I-5
STAFF REPORT
MEETING
DATE:
April 14, 2015
TO:
City Council
FROM:
Jamie Knox, Police Captain
Dave Jeffries, Emergency Services Coordinator
SUBJECT:
REVISED NOVATO EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN
922 Machin Avenue
Novato, CA 94945
(415) 899-8900
FAX (415) 899-8213
www.novato.org
REQUEST
Consider approving the revised Joint City of Novato and Novato Fire District Emergency
Operations Plan.
RECOMMENDATION
Approve the Emergency Operations Plan.
DISCUSSION
The Novato Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is a joint plan developed by and for the City of
Novato and the Novato Fire District that addresses the planned response to extraordinary
emergency situations associated with disasters affecting Novato. The plan also addresses
integration and coordination with other governmental agencies when required and as guided by
applying the Whole Community approach. This plan is not intended to address the normal dayto-day emergency or well-established emergency procedures. For the City, this is an update from
their past 2009 plan. For the Fire District, this is part of replacing their Disaster Response Plan.
The plan is built on guidance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA)
Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 101, entitled, “Developing and Maintaining Emergency
Operations Plans” (November 2010) that describes that at a minimum, a local Emergency
Operations Plan should:
1) Identify the departments and agencies designated to perform response and recovery
activities and specify the tasks they must accomplish.
2) Outline the integration of assistance that is available to local jurisdictions during
disaster situations that generate emergency response and recovery needs beyond what the
local jurisdiction can satisfy.
3) Specify the direction, control, and communications procedures and systems that will
be relied upon to alert, notify, recall, and dispatch emergency response personnel; warn
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the public; protect residents and property; and request aid/support from other jurisdictions
and/or the federal Government.
4) Provide coordinating instructions and provisions for implementing Master Aid
Agreements (MAA), as applicable.
5) Describe the logistical support for planned operations.
In addition, a framework for a Marin local government Emergency Operations Plan was
developed by Marin County local government and Marin County Emergency Managers to
provide consistency in information and format amongst local agencies.
FEMA currently recommends that Emergency Operations Plans be reviewed and revised, as
needed, no less than every two years. This plan accomplishes the following:

Establishes the emergency management organization required to mitigate any significant
emergency or disaster affecting Novato; and,

Establishes the overall operational concepts associated with Novato’s Emergency
Operations Center (EOC) activities and the recovery process.
This EOP is based on the functions and principles of the California Standardized Emergency
Management System (SEMS), the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and the
Incident Command System (ICS). It identifies how the Novato Emergency Operations system
fits into the overall Marin County, California and National risk-based, all-hazard emergency
response and recovery operations plan. This plan will serve as a tool to facilitate response and
short-term recovery activities, and will be flexible enough to use in all emergencies.
This document serves as a planning reference and as a basis for effective response to any hazard
that threatens Novato. Departments within Novato and other agencies that have roles and
responsibilities identified by this plan are encouraged to develop plans, detailed Standard
Operating Procedures (SOPs), and emergency response checklists based on the provisions of this
plan.
The plan consists of four parts:
Part One: General Information
This section contains the basic plan that addresses the plan’s purpose, objectives, goals and
assumptions as well as a concept of operations, the emergency management organization and
responsibilities, information on the use of SEMS and NIMS in the plan, mutual aid, volunteer
resources, the Novato Joint Emergency Operations Center with positions and responsibilities,
as well as emergency proclamations and continuity of government issues.
Part Two: Hazard and Threat Assessments
This section provides a general description of Novato and a brief analysis of how hazards
might affect the City of Novato and the Novato Fire District. These include: earthquake,
flood, wildland fire, winter storm, tsunami, landslide, drought, climate change/sea level rise,
public health crisis, extreme temperature event, hazardous materials incident, transportation
accidents, cyber-attack, dam failure, energy disruption, radiological incident, terrorism, civil
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disturbance, national security emergency, and security related threats.
Part Three: Annexes, References and Acronyms
This section provides information and guidance on specific issues. In this case, we looked at
a variety of existing plans developed for Marin County and the Bay Area Region and
distilled important components into summaries of the plans as they might impact or be
utilized in Novato. A full listing of these plans is in Part Four below. In addition, this part of
the plan includes a discussion of the Novato EOC functions as compared to the state and
federal emergency and emergency support functions as well as authorities and acronyms.
Part Four: Attachments
This section contains full copies of the plans and annexes described in part three. These plans
and annexes include:
 Base Plan, Regional Emergency Coordination Plan (RECP)
 Care and Shelter Annex, Marin Operational Area (OA)
 Catastrophic Earthquake Logistics Response Annex, Marin OA
 Catastrophic Earthquake Mass Care and Sheltering Plan, Marin OA
 Debris Management Annex, Marin OA
 Donations Management Plan, Marin OA
 Extreme Temperature Emergency Annex, Marin OA
 Fire and Rescue Subsidiary Plan, RECP
 Hazardous Materials Area Plan, Marin DPW
 Law Enforcement and Coroner/Medical Examiner Subsidiary Plan, RECP
 Mass Fatality Plan, Marin OA
 Medical/Health Annex, Marin OA
 Oil Spill Annex, Marin OA
 Recovery Subsidiary Plan, RECP.
 Regional Catastrophic Earthquake Mass Care and Sheltering Plan, RECP
 Spontaneous Volunteer Management Annex, Marin OA.
 Tsunami Annex, Marin OA.
Approval Process
As this is a joint City/District plan, it will require passage from both the Novato City Council and
the Novato Fire District Board of Directors. The Novato Fire District is currently scheduled to
consider the Emergency Operations Plan and their Emergency Management Resolution on May
6, 2015.
FISCAL IMPACT
None
ATTACHMENTS
1. City of Novato and Novato Fire District: 2015 Emergency Operations Plan
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