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PSC 07-12-2012 CUPERTINO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Thursday, July 12, 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 approximately 7:10 p.m. on Thursday, July 12, 2012 in the Cupertino City Hall, Conference Room A, located at 10300 Torre Avenue, Cupertino, California 95014. II. ROLL CALL Commissioners Present: Andy Huang Daniel Nguyen Nina Daruwalla (late) Robert McCoy Lily Lim Commissioners Absent: None Staff Present: Captain Ken Binder, Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Staff Absent: Battalion Chief Darcy Pisciotta, Santa Clara County Fire Department Others Present: Ken Ericksen, Cupertino Emergency Volunteer Coordinator Tristan Ford, Sunnyvale CERT Captain, incoming senior and President of Red Cross Club at Homestead High School III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS Commissioner McCoy reports an oral communication in the form of multiple complaints regarding a damaged traffic post in the crosswalk median at De Anza Blvd. and Stevens Creek Blvd. between the Valero gas station and the Target store. It was damaged a while ago during a car accident and has not yet been replaced. There are bolts and a piece of the post sticking out, and a hole that many people accidently step into. Initially there was a safety cone covering it, but the cone has disappeared and people have asked about the status of replacement. IV. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS There are no written communications to discuss at this regular meeting. V. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. June 14, 2012 ACTION: YES VOTE: YES MOTION: Nguyen SECONDED: Huang 5 to 0 1 Commissioner Nguyen motioned to approve the minutes of June 14, 2012; the motion was seconded by Commissioner Huang; votes taken, all in favor to approve the minutes of June 14, 2012 with the correction: (VIII)(2):a camera installation he noticed along Stevens Creek... 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 Daruwalla states that she has emailed the PSC's requests for more information to the Collins event coordinator. Currently, school is closed and there is no update to report until she receives a response. No other commissioners have updates for the WBC program at this time. 2. Boltage Program progress/updates (Lim) ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 There is no discussion of the Boltage Program at this regular meeting. 3. Report on Surveys to Schools (Nguyen) ACTION: YES VOTE: NO MOTION: N/A SECONDED: N/A 0 to 0 Commissioner Nguyen reports that he picked up the completed surveys and is working on inputting the data. He hopes to have new information to report at the next meeting. 4. Discuss participation in the Alert SCC Program and the new CAS Program (Huang) ACTION: YES VOTE: YES MOTION: Daruwalla SECONDED: Nguyen 5 to 0 Commissioner Daruwalla motioned to use a portion of the remaining funds allocated for the 4th of July event to treat the data entry volunteers to dinner as a thank you; the motion was seconded by Commissioner Nguyen; votes taken, all in favor to treat the volunteers to dinner. Commissioner Huang's children who currently attend Monta Vista High School will be inputting the data collected at the 4th of July CAS/AIertSCC sign-up booths, and Commissioner Daruwalla offered her children to help as well. Commissioner Huang estimates that it will take about two weeks to complete data entry, and stated that more help would be appreciated. Any volunteers should meet at his home and bring their on laptops; they are creating a spreadsheet for quick data entry and then they will merge all volunteers' spreadsheets into one database. Commissioner Huang proposes that the PSC use a portion of the remaining budget for this event to host a thank you dinner for the data entry volunteers and i:he commissioners who gave up their time to staff the booths. He also extends the invitation to Captain Binder and a representative deputy who worked the event. Commissioner Nguyen expresses concern over using funds for a food party that were allocated by the City Council for signing up residents to CAS. He views the commissioners' time at the event as just part of their accepted duty, but understands the courtesy of rewarding the teenage data entry volunteers. Commissioner Huang reports that the 2012 Cupertino 4th of July event went very well, but there are some issues to improve for next year. The first issue occurred at the breakfast event at the Senior Center. The President of the Optimist Club did not know that the PSC Commissioners were coming to his event and he became agitated. Commissioners Daruwalla and McCoy did their best to smooth it over, but next year the PSC should not rely on the Parks & Recreation coordinator to inform the Optimist Club of their attendance. Commissioner McCoy suggests that the PSC directly inform all involved parties at least one month prior to the event to avoid such miscommunication and conflict. The second issue was surprise information that Commissioner Huang received from Rick Kitson just two days prior to the event. Everbridge, the company behind CAS, requires email addresses to be part of each resident's basic information for entry into their system. Due to the late notice, Commissioner Huang told Mr. Kitson that it