Marin County Grand Jury
• 2024-2025
• Agency Response
Response to:
Cyberattacks: A Growing Threat to Marin Government
Anraf with a February 17, 2021 The Honorable Andrew E. Sweet Presiding Judge, Marin County Superior Court*
⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 9 findings
F1
No single agency or jurisdiction is taking responsibility and authority for building infrastructure for safe evacuation routes across jurisdictions in Marin County. Response: We agree with this finding. There appears to be no mechanism or entity in place that can assume this responsibility. Multiple agencies are collaborating in the evaluation of evacuation routes and are placing resources toward reducing impediments to successful evacuations. Additionally, the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority (MWPA) provides essential support via funding for projects involving roadside vegetation clearance, canopy reduction, and other effective tools for safe evacuations such as the development of evacuation maps. Thus far, the countywide effort has been collaborative but is not led by Fire, Law Enforcement, or Transportation stakeholders.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
of the date of this report, the governing boards of the County of Marin and its cities and towns should direct their respective planning and public works departments to include evacuation needs among their criteria for evaluating and recommending public works projects. Response: This recommendation has already been implemented. Evacuation needs are currently incorporated into the Public Works and Planning departments considerations for any Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) and those involving transportation land development reviews, critical infrastructure, and the General Plan policies summarized in the Agenda Report. The City of San Rafael includes evacuation needs among the criteria for evaluating and recommending public works projects. Evacuation needs are included because it is a part of our CIP creation process and the City of San Rafael promotes a concept referred to as "complete streets" which would include their usage for evacuation.
F2
There is confusion in the county as to who has ultimate responsibility and authority for ensuring that Marin has safe evacuation routes. Response: We partially agree with this finding. Since there is no established single representative agency or Authority to ensure safe evacuation routes exist in Marin, many community members and agency representatives do not know who to look to for guidance, direction, or critical information. Safe evacuation may be attributable to multiple factors which when aligned can lead to effective and timely evacuations. However, mechanical failure, human error, or lack of situational awareness and/or decisive actions, weather conditions, unimpeded travel routes, familiarization with multiple routes of travel and community safe refuge areas, and much more can all affect the safe, orderly, and rapid evacuations of neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Marin County Board of Supervisors and town and city councils have the
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
of the date of this report, the governing boards of the County of Marin and its cities and towns should adopt resolutions calling on the Transportation Authority of Marin to include evacuation needs among the criteria it considers when planning and funding public works projects. Response: This recommendation requires further analysis. The Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) assists the City of San Rafael, and other jurisdictions in Marin County with the implementation of capital projects by identifying sources of funding and by ensuring that funding is distributed from other State and regional agencies in a way that is consistent with law and other shared agreements. While TAM provides a high level of support and works to ensure there is communication and coordination among the communities in Marin County, each jurisdiction is responsible for determining their own capital improvement project needs. As such, local governing bodies such as the Board of Supervisors and local City Councils are best suited to address the needs and priorities of the communities they represent.
F3
responsibility for safe evacuation routing, and they have not sufficiently considered evacuation as a criterion when approving improvements to roads and traffic infrastructure in their jurisdictions. Response: We partially agree with this finding. It can be argued that the responsibility for safe evacuation routing is a shared responsibility at the local, state, and federal levels of government. To assign the responsibility to County Supervisors and Town and City Councils could likely affix an insurmountable cost on local agencies who may not be able to absorb the substantial costs of any infrastructure improvements or alterations deemed necessary or desirable. Furthermore, affixing responsibility on the local government may place an undue burden on the community (if fatalities or injuries are experienced) due to impeded evacuations or other travel route challenges. The MWPA is taking a proactive approach and is on the verge of releasing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a comprehensive evacuation study.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
In calendar year 2021, the County of Marin and its cities and towns should update the safety elements of their general plans to include evacuation planning. Response: This recommendation has been implemented. As per State law, which encouraged local governments to integrate their Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) into the mandatory Safety Element of their local General Plan. The City of San Rafael Draft General Plan 2040 (Safety and Resilience element) has included evacuation.
F4
County and municipal administrators, public works, and traffic engineers have not adequately considered mass evacuation as a criterion for planning and funding traffic infrastructure improvements. Response: We disagree with this finding. According to staff from the Department of Public Works and Planning Departments, the City of San Rafael includes evacuation needs among the criteria for evaluating and recommending public works projects. Evacuation needs are included as part of the CIP creation process and the City of San Rafael promotes a concept referred to as "complete streets" which includes their usage for evacuation.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
of the date of this report, the Transportation Authority of Marin should establish a criterion requiring that evacuation impacts be examined and stated when planning and funding infrastructure projects.
F5
Most Marin jurisdictions have not yet included urgently needed evacuation plans in their general plans as required by state law and as recommended by the Governor's Office of Planning and Research. Response: We partially disagree with this finding. Based on preliminary conversations with a few Fire Department agencies in Marin County, it appears that multiple agencies incorporate evacuation plans into their respective communities' General Plans as required by state law. The City of San Rafael's draft General Plan 2040 Safety and Resilience element incorporates evacuation as a component of the element.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
of the date of this report, the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority should invite a Transportation Authority of Marin representative to become an at-large, nonvoting member of its Advisory/Technical Committee to support program development, funding, and implementation of improvements in evacuation routes.
F6
Marin, is best positioned to coordinate and support the funding of public works projects for improving evacuation routes, including cross-jurisdictional evacuation routes. Contrary to its previous responses to the Grand Jury, the Transportation Authority of
No recommendations for this finding
F7
Marin is not precluded or constrained from incorporating evacuation planning needs as a criterion in its infrastructure projects. The Transportation Authority of Marin's decision-making process is inadequate unless it
No recommendations for this finding
F8
includes evacuation as a criterion when funding improvements. The Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority's Advisory/Technical Committee would benefit
No recommendations for this finding
F9
from having the expertise of the Transportation Authority of Marin to advise on evacuation infrastructure needs. Marin County Civil Grand Jury Roadblocks to Safer Evacuation in Marin
No recommendations for this finding
Conclusions 1
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CL1Planning, executing, and building for evacuation is an enormous, complex, expensive, and time- consuming task that can only be achieved one step at a time. As a start, to meet the need for safer evacuation, Marin's officials and agencies should consider evacuation impacts whenever they are planning a new roadway improvement project. Success in this endeavor will require dedicated attention by our elected leaders and cooperation across and within Marin's jurisdictions as well as the Transportation Authority of Marin and the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority. With recognition of the progress made so far and in view of the extensive work that remains to be done, the Grand Jury is recommending the next steps needed to build for evacuation.
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.