We please stand for the pledge of allegiance.   I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the  United States of America, and to the Republic   for which it stands, one Nation under God,  indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. City manager Layton. Thank you,   Mayor. Uh just note that council  member Tuttle is also with us remotely. Okay. Um first page we have three proclamations  and then right now it looks like we have a full   public agenda. Um on page two you have a one  item of unfinished uh business. This would   approve a letter of intent for the issuance of  $5.7 million in IRBs for an office project at   West 47th Street South. The first uh new business  item would receive and file the third quarter   uh financial report. Next page number two would  approve the projects and budgets to be included   in the 2026 facilities maintenance program.  Number three would approve funding for the   2026 sidewalk maintenance program. Number  four would approve the guaranteed maximum   price for the design build expansion of the  four mile creek digester. Number five would   approve a licensing process for lodging  establish establishments in the community. Have a pretty packed planning agenda.  Number one would approve a conditional   use permit in district two. Difference  uh in this case is between MABC and the   DAB recommendations. And again these  cases do not get public comment. Is   that correct? That is correct. Thank you.  Number two. Um actually I do need to ask law and planning on the next one. This is  a an appeal of a recommendation of MAPC   uh regarding a rezoning in district  2. And I'm not sure if are are public   comments allowed on an appeal or is it  treated just like a normal rezoning? What about the petitioner? Petitioner is  not allowed to speak. Okay. Okay. All right. Next page. Number three, uh would approve a  rezoning in district three. There's a difference   again between MAPC and DAB. Um number four would  approve a rezoning district 2. Same thing in terms   of difference in recommendations. And number five,  I would approve a PUD amendment in district 1.   Once again, a difference between MAPC and  the DAS just for the public. That's the crown   uptown. Thank you. And again, public comment  or no public comment? No public comment. It's   my understanding of that. Um, next page um just  down towards the bottom 4 B and C. Those are two   contracts with real estate consultants to help  negotiate and acquire easements and property   uh that is needed for three different  improvement projects that we have. Next,   page 7A would approve a purchase of the building  at 332 North Riverview for the police department's   traffic section. That's a building that  the police has occupied and now will be   uh owning it. We have uh left the Oldtown  Police Station uh office. Is that correct? Yes,   that is correct. And they've moved into  this facility. Uh next page number 10   would approve funding for the development of  master plans for the water and sewer utilities. Next page number 13 would approve  the city's annual investment policy. Nothing on the remainder of that  page. Nothing on the next page.   Uh the following page, item 23  would approve an adjustment of   the city's boundaries to reflect  annexations that occurred in 2025. And then the last page, items 24 and 25 would  approve the sale of two public housing uh homes.   And number 26 would approve an amended budget for  the modifications to the airport security system. Um, mayor, that's all I have for  the sixth and then we don't have   a meeting until the end of the month, so we  don't have a preview for you at this time. Thank you very much. Just a reminder,  next week's council meeting is Thursday   evening at 6:00 p.m. Uh that is due  to elections being held on Tuesday   and so we're having our meeting on  Thursday evening and it's the last   evening meeting of the year. I'm not sure  when you want to take council comments,   but we also do have the EOC activation discussion  that will cover at the end. Council members No comments from council members. Very nice. Um,   happy Halloween. Mike is coming. Just  want to encourage everybody to have   a nice safe Halloween tonight. It's one of  my favorite. It is my favorite holiday. So,   love seeing the kids out there and watch  out for all the spooky people out there. All right. um reminder of how crazy  college hill will be. I was talking   to a property owner about 3,000  pieces of candy for tonight,   so it'll be pretty active. All right, with  that, I'm going to turn over to Chief Snow. Good morning. Um, with me today uh is um  emergency manager uh Julie Thompson and also   Ryan Ellis who'll lead us through a tornado  um scenario. Julie's going to do a really re   uh really quick recap of uh the October 10th  presentation in regards to um EOC activations   and then uh Brian will lead everybody through um  the table talk exercise. So with that, I'll turn   it over to them. I do have a sign-in sheet that  they would like for you to sign if you're here.   Um and I do also have some handouts if you forgot  to bring yours so you can follow along through the   handouts. So, thank you, Chief Snow. Good morning.  Our lens. Perfect. Okay. All right. As you said,   I'm Julie Simpson, Sed County Emergency Management  Director, and Brian Ellis is with me. He is my   operations manager, who is actually oversees the  emergency operations center a couple blocks down   the street. So, as we go through the scenario,  we talk about EOC. Brian is going to be your   main focal point if we do any kind of activation.  So, just kind of a quick recap. Uh we talked last   um last meeting about some statutes and why we do  what we do, what the different activation levels   are. Um you know, we can go to monitoring to full  activation. Um kind of talked a little bit about   what the roles and responsibilities for senior  and elected officials are during a disaster. We're   going to get out of the way, let our first  responders do their first responder craft,   and then we are going to be focusing on  the community recovery piece of this. Um,   so we're going to really focus our scenario  looking at that recovery piece because it's a   long time to recover and there's a lot of things  that have to happen mostly behind the scene. Um,   talked about policies. Okay. So before we get into  the scenario, um, I did want to communicate about   a recent tornado, the April April 29th, 2022  tornado that we saw did extensive damage in Per   County, did some damage to some houses in Cedric  County. Um, but it looked awful. It looked like,   oh my gosh, where's FEMA? We've got massive  destruction. We did not qualify for any   federal dollars. And I want to make sure that  is understood because the way that community   recovered was all local recovery. The funds that  were raised, over $900,000 uh came from 15 over   1,500 donors. That is the money that was used to  help people recover, to help businesses reopen,   to help homes rebuild, or to help people relocate.  