was too late to change and reprint the sign-up sheets and sought to find a different solution. They decided the City will send a text message to all the cell phone numbers captured through the event sign-up sheets, asking for more information including email addresses. Fortunately, the basic information collected at the event is sufficient for the AlertSCC system, which does not need email. Commissioner Huang thanks Captain Binde- for helping to ensure a successful and safe City event, noting that the number of deputies seemed to have nearly doubled in comparison to past years. It was a peaceful event, with no major incidents involving dogs or unauthorized BBQ equipment as in past years. Commissioner McCoy states that he witnessed one minor incident where some people initially refused to vacate the planned fall-out area for the fireworks, but deputies responded and the situation was immediately resolved with the individuals being required to leave the event entirely. Captain Binder states that Sgt. Washburn has debriefed the deputies who worked the event and is preparing an after-action report regarding things to improve next year from a law enforcement perspective. Commissioner Huang indicates that the third issue was confusion surrounding the BBQ rules, and states that signs need to be clearer next year. Even the event volunteers were confused when trying to enforce the rules that although attendees may not bring personal BBQ equipment due to possible fire hazards, it is allowable for attendees to utilize the City's permanent BBQ equipment installed at various park locations. Commissioner McCoy addresses the fourth issue, surrounding the corner of Rodriguez and Blaney. A resident brought it to his attention that it was not safe to cross the street there after the event due to heavy vehicle traffic trying to exit the `back way' from Wilson Park. The resident asked why there was no law enforcement presence at that location. Although Wilson Park was not an official viewing location this year, perhaps next year Parks and Recreation needs to support this additional site in the interest of public safety. Commissioner Huang asks Mr. Ericksen to relay these concerns to the Parks and Recreation Department, and to please forward copies of all after-action reports to Captain Binder when completed. Commissioner Daruwalla reports that she and Commissioner McCoy found themselves waiting at the breakfast event for foot traffic to appear. Although the event was only scheduled from 7:00AM to 9:00AM, their first sign-up was not until 8:45AM. They wound up staying there until around 11:30AM in order to capture as many sign-ups as possible at that location. Commissioner McCoy adds that a famous wrestler made an appearance at the lunch event, which helped draw people near the sign-up booth because so many wanted to take pictures with the '74 World Champion "The Sheik". Commissioner Huang points out that the teenage volunteers at the event seemed to be the best advertisers, referring a large number of people to the sign-up booths to get necklaces. He estimates, based on a spreadsheet he viewed recently, that the whole day garnered over 1500 resident sign-ups, including approximately 200 each at the breakfast and lunch, 300 at Sedgwick, 150 at Hyde and 740 at Creekside. Separate from the 4th of July event, Commissioner Huang reports that he has been busy advertising AlertSCC on Chinese radio stations 92.3FM and 1450AM, instructing listeners to sign- up through text message. In addition, Commissioner Huang recently taught two First Aid classes at the Senior Center, one was in Mandarin and the other was bi-lingual. He based his classes on pared down material from the Red Cross and from Ken Ericksen's CERT classes. He included demonstrations, practice time and a test at the end; plus, he heavily emphasized that it is okay to call 911 if you do not speak English because dispatchers utilize translators for a wide variety of languages. There was very good feedback and he anticipates teaching more classes in the future. Commissioner Daruwalla offers to teach similar classes in other languages, since she speaks four languages fluently. Commissioner McCoy reports that the TICC has many questions about AIertSCC and Everbridge but he has no answers to offer them. For example, they want to know who will have control and what kind of polling will occur. He believes they should schedule a joint meeting with Rick Kitson for more information. Commissioner Huang states that he has seen three different meeting requests through email, but nothing has been successfully coordinated yet. He asks Commissioner McCoy to speak with the new staff liaison for the TICC, Erin Cook, about these attempted meetings and that a date may be set soon. VII. NEW BUSINESS ACTION: YES VOTE: YES MOTION: Huang SECONDED: McCoy 5 to 0 Commissioner Huang motioned to have a resolution to allow teenagers in the City of Cupertino to participate in adult CERT training classes alongside the adults, provided they have parental consent; the motion was seconded by Commissioner McCoy; votes taken, all in favor to establish this resolution. Tristan Ford, a Sunnyvale CERT Captain, joins this meeting to address the lack of teenage CERT members in Cupertino, and the lack of emergency preparedness within local schools. He notes that schools