I waited until the Orange County fires were under control before posting this report.
Note: The fires in Santiago Canyon are/were very close to the outskirts of our city.
How time flies. Back in 1999,2000 a group of Mission Viejo activists, myself included, debated the size, location and cost of our city hall and lost in a court case. Included in their design was a 6,500 square foot “emergency operations center (which) (can be used as community meeting rooms when not in emergency use).”Source. Report from the City Hall Task Force Nov 15, 1999 Agenda Item #33.
Fast forward to the Orange County fires when all our city staff did was to send out email to a limited distribution list and post Press Releases on our web site as to where to get aide. Our local Saddleback Valley News headline from Friday reads “City ready to help fire victims.”
While they opened our animal shelter for pets they didn’t open our E.O.C. for humans. A blown news coverage if ever I read one. City Director Paul Catsimanes is quoted to say that “our city employees who are trained for disasters are on standby.” The SV News article follows by stating that Mission Viejo High School is also available to be a shelter for evacuees.
We flunked the test!! We did not open this 6,500 square foot room for fire victims who came from as far away as San Diego County. Fortunately Pastor Rick Warren and his staff opened Saddleback Church welcoming these fire victims with open arms.
We were conned into expanding the size of our city hall to include this 6,500 square foot E.O.C. room and live with the additional cost. To the best of my knowledge there are no cots, blankets, bottled water, flashlights, spare batteries, cans of tuna fish, jars of peanut butter, first aid kits or a generator to be found. The Saddleback Room E.O. C. was probably locked up tight as a drum to keep the people out.
As I recently posted a story out of Washington State where their Supreme Court voted 5-4 ruling that it’s OK for politicians to lie, this is a perfect illustration.
I am disappointed that we had the space and failed to open our doors as a gesture to those displaced families from Camp Pendleton and Fallbrook at a time when they truly needed that support. It’s too late for apologies. And I don’t wish to wait until next time to see action.
Do not confuse an EOC (Emergency Operations Center) with an emergency shelter facility. The EOC is a location from which centralized emergency management can occur during a disaster or major emergency. It provides a central location of authority and information and allows face-to-face coordination among personnel who must make emergency decisions. Its akin to an incident command center but is not located at the actual incident site.
An EOC would not have cots, peanut butter, etc. for evacuees because the EOC does not provide housing. Feel free to debate whether MV should have activiated their EOC (keep in mind that other agencies may had already activiated their EOCs in lieu of MV) to coordinate its response, but, please understand the difference between the EOC and an evacuation center in your discussions.
Larry, there is nothing that the employees or council of Mission Viejo can do that will ever make you happy. Your rants here are just repeats of the same complaints with different titles. I mean, how stupid can you get. A 6500 square foot facility for OPERATIONS is not a shelter. It is to help coordinate operations with other emergency agencies.
Maybe now you will support the idea of the city building a basketball gym. Then we would have somewhere to shelter evacuees. Then you would complain the ceilings should only be 9 feet high.
Think abou it…
it appears to me that the first two responders miss the point. what good is a nerve center without the proper disaster response for the needs of the public? there may not of been a need to activate the eoc to co-ordinate emergency decisions, but we did have a facility available – a nerve center, which could of offered families access to phones, computers, e-mail, fax’s. with the state of the art technology of the eoc, it could of been put to good use to help families contact loved ones. i am sure if there is a next time, the city’s pending million dollar dog park will be prepared with dog houses and fake fire hydrants. jim madison
Positive on MV says.
So you agree that we should house stray pets yet lock up a room that could have served as a place for victims to get a nights rest.
Sorry, Lance or Lance supporter.
The county already has an E.O.C. near the fires. If this room is not being used by a county agency than why not open it up? We had friends open their homes to take in individuals or families. And those bedrooms were not 6,500 square feet of empty space.
Mission Viejo is great except for the heinous mayor, gail revis. She was recently at a CSUF Event and screamed at them when they didn’t know who she was. Very cruel woman.
Today, Oct. 30, I received email news from the city of Mission Viejo, updating the fire information. The date of the fire information was Oct. 27. Is this a sign of the city’s readiness — sending “news” that’s three days old?
The city has no means of helping the residents, and I’d bet it has no emergency plan except for city employees to call the Red Cross. For conceiving of and outlining this plan (“call the Red Cross”), how much are these emergency planners paid?
Sounds as if a certain activist has gotten under the skin of “Positive on MV.” The city-hall tone and attitude are all too familiar.
the city has told us what the EOC does not have, from cots to peanut butter, so what can it do? more importantly, what did it do? the fire was about two miles from our border. is MV disaster-ready with a reverse answering service to notify our citizens of impending danger? does the city have a disaster plan that includes a hotline? good thing we will have an electronic sign in the near future to keep us informed in a timely manner, that is if the lights do not go out, and we happen to be travelling in the right direction and we hit a red light so we can read each line as it changes without causing an accident…
people need to be informed and self-reliant. neighbor helping neighbor is a far superior service than relying on government. heck, government bureaucracy and delays added to the danger. it probably would of been chaotic if MV activated its EOC with all the change orders that would undoubtedly have followed any approved plan.