So with our threshold, it is very difficult for us   to have enough uninsured damage or damage to  public infrastructure that qualifies us for   federal government aid. And that's not necessarily  a bad thing. That means we have the resources   um to to help us recover. But I just want to make  sure that that's understood. So although we had   200 homes and businesses damaged, the YMCA, of  course, we all saw that that was severely damaged,   that was an insured property, which is why that  did not count towards our uninsured loss. So,   as we're going through this scenario, Brian's  going to kind of walk us through that. What   does this happen if we have some damage right here  in downtown Wichita? Um, and just some questions,   some things for you to think about. Um, you may  not have the answers today, and that's perfectly   fine. That's what we're working towards  is to help answer those questions that you   might have as we go through this scenario.  Um, so without further ado, uh, I'll bring   up Brian Ellis to kind of walk you through some  things and talk about the EOCC operation stuff. Okay. Yep. Well, thank you everyone. So,  we're just going to make this um more or   less a a food for thought for you. So, if you  can imagine, we've had a tornado that has come in   from typically the southwest part of the county,  drops down in Wichita, and it affects several of   your districts. So, we've got several districts  that are in involved. we we will go to a full   EOC activation. So, as as Julie kind of alluded  to, that means we're bringing in everybody. So,   we're bringing in all of our emergency response  agencies, we're bringing in hospitals, we're   bringing in public works, GIS, we're bringing in  all of our mass care partners, American Red Cross,   United Way, Salvation Army, COMCARE is coming  in. And then we will also have our uh strategic   communications folks, PIO folks that'll be  coming in. And then of course as we go through,   we all know you all are going to want to know  what's going on because you can't be everywhere   knowing everything. So the thing that we want to  look at is a couple things for you to think about.   And this is the part to where if if you want  to know more, it's up to you to ask. If not,   these are just thought provoking questions for  you. So, if you're like, "Oh, I can't really   answer that. I need to look into finding that  out." That's where you can reach out to Chief Snow   with questions. We don't even have to know who's  asking. Um, you can reach out directly to us.   So the first question would be, do you receive  our civic ready notifications? Are you signed   up in the system to where either you're getting  activations from emergency management when we   do it? Are you getting it from when maybe fire  does their activations or EMS has the ability   to do their activations? So if you're not, that's  something that we would want to encourage because   then that would let you know, hey, something big  is going on if the EOC is activating to a level   one activation. Also, something thinking, yes, I  have all of the council members, city managers,   and the assistant city managers set up on civic  ready. So if I get notified of something that's a   major disaster that you need to be aware of, I'll  immediately send that out to you. So just FY. Very   good. So you as council members, the mayor, city  manager, how do you get notified that something   has occurred in your district? If you if Chief  Snow and her department is busy dealing with it   and maybe it's a while before she's able to get  that alert sent out or get a hold of us and say,   "Hey, can you send the alert on our behalf?"  How do you get notified? Are you getting calls   from your citizens? Are you getting calls from  each other because maybe it didn't affect your   district and you're saying, "Hey, just FYI, I  just got a call from my aunt or my cousin that   lives in your district and they said a tornado  just went through. Are you aware of it?" How do   you get notified? And then something we're going  to kind of tag team here at the end. What are your   roles and responsibilities as elected officials  when this happens? Um, now in your information,   uh, at the beginning, we had several slides  that talked about here's what the the state   statutes are, things like this, but where does  your role come in? Um, and some of those things   to think about, we automatically know that at  some point somebody needs to probably enact   some of your emergency procedures, which may be  deviating from normal spending habits. Instead   of having to get three quotes and all of that,  you may just be able to have a department head   go out and purchase that with a PC card. Um, and  depending on the nature, does that PEC card have   a high enough credit li or limit on it or does  somebody need to go in from your finance and   maybe increase that? So, and then also, how  are you finding out what goes on in the EOC? Now, we'll we'll be the first to tell you, and  it and it's it it's nothing against you and your   position. We really don't want the electeds down  in the EOC. I know you'll want to come and say,   "Wow, but we want to know firsthand." We've got  a place for you to go. We have a conference room   and we can bring up a TV and we can bring up what  you need to know. But what happens is we hope that   you're going to be focused on the whole city  where the EOC is typically going to be focused   on the disaster response. So, where we're going  with this is right now we're at the point we'll   simulate with this exercise. All of our emergency  services have already been activated. Fire   department's been out doing search and rescues.  Law enforcement's been out. They've shut down   streets. Uh put helped uh public works has put  up barricades. EMS has been treating patients and   transporting. So, we're at that point to where  now and and the thing to remember is with us,   if you think about it, you're one person over your  district, so to speak. And if this tornado comes   through and causes a lot of damage, do you think  everything's going to be done in 2 hours, 6 hours,   12 hours? Probably not. This is a multi-day  response. So from our standpoint looking at   from emergency management and our responders, we  go into what we call operational periods and we   will be taking our staff. The fire department will  need to take their staff and we'll go splitting   people. You're by yourself, so to speak. So,  are you going to be able to stay up for 24, 36,   48 hours because you want to know what's going  on. So, that's something to think about, too,   is how will you interact to get that information.  Uh, if it, you know, now maybe if you've got   partnering jurisdictions or districts, you may  say, "Hey, I've got to get a few hours of sleep.   