have collected emergency supplies, but there is no real training for the teachers. He is not even able to view the on-site supplies since the disaster bags are zip-tied shut and no one seems to have access. When upper administrative clearance is required just to see what supplies are there, he questions how anyone can know what is available in an emergency. Each school only has one basic drill per year and the job of Emergency Coordinator typically falls on the Dean's position, which has been constantly changing personnel every few months. Each new dean is never there long enough to coordinate a more comprehensive training. As an incoming senior and the President of the Red Cross Club at Homestead High School, Tristan has been working on this problem since sophomore year and recently went directly to the Principal for permission to hold a comprehensive Earthquake Drill this upcoming school year. Commissioner Daruwalla interjects that she is willing to attend meetings with him to help push for more emergency drills; she did so at the schools her children attended previously and would be happy to help again. Tristan points out that they will need assistance from Sunnyvale and Cupertino CERT members to train the teachers, but also strongly believes that teen CERT members would be extremely helpful in all phases of preparedness, emergency response and recovery. At Homestead, for example, there are only about 100 staff members and 2300 students. There would not be enough adults present after a natural disaster, with 911 services delayed, to handle all aspects of Search & 4 Rescue, Incident Command and to supervise the students. Therefore, they will also need teen CERT member students. Tristan would like to recruit at least 10-15 students at Homestead High School to become CERT members. Once trained, he proposes they could review the school's emergency plans, go through emergency supplies to learn what is available and what is needed, and then organize fundraising events to purchase new or replacement supplies. Since Homestead includes students from Sunnyvale, Cupertino and Los Altos, and each city hosts separate training classes, he is unsure how to coordinate training. Commissioner Huang clarifies that although each City used to host individual CERT classes, the Santa Clara County Fire Department has taken over control and each course is open to all West Valley residents. Tristan asks about the previous non-resident fees, and Mr. Ericksen confirms that County Fire charges $35 per course to everyone, but thinks they may consider waiving or reimbursing the fee if approached correctly regarding this special situation. Many present agree that it would be ideal to hold a special CERT training on school property for teachers and new teen CERT members together. Mr. Ericksen refers Tristan to liaise with Erik Walukiewicz at FUHSD, Coordinator of Maintenance and Facilities Operations, who is responsible for the High School District's Emergency Plans and coordinating training for the Deans. Mr. Ericksen also mentions that the Sheriff's Office does a good job coordinating Code Red Drills at various high schools, and the School Resource Officers may be another great resource to draw from. Tristan adds that the Red Cross Club School Presidents meet regularly, and he will recommend they get their own schools more involved in training and emergency preparedness too. Commissioner Daruwalla mentions the Kaleidoscope Program, which is similar to CERT but geared towards middle-school age children, and Mr. Ericksen affirms that it still exists but demand for training has been too low to hold a class recently. Commissioner McCoy suggests that Tristan also liaise with the Cupertino Teen Commission to help advertise available CERT training opportunities and get more teens involved. Mr. Ericksen inquires whether teenagers might secure Community Service hours by attending CERT training, and Commissioner Nguyen suggests asking the school district if such an activity would count per their requirements. Commissioner Huang tells Tristan that Mr. EEricksen is in charge of all volunteer activities within Cupertino and tracks each volunteer's hours. Mr. Ericksen adds that Cupertino will soon launch an interface on the City's website called "Volunteer Square" which will better enable residents to find volunteer opportunities. In addition, there is .3 Countywide CERT exercise on August 4, 2012, for which they still need volunteers to play disaster victims. Tristan expresses concern over the age limits imposed on volunteering, but Mr. ErickF.,en clarifies that minors may volunteer as long as they have signed parental consent forms and an adult to supervise them during the exercise. Commissioner Huang asserts that even though the County now runs CERT, he would like to establish a Cupertino resolution that allows teenagers to attend the adult CERT training classes. Commissioner Daruwalla asks why it is necessary, since Cupertino has always allowed teen CERT members, and Commissioner Huang explains that the County runs CERT differently, but will respect their wishes if placed in a formal City resolution. Commissioner McCoy, also a CERT member, states that this resolution will bring Cupertino CERT membership back up to previous levels. VIII. REPORTS 1. Santa Clara County Fire Department Battalion Chief Daron Pisciotta is unable to attend this regular meeting, but he emailed Fire Reports for May and June 2012. Ken Ericksen leaves briefly to print out the reports and make copies for everyone. The commissioners review the reports, noting low property loss amounts each month due to fire damage. 