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Agenda 09/10/2019 Item #2E (8-31-2019 BCC Emergency Meeting Minutes)09/10/2019 COLLIER COUNTY Board of County Commissioners Item Number: 2.E Item Summary: August 31, 2019 - Emergency Meeting Minutes Hurricane Dorian Meeting Date: 09/10/2019 Prepared by: Title: Executive Secretary to County Manager – County Manager's Office Name: MaryJo Brock 09/04/2019 10:50 AM Submitted by: Title: County Manager – County Manager's Office Name: Leo E. Ochs 09/04/2019 10:50 AM Approved By: Review: County Manager's Office MaryJo Brock County Manager Review Completed 09/04/2019 10:51 AM Board of County Commissioners MaryJo Brock Meeting Pending 09/10/2019 9:00 AM 2.E Packet Pg. 23 August 31, 2019 Page 1 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida, August 31, 2019 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 10:00 a.m., in EMERGENCY SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: William L. McDaniel, Jr. Burt L. Saunders (via speakerphone) Donna Fiala (via speakerphone) Andy Solis Penny Taylor ALSO PRESENT: Leo Ochs, County Manager Nick Casalanguida, Deputy County Manager Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney August 31, 2019 Page 2 MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Good morning. Good morning, everyone. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Good morning. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Good morning. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: First thing we're going to do is the prayer and the Pledge. If everyone will please rise with me. Commissioner Solis, will you lead us in the Pledge this morning? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'd be honored to. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: If you would please bow your heads. Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessings this morning. There are many things going on in our world, and it's important that we remain humble and accept the graces that you bring upon us. Lord, we pray for the safety of those who are in the path of this impending storm. Lord, as always, keep our first responders close, allow them to move freely through the processes that they're about to undertake and, as always, Lord, protect our military, those who fight for our freedom every single day. In thy name I pray. Amen. Well, good morning, everyone. As you're aware, we're here today to get a brief report and declare a state of emergency just to allow for us to maneuver through as possible. And before we get into the on-goings of business, I'm going to ask for a motion, if I can, please, to allow our colleagues who we know are on the phone to be able to participate today. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: So move. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Second. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: It's been moved and seconded that we allow Commissioner Saunders and Commissioner Fiala to August 31, 2019 Page 3 participate by phone. Any other discussion? No response.) CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: All in favor? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye. COMMISSIONER FIALA: (No verbal response.) CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: (No verbal response.) CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Opposed same sign, same sound. No response.) CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: So moved. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Absolutely. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. MR. OCHS: Mr. Chairman, with that, we'd like to move right into the briefing, if you're ready. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I am. MR. OCHS: Mr. Summers. MR. SUMMERS: Commissioners, good morning, Dan Summers, Director of the Bureau of Emergency Services and Emergency Management. And thank you very much for your time today and your consideration. So let me jump right in and bring you up to speed on Hurricane Dorian. I'd like to give you a little general discussion in terms of the posture of the county and the posture of the operation in Florida overall; tell you just a little bit about our incident action planning that we have been doing since Tuesday, review -- very briefly review forecast models. We see the same information that you see on The Weather Channel and everything else, so nothing really new there ; turn it over to the County Manager to have a discussion with you about a state of emergency; and I'm certainly available to answer any August 31, 2019 Page 4 questions. This is one of those things where, as we watch the news, we have a tendency to get a little nervous, but we want to change that nervousness to preparedness and monitoring efforts. This is not a direct hit. This is not an Irma event. I've changed this statement about three times in the last six hours in terms of what the ultimate forecast track is going to be. But we want to be ready to respond, and we continue to talk about individual family and business preparedness, and we also want to make sure that we are very conservative and we err on the side of safety. In 31 years of hurricane response, we've seen models. We've seen reliable models, and we've seen models not work, and we know that we've seen storms that -- 60 miles, 50-mile variation in the storm track can have a huge impact on the community. The other good news at least is that we don't see this, in any format, as having a storm surge impact like we saw during Irma. We don't even see that in any of the model runs right now; however, we do have high tides today around 2 o'clock, and this is a king tide. So you might see a little bit of maybe a foot or so of potential -- some local roadway flooding during that high tide, but that's minor and not related to the storm. My last bullet here is just a reminder that a 60- or 65-mile track change could provide changes into Collier County. This is one of those that we don't want to have a meteorological surprise and we don't want to drop our guard. Winds right now with the storm are 145 miles