I'm going to tell everybody if if they need you,  you tell them to call me for the next 6 hours and   I'll cover your district, so to speak, and things  like that. So, during that phase, we're going to   assume that we've went through, we've maybe been  working two or 3 days. Now, everything's starting   to quiet down from the emergency response. So, the  fire department is kind of going back to normal   operations. EMS, public works may still have some  things that they're doing. We know that utilities   is going to be out, but now it's kind of quieted  down, so to speak. So, the next thing that we're   going to have to look at is after that's done,  the destruction's still going to be there. We're   going to be doing cleanup, but now we're going to  need to move into the recovery phase. So Julie's   going to take it from here and kind of talk  about some more of those things, your roles and   responsibilities that you'll need to be thinking  about from a recovery standpoint. So before I go   into that, is there any questions for Brian about  kind of what we're doing with our scenario? Okay,   fantastic. Um, I'm going to talk a little bit  again about the 2022 tornado because it really   explains how recovery works. There's what we  call short-term recovery and long-term recovery.   Short-term recovery is getting essential lifelines  back to folks that they have a safe place to be.   Their kids are going back to school. Hopefully,  they're going back to work. But long-term recovery   is those permanent things of getting businesses  to reopen, getting somewhat back to a normal sense   of operations. Um the long-term recovery for  the 2022 tornado, the the tornado happened on   April 29th of 2022. We had a long-term recovery  committee, and this is kind of a best practice.   that's going into our recovery plans that we have  at the county. That was a multi-disciplinary team.   Like I mentioned, we did not have government  resources coming in. It was our own resources,   our donor resources to manage. So, this long-term  recovery committee was multi-disciplinary. We had   elected officials from all three jurisdictions  that were impacted. So, Cedric County, city of   Andover, and Butler County. Um, we had faith-based  organizations, we had local church, we had a local   bank, local insurance company, and a couple of  the private businesses. Together, we managed the   cases or I shouldn't say managed. The United  Way took the fiscal responsibility to manage   the donor funds. That's what they do. That's what  they're good at. Um, and they would bring to us   what the needs were of the community. What were  the unmet needs? What was insurance not covering?   Who were uninsured? Who needed assistance? And  we did this anonymously. They would not tell us   information about who they were. They would just  tell us the situation. We have a family of four,   lost their house, lost their vehicle, didn't have  names, we didn't have addresses because we wanted   to keep that very subjective and very objective.  Uh but it took almost three years to get through   that workload to get people back on their feet.  And there's still some unmet needs out there,   especially with insurance cost and the cost to  rebuild. So almost three years that we had this   this committee coming together to manage cases to  make sure we were getting resources to people who   needed to get back on their feet. Um, so I bring  that to you because that is a long-term recovery   and the cameras are gone, people don't think about  it. I I like to call recovery as the forgotten   phase of disasters. Uh, but when you have a  community in need and needs resources to get   back on their feet, that's where this group comes  in. This is where we make sure that we're giving   them what we can to to get back on their feet.  Some examples may be, you know, maybe we extend   due dates on bills, maybe we wave some building  permit fees, or, you know, overtime hours may get   relaxed during um response and recovery. That's  the policy decisions that have to come from the   elected bodies and senior officials. That's  nothing Chief Snow, Chief Sullivan, or myself   make that make that call. So, that's why we're  out here having this discussion is to kind of get   that thought process going of how prepared do you  feel to be able to take on that role if something   like this were to happen here in Wichita. Um,  like I mentioned, um, it's a long-term process,   almost three years. Um, I don't really have  the donors. Uh we were very fortunate in the   tornado where we did not have a lot of uninsured  losses. We had some but it wasn't enough to meet   the thresholds. Now right now a lot of discussion  is there maybe raising the thresholds even higher   where it's going to be even more challenging to  qualify to even apply for federal assistance. And   I bring that to you because we hearing it all over  local response, local recovery. So we want to make   sure our local jurisdictions and local electeds  and local senior officials are ready to take on   that charge if something happens. So that's the  goal of this discussion and I know we're kind of   doing this kind of peace meal. Um ideally I would  love to maybe have 30 minutes with um maybe at a   joint government meeting to actually go through  a full presentation on recovery and what does   recovery all entail? There's a lot to it but um  I won't be able to get into the details today.   Um so anything did you have any question? Yeah.  How confident are you in the short term recovery?   What do you think the capacity is as far as  individuals affected by a disaster that we   could handle efficiently at this time? Short-term  recovery I'm fairly comfortable with. Uh between   um now it is circumstantial. Now if something  bad were to happen and we've got our hotels full   because we've got a big event that looks a lot  different than you know our normal day-to-day.   So assuming we don't have a NCAA tournament you  know if we've got our hotels but our non our   VODs our volunteer organizations very well to do  temporary sheltering. We're very prepared. A lot   of memorandums and a lot of agreements with local  churches and schools for that temporary sheltering   sheltering. Uh but like long-term housing, I am  concerned. We've got housing challenges as it is   now. And you throw on, you know, potentially a few  hundred people, even up to a thousand people. Now   I don't have a place to stay. It's going to be a  challenge to manage and we'll have to be creative   and we'll have to work with some partners to make  that happen. Thank you. You just mentioned uh   temporary sheltering. When you say temporary,  what's temporary? Can you give an amount of   days or weeks? Uh, I'm going to say weeks. Um,  again, it's circumstantial. Um, ideally, if we   use local hotels, um, it it it is up to kind of  the memorandums under between like the Red Cross,   Salvation Army, and United Way based on what the  agreements are with the local churches, schools,   and hotels. Uh, so I don't have a concrete black  and white answer on a set deadline. Um, it also   depends on the needs of the community. Things  can always be extended in times of disaster. And something to think about too, if you know, you  would think, okay, this affects, you know, think   of maybe an area in one of your districts and um  you may say, oh, well, I know that approximately   2,000 people live in this area that was affected.  