Saturday, July 7, 2007

SLT City Manager's report -- July 6

CITY OF SOUTH LAKE TAHOE
Electronic Version

July 6, 2007

MANAGEMENT OBSERVATIONS

“It is immensely moving when a mature man (today we would appropriately say man or woman)-no matter whether old or young in years-is aware of a responsibility for the consequences of his conduct and really feels such responsibility with his heart and soul. He then acts by following the ethic of responsibility and somewhere he reaches the point where he says: ‘Here I stand; I can do no other.’ “
Max Weber

“A friend in need is a friend in deed.”
Source Unknown

ANGORA FIRE – WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES!

This has been an extraordinary period of time for all of us. The Angora fire is a tragedy for the people who lost homes and have been displaced. City employees have been victims along with over two hundred residents of our community. While much of the fire damage occurred in the unincorporated area, City government elected and appointed leaders are working to ensure a prompt and complete recovery process. The people affected are our friends and neighbors, and they must believe that all levels of government are working on their behalf.

Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi told us when he visited the Emergency Operating Center during the crisis that State government (both he and the Governor) promise a cooperative State government to assist us with the recovery effort. He cautioned us that recovery will take time. He advised us not to over promise the time line for full recovery. Even under the best of circumstances recovery takes more time than we want it to even as we work diligently to make the recovery process occur as fast as possible.

The recent action by the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors to take responsibility for initial hazmat removals is a good step. I’ve tasked the Director of Housing and Redevelopment to assign a staff person to assist City employees with their recovery effort. Mr. Palazzo assigned Cathy Kope to help them through this recovery process. The Economic Development Manager Camden Collins is assisting by identifying sites for donated food and materials storage for victims.

The response to this fire by the USFS, CDF, City Fire, Police and non-emergency personnel, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department, El Dorado County Environmental Management, Lake Valley Fire District, the states of California and Nevada, the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, other states and local governments, allied fire and police agencies, the American Red Cross, insurance companies, Heavenly and other fine businesses and corporations has been phenomenal and humbling. The response to the fire by local governments and allied agencies proves that we as a community have many wonderful friends (throughout California and Nevada) who care about us and support our survival.

Over the next few weeks, City government leaders will be moving aggressively forward with initiatives to make our forest and community fire safe sooner than current Federal plans and regional agencies call for or allow. City government leaders will work toward and expect full cooperation from all regulatory agencies to ensure that the forest and our community is made fire safe to the extent that this is humanly possible. We all want to work cooperatively and effectively to ensure that a fire of this magnitude does not occur again anywhere in the Basin. We must continue to coordinate and collaborate with the Nevada fire safe councils within the Basin as well. They are source of reason and support of our initiatives.

The threat of fire must be reduced significantly as the best approach to protecting the environment and protecting lives, property, wildlife and our economy. Fuel reduction cannot wait ten (10) years just as the recent fire vividly illustrates for us. Fire knows no timeframes. We have a fire emergency threat that must be addressed whether we call it and emergency or not.

The loss to private property alone is estimated to be over $175 million. The cost of fire response for this incident is estimated to be over $12 million. Wouldn’t an investment of these dollars in prevention been a better in hindsight? Are we now capable and willing to seek additional funds from the Federal government to make the forest safe from fire?

All Federal and State regulatory agencies must recognize that fire poses the greatest single threat to the environment and a far greater threat than allowing an aggressive fuel-reduction program in the Basin. Fuel must be removed and removed now. Time is not on our side and all efforts must be made to reduce fire fuels rapidly and completely.

We also want to ensure that existing artificial construction time period presently in place for rebuilding homes (May 1 – October 15) must be re-thought, re-examined and changed to assist those who lost homes to rebuild sooner than later. The current restrictive building period has no relationship to reality. If the weather is bad one doesn’t build. If the weather is good, people should be allowed to build.

Within the City limits, City government must and will move rapidly to make our community fire safe as well. All publicly owned lands in the City (whether Federal, State regional or local) must be made fire safe. Private property owners must be allowed and encouraged to make their properties fire safe and hazard free and the process must be made as simple as possible.

Finally, the outpouring of love and support of our community during this disaster has been inspirational. There was no ego or turf getting in the way of the community demonstrating their support of those who fought, responded to and assisted in the response to the fire. I am tremendously proud of our community and our friends and neighbors in adjacent communities. The fire was tragic and the loss real. We must do all we can as government and the community to ensure that it never happens again.

GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER COMMITS CALIFORNIA TO COMPREHSNIVE REVIEW OF LAKE TAHOE AREA LAND MANAGEMENT
July 5, 2007 – “Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the state’s participation in a California-Nevada Joint Blue Ribbon Task Force to perform a comprehensive review of land management practices associated with conditions that contributed to the devastating Angora Fire. State Senator Dave Cox, who represents South Lake Tahoe, requested the task force to be established. He and the Governor toured the fire zone with a group of officials on June 27, 2007.

“Now that the Angora Fire is contained, we must take every step to prevent this disaster from happening again, and we owe it to the victims to create the best land management practices that will lead to a healthy forest in the Lake Tahoe Basin,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “I am pleased to join with Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons to find solutions to the serious issues raised in wake of the Angora Fire.”

In response to the Angora Fire, Governor Schwarzenegger visited the Lake Tahoe area twice since it began last week.

Yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger sent a letter to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) requesting that El Dorado County be declared a disaster area in order to provide SBA Disaster Loan Program assistance to Angora Fire victims. The request was granted today and will qualify victims of the Angora Fire for low income loans of up to $200,000 for homeowners to repair or replace their damaged or destroyed primary residence. Also, homeowners and renters are eligible for up to $40,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed personal property. Businesses of any size and private non-profit organizations may borrow up to $1.5 million to repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory and other business assets. The loans are available for homeowners, renters and business owners whose property was damaged or destroyed in the fire.

As a result of this disaster, El Dorado County proclaimed a local emergency June 24, 2007, and subsequently requested state and federal assistance by a separate proclamation issued June 25, 2007. In response to El Dorado County’s request, a proclamation for a State of Emergency was issued on June 25, 2007. Governor Schwarzenegger also toured the fire zone to see first hand the devastation that was caused. The also Governor announced the establishment of a Local Assistance Center to help provide state and local services to assist victims displaced by the wildfire, suffering property loss and economic and other damages.

Governor Schwarzenegger also issued two executive orders to help victims of the wildfire recover. On June 27, 2007, he issued an executive order to assist individuals that suffered losses by waiving fees for replacing state documents lost in the fire including vehicle registrations, driver’s licenses and birth certificates. He issued another executive order on July 2, 2007 to help victims clean up and rebuild as quickly as possible by streamlining, and in some cases suspending, certain state rules regarding the removal and disposal of both hazardous and non-hazardous debris as well as dead and dying trees.

The Angora Fire began on June 24, 2007 in the North Upper Truckee area in South Lake Tahoe, California and was fully contained on July 2, 2007. The fire burned a total of 3,100 acres and destroyed 254 homes.”

The formation of the blue-ribbon commission came as a result of a letter written by State Senator David Cox to the Governors of Nevada and California requesting formation of it. The letter was supported by Assemblyman Ted Gaines. Both our State Senator and Assemblyman and their staffs continue to provide excellent support of the South Shore on important public safety matters.

Congressman Doolittle’s tour of burn area and meeting earlier this week with City and County officials demonstrated his concern for the fire victims, desire to see a rapid recovery, and support of making our Basin fire safe.

The support the South Shore received from the Governors of California and Nevada and their administrative personnel was outstanding.

AIRPORT TOWER

The Lake Tahoe Airport was a key component of the USFS and allied agencies response to the Angora Fire. Fire officials and community leaders have made it clear that the airport provided and essential public safety function during the disaster.

Mayor Kathay Lovell addressed a letter to the Regional Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration on June 28, 2007 asking for Federal funding of the airport tower during the “fire season” this year. The FAA Regional Administrator William Withycombe took immediate action to initiate a review of the request and forwarded it to their DC offices for review. FAA help and support of the Lake Tahoe Airport continues to be outstanding.

MEETING OF JOINT FACILITIES COMMITTEE

A meeting of the City Council and School District Ad-Hoc Committee on joint facilities will be held on July 13, 2007 to go over the draft cooperation agreement.

HIGHWAY 50 COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS

Staff is bringing forward to the City Council at your meeting of July 17, 2007
Agreements with Caltrans for the transfer of property to the City and maintenance of improvements made in the first phase of the Highway 50 safety, environmental protection and beautification project.


DAVID M. JINKENS
City Manager & Director of Emergency Services

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Recently, I went to look for the red cross to get blanckets and towels from the red cross and I was told ALL of the donations the people in the comminuty donated were moved OFF the mountain? why?
I was told they were donated to the boys club of Reno? Why cant everything be placed in a hanger at the airport for storage for the victims? some people have been busy just trying to get familys back together and the city moved on in less than 2 weeks?

Kathryn Reed said...

Can you contact me directly at tahoekae@yahoo.com to talk about this ... please and thank you. ...