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PSC 02-09-2012 CUPERTINO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Thursday, February 9, 2012, 7:00 p.m. Cupertino City Hall, Conference Room A I. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Huang called to order the regular meeting of the Cupertino Public Safety Commission at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 9, 2012 in the Cupertino City Hall, Conference Room A, located at 10300 Torre Avenue, Cupertino, California 95014. Commissioner Huang officially welcomes the two new additions to the Cupertino Public Safety Commission and asks them to introduce themselves. Robert McCoy greets the commission and states that he is a former EMT from Napa County and currently is a CERT member in Cupertino, serving on three CERT sub-committees. Lily Lim speaks next, stating that she moved to Cupertino from Sunnyvale and is very interested in emergency preparedness. II. ROLL CALL Commissioners Present: Andy Huang Daniel Nguyen Nina Daruwalla Robert McCoy Lily Lim Commissioners Absent: none Staff: Lieutenant Don Morrissey, Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office Battalion Chief Gary Cocroft, Santa Clara County Fire Department Miguel Grey, Sr. ESC, Santa Clara County Fire Department Staff Absent: none Other Present: Martin Towar, De Anza journalism student Steve Hill, concerned resident III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS There were no oral communications to discuss at this regular meeting. IV. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS There are two written communications to discuss at this regular meeting. 1. Email from Steve, a concerned resident, regarding wildfire disaster plans. Steve paraphrases his email in person. He noticed an article in the press a month ago regarding the possibility of Armageddon due to no rainfall and ensuing wildfires. He realized that he has never heard of an evacuation and shelter plan for wildfires. Miguel Grey, Sr. ESC involved with large-scale planning, fields the question. He admits that the current disaster plans focus on earthquake response, but insists that the plans would not change much for a wildfire event. 1 Although Cupertino might benefit from more specific evacuation instructions, there are established checklists and acknowledged roles and responsibilities. Miguel assures that we know the most probable events, and the CWC has targeted areas in which to develop the West Valley regional plan with signage and public education. B.C. Cocroft adds that responders must react to different situations at the time they occur, and pre- planned evacuation routes may prove unsafe due to constantly changing conditions. The natural unpredictability of emergency events reinforces the need for a communication service like AlertSCC. He adds that there is a period of low rainfall in California every year during the summer and fall, the only difference this year being that there will be a larger window of time from April through November requiring a longer period of careful vigilance. He states that any big green area, like a golf course or perhaps blackberry farm, makes a good evacuation destination, but that given certain circumstances a shelter in place order may be safer. He assures Steve that Santa Clara County has ready access to big resources to put fires out, and event control is largely a matter of properly applying resources. This County will not wait for a fire to get out of control before available resources are applied. 2. Email from an un-named concerned citizen requesting additional stop signs on Phar Lap Drive Lt. Morrissey presents the second written communication. A concerned citizen would like additional stop signs in the area of Phar Lap Drive near the intersections of Woodberry, Clearwood Court, Oakdale Place, Creekside Court and Florence Drive. There are often kids on bikes and speeding cars. Lt. Morrissey researched this matter thoroughly by querying accident data for the last five years, sending deputies to monitor the area for two weeks, and by bringing in the West Valley Division's traffic investigators to assess the situation. The curbs would have to be re-engineered to allow for signs, and a traffic-engineering firm would have to evaluate each intersection before proposing any changes. Although many citations and patrol checks have originated in this area, no accidents were reported. Therefore, the conclusion is that no stop or yield signs are needed at this time, and would not be cost-effective for the City. In fact, adding signs could create accidents because they increase drivers' inattention by providing a false sense that conditions are predictable. Without signs to depend on, drivers tend to pay more attention since a lack of posted directions typically reminds drivers of their obligation to stop or yield before going through an intersection. Lt. Morrissey will respond to the resident with this information. V. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. November 10, 2011 ACTION: YES VOTE: YES MOTION: Nguyen SECONDED: Daruwalla 5 to 0 Commissioner Nguyen motioned to approve the minutes of November 10, 2011; the motion was seconded by Commissioner Daruwalla; votes taken; all in favor to approve the minutes of November 10, 2011. 2. December 8, 2011 ACTION: YES VOTE: YES MOTION: Nguyen SECONDED: Daruwalla 5 to 0 Commissioner Nguyen motioned to approve the minutes of December 8, 2011 with an amendment to (VI) Old Business (4) Discuss Use of the AlertSCC Program, to remove the incorrect position title of 'Mayor'; the motion was seconded by Commissioner Daruwalla; votes taken; all in favor to approve the minutes of December 8, 2011 with the correction. (VI)(4):but further price negotiation is up to Rick Kitson. 