So, we're going to have to find shelters that will   handle 2,000 people. to tell you the truth. And  by volunteering with the Red Cross, I know you're   lucky if you will get 10% of that population that  will actually go to a shelter because most of   them, not the not necessarily the stigmatism of a  shelter or having to sleep on a cot, most of them   are going to go where they've got family or they  got friends that are maybe outside of the area   that they can actually go stay with because then  they know they've got meals, they've got a shower,   they're around people they know. Um so a lot  of times when we think of that that's why short   term we say we can usually handle fairly easy um  because we can use schools um churches and then   two part of that is where we really have to work  is okay right now we know schools are in session   so if a tornado happens on Friday night yeah the  school may say oh yeah you can use my gymnasium   over the weekend but guess what we've got a  basketball tournament on Monday we need the   gym back. Same way with churches, you know,  yeah, we can let you have it during the week,   but we've got services. Um, so we run into  some of those things, but uh short-term, yeah,   we're we're good with that. It's the long term  finding, you know, cuz you figure if you have two   two to four two to 300 houses that are destroyed,  where are those people going to go? Do we have   enough openings in apartment complexes and housing  and, you know, things like that? And that's where   one of our our next challenges is starting to get  together with our chambers of commerce um because   they're going to know the people to to reach out  to and then work with our realtors, you know,   uh to get those contacts to where we could reach  out and say, "What do you have?" And they go,   "Oh, well, we've got 20 properties listed.  We could probably work on that." If I can,   there's two things I want to talk about. First  of all, um when we had the tornado that hit uh   southeast Wichita and what was the Oaklawn? Yeah,  Oaklawn Panera Mobile Home Bar. So that that was a   great example of how quickly people responded.  If I remember there was a school that was No,   I think it was a church was a school of church  school was identified and then Red Cross and I   think I can't remember who else was there. They  rolled up trailers pretty quickly and were able   to serve food. I don't know if a lot of people  actually took shelter, but they did take some of   that assistance. Um, and so I think the mechanism  is is in place and they mobilized pretty quickly.   The other thing I wanted to ask, if we could  take a few minutes, can we go through the EOC,   who who's in the EOC in terms of city staff, and  then can we talk about the room that's set aside   for the elected officials? And then I think it'd  be good to review again the kinds of decisions   the c the council would be asked to make uh during  those uh that early time of response and then even   as we get into recovery and then uh the the role  expected for the mayor um as a spokesperson for   what's happening and for informing the community.  So, if we could go through all that, I think that   way everybody in this room would have a better  understanding of how that I'll let Brian kind of   go over the EOC setup and then I'll talk more kind  of about the mayor and some of the roles. So, in   your in your packets, a back page. Okay. In your  packet, you would have received this is our map,   we have 21 workstations in our EOC. Um and if  you look at it, our back row is typically our   uh what we call our first response partners. So  in that um we have Wichita Police Department and   Wichita Fire are stationed back there. And I  want to let you know too um you'll notice all   the yellow the highlighted areas where Wichita is  included. Each one of those stations actually has   a city of Wichita computer there. So anybody from  the city of Wichita would be able to log in to the   Wichita network, get to their drives, get to their  files, whatever. So that was done by design. Then   our second row is is kind of our our support.  Uh so we've got hospitals, we've got transit,   so we could pull in Wichita transit. Um we've  also got USD 259 um that we can pull in. And   then the utilities, we have a city computer there.  Typically, that's where we're going to hope that   like energy, Kansas Gas Service may come in, but  realistically, they've told us we're probably not   going to come to the EOC. If you need information,  call us and we can tell you, give you an update,   but we're they're going to be working out of their  own EOC, so to speak. And then, uh, Wichita Public   Works and Utilities has the other, uh, station  there. And then in our public information office,   uh, Wichita Strategic Comm has a desk there that  also has a computer. Now, that does not mean that   especially when you look at our our first row,  like I said, of our uh mass care partners, um,   as you'll notice the the desk that says finance,  typically that's our Sedgwick County finance.   So, how do we incorporate with the city of Wichita  finance? Typically, they have not come to our   office or come to the EOC. Um whether that's by  design or just maybe they didn't think they have   been invited. I would strongly encourage on this  one, there's probably going to be a lot of things,   challenges, you know, overtime purchasing.  it might not be a bad idea if somebody from   Wichita Purchasing did come and sit at that desk  and we have other computers in there to where even   if Sedgwick County Finance was sitting there if  say you know 259 didn't show up or transit wasn't   needed per se they could sit at that desk and be  able to log in and every one of those desks has   a generic login so even if you know Mayor Woo  came and s that down at any one of the desks,   the Salvation Army desk, she could log in using a  generic login and she could get to the internet.   So if she needed to get if she could get to, you  know, resources, you would still have that access.   I had a question. So I know it says transit,  but immediately I started thinking um we have   rec centers and often times they could they're  located all around our community. So really   that could be instead of saying transit I say  it's a city of Wichita department CO department   just because I don't know has that been activated  before where we open up for instance a rec center   if for emergency reasons we just need a big gem.  