Larry, Larry, Larry:
That room was not planned to be used in any way except for Sherri Butterfield to put her name on it. So don’t expect the political hacks to use it for anything but dispersal of cake to selected citizens.
Sounds like someone still wants his basketball court. Saddleback Church has already provided one though–just like their accommodation to the firefighters and displaced citizens of the Southland.
Let Them Eat Cake !!
A Register article reported the city of Mission Viejo’s offer of the EOC (Eat Our Cake) room for agency use. Why would any agency want Mission Viejo’s room? Those who are responsible for real emergency services do not need a big box or interference from city bureaucrats. Can anyone imagine the problems of involving city officials? Within minutes, various people would be trying to hold a press conference showcasing themselves or promoting a gymnasium. The city should have invited those escaping the fires to camp out in the council chambers — now there’s a room that’s empty, even when they’re having a meeting.
The Eat Our Cake room will likely not be used for anything except city-run parties. It is almost impossible to talk with anyone about trying to rent it, and the city adds expensive stipulations that prevent use.
email comment:
Larry, this makes me wonder . . . just what has the E.O.C. room been used for since it opened? What significant events have been held there? I remember only one time when shortly after City Hall opened, maybe at a celebratory open house, when cake and punch was served to interested and curious citizens, and Bill Craycraft ceremoniously refused to eat city-funded party food and brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for himself.
anon 10:11 p.m.
Bait ‘n Switch.
Former MV mayor and mayor pro-tem Butterfield and Withrow did a number on us and sadly the majority of our residents bought it. “When not used for an EOC this 6,500 square foot room would also be used for our Christmas/Holiday parties” rather than going to a hotel outside the city. Never happened. City employees would not be happy having their Holiday Party in the same building where they work from 9 to 5.
Yes an EOC is not a shelter but with the County EOC not far away, and whereas we are a Contract city, without it’s own police or fire departments, why did we need this space in the first place?
Larry:
All the dribble about the EOC room is interesting. I do recall former Mayor Susan Withrow using the emergency services in the room.
She had just picket up some cake and was walking toward Dan Joseph and tripped over an untied shoe string and hit the deck in a heap. What one wit described as Susan–ass over applecart.
She was quickly whisked away in a Medix ambulance to Mission Hospital where she had four stitches put in her double chin.
So Larry don’t ever say this room has served no useful purpose.
Bill
Anon #1 4:22 p.m.
Sorry to take so long to respond. My sense is that you are our city manager (or a member of his staff) and that’s OK.
In addition to personal activities I’ve been busy researching and posting other news stories.
You are correct. I know the purpose of an EOC. However, I believe my response to others (as found above) tell the tale of this large empty room while an emergency was underway withing a few miles of MV. Friends of ours went to Saddleback Church to offer space in their homes for fire victims. Officials of my church called me asking how they could assist the fire victims yet you did nothing other than email a few newsletters that displaced victims would not receive.
Mission Viejo blew it. While we didn’t need to build this city hall addition it could have been used last week. didn’t happen. I rest my case!
As a Contract City and the county facility close by why does the city of MV require an EOC anyway?
Upset with the M.V. Animal Shelter– after reading in the O.C. Register that the Animal Shelter having a budget problem and after the fire, we were very discouraged after receiving pet food, donated by someone who cared, which we thought should be taken to shelter. We tried, but were told they only accept certain brands of food, which the ones donated, were not the ones preferred. If an animal is hungry and homeless, am sure they would like to have their stomachs filled with food.
Anon 9:20 a.m.
Sorry to learn that our Mission Viejo animal shelter staff rejected your offer of providing free pet food.
The picture is much bleaker than this rejection. The management of the Mission Viejo animal shelter is very protective of this facilty.
When a suggestion was made to build our proposed dog park on part of the same city owned land they were rather upset. We surely don’t want people coming to the shelter or calling us if the dogs in the park get into a fight and we need to come to their rescue. It’s called NIMBY. I am sure that the stray dogs in the kennel did not have a vote in this decision.
Some within our city may argue that the proposed, than rejected, site was just under an acre. We being the Brentwood of Orange County (in some people’s minds) require a two acre site for this million dollar “pet” project.
I will copy your comments and my reply which I promise to immediately forward to our city manager and council. They need ot hear about your offer.
Thank you.
Larry G
Mr. Gilbert:
I think I saw Dick Ackerman at the EOC (Eat Our Cake) room–eating cake four days after the fires started.
Dan
i think i saw him, too, dan. he was chit chatting with gary miller, telling him how mad he was at the arsonist. his home was two miles from the fire and had to pack his car, ready to evacuate. iva