Good afternoon.

It's time for our public safety committee to commence.

Adam City Clerk, would you just call our role, please?

Chairperson Sipia.

Councilmember Sipia.

I'm here.

Vice Chair, Councilmember Hall.

Here.

Councilmember Joyner.

Present.

And Councilmember Andrew Bowen.

Yep.

Thank you so much.

We don't have a very, we do have a full agenda.

However, we will we don't have consent agendas, but we will just get started with G1.

If you would read that.

Item G1 resolution authorizing grant acceptance and agreements for Forsyth County Driving While Impaired Task Force with Winston Salem, Forsyth County, and Kernersville.

Chief Penn, if you would uh handle this, good afternoon, Chair Scipio, members of the committee.

While you refer to me as Chief Penn, I am Officer Penn today.

As there's a new chief in here today, that'll be Chief Charlie.

So he's going to defer to me to talk a little bit about this, and I think he has something to say.

So this particular item is one we we do every year.

This is a formation of the task force with Kernersville and the Sheriff's Office.

The DWI task force goes countywide, and they enforce DWI.

So this is just, I think it's the 16th year of that, so it's just something we do annually.

Thank you.

Are there any questions?

Um we have new committee members, but this is uh one of the things, ways we we actually fund many of our services through the grants that we get from other agencies.

Uh and this is just a continuing, it's not a continuing resolution, but we do have to vote on accepting this.

So don't have a thank you, um Chairwoman Scipio.

Don't have a specific question about the item in front of us, but wondered um if there could be a um a point of uh privilege, personal privilege for the new chief to be able to say something to us maybe after we vote on this item or even uh now yes, I think our new chief uh has something to say to us.

Chief Charlie I'm he I'm here to protect the citizens of Winston Salem.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief Charlie.

We're absolutely so proud to have Chief Charlie today serving uh in that capacity.

We look forward to his continued support of public safety and making sure that the citizens of Winston Salem are taking well care of.

Thank you, Chief Charlie.

He's a fourth grader, and we're looking to have him uh be Chief of Police in the future, perhaps 20 years from now, or a little more.

Thank you, Chief Charlie.

Uh, can we have a um motion?

Move to approve item G1.

I second um the motion is properly moved and seconded.

We'll just any other discussion.

None.

We'll have a vote.

Thank you.

Um before the chief sat down, I I wanted him to uh give a little update on to our residents on some news he sent out, a news release.

Uh sometimes our residents need to be reminded of some of the things that people are experiencing and our recommendations on how to handle that.

So, Chief Officer Penn, uh, would you please talk to us about that message that you want our citizens to know about?

Right.

Uh thank you for that.

Unfortunately, there are people in our community or even outside of our community who are always trying to victimize um our good folks in this community, and the scams are one.

Traditionally, they will target our uh our senior citizens as well as others.

And we just had a couple tips that we wanted folks to remember.

Number one, if it sounds too good to be true, it is high pressure tactics.

If someone's calling you and they're asking you to make a decision immediately, in particular asking for money or personal information, that's the time to stop and punt.

Unconventional payments, wire transfers, uh, those are not normally ways that a legitimate business would ask for any type of payment, suspicious messages, uh, poor grammar, unclear language, all lower case letters.

Uh, it's a good chance that that's that's somebody who's trying to scam and any unfamiliar company.

I I encourage our citizens don't be afraid to ask for a callback number for a supervisor.

What you'll normally find on when that occurs is the personal hang up on you.

They don't have time to go through all of that.

So just that reminder that this is always occurring, and as always, the police department will never call you and say that you have a loved one in jail and ask for money to get them out, and neither will any legitimate law enforcement agency.

Thank you, Chief Penn, for reminding us that we really have to do our own due diligence.

One of the biggest things to public safety is it starts with us individually.

So being mindful of the tricks that criminals are using is very important to keep them top of mind.

So thank you for the notification of the different scams that are going on.

Uh Councilmember Hall.

Thank you, um, Chairwoman CPO.

I was gonna ask Officer Penn um with the information that you just shared with us tonight, well, this afternoon rather.

That information also um the police department social media page, maybe and working with our marketing department to get something out like that.

Yes, ma'am.