Yeah, we've had the opportunity to do that but I   don't think we have in the time I've been here I  don't think we've used uh any of those types of   facilities. Normally we're covered. I I want to  clarify what we're talking about with transit is   transportation. our bus services, right? Um the  rec centers that is all worked through the front   row with American Red Cross, United Way, Salvation  Army. They're going to be contacting rec centers,   senior centers, churches, all of those areas  that can be used for sheltering, warming centers,   cooling centers, whatever the needs are to  have people go to a safe place. So, they're   represented through those three organizations  that already have that relationship. I don't   want to complicate this too much, but this is a  centralized coordinated response for the county,   which includes our city, and this is a great place  to be. But there's also, I think, a desire at   times to be on the scene or close to the scene.  And chief, you want to talk about how you would   set up your operations and then what the council's  role could be if they do go to the scene. Here,   we're going to need you for decision-m. That's  why getting to EOC is important. But I know that   you're also probably I'm going to use the example  of the airplane crash at Eisenhower. And at that   time, we had council members, the mayor that  wanted to be there. In fact, the mayor and the   fire chief were not just local spokespersons,  but they had national press conference and they   were making comments. And so may we talk about  the role of on scene presence versus here and   how we provide guidance on where we need the merit  council. So um if we go back to the airplane crash   one of the things that we did well first of all we  have the field com unit. The field com unit what   it's been designed for is that's where the command  staff will be. We'll we'll set up a unified   command there and then once we get on scene and  we find an area in which we can secure like for   example in the plane crash we found a open hanger  and we set that up for elected officials for the   media and it was an opportunity you could uh it  was an opportunity for for constant communication   between the field com unit on what was going  on in the field and um you so that you could   stay a breast of whatever was going on and help  make decisions that you needed. needed to make at   that particular time. Um, and we would do exactly  the same thing. The the issue is you got to give   us a little bit of time because we have to figure  out what's been affected where the damage area is   and let us find a spot for you. So, initially  what should happen is if you want to be right   in the the m the mix of things, you need to go to  the EOC where they where they provided a spot for   you. stay there and then as soon as we can get you  on because I truly understand you know wanting to   know as soon as I can get you into the assessment  as I mean to the scene that I can I'll bring you   in there and we'll set up a place for you and uh  then we have the media there we continue to we do   like u Brian said we set up operational periods  and they're normally set up at 12 uh 12-h hour   operational periods but we can give you constant  updates we can give you an update every 30 minutes   we can give you an update every hour as things  change, we will continually keep you in the loop   and part vital to us because I can't make those  decisions. A lot of things that happen there is   on your your folks level and at the EOC we also  set up that joint information system or the joint   information center where we are planning media  releases and we're planning those locations. So,   the city of Wichita, the county are coming  together if we have a PIO from the fire   department, if we have a PIO from the hospitals  that we're all working together at one location,   uh, communicating the similar messages. And  like, Chief Snow, we're going to get you out to   the disaster scene once we they tell us it's safe  and we have secured routes. Um, I know during the   tornado, myself and and my deputy director at the  time, we escorted our commissioners through. Um,   so we fully understand. We want to get you out  there once we know the scene is safe and that   um give you time to talk to your constituents.  Of course. Yeah. That initial I would even say   and and I know it it it sounds like a long  time but that initial two maybe three hours our our mercy crews are going to be scrambling.  They're not going to be really thinking about okay   where's this? So the the thing I would encourage  you is your strategic comms people should be part   of our joint information system. They have access  to our logging system in the EOC. So they can see   everything that's being posted from our emergency  responders and their task is really watching that   log and that's where they're building a lot of  their public releases to put out and they're   talking to all those partners. So if it involved,  we know that we had, you know, heaven forbid it   was a tornado that happened during the day and hit  a school, they're going to be reaching out to the   school district and say, "Is there any bullet  points that we need to add to this?" So they're   going to be coordinating that. So you as electeds,  that is probably going to be your best mode of   information in that first three hours is working  with your strategic comms. And that's where you   can actually fire that information back and say,  "I'm getting a report of XYZ. Can you confirm or   deny that?" Um, they're going to be the ones to do  that because even within the EOC, those 21 deaths,   they may not even have that information, but  our PIO folks are going to be gleaning it from   everywhere. And one thing is they they can go out  to the scene, too. So, even though we're saying   that the EOC is a joint information center, we  fully recognize the media is going to rush out to   the scene. They want the shots. they want to talk  to folks. So that again is a quick coordination in   the EOCC that says okay Wichita communications are  going to go out here we're going to meet the media   on you know third and Broadway. Um so just because  we're saying that joint information is coming from   the EOC we fully expect to dispatch or deploy  our public information officers especially those   initial hours that keep the media at bay and that  would be certainly something if the mayor elected   officials want to be together and have that  joint messaging that can certainly come from   that EOC coordination. And I'll add to what Ryan  said when you talk about the Oakland tornado. It   was a good two hours before we actually knew what  we were dealing with. Yeah. And and you know, we   have all this technology and you invest a lot of  money in and it's great, but drones at the time,   we had drones. We had a drone. You can't put  a drone up in the wind. There's certain flying   things. So, you know how we got our information?  