2 VI. OLD BUSINESS 1. Discussion of Walk/Bike/Carpool (WBC)to School project ongoing ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 Commissioner Huang opens this topic by stating that the two new commissioners need to pickup the responsibilities left by the two departed commissioners. Commissioner Lee was responsible for contact with Regnart and Sedgwick schools, plus the master document which contains an active record of what grant money the PSC awards each school. Commissioner McCoy agrees to take over these items moving forward. Commissioner Pow was responsible for contact with Kennedy, Stevens Creek and Lincoln schools. Commissioner Lim agrees to take over these contacts moving forward since she lives nearby, and asks for more information on what this entails. Commissioner Huang explains that each commissioner generally presents information about the WBC program to the PTAs of each assigned school and communicates with certain parent representatives and school administrators about how to apply for program grants. Any school that would like to encourage walking, biking and/or carpooling to school may apply for a grant, although the PSC prefers that they try to find other fund sources first. If the PSC awards a grant to a school, the commission expects feedback on how it went and whether it was successful. Commissioner Huang then proceeds to establish subcommittee replacements for the WBC program. He suggest Commissioners Lim and Nguyen, and explains that subcommittees are necessary due to the Brown Act in which no more than two commissioners may meet at a time unless at a publicly published meeting. Subcommittees allow commissioners to meet and stay current on certain activity items between regular meetings. Commissioner McCoy inquires about who provides carpooling and Lt. Morrissey answers that the parents of each school generally work together to create carpools since they already know each other. He mentions a local resident who proposed a website to connect carpoolers and approached this commission in the past for funding. Although a great idea, the PSC denied funding because the idea was not properly vetted. First, parents usually do not feel comfortable letting people they do not know drive their kids, and second, the proposed website included a rating system of the students to establish whether each student is a good passenger. Commissioner Lim inquires about why there does not appear to be any bussing available for the schools, since it would greatly reduce the traffic of parents driving each kid separately. Commissioner Nguyen notes that a previous commissioner asked the same question about five years ago and the PSC asked the City to look into it. They determined that the cost would be exorbitant, even for one 12-person bus, so the possibility was not pursued. Commissioner Daruwalla adds that she was personally shocked when she moved to Cupertino from Australia that she had to drive her kids to school, but agrees that it has always been a budget/cost issue. Commissioners Daruwalla and Nguyen report no new activity to discuss in relation to their assigned schools. Commissioner Huang reports that although the PSC approved a grant for Lawson, they are still awaiting funding. Lt. Morrissey assures that he will submit the PSC minutes from November and December that were just approved at this meeting, so the City may proceed in issuing the grant check to Lawson. The January meeting was canceled, which delayed the approval of minutes. Commissioner McCoy asks how he should identify himself when he makes contact with a school, and Commissioner Huang informs him that he can obtain business cards to identify him as a member of the PSC. However, in the meantime he can simply explain that he is a recently appointed Public Safety Commissioner and refer them to the City website that already lists their names. 3 Commissioner Nguyen then reviews how the Bicycle Pedestrian Commission forwarded their plan to increase biking in Cupertino, calling for the removal of stop signs on Rainbow at Yorkshire and Weymouth, near Regnart Elementary. Residents are concerned because they did not know about the plan and want to keep the stop signs. Commissioner McCoy offers that it seems like a huge liability to remove stop signs. Lt. Morrissey interjects that traffic engineers have thoroughly surveyed the area, performed vehicle counts using little black boxes attached to poles, and reviewed issues such as traffic volume and line of sight. In Lt. Morrissey's experience, if signs are removed, all other options have been exhausted and he is confident in the professional recommendations of the traffic engineers from both hired firms and the City. 2. Boltage Program progress/updates (Nguyen) ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 Commissioner Nguyen explains to the new commissioners that Boltage itself refers to infrastructure. It is a system to track students using registered electronic tags called "RF ID's". Each time a tag passes a specially installed pole at a school entrance, the pole beeps and captures a daily count. It is admittedly limited technology and relies on the honor system, but Commissioner Nguyen believes that the students are generally honest. Unfortunately, this program requires a parent at each school to develop and execute an incentive program, and to monitor the raw statistics captured by the technology. 3. Report on Surveys to Schools (Nguyen) ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 Commissioner Huang begins by stating that the City of Cupertino allotted $29,000 to the PSC for the WBC program, and later added $50,000 more. This created a need to quantify if and how many students actually walk, bike and carpool to school. Thus, the Surveys to Schools task were created. Commissioner Nguyen explains the process of Surveys to Schools for the new commissioners. Twice a year, in October and May, surveys are distributed to classroom teachers so they can ask the students in their classes using hand raise counts, how many walk, bike, carpool, etc. to school and how often. The teachers document the information on the survey forms, the Sheriffs School Resource Officers collect the forms, and then the Sheriffs Captain delivers the forms to the PSC. Commissioner Nguyen then manually tallies the information and performs statistical analysis of the data. Commissioner Nguyen points out