There's actually this was a press release from the police department.

So yes, yes, is on is on our page.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Officer Penn.

And we'll continue with the committee.

Uh item G2.

Item G2 Ordinance Amending Chapter 38, Article 1, Section 38-10i entitled Possession and Discharge of Firearms of the Code of the City of Winston Salem to allow state and or federal wildlife officers to discharge rifles for the purpose of eliminating deer and wild turkeys within the boundaries of Smith Reynolds Airport until August 19th, 2028.

Thank you.

We're gonna have a presentation by our from our city attorney's office, Jerry Contos.

Good afternoon, public safety committee members, council member Burke.

Uh I'm Jerry Contos, Deputy City Attorney.

Uh as you know, uh the city currently has an ordinance 38-10i, which allows the discharge of firearms, in particular um shotguns and rifles for the elimination of deer and wild turkeys uh within the boundaries of Smith Reynolds Airport, as it currently reads that ordinance with respect to the firing of rifles, uh is set to expire on August the 19th of this year.

Uh in years past, this ordinance has been amended on a one-year basis to allow the discharge of rifles to continue.

The county has requested uh this time a three-year extension, which would take uh this to August the 19th of 2028, and so before you for your consideration, uh is an ordinance uh that reads uh uh as proposed by the county.

Thank you very much.

Any uh comments on this?

Ms.

Byrd.

Thank you, Chairwoman.

As um attorney Conto says, uh, this is uh an ordinance that has been in place since 2019 because uh uh discharging firearms within city limits is uh a violation of city ordinance, so they have to make this request.

They've been making this request since 2019.

Uh the request was made to me June 18th, 2025, and the request was for uh a permanent change to city code or another temporary code as we have been doing since uh 2019.

I spoke with uh the director, Mark uh Davidson at the airport on Thursday, and I just wanted to make sure that we're still in agreement with what the property owners have asked me to green light on their behalf a 12-month extension.

And his email that I can share, I have copies for the uh committee.

It says, as we discussed on the phone, I am in support of a 12-month extension in regards to the wildlife provision to the city code.

Uh we were at the airport today for a great celebration.

The ribbon cutting for the um renovation uh for the airport terminal.

There was a huge turnout.

It was just uh just amazing, and it's been a long time coming.

I had the opportunity to sit beside my colleague, Councilmember Joiner, and as we sat and looked out the great big beautiful glass window, I pointed out to her all the vegetation along the runway on the other side were the homes of property owners in a community called Northwood Estates.

Northwood Estates has hundreds of homes, but right there, bordering this property, the runway property, we have about 78 homeowners, 78 properties right there connected to the runway.

And as the elected official for these property owners, again, they have given me the green light.

They don't have a problem with the 12-month extension.

But to go beyond that, and that was not the request of the county.

Remember, the request was for a permanent extension or another temporary extension.

So I respectfully ask one of my colleagues on this committee, because I am not on this committee, to make a substitute motion to amend this ordinance to extend through August 19th of 2026.

Thank you.

I was going to be waiting for acknowledgement.

Would you like to make Yes?

Um thank you, Councilmember Scipio.

Um, based off of that from Councilmember Burke, I would uh be amenable to make a substitute motion to um section 3810 of the City of Weston-Salem um code to amend the um to amend the um date for extension to expire on August the 19th of 2026.

I think that should get us within that 12-month period that maybe you expressed that uh the property owner uh agreed to before.

Second.

We've had a substitute motion and a second.

All in is there any discussion?

I do have.

Okay.

Um in the timeline that we've had since 2019, I believe, um, has there been any instances of any kind of incidents with with the weapons?

Uh making their way into when they're shot, making their way into the neighborhoods that are nearby.

Like are the houses being shot?

Are there any is there any danger that we've heard of that's that's happened?

That's my only concern.

I don't know.

I don't think so.

That's never been brought back to the council.

We have renewed this every year that it comes for renewal uh again on a 12-month basis.

Councilmember.

Thank you.

Uh my question would be is this the change asking for three years as opposed to 12 months?

Is that more of a convenience?

Or uh was there some other issue?

I may defer to the manager's office on this as um to my understanding the uh uh chair and councilmember.

