2006-2007 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury Report Disaster Preparedness in the County:

Emergency Operations Centers of San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and the County have personnel availability listings that record where their personnel currently live. The City of Gilroy has records that are not current. • The City of Gilroy has contact information. The information is not current, and callback is through a manual system. They also have a text-paging system that can be used when personnel can be reached by email. • The City of Morgan Hill’s records are current. Callback is a manual system. • The City of Santa Clara has current information, but it is a manual system relying on a phone tree system. • The City of San Jose has printed cards with the information needed to manually call back their personnel. They maintain a list of “the line of succession” for key staff, along with all contact information for these employees. This list is updated on a regular basis. Some departments of the City have automated systems of callback. • The City of Sunnyvale has an automated system that can call a large group of employees simultaneously. The system automatically distinguishes whom to call, based on the type of incident and the size of response required. Personnel are required to update contact information regularly, which they can do on the City’s website. • The County has the necessary records. Their callback system is a manual system.

The City of Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and some departments of the City of San Jose have automated means of summoning their workers in the event of an emergency. However, the Emergency Operations Centers for the County and for the Cities of Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Jose, and Santa Clara do not have automated means. Equipment Availability

The emergency operations centers of all the jurisdictions surveyed have listings of equipment within their control and are aware of the methods needed to obtain additional emergency equipment. Seismic Security of Communications Equipment

There was no consistency among the jurisdictions surveyed as to the codes to which their communications equipment was installed. In response to questions regarding seismic audits to ensure survivability, most of the jurisdictions identified some code(s) to which their equipment was installed. The Grand Jury cannot determine if the codes cited by the jurisdictions provide the equivalent level of protection for the communications equipment as specified in California Building Code Chapter 16, Section 1632. • The City of Gilroy states that they comply with Section 1605.2 of Chapter 16, California Building Code. In addition, the City refers to Table 16K of the same chapter, which provides data on Occupancy Category/Essential Facilities, and Table 16S, which deals with Near Source Factor/Seismic Source Factor. • The City of San Jose states that the City “does adhere to all State seismic retrofit requirements for buildings at the time of construction” and “newer facilities are designed and constructed to meet or exceed seismic safety standards as public safety facilities…” They did not specify the standards to which they comply. • The City of Santa Clara states that they comply with Section 1632 of the California Building Code for seismic security of equipment. They further state that they use “industry standard” racks and mounting standards that secure the equipment to walls and/or ceilings. Internal audits and safety inspections of communications equipment are regularly conducted. • The City of Sunnyvale states that their facilities conform to the Uniform Building Code, 1991, including the seismic requirements of Section 2312 for Earthquake Zone 4. They also state that they comply with the seismic requirements of SB 239, Chapter 1521. Contracts with their communications equipment suppliers reference the above codes, plus a lengthy list of other building codes, National Fire Protection Administration technical requirements, Occupational and Safety Administration standards, and other standards. • The City of Morgan Hill states that their facility meets the California Building Code standards as an essential facility. They further state that the seismic requirements for essential facilities were incorporated in the facility during reconstruction. • The County states that they know the standards and are in compliance.

All of the emergency operations centers surveyed have an Emergency Operations Plan and a designated Emergency Operations Coordinator or equivalent.

Five cities and the County were surveyed. There were ten cities within the County that were not surveyed, and the preparedness levels of these cities as related to the major areas of focus are unknown. 5