Those in attendance for the Council Work Session were as follows:
Mayor: Lois Salter
Council Members:
Walter Anderson, Debbie Guthrie, Tom Kitchens and George Sipe
City Administrator – Leigh Threadgill
BLEMA Committee Members:
Charlie Carroll, Shawn Cochran, Phillipe Gadegbeku, Irvin Gunter, and Wayne Mitsch
Citizens Present- 0
PrepareFirst Representative: Rob Carter

CALL TO ORDER
Salter opened the meeting at 7:00at 4580 Berkeley Walk Point.

I. APPROVAL OF OR CHANGES TO THE AGENDA

Salter noted additional questions that Anderson had circulated prior to the meeting to discuss under agenda item 3.

The agenda was approved.

II. REVIEW OF PREPAREFIRST DOCUMENT

Rob Carter of PrepareFirst reviewed some of the comments that he questioned and/or disagreed with regarding the draft plan and quick reference guides and made recommendations about how to handle some of those comments.

There was lengthy discussion about some of the comments that Carter had received and what additional work needed to be done to finalize the documents (the book and two laminated sheets). It was determined that once the suggested changes per notes and discussion were implemented, that the documents would be complete per contract.  Rob Carter said that he would have the agreed upon changes ready to present to Council within 2 or 3 weeks, and that he would provide the documents in both Microsoft Word and Abobe Acrobat formats on CD as part of the deliverables.

It was determined that the final document would be called the Berkeley Lake Emergency Operations Handbook.
It was determined that the city council would review the final document from PepareFirst before adopting the handbook.

III. CONSIDERATION OF NEXT STEPS IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLANNING and ROLE OF BLEMA

Council and members of the BLEMA committee discussed the hierarchy of who would be in charge in the event of an emergency. It was acknowledged that the chain of command would begin with the Mayor. In the Mayor’s absence or inability to act, the Mayor Pro Tem would be responsible. If both were unable to act, then a minimum of three council members would be responsible for deciding who would act in the place of the Mayor..

The role of BLEMA was discussed. Salter asked about whether BLEMA should be responsible for things such as removing fallen trees that are blocking roadways. It was discussed that BLEMA should be responsible for responding to emergency situations, not for inconveniences such as one or two down trees.  No BLEMA member or council member supported the idea that BLEMA should remove trees for convenience or to save the City money.  In addition, it was discussed what role BLEMA should have in the preparation of Emergency Plans, education of the citizenry, recruitment and training of volunteers, identification of risks, assessment of equipment needs, and communication and mobilization in an emergency.

There was further discussion about the importance of being first responders and management of other volunteers, equipment, communication and mobilization versus the importance of drafting a plan by which to operate.

BLEMA committee is working on a mitigation plan that could make BLEMA fully capable in 6 to 9 months. It was discussed whether the Gwinnett County Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan should be handled by city council.

The importance of Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training was emphasized, and it was discussed that volunteers and council members need to be moving forward with this in the event that the City is confronted with an emergency.

In discussion of BLEMA's priorities, several of the BLEMA committee members present each voiced the opinion that they would prefer to work with focussed effort on the Emergency Plans prior to any effort being diverted towards enlisting volunteers, training or equipment specifications.  They each also noted that they joined BLEMA for the purpose of working on the plans, and that simply being trained to be a First Responder was not their interest in being on BLEMA.

It was decided that council should discuss the role of BLEMA at the August 16 council meeting. 

IV. CITIZEN COMMENTS

There were no citizen comments.

V. ADJOURNMENT

Anderson motioned to adjourn the meeting. Kitchens seconded the motion. All were in favor. The motion passed.


(Respectfully submitted by Leigh Threadgill, approved by Council August 16, 2007)