You know, I have crews boots on on the street to   be very honest with you, but they're they're  looking at what's there in front of them.   they can't see the big picture. And if you want to  know how we actually found out what kind of damage   we actually had was Evergy. Ever is really good  on where the power's out. And that's what told us   how big our damage actually was. So we use a lot  of different resources to gather the information.   It takes us a little bit of time to get that. And  I do want to assure you guys, we we do a lot of   training and exercise with our partners. This  is all the stuff that keeps us busy behind the   scene when we're not responding to disasters is  doing training and exercises with our partners,   setting up shelters and uh setting up processes,  doing EOC drills, that kind of stuff. So,   um we certainly invite you to as uh calendars  allow to join us through some of those exercises.   We'll we'll do some communication especially with  our full scale exercises. Uh the airport should   do a full scale this year. They do it every three  three years. So, uh that gives you an opportunity   to really truly see all of the phases. One thing  I want to talk about with recovery, we talk about   finance and administration. Part of the recovery  piece, you have to start documenting cost and   hours right away. If you don't do that, you're  creating a nightmare down the road to backpedal   to recover those costs that is going to go into  that disaster response and recovery. So again,   that's something even though our firefighters,  our law enforcement, EMS are doing life safety   measures right off the bat, we need administration  to start thinking about how are we tracking the   cost, the time, the overtime, all of that stuff.  and that's where we come in with policies and   city policies and county policies. Um, so that's  the focus almost from the beginning. Of course,   we're going to care about our constituents.  We're going to get you out there, but even   before that happens is what are we doing to start  documenting this stuff? On the issue of drones,   do we have something worked out where because  we have some no-fly zones around the city close   to the airports and close to McConnell. So, if  there is a disaster in that area and we do need   to get drones up in the air, is there some sort  of agreement to where we can do that in those nfly   zones? Yes. And we can also establish no-fly zones  as well to that we can have drones but no other   um no private drones and that type of thing. Um we  got a lot of drone capabilities. I want to say you   it's almost a challenge right now for us to get  a feel of how many agencies have drones and how   do we work together and how do we kind of manage  that. Uh but yeah, we certainly have through the   drone piloting process and FAA and all of that,  they've got things worked out for them. Okay,   thank you. And a thing to think about too is  and our civil air patrol. Our civil air patrol   is a huge asset here in the resource and we're  doing a lot more training and things with them,   but they have a very good drone. Um and that's  part of their mission is damage assessments,   getting up in the air as soon as they can to  to give us some of that feel. And even though   we we kind of probably alluded that if a tornado  happened in Wichita, it's going to be on Wichita   to deal with it, that's not necessarily true. Like  I said, we're going to have county resources that   are going to be part of that. And as as Chief  Snow can attest to, if we get to the point to   where we are taxing our resources, and the thing  to remember is a lot of people think we've taxed   our resources when we have no more fire trucks,  no more EMS units, no more police cars available.   That is the wrong time to think that you've out  that you've outdone your resources. Our emergency   responders are going to be thinking ahead of time  because that tornado occurred here, but guess   what? There's still fires occurring. There's still  EMS calls occurring, things of that nature. So,   when we say that you've taxed your resources, we  are actually saying they have no more resources to   be able to put towards that event without running  other essential services short. And at that point,   that's where our we reach out to the state of  Kansas through KDM and we can make resource   requests and we can start getting resources from  outside of the county that will will come in and   they can either come in as part of the response  or they could even come in and set we could have a   fire truck from Garden City come and be sitting in  a city of Wichita station with a city firefighter   and they could run calls. They all fight the  fire the same. They just need to know where to   go. So there's a lot of resources. So it's not  you by yourself. Yeah, that's the excuse me,   that's the power of the EOC and the coordinated  response. We did that with Andover. EOCC let us   know that they needed some help, convey that to  the chief and we were able to provide equipment   and and people to Andover and those resources  would be available should we get hit. Uh and the   suburbs didn't. When was the last time we've had  full activations at the EOC? Would those have been   um I know Andover tornado was really more  Butler County, but uh would then the next   one be the plane crash at ICT and then Oaklawn  tornado. Um we did the um plane crash, we did a   partial activation. So that was such a unique  situation because we did not have a response.   We had an immediate recovery. Um so we brought in  as soon as we started realizing what the needs of   the community were, it was more the mental health  resources and the comfort care. So, those are the   ones that we brought in to the EOC was anybody who  um maybe had a close relationship with the folks   that may have been on that plane. Um we brought  in like the chambers of commerce to find out what   businesses may have a hard hit. Um but we did not  bring in all of the firefighters, the police or   EMS because there was no first response. Julia,  sorry, I think I was talking about the plane   crash at Oh, I'm so sorry. I was thinking 5342.  That's been on my brain. Yes. Um, so we actually   have an EOCC. They have an EOCC at the airport  and we will have one of our representative,   one of our department staff go in there, but if  we have an accident in, we will fully activate. We   only have done that during exercises. Thankfully,  we have not had a I don't know about the incident   that we had with the flight safety building.  