Fire Inspector update
D. Illegal Campfire Issue (Chris)
a. OHRA update (Katie)
b. Fire Adapted Communities Network Call-Update (Katie)
E. ONGOING/TRACKING:
a. New drone program progress reports
b. Fire Season Campaign/Jefferson Exchange/Farmers Market writeup coming; Tonya, Doug
c. Research indicates the influence of your neighbor's property can affect you within 40 meters of your
home How do we incorporate this into our Fire Commission knowledge base. (and ultimately,perhaps
into code?)
d. Firewise Plus (Stephen)
e. Progress update on City's GIS alternative to Sim Table for evacuation traffic modeling(Chief Shepherd)
f. Wildfire building code update(Steve Asher)
g. Building code follow-up,public meetings and council meetings,unlikely to affect building codes in low
income housing in Ashland, due to type of construction employed
h. Code change promotion by WSC (vacant lots, etc)
i. Chris Chambers: updates on any wildfire funding and program proposals from congress
j. Dan Dawson asked if new state Wildfire Bldg. code applies to additions. Steve Matiaco didn't know the
answer but said at our July 2019 WSC meeting that he'd look into it.
k. FOLLOW Up, depending on what happens with District 5 re QUINT
1. Updates re Pacific Power high voltage line clearing program, fall 2019 and also 2020 (Chris)
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting,please contact
the Public Works Office at 488-5587(TTY phone number 1 800 735 2900). Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable
the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting. (28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title I)