The the county as uh as councilmember Burke said uh has asked for this to be extended uh basically put in as permanently for their standpoint if you if you're aware operating on the airport properties, they airport and large wildlife uh do not cohabitate well or airplanes.

So this is a a typical ordinance that is at airports all over the country in terms of having to try to control the wildlife around an airport area.

Um it it's up to council's discretion as to how long you want to do it.

I think the the intent was that since 2019 to now, as was mentioned to our knowledge, there have been no complaints or concerns that have been expressed.

So it is a from a matter of the airport or the county and the city staff, it would be more convenient to do it as a longer term, but you can do it as a at any any length of term that council desires.

Yeah.

Any other comments from our committee members?

Councilman.

Yes.

Ms.

Burke, yeah, speak.

Um I don't know of any issues that have occurred, and we don't want to have any issues occur.

But I think that we must be accountable to the citizens, especially the citizens who have properties that border this runway.

And if there uh should be a change going forward, they should be involved in making uh that change.

Their voices should be heard.

And so far, they have given me the green light for 12 months and not three years.

Thank you.

One of the things I remember this coming up was that we do have wildlife at the airport.

Uh the turkeys and the deer.

Um it must be controlled for the safety of the use of the airport.

Um it was has not, to my knowledge, been a problem with the the neighbors.

Um I think they only do this about once a year to bring down the herd of animals.

Um one respect, I see this as a convenience to the county, not having to get our permission every year.

Um but have the authority to go ahead and do that.

Um I I would be more inclined to go with the three-year extension because it's going to happen every year.

It's just one of those things, unless there's something that happens that needs to come back to the council to adjust it.

I think we could certainly do that.

Uh, but we do have are there any other comments before we take a vote?

Okay.

We have a substitute motion on the floor voting for um changing it to 2026, 12 months.

All in favor of that, please vote.

All right.

So it moved forward.

No.

Now was that the substitute motion?

Yeah.

For the substitute motion is yes.

The substitute motion is to change it to 2026.

That that's what we're voting on.

But the substitute motion.

For the all in favor, raise your hand since there's is there all of 2022.

2026.

Did you say yes?

Yes.

Okay.

So it it was correct on the screen.

Three to one.

The substance is I am in favor of.

I am in favor of.

I'm in favor of.

Yeah, it was correct.

Yes.

Okay.

So we will move with that.

That uh 2026 would be the new date.

Thank you very much.

And we'll now go to G3.

Item G3, resolution to adopt the Northern Piedmont Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan.

Chair, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Uh if I could have the slides, please.

Going to briefly go through what is a very large document.

Yes.

You receive some information on.

Oh, does that clear work?

Okay, thank you.

Um I think just a reminder on this plan, what it is.

Excuse me, Mr.

Vernon.

Would you please introduce yourself?

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm August Vernon.

I'm the director of the Winston Salem for Scythe County Office of Emergency Management.

Thank you for being here.

I think this is the first time you've actually appeared before this committee public safety with new people.

Yes.

So I just wanted to make you aware of this plan uh, which is a lot of data and information.

Uh this plan is designed for emergency management, it's designed for planners, for insurance purposes, higher education, and they've pulled a lot of data together.

We're very fortunate for the past few years, uh, at least we're on year 10 to 15 with this.

Every five years, we we come before the all nine municipalities and the county to get this approved.

Um the state has funded this through a grant.

We've been very fortunate that.

And so we are included with several other counties that you can see on the map.

Real quick, why do we mitigate?

Basically, mitigation is the process of trying to reduce the impact from all the different risks and hazards we can face out there, whether natural, technological, or human cost type of incidents or events.

And we identify what those risks are and develop strategies to lessen our vulnerabilities.

And you can see a lot of the data on there shows us that for every one dollar we spend in mitigation at a large scale, we save six dollars on trying to recover from those events when they occur.

The benefits of this is it does support prevention and protection, which is a never-ending process.

When we have an event occur, it eases our response and helps us try to speed up recovery.

And always our goal is to create more resilient communities.

The purpose of the update and every update we do, one is to look at our changing risks as our population and infrastructure can continue to grow.

Our risks will change.

Again, we're looking at trying ways to improve our community resilience.