5 2. Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Captain Binder from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office quickly reviews the monthly status report. He notes a welcome decrease in all burglary rates, including residential, commercial, and vehicular. Also auto theft is down, with only one reported in June compared to five the previous month. Unfortunately, vandalism has increased, with multiple reports of black spray paint on cars, walls, driveways, etc. Commissioner Nguyen asks where most of the auto thefts occur. Captain Binder answers that most occur in large parking lots at shopping centers such as around ValIco Mall, but it can potentially happen anywhere. Captain Binder also mentions that the Detectives recently put together a Burglary Prevention brochure to educate people not to leave valuables in their vehicles in plain view or even slightly covered. It is always best to either take items with them or secure them elsewhere. The City of Cupertino has printed thousands of copies of this brochure and the Sheriff's volunteers will be putting them on vehicle windshields at key theft locations, such as the parking lots at ValIco Mall and the Elephant Bar. Captain Binder reports that the SROs just completed a Teen Academy, which graduates tomorrow at the Quinlan Center. They normally hold these academies during the school year, but interest was so high this year that they added a special weeklong session this summer. About fifteen or sixteen teens completed this Teen Academy, and the Sheriff's Office may host another session next summer as long as demand remains high and the City continues funding for the SRO positions. Captain Binder clarifies that the Teen Academy is a school style informational course for students interested in learning about various law enforcement aspects covering everything from police work to the Court system to the Jails, etc. It is separate and different from the Teen Cadet Explorer Program, which is an ongoing team of youth that wears uniforms and learns more specifically about police work. Cadets even participate in some law enforcement operations such as ABC Enforcement stings. Commissioner McCoy offers that he witnessed a few Teen Cadet Explorers recently helping at a DUI Checkpoint and was impressed with their knowledge of codes and their professional demeanor. Finally, Captain Binder thanks the PSC, Mr. Ericksen and Mr. Boleda (not present)for coordinating and participating in such a successful 4th of July event, which helped to make the job of law enforcement much easier. 3. Commission Reports Commissioner McCoy begins by pointing out that the City Calendar, found on the City website, has contained many mistakes and inconsistencies. He relies on the information there to know when all the various meetings he is to attend are scheduled, and has found the information to be often incorrect. For example, the PSC meeting tonight is on the calendar for yesterday, and the TICC meeting which was held yesterday is on the calendar the day before that. He is also concerned that residents who wish to attend commission meetings will not come on the correct date or time and be unable to voice their opinions. He would like to see it updated soon with correct information. Commissioner Nguyen reports from memory some information from the recent Mayor's meeting. The Arts Commission has issued awards for Distinguished Artist and Emerging Artist. The Planning Commission does not have much work of late, no applications to review, but expects more towards the end of the year. Parks & Recreation is looking into ways to deal with waterfowl issues. The Teen Commission representative was not present at the meeting, and he does not remember what the TICC reported. Commissioner McCoy offers that the TICC is currently concerned with the City's bandwidth, and that the Bicycle/Pedestrian Commission has had their last two meetings canceled. Commissioner Nguyen adds that the Library Commission has established a new health center repository of information on the website and in a featured area of the building with a volunteer who staffs it about fifteen hours per week. The Library also has put together five 'Go Green' home kits E• that people can check out for two weeks at a time, which contain tools such as filters and energy- efficient light bulbs to improve home energy use. IX. FUTURE AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR MEETING 1. Walk/Bike/Carpool to School Project, ongoing 2. Boltage Program progress/updates 3. Report on Survey to Schools 4. Discuss progress on participation in AlertSCC and CAS Programs X. ADJOURNMENT This regular meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m. XI. NEXT MEETING The next regular meeting is scheduled on Thursday, August 9, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. SUBMITTED BY: Jennifer Roth Administrative Assistant West Valley Patrol Division Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff July 17, 2012 APPROVED BY: d y- / Z Andy Huang, Commission sion Chair Date