Um, I was not here for that. I don't believe   we activated for that um situation. I think it was  man. The most recent ones would have been the the   tornado and then the next recent one which wasn't  a full activation was May of last year when we   were supposed to have tornado getdon and we only  did a partial activation. We we've called in all   of our emergency response agencies and everybody  else was optional. If it would have kicked up and   we would have started seeing the tornadoes  then we would have went to full activation.   But fortunately everything fizzled out and  we were able to send our partners home. So   those have really been the only one. So the the  tornado Yeah. was the last one that was a full   uh activation and over. Yeah. And yeah, the  2022 tornado we did for CO that was just as   I was getting here. So there was activations, full  activations early on when this was kicking off and   then we kind of whittleled down. Um, but yes,  a plane crash that would happen here. And and   reason we don't say we're going to have all of our  operations out of our EOC is because the FAA and   the airlines really responsible for managing that  airline accident. So, we don't want them leaving   the scene to come to our EOC. We're going to go to  their AOC and when they need our local resources,   we will coordinate out of our EOC. So, we're  kind of operating out of two different centers,   but still working together in a collaboration,  if that makes sense. We we also want to make   sure that we are not pulling resources to  come to this building. If we can go out there   and still coordinate resources and keep them  there where they're needed more, we're going   to certainly do that. Um, but again, something  that just kind of happens downtown, we're right   here down the street. How do you coordinate with  Artic then, the real-time information center? And   then how will you coordinate with the new fire  emergency communications down in district 3?   Well, first of all, the doc center is just  our internal operations. It's the one that's   uh going to be down in district three. That's just  internal. It doesn't it's for us to set it when I   said that we set up, you know, up on command. So,  like the plane incident would be an uh they where   to hit the fire the flight safety building. We  would have, you know, we have command there at   the actual incident. That's what we refer to as  our operational section. But we have all the other   parts of that that need to be taken care of. We  have to have our planning section, our logistics   section, our finance section. They talk about  that that in the dock center, which is what we   refer to. It's not an EOC. It's just for internal  operations. We would be coordinating all that,   getting those things ready. We would send that  information to the command center. The command   center to keep coming back. It's just a way for us  logistically to keep ourselves organized and get   the resources that we need, address uh priorities  as far as response priorities and so forth. That's   and and a lot of your departments will do that  internally. I know the police department, they   will set up their own kind of command center, too,  but all they're doing is taking the information   that they're getting from the command post. If  they're saying, "Hey, these are areas that we need   to send officers because we're starting to get  reports of looting or something," then they kind   of do the logistical piece saying, "Okay, we'll  take these officers from here and move them to   here." Public works is another one that they will  establish their own kind of command center. Now,   they don't run the scene. All they're doing is  gathering information from that unified command   which hopefully they're giving us information  in the EOC and we're providing information   back to them. Like if they're saying we need 20  dump trucks from wherever we're calling getting   those and saying, "Yep, you're getting 20 dump  trucks. We've got five coming from Butler County,   four coming from Kingman, whatever." So that's  that's how that that would play. So it's it's   each department may have their own kind of  command center that they're doing the moving   the pieces and parts so to speak, but that all  ties into the to the the unified command. Do you   guys have an idea of the resources available to  each department ahead of time or is it more when   you're in the situation, how many dump trucks  does everybody have available? for example,   we're relying on those departments to tell us. So  like public works, I'm not going to know how many   public works, how many dump trucks. I'm going to  be reaching out and say how many dump trucks. So   if we're hearing we need 50 dump trucks and I  reach out to you as public works and you say   we only have 20, then that tells us in the EOC  we got to find 30 from someplace else. So we   don't we don't we don't have the capability to be  able to keep all the resources. We just know you   tell us what you have, what you need and then we  fill that gap for you. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So,   council member Holheister. So, prime example for  us, one of the things that we do is Bleckley has   always been an issue for us with the rain. So,  we know that we need barricades when it when it's   predicted a lot a lot of rain. Then we're going  to try we're going to be proactive. You know,   we pay attention to weather. We're going to be  proactive. We're going to get barricades. Well,   I got two resources. So, I can go to public  works and I don't know what they've got going   on because they use, you know, barricades to, you  know, throughout the city and my second resource   then is is um parks and recreation. They've got  barricades. So, so internally what I'm doing is   I'm gathering that information. If neither one  of those can give me what I need to block off   Bleckley, then I call the EOC and I ask the EOC,  hey, I need barricades. and they may be able to go   get them from public works or we may reach out to  a private contractor, private control systems and   say we need need to rent or will you provide or  do we just do it and and that's where too in the   EOC we have a uh a vendor immersive vendor book  and a lot of contracts have been already set so   we're not giving that oh yeah we'll come out and  help you and their normal rate to you as citizen   may be $80 an hour, but they say, "Oh, this is  an emergency. We can charge 160 an hour." No,   we've got a lot of established contracts to where  even if they come out, we're only getting charged   this much. I will share this. This emphasizes the  important training and exercises though. Although   we don't have like a hard black and white count of  capabilities, when we're exercising and training   with our partners, we are determining what  our capabilities, what our gaps and shortfalls   are. So, it shouldn't never be a total complete  surprise that we don't have enough dump trucks   or enough barricades. We should already kind of  have an idea that if we get to this level, we   already know we're going to have to start making  some phone calls. So, again, it's that emphasize   of of that partnership and just training and  exercising, using our resources and identifying   those gaps ahead of time. I wanted to be mindful.  