And obviously, an important part of this is a lot of the federal recovery funds we receive before, during, and after disasters, including the community rating system on our flood insurance and many others after a storm.

We have to have this plan approved.

And this is one of the benchmarks that we have to meet to meet those goals.

And of course, we want to ensure our community is prepared and all our partners.

This was not done in a vacuum.

There were several public meetings, met with government officials multiple times, met with our public safety agency partners.

There is a lot of work over two years of work that goes into each one of these plans when they go through the planning cycle.

Sorry how it looks on the slide there, but these are the uh action categories that have to occur within the plan.

And again, a lot of this is where we are following the FEMA guideline.

Uh, one is prevention, trying to prevent these from occurring, uh, protecting our property, both current and future building.

Public education awareness is um you know something we're always trying to work at and improve on, and we continue to do that, it never ends.

Our partners and public safety and eMERGE services, natural resource management, and again any type of major structural projects that are occurring.

And under each one of these, there's a lot of action items that have to occur.

So this is a snapshot.

Again, there is a high volume of data and mapping and GIS and analytics in here, but this kind of gives you a snapshot of how we look at some of the risk that it could occur.

And obviously, in the Piedmont triad, what they call high risk looks at how many times this has happened, what is the impact, how long does it take to recover?

Obviously, after the significant cyber event uh that the city faced, that moved it up because once you've gone through one, we know the risk is higher.

So typically that's always been a moderate risk that moves up, and every one of these can move up and down every few years.

Uh the excessive heat we've seen this year, tornadoes and thunderstorms, we know what is called inland flooding is an issue.

Obviously, going through the COVID-19 uh moved infectious disease up to high risk.

So, again, all the different risks we face.

Uh, this is one way you have to do planning because it's impossible to plan for everything all the time.

And this is another way to look at the uh process, which is how they prioritize them, uh priority of risk index, the PRI score there you see at the end.

So there is a process.

What's the impact?

How would we be impacted?

How's it has it occurred before?

What was the impact?

What resources do we have compared to some of our other neighboring communities?

We're very fortunate here in West Sanford Syth County to have a good amount of resources, public safety and otherwise, to respond and plan and prepare for these events.

So, part of the process, and we do have an appendices that is about another 600 pages of all the citizens' comments that have to be documented, all the comments from government officials, uh, several online surveys and other things that took place, and this is what the citizens uh addressed as some of their concerns.

Number one being infrastructure vulnerability, uh, natural disaster preparedness, cybersecurity threats, and resource accessibility during crisis, and then always public awareness and accountability.

These were sort of the key areas, and it was interesting to note uh out of all the surveys across seven counties, the highest number of participants was from uh Winston-Salem.

So it is a tremendous amount of information.

Certainly glad to go through more specifics with you if you you'd like to at a later time.

But this is how the plan has to be broken down.

I will not bore you with all the details.

Part of the plan, which is what I have here, the update with all the data and information, which includes the improvement plans and corrective actions we can take.

Some of them we also have to have the appendice, appendices that we are required to have, which you can see some of the data there.

So overall, it is a over a you know eight to nine hundred pound uh pound page plan with a lot of data and information.

So where we're at now with this plan, uh what we kind of what do we require, what's your involvement with it?

It the way it's presented to us, FEMA has approved it, and the State Division of Emergency Management has approved it.

And sort of the final step that has to happen is we're now working with all the municipalities and for Scythe County.

Uh some of my staff have already been appearing before other boards with the other municipalities, but what we really require is approving the plan for the city in Weston Salem, implementing the plan, which is done through your departments, who again are partners with us in these efforts, and really advocating for I would say mitigation and community resilience.

What questions do you have on this plan?

I have uh a couple one great question.

Okay.

I have two great questions.

All right.

Not really a question.

Um it's a question.

In the mitigation action plan that has the various steps in it, um, one uh action says to equip an emergency shelter with an alternate power source.

And the implementation status um talks about displacement of individuals, but it also says that shelter locations include Winston-Salem for Scythe County schools.

Is um does the public know that in case of emergency our schools become shelters?

We do share that information, and and the way it works here, because we uh you may hear other places will pre-designate a shelter.

We don't do that because of the number of locations we have.