per hour. The storm has changed its speed, and that's always a variable. We gained time yesterday with that slow forward motion; picked up a little bit today. It may pick up; it may slow down as this approaches the two high pressure centers approaching the state of Florida. I want to stress that -- and within the state of emergency August 31, 2019 Page 5 declaration we're recommending there are no evacuations, there are no shelter operations anticipated, and no restrictions to commerce or tourism. That doesn't mean that we're not preparing for the -- any shelter contingencies. As you know by the end of July I have all our shelter supplies deployed. I have rental trucks ready with shelter supplies if we have to do something on short notice or go to an alternate site. Remind our residents and guests to continue to listen to radio, television, and websites and social media for updates. And we're going to continue, as we have been the last couple days, checking on any of our high-risk electrically and transportation-dependent frail and elderly medical clients in the county, and we have -- our special needs operations center has been up and working since -- for the last two days checking on not only facilities but checking on high-risk clients as well. The State of Florida is addressing the fuel with the Fuel Retail Association the statewide issues of fuel shortages. Again, we're somewhat at the mercy of the operations of ports, as most of our fuel comes in through ports. What I saw this morning, things were looking a little bit better. We are finding and recommending that the Gas Buddy app, which is an app, a free application on your smart phone, your android or IOS phone, provides real-time fuel availability, and it will give you an icon as to whether that station is open or closed, and that's a great handy little tool as fuel retail continues to catch up with demand as well as demand from our visitors that have come over here for the last few days. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And we direct people to that through our Collier Alerts process. MR. SUMMERS: We haven't done it through -- in a notification process, but we have posted that on our media sites, and August 31, 2019 Page 6 we'll continue to promote that Gas Buddy. Gas Buddy, incidentally, is working directly with the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the Fuel Retail Association, so there is valid information -- CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Right. MR. SUMMERS: -- and government engagement with the Gas Buddy application. We've had a few calls about bottled water. You know, we're used to taping up our windows for 10 years, and now we're used to the fact that we think we have to buy bottled water for the storm. And our delicious Collier County tap water is just fine. We can always re-purpose our bottles and save that. So not to worry. The power's on, and our water is good, and you can bottle that and save that through the storm as the retail chains catch up a little bit on bottle-water issues. We continue to remain in the Emergency Operations Center at a partial activation level. The room is only about one-third full right now, but we have key agencies in there, and we've been working logistic issues. The State of Florida has done a good job in filling the orders I have requested. I still have a couple of orders I'm waiting on, but I did order at the -- and the state is picking up the tab for this -- some additional fuel. I got two tractor trailer loads of bottled water into Immokalee about 10 o'clock last night, one tractor trailer load into the EOC at 10 o'clock, and I'm expecting more. The other part of this is that my plan is to go to a partial activation Sunday morning at 10 a.m. And, again, that's because we've gained a little time in the forecast, and I will continue that operation until we're all clear. Whether we go home at bedtime, we'll do that; if we need to go around the clock, we will; and if we need to demobilize, we can do that. August 31, 2019 Page 7 I'm sorry? CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Taylor. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: What does a partial activation mean, for the folks? MR. SUMMERS: Yes, ma'am. It means I'm bringing about 15 different -- instead of 56 agencies, I'm bringing about 15 key partner agencies in. So just the essential staff that I need for call centers, special needs, logistics, police, fire, EMS; so the minimal organizations that I need for monitoring and logistics work. Thank you. We also -- and, again, we'll monitor that as conditions change. And, certainly, we want to be well postured if our neighbors need some help. We got a lot of mutual aid during Hurricane Irma, and that's part of what makes Florida strong is our intergovernmental agency assistance when it becomes necessary. Our incident action plan is just to make sure that we have all of our supplies and resources in place. We've done a lot of equipment movement. The orders I've placed with the State: The fuel I've already mentioned, that I have 11,000 gallons of unleaded ordered, 6,000 gallons of diesel ordered, and, again, that's -- the State is picking up the tab for that. I've ordered 10 additional ambulances via the FEMA strike teams. I'm monitoring that. There's no problem if I elect to cancel that order. I'll see if I need those ambulances throughout today or tomorrow. And the bottled water I've already mentioned. We have done a lot in communication and coordination. We've been in touch with our Immokalee non-profit organization partners. Our ESF-15 desk, our volunteer and donations have built a great network, a lot of communications, a lot of coordination. We had 120 private and public partners on our conference briefing calls here August 31, 2019 Page 8 locally yesterday. We continue to check in with all the licensed nursing homes and rest home facilities. They're doing well. And, of course, our regional coordination calls speaking with tourism and our vendors, making sure we've got everybody teed up. I'm not going to bore you with the extensive graphics