I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say I want   to be mindful of everybody's time. I was want to  make sure that we wrap up and but that we address   any immediate questions. Yeah. uh just one along  that that route. Do we get that detailed in our   exercises or our drills? I'll give you a sneak  preview. Probably February, March of next year,   we are going to be doing a full EOC activation  exercise. And one of the components that I may ask   Chief Snow to close her ears uh is going to be um  resourcing. So, if we have an event and you know,   a lot of times we play and we think, "Oh, we've  got all the fire trucks, all the ambulances we   need." We're actually going to be tasking each  of the agencies to where if they say, "Oh, yeah,   we dispatch five fire trucks." Okay, we take five  fire trucks out of play and then something else   comes in and we take and pretty soon they're going  to get to the point to where hopefully they've   been tracking. We're out of that. So, we're  going to be doing some res resource management   a as part of it. And I if you would like to come  and observe, uh we can definitely include you uh   on that list to where you can come see. But it's  going to be uh a full ELC activation where we'll   have all hopefully all 21 um desks filled with  somebody. And I'll reemphasize. I think that you'd   asked earlier or somebody had asked, "Well, what  if parks department is really heavily involved   with this? I don't see where they can sit in  here." If we need to bring somebody in, we'll   ignore the desk. We can bring them in and they sit  in an empty desk. We've got extra computers we can   bring out. Or if they bring their own computer, we  we've got a conference table. we will make room if   we need to pull an agency in that is not a normal  agency. And then just to kind of wrap things up,   this this is meant to kind of get that appetite  going to ask these questions. Um we'll certainly   come back as many times as we need to to continue  these discussions. Um again, invite you guys out   to training and exercises. The biggest ask I  have is really encourage your department heads   to participate in these training and exercises so  we can identify our capabilities and shortfalls.   Um and then anything we can do to help you prepare  to make those policy decisions. what have we   seen in other disasters? I'm one of those lessons  learned kind of persons. Anytime anything happens   massively across the country, I'm getting after  action reports and I'm pulling in lessons learned   to make us more prepared. So, um that's our job  is to help you prepare for those those bad days   we hope never happen. Um so, yeah, I I don't know  when we'll we'll come out back, but we'll come out   as many times as we're invited to. I would like to  do like a joint government, you know, 30 45 minute   discussion presentation about recovery because  again, that's that long process. as there's   decisions and policies that need to be considered  in that process. There there's discussion in 2026.   So maybe after an if they get an opportunity  to present in an en banc um then after that to   do some short like after city council agendas uh  maybe you know twice a year or four times a year   we come out and just open up the discussions for  you know what questions you have um how can we you   know better enhance the the the community and and  your cognitive skills and and so forth. So that's   what we'd like to do moving forward. My challenge  to you is okay when the response is over and we   are in recoveries. Who is the person or persons  that we are coordinating with? How are we managing   our recovery? It's not going to be Chief Snow or  Chief Sullivan because they're the first response,   but who is going to help us lead that recovery  process? And that's kind of my challenge into   thinking of what department or what agency or what  persons would that be. And if you get question,   I know Julie has attended several of your um  breakfasts in some of the districts and things   like that. If you get questions that are being  asked and uh you know where like if we had this,   how would you guys react or how would you and  you're like I really don't know. reach out to us   and let's let's open up that discussion and maybe  that's something we hadn't thought of as an issue,   but we need to talk about it and then we can try  to come up with an answer to where you'd be able   to get back to uh your citizen or constituents  and say here's what we've got planned or this is   what's in the works. So you'd mentioned drones.  We're getting ready to have a drone meeting with   all of the agencies that have drones so  that we can coordinate those efforts. So,   a lot of things going behind the scenes. Just ask  us. And I do want to thank those who have invited   me out to those community breakfast. It's gone  very well. And I've been requested to come out   for other groups. Uh definitely encourage that.  We love talking to folks. We're doing senior   centers. Um we're going to be talking to some  rec centers and just how do we get our people   prepared? Our community recovery is really based  on how prepared our people are as a community. So,   that's what we're here for. Chief Julie Brian,  thank you so much. Appreciate it. And thank   you for letting us go a little longwinded today.  appreciate your time. So, yes, Bob, I had a quick,   I guess, legal question. So, in an emergency  situation, if a majority of the council is there   and official actions or decisions are being made,  is a special meeting called or is it retroactive   approval at the next council meeting? Yeah, great  question. Um, I don't see Jennifer here. I believe   there are some exceptions for emergencies. Um,  and the worst case scenario would be you make   a decision that you would then verify or ratify  later. Um, or that we would be um, depending on   where we are. The EOC press probably wouldn't be  involved, wouldn't be allowed, but um, we could   maybe even find a location if we had to, you could  be back here if but most of the time what I would   expect is you'll be making some decisions at the  OC and then we would bring it back and ratify it. Good question. Thank y'all. Thank you. Thank  you. Happy Halloween. Yes. Thank you. That's   a year seven question, right? Seven years  and above. Yeah. Has that ever happened? Is   So that was a viable question. I meant to ask it  when we were there, but I was like just so much