Uh the area you pre-designate, say this building is a shelter, well, then this is the building that loses power, is flooded, right?

Is impacted by some other incident.

So if we're going to open a shelter, uh, typically the first thing we try to encourage and suggest, especially after COVID, is people try to go find friends, family, neighbors.

Uh, also we have other community groups that step up, a lot of churches, it just really depends on where the events are at.

So depending on where the events are at, it could be other government facilities, potentially sometimes it could be a school, or but if schools in sessions, and that's a little more challenging to do.

So, what we'll do is put out where those that location will be depending on the event.

And it's really uh incident specific where we would do that out.

But since the plan calls for it, I assume there's some agreement with the facility uh with the school system.

Yes.

That they've already agreed that that can be a location.

Yes, because those shelters, uh, it's been several years, but the American Red Cross has to walk through every location.

And then my my big question is um, if there is a catastrophic event, internet is lost, television is lost, um, people just can't communicate with each other.

How do we get the word out that here's what you need to do?

That's a good question.

So there's a couple ways that we day to day we're always putting out information.

Uh, number one is our local media.

Uh, just want to go ahead and we have really good partnerships with our local media and and work with our marketing communications team.

Uh also we've learned a lot less people use uh you know the 6 p.m.

news versus social media.

So social media continues to grow and grow and grow, and we continue to try to access those platforms.

In case of a worst case scenario or crisis, there are two systems within the city and county.

One in the county is called Code Red, and the other is a system, a newer system in Weston Salem called Smart 911.

And what those are systems, it is an opt-in.

We we can't force people to sign up for things, but we have system where they can opt in if they so choose and can receive alerts, whether landline, email, uh, cell phone, those things.

Our biggest partner in a lot of the weather alerts is the National Weather Service.

And no matter what happens with the power going out, infrastructure going out.

Example, if you see a tornado watch or the past couple weeks, we've had an overwhelming amount of severe thunderstorm watches and warnings.

Those come out of the National Weather Service Office.

And those are what the media use, what we use.

For those that are on the city's RAVE Alert system for staff and employees, you probably got a lot of those during those storms.

With the National Weather Service, what we always encourage the public to have is what is called a NOAA weather radio.

Even if cell phones go down, even if the grid goes down, the NOAA weather radios are on their own independent radio system and will continue to work.

Obviously, you have to put batteries in them and make sure they work, and they're very low-cost alternative.

We're all very reliant on our phones, and our system is pretty reliable, but in a crisis, the NOAA weather radio is a great tool to have, even if everything else is going out.

So we encourage people to to go look at putting those radios at home, at work, in their churches, places of residence, apartments.

Um we do have the capability, and the only time in my 25 years we've had to do it, obviously was during weaver fire.

There's what is called the wireless emergency alert system.

That's what your amber alerts will come over and some other events.

We can very quickly through the state get a message out.

You know, obviously it has to be a large enough event for us to do that, but 24-7, they can help us do that.

And example, we had to do it on top of everything else we were doing, trying to get the message out during the weaver fire.

We we did make the decision to send that out in a message went to about 10,000 people on their uh cell phones.

But it's also important to note when we did that, there were still people that did not get the message, uh, and that's always going to be the challenge.

And and last but not least, everyone remembers their the radio or their television doing an emergency alert.

We can trigger that if we have to, but that would have to be a pretty significant event for us to do so.

There are a lot of steps in there and things that we can do, but as always, we we would encourage the public to try to be prepared and resilient as possible as they can.

Thank you so much.

I you know, we don't ever want to have something that's major, catastrophic, but we also have to be prepared.

And I think that's the key to make sure people know they've got to get prepared before they absolutely need it.

That goes for our city employees as well as all of our residents.

Um I think this is uh really a wonderful presentation today.

And any other questions, concerns?

Okay, let's start with uh Councilmember Hall.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember CPO.

Um I wanted to ask about code red, and I just saw something like that on social media.

I think um Ed McNeil, our former um communications um director at I think it was his voice, but I say all this to say one thing that I I didn't opt in yet.

I plan on opting in.

But I want to know whether or not it was specific to one's geographic region, or if that's just city county wide altogether, but is it specific to the code?

A good question.

The Smart 911 uh is for the city.

