Marin County Grand Jury
• 2024-2025
• Agency Response
Response to:
Cyberattacks: A Growing Threat to Marin Government
Mill Valley City Council Response to 'Roadblocks to Safer Evacuation in Marin,' Marin*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 5 findings
F1
No single agency or jurisdiction is taking responsibility and authority for building infrastructure for safe evacuation routes across jurisdictions in Marin County. Partially Disagree Comment: This statement generalizes a need for a combined evacuation system for the County. With each disaster being different, evacuation routes may differ by event and needs to be appropriate for each disaster. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that no single agency should take overall responsibility, though they clearly should coordinate. The responsibility must be shared because many factors contribute to evacuation readiness and safety.
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. Partially Disagree Comment: The City of Mill Valley considers mass evacuation as criterion for planning and traffic infrastructure improvement. Mill Valley is not aware of and does not track other agencies' criteria for developing or evaluating projects, nor which Departments participate in the process. At this time, it is premature to direct agencies or staff to include evacuation needs and improvement projects without knowing what criteria is already included, what is needed, where they need to be installed and the cost of these improvements. We recommend that MWPA initiate a countywide study that defines the following: a. Identification of various types of disasters that can occur within each jurisdiction. b. Identify primary evacuation routes for each type of disasters c. Identify constrained locations within each jurisdiction that may require improvements to improve evacuation d. Proposed improvements to be considered by each jurisdiction as funding becomes available. e. Identify funding sources to support Capital Improvement Projects related to these disaster events.
F2
There is confusion in the county as to who has ultimate responsibility and authority for ensuring that Marin has safe evacuation routes. Disagree Comment: Local emergency service personnel work very closely to address each incident. There is no confusion as to each jurisdiction's responsibility to protect the citizens within each jurisdictional area.
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. Disagree Comment: It is not the local agencies role to direct TAM how to administer their programs. The TAM board already includes representatives from each Marin Agency and may or may not be able to set their own criteria within the guidelines depending on the respective funding sources. Mill Valley is happy to participate in this process if TAM would like to explore further. Local governing bodies including but not limited to the Board of Supervisors and Local City Councils are best suited to address the needs and priorities of the citizens they represent. Upon receiving recommendations for potential improvement projects each jurisdiction may choose to their Capital Improvement Program depending on a number of factors include these projects in including, but not limited to agency needs, priorities, resources, etc.
F3
Marin County Board of Supervisors and town and city councils have the 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. Partially Disagree Comment: The jurisdictional agencies within Marin have the responsibility to provide emergency services to its citizens, including providing emergency evacuations routes. Southern Marin Fire and Mill Valley Police, Fire, and Public Works Departments work closely to accomplish this critical function. The Planning Department evaluates necessary improvements to roads and traffic infrastructure when considering new developments and new construction. This includes prioritizing alternate evacuation routes, street design and ability to use the roadway for evacuation purposes.
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. Disagree Comment: The City of Mill Valley already includes safety elements in their General Plan within the boundary of what State, Federal or Local agencies require.
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. Partially Disagree Comment: Public Works departments within Marin utilize a rating criterion for CIP projects in order to prioritize projects to be implemented. The City of Mill Valley considers mass evacuation as criterion for planning and traffic infrastructure improvement. Factors to consider with mass evacuation criterion for planning and traffic infrastructure includes, but not limited to, signal light video and synchronization, contraflow to allow large roadways to be used as "one way" roadway to evacuation large numbers of residents simultaneously, alternative evacuation routes, and Emergency Vehicle Access (EVA) roads.
No recommendations for this finding
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. Partially Disagree Comment: Mill Valley staff has not assessed and is not responsible for assessing what other agencies have included in their General Plan. Evacuation Planning policies are included in the Hazards and Safety Element of the Mill Valley General Plan.
No recommendations for this finding
* 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.