package. You've seen all of this. Part of the timing elements are there. And, again, we've seen the -- we've seen where the closest point of approach right now might be Tuesday morning at 2 a.m. But I put that 115-mile line in there to let you know that, again, while everything continues to trend along the east coast and headed north, a potential jog or shift in the track kind of puts us back into the game. So we're not -- I feel like we are right sized, meaning that we're not overreacting, but we're certainly well postured that if things do change, I can move quickly. The state of emergency declaration, real quick. Governor DeSantis added Collier County as well as most of the other southern counties in Florida to his executive order on yesterday -- yesterday, rather. He continues to communicate with FEMA in both the White House -- FEMA Region 4 has already notified the White House of a request for a presidentially declared declaration, and I believe that one category for emergency preparedness efforts has been approved, and disaster survivor assistance funding or individual assistance has already been approved by the White House. We'll wait for more formal information on that as well. The state of emergency condition without any prohibitions or restrictions does make sure that we're properly aligned should we need FEMA -- should we desire FEMA reimbursement for any of our preparedness activities, and it keeps us in the hunt, if you will, for competitive post-disaster mitigation grants. We learned from Irma that a lot of businesses like to see the local state of emergency. In some cases, if there's business August 31, 2019 Page 9 interruption insurance, if there is a local state of emergency, many times businesses like to have that as part of their business interruption claim. Again, no curfew, no evacuation, no business restriction that we're placing in the state of emergency, but it would allow us to implement that quickly if needed. Monroe, Dade, Lee, Glades, Hendry all have declared, and I'll stop right there and leave it up to the County Manager for discussion. MR. OCHS: We're open for any questions from the Board at this point, Mr. Chairman. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: None from me. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: None from me. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I have a couple quick questions. MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Have you done any research to find out about the supply and viability of fuel at our cell towers? I mea n, we've all been in a preparation mode, and we learned about deficiencies that existed from Irma after the fact. How are -- if, in fact, we weren't as blessed as we are right now, how would we fare? MR. SUMMERS: I think we would still fare well. In our after action from Irma, probably the strongest cellular engagement we had was with Verizon. Verizon -- we've had four calls with Verizon. They are very well postured with their response teams for Florida and have assured us that their systems are robust and ready to go. A lot of the cellular engagement during Irma was interrupted more by the landline component than the wireless component when CenturyLink and what we call old-fashioned copper lines and switch systems had some problems. But I tend to think right now that all the carriers seem to be well positioned, and also they took a lot of corrective action for expanded fuel capability. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: In that note, our HVAC and backup August 31, 2019 Page 10 power for our ACLF, elder community, those facilities, have we been checking and double checking? MR. SUMMERS: Absolutely. And as you know, we have some preemption language in our Land Development Code that not only requires -- there is a state minimum for the 96 hours of backup fuel and the air-conditioning requirements to hold the common areas at 82 degrees, but in our Land Development Code, we also required -- and we hope we don't lose this in legislation in the future. But we also required a third-party attestation to the reliability of that generator. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And we've been following through on those? MR. SUMMERS: Absolutely. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Having all those rules is nice, but if nobody's looking -- MR. SUMMERS: No, no, we're looking. We're looking; we're inspecting. We do an annual review on the emergency plan submission from all 72 licensed facilities we have right now. So Lauren Bonica, our Human Services Program Manager, works closely with them. We actually had a workshop scheduled with those nursing homes and licensed facilities in the next week or so. But we've found them very cooperative, and they're all fully engaged and paying very close attention. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And last but not least, a personal thank you. The meeting that was held with the Unmet Needs Coalition, that organization came to fruition after Irma when we learned that our community, especially in Immokalee, had needs that transpired even before Irma and were exacerbated by that storm, and your cooperative effort communicating with that organization -- I received several calls yesterday -- in the preparedness side of having supplies ready and the like, I just want to say thank you. August 31, 2019 Page 11 MR. SUMMERS: Very good. Thank you. We've enjoyed working with them and certainly have some unique challenges there. And our staff has been very committed to that partnership. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I don't want to forget our colleagues that are on the phone. Commissioner Saunders or Fiala, do you have anything you wish to add or question? COMMISSIONER FIALA: I don't. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I have -- COMMISSIONER FIALA: Go ahead. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Go ahead, Commissioner Fiala. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, okay. I was just wondering. They say now that it's supposed to hit Florida on Tuesday morning; is that what you heard? CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Ask that question again, please. You were garbled. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, okay. The storm is supposed to hit Florida on Tuesday morning; is that correct? CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Well, the current path, Commissioner Fiala, shows it skirting the east coast sometime on Tuesday. That's when it makes the bend and heads north. There is an actual -- today -- and, again, we're still four or five days away from the event, and that cone will get closer as time goes on. But currently we're not calling -- we're not being told that there's going to be a landfall for quite some time. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. The reason I'm asking is my plane is supposed to be coming in on Wednesday. I just wanted to know if it's still going to be flying, but you wouldn't know that. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Yeah. Well, if they fly down the west coast, they should be fine. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Good. August 31, 2019 Page 12 CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Saunders? COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yes. I have no questions. I just want to thank the Manager and our emergency staff, Dan and your team, for doing such a great job and keeping our citizens safe, and thank you. MR. SUMMERS: You're welcome, sir. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Now, County Manager, as a portion of this package here, there is a proposition for a curfew, and we are -- we're not instituting a curfew at this time, only in the event that it's required or needed? MR. OCHS: That's correct, sir. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay. But we are declaring a state of emergency. MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. You do have a proclamation and a resolution in there declaring a state of local emergency. That -- those are the documents that we'd like the Board to consider enacting today. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay. And then have the option for the curfew should it be necessary? MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. If the Sheriff believes it's necessary, then -- CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Absolutely. MR. OCHS: -- we would come to you and get that done. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: So with that, I'll call for a motion to adopt these resolutions. Do you want them individually, or can we do them en masse? MR. OCHS: No. I think, as you just pointed out, we're setting aside the resolution for the curfew at this point, and you're going to hopefully approve the other proclamation and the two resolutions having to do with a declaration of local emergency. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay. And I don't think -- we don't August 31, 2019 Page 13 need to spell it out. This is all -- MR. OCHS: No. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: -- all a matter of public record, and we could just have a motion for the proposed resolutions and proclamation. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'll make a motion to approve the proclamation that's attached as 1.1.b, the resolution's 1.1.c, and then 1.1.d. MR. OCHS: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: And those are the page numbers that are delineated for reference purposes in our agenda. MR. OCHS: Thank you. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. I second that motion. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we adopt these resolutions and proclamations. Any other discussion? No response.) CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: All in favor? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Aye. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Aye. COMMISSIONER TAYLOR: Aye. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Opposed same sign, same sound. No response.) CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: So moved. MR. OCHS: Thank you, Commissioners. I very much appreciate you all coming in here on a Saturday morning giving us your time. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: No worries. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Thank you to staff, Dan. August 31, 2019 Page 14 CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Everybody. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: As always, thank you. MR. SUMMERS: I'd like to thank all the partners we've had and the teammates we've had. This is a team sport, as I've said before, and we've had great support from the community, the county, the employees that were offloading the supplies and equipment at 10:30 last night. So thank you to the entire team. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: I'm sure we're going to ramp up as soon as we get a better approximation of where this thing's going, and we'll be helping our neighbors on the other side as they go through the next few days. MR. OCHS: Absolutely. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thanks, Dan Summers, for doing such an excellent job again for us. MR. SUMMERS: Thank you, ma'am. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Well, I just have a question. I'm just curious; it sounds like Commissioner Saunders might be in a pub in Wyoming or something. It just sounds that way. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: Montana. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Montana. CHAIRMAN McDANIEL: With that, ladies and gentlemen, be safe, and God bless. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 10:23 a.m. August 31, 2019 Page 15 BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL WILLIAM L. McDANIEL, JR., CHAIRMAN ATTEST CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK These minutes approved by the Board on ____________, as presented ______________ or as corrected _____________. TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF U.S. LEGAL SUPPORT, INC., BY TERRI LEWIS, COURT REPORTER AND NOTARY PUBLIC.