that it is better to compare surveys from the same point in the school year, for example fall of 2010 to fall of 2011, to capture a clear comparison of whether there has been an increase or decrease. Since October of 2009, rates have actually decreased. This is especially true most recently, as we find a 5% reduction from October 2010 with a 50.3% overall W/B/C rate to October 2011 with 45.1% rate. He attributes this result largely to the fact that Lawson, Kennedy and Collins schools failed to return their Survey forms. These schools usually contribute a high number of participating students because parents often feel that middle school students are old enough to walk or bike to school alone. He does not believe that the program is not working,just that there is incomplete data. Commissioner Nguyen would like to find a way for teachers to input the survey answers online to save him time from all the manual data entry. In addition, he requests that the commission insist on 4 receiving feedback from Kennedy regarding their Boltage program, since they received $13,500 to install it on their campus. Commissioner Lim then asks whether Boltage would provide better data then the Surveys to Schools. Commissioner Nguyen disagrees because not all students participate in the Boltage program, only those that register a tag and actively participate, and because the Boltage program cannot differentiate whether each student walked, biked or carpooled. The Surveys are anonymous, but catch a much larger percentage of students because it queries entire classrooms and therefore most of the school populations. The commissioners express desire for the newly assigned SROs to follow-up more closely with Lawson, Kennedy and Collins schools so their data may be included in the next Survey. 4. Discuss use of the Alert SCC Program (Huang) ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 Commissioner Huang explains to the new commissioners that AIertSCC is a free service to all residents who register their contact numbers in case of emergency. After Santa Clara County initiated AIertSCC, the City Council discovered that only 2% of Cupertino residents registered. The PSC took on the task of increasing registration, and each commissioner made presentations at local schools and churches. Registration increased to 6%. Then cost issues arose when the County began charging each city to participate, so Cupertino is considering going back to their previous system, through EverBridge, independent from the County's use of AIertSCC. Rick Kitson has submitted the finalized proposal from EverBridge to the City Council, and there will be a formal presentation soon. Commissioner McCoy asks about the 95014 App that is currently available, but Commissioner Nguyen indicates that it is really just an information source and is not live or interactive. Similarly, another problem with AIertSCC, besides cost, is the uni-directional nature of the technology. Comparatively, the EverBridge system is bi-directional, allowing feedback from residents and possibly creating a real-time communication and response tool during an emergency. Commissioner Huang attended the EverBridge presentation to the Tech Commission recently, and a major advantage is that it can handle high population volume. In addition, it may soon begin offering multiple language capabilities. Commissioner McCoy wonders how these systems transmit messages, through phone lines or by satellite, and questions what would happen if there were no power. Commissioner Huang answers that both utilize text messaging which is very reliable and tends to work even when voice lines do not. Steve Hill then offers new information, that beginning in January Federal law requires people with smartphones to accept emergency calls or messages automatically. He wonders if this would cancel out the need to sign-up for a system like AIertSCC. 5. Discuss Cupertino Cellular Network coverage and Effect on Public Safety Communications ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 There is no discussion of this topic at this regular meeting. :i VII. NEW BUSINESS There is no new business to discuss at this meeting. VIII. REPORTS 1. Santa Clara County Fire Department Battalion Chief Gary Cocroft reviews the January Fire Report. There are three categories, including response times from the stations to the events, fire incidents and their origins, and monetary losses. January was quiet and normal. The official target response time for medical emergencies is seven minutes or less, which was met 90% of the time in January. When the average response times are not on target, an investigation is triggered, but this is rare. Approximately 70% of call volume is medical in nature and often includes vehicle accidents. Commissioner McCoy asked if there is a fee for false alarm calls. B.C. Cocroft clarified that the term 'false alarm' generally refers to the faulty trigger of an electronic alarm system. Some cities do charge a fee to residents or businesses that experience repeated false alarms that needlessly waste emergency resources. However, if the Fire Department receives a service call to a medical emergency and finds they are not needed, there is no fee. Commissioner Daruwalla then asked him to define the category "Unintentional Failure to Clean". This typically includes housekeeping issues such as kitchen grease fires or fires originating in the clogged lint trap of a dryer machine. 2. Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Morrissey reviews the statistical crime report for January. All response times are within set targets. The trained dispatchers at County Communications designate priority level. Lt. Morrissey proudly points out that the West Valley Division has an excellent reputation for responding to every call for service, no matter what the situation. If a resident requests that a deputy respond, that request is always fulfilled. Lt. Morrissey then reviews the crime tracking statistics documented in his printed report, noting which categories are up or down. He then explains the excellent success the Sheriffs Office has experienced lately through work on crime predictability mapping. The West Valley Crime Analyst has worked diligently with the detectives and deputies, utilizing linked databases to identify and track a ring of about 90 burglars. Through the implementation of saturation patrols, the use of undercover deputies, patrol checks and coordination with detectives, the West Valley Division has apprehended 45 of these 90 burglars and is actively working on apprehending the remaining 45. Commissioner Daruwalla inquires about the recent robbery at Star One Credit Union. Lt. Morrissey states that no suspect has been found. Initially the Sheriff's Office received a lead from a Sunnyvale officer who stopped someone a few months before and thought the description was very similar. Deputies followed that lead, but discovered that it was not the correct suspect due to a significant weight difference. One point to take away, however, is how well the Sheriffs Office networks with other agencies to spread and receive important information. The Lieutenant then informs the commission that January brought a significant number of personnel changes to the West Valley Patrol Division, as part of the annual 'bump'. The Sheriffs Office believes in the importance of moving personnel to different positions regularly to allow deputies to learn new skills and keep personnel motivated. Therefore, there are new motorcycle units in Cupertino and those deputies are currently away at motorcycle training. However, other deputies have filled any possible void and speeding citations have increased. 6 Commissioner Daruwalla brings an issue to the attention of the commission regarding traffic on McClellan. She recently observed a pedestrian almost hit by a car that could not see him at 6:30 in the evening. She proposes that flashing lights on the ground along the crosswalk would be a boon for safety at the intersections of Imperial and Orange, especially since pedestrian traffic from Lincoln and Monta Vista schools is frequently very busy. Commissioner Nguyen interjects that this topic was part of a previous discussion, but no action was taken, and they should check previous meeting minutes to find out why there may have been no follow-through. Commissioner McCoy then offers his personal experience with dangerous crosswalks near the library. He also has personal video footage of many near accidents at the intersection of De Anza and Stevens Creek from his residence in a nearby apartment tower. Commissioner Nguyen adds that a resident sent an email regarding his townhouse complex's exit onto Torre, and that street parking often obstructs the line of sight. Commissioner McCoy agreed, stating that the new Apple building receives many delivery trucks that park on the wrong side of the road and obstruct not only line of sight but also physically block traffic. The resident who emailed wrote that the HOA President spoke with City staff who told him the blind spot is within acceptable parameters, but he could forward his concerns to the PSC. Lt. Morrissey re-iterates that too many drivers rely on signage, but if there is no signage, people tend to drive more responsibly. The Cupertino area in discussion here is a mixed-use area, includiig residential, retail, government and large business buildings. The pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers and delivery personnel should all treat the area like an open air'mall'. This means that people must slow down and use common sense to navigate the multiple types and layers of traffic. 3. Commission Reports Commissioner Huang mentions the bi-monthly Mayor's Meetings. Commissioner Daruwalla offers to attend the next one, scheduled in April, the Wednesday after the first City Council meeting of the month. Commissioner Huang reports that representatives from all nine commissions showed up at the most recent Mayor's Meeting to submit commission reports. The Teen Commission's current focus is on tobacco prevention activities and an event coming up in the spring. The Tech Commission is busy promoting the EverBridge proposal, and working with the City on plans to revamp and upgrade the City's broadband. Commissioner Huang notes that the PSC needs a new liaison to the Tech Commission, and Commissioner McCoy volunteers to fill that role in both the Tech and Bike- Ped Commissions. Peter is ending his term with the Tech Commission; most likely Wally will take his place as representative. From Parks and Recreation, David Fung reports that they are actively trying to manage the Stockmeier property adjacent to Blackberry Farms because many trees are currently down. The Library Commission's first Poet Laureate is working on an election, and the Library is currently working on starting a monthly series of presentations in cooperation with the other commissions to highlight different topics, such as conservation or technology. This is an effort to promote the Library, in preparation for the new tax next year. In addition, the recently instituted $80 fee for non- resident library cards has brought in surprisingly significant revenue with 400 cards issued so far. The Planning Commission is focusing its efforts on promoting the installation of a high-end three- story gym within Vallco mall, which they hope will increase traffic to the mall just as AMC Theatres has done successfully so far. IX. FUTURE AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING 1. Walk/Bike/Carpool to School Project, ongoing 2. Boltage Program progress/updates '7 3. Report on Survey to Schools 4. Discuss progress on participation in AIertSCC Program 5. Discuss Cupertino cellular network coverage and effect on public safety communications X. ADJOURNMENT The regular meeting was adjourned at 8:38 p.m. XI. NEXT MEETING The next regular meeting is schedule on Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. SUBMITTED BY: Jennifer Roth Administrative Assistant West Valley Patrol Division Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff February 16, 2012 APPROVED BY: Andy Huang, Commission Chair Date 8