Code Red is for the county.

Okay.

So that's that makes sense.

That's to why I heard that.

And people would need to go.

I would encourage you to opt in wherever you're at.

Okay.

Definitely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, my question is uh actually a follow-up from Councilmember Sipio.

Are there multiple facilities that would house that had the possibility of housing large numbers of citizens that do have um generators already at those spaces?

Such as the school that no, no, there's not.

So we um that's some of one of the things we have to look at when the time comes to pick a location.

What we do ask, because again, that that is uh there's a tremendous cost with trying to put the large generators at all multiple locations.

What we do ask for people to look, including through mitigation planning, is what we call a pre-connect or a generator hookup.

So, example, a building like this large that doesn't have a generator at two in the morning in the rain, you're trying to hook it up to a generator.

That that's kind of complicated, and you need electrician to do it and to make sure it runs all the infrastructure.

So some of the facilities we look at would have generators, uh, some do not, because we can order in generators, though there's a little bit of a time delay on that.

But we do ask people at least have a pre-connect, which obviously cost is a whole lot lower than trying to maintain a generator.

Now, especially our facilities that need it, our nursing homes and rehab facilities.

We we certainly encourage all of them to have generators so that they have backup when there's an ice storm, a power outage, whatever it may be.

But that's that's again through mitigation that we continue to try to advise people to over time to build those resources, including generators.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

No.

Um thank you, Mr.

August.

One of the other things is that it's important to know who's included in emergency management.

I remember the weaver fire.

Uh, and I believe our police went into the neighborhoods and did door to door to get people evacuated.

Is that right?

Uh, yes, uh, our two departments here that we work with with the city, not just them, but our two public safety partners, both police department and fire department that night, as we're telling everyone else to evacuate, uh, they did need to go into the community, door to door, bullhorn, down every street.

Uh, and we did hit most of the streets out of hundreds of them.

Um, they did have to go to that environment and trying to get people to encourage them to leave.

And so, again, they were, and that was just the first night through the week-long event, they were uh great partners, and a lot of things happened behind the scenes that were not seen.

They did an outstanding job.

And the other partners in emergency management costs it's more than just you.

Uh you just are the face.

Uh, but I assume it includes our fire department, excellently.

Absolutely, and uh, I'll talk about this in our my next presentation.

But we we we have over a hundred partners within the region, the city, the county, a lot of the even city departments agencies we work with on a very regular basis.

And I think that's important for residents to know that no department works in isolation when it comes to an emergency.

We really it's one of the times when people work together, and uh there's a command center, and people follow the orders that are given to actually have a positive outcome.

It's not uh renegades, but it's all about community in emergency management.

And I do thank you so much for your leadership as I thank our police chief and our fire chief because you guys are really central to making it work when there is a calamity that we're facing.

Um there any other comments from committee members?

Well, this is a motion we need to uh adopt this uh plan.

Do I get a motion?

So move.

I second.

It's been moved and properly second.

Uh we'll have a vote, please.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

And I think it's important to note that uh Chief Penn and Chief Mayor are okay dudes in my book, and we all do get along pretty well.

Which actually doesn't happen in some jurisdictions.

So thank you.

Uh so now we'll go to G4.

Item G4 presentation on emergency management.

So very briefly, this is just a quick orientation to what the Office of Emergency Management does.

We operate behind the scenes a lot, and I think sometimes there's misunderstandings of what our our team, what our office does, and I certainly need to give a shout out to my team of four others uh that are not here right now, they're off doing other things.

But um, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this.

One thing that is important to note out of the entire state of North Carolina, 100 counties, us and Charlotte Mecklenburg are the only two that are a joint city-county department.

Um typically these are all run through uh the counties only.

So a quick snapshot of some of the things that we do.

Uh, number one training every year.

My staff and I, we conduct numerous classes on everything from what's called incident command system to active shooter to hazardous materials to plane crashes to meth labs.

We teach a lot of those classes.

We also coordinate state and federal and regional classes.

Uh right now we've got some federal cybersecurity courses that have been going on that one of my team members have been coordinating regionally.

Uh so we do a lot of training.

A big part of what we do is public education.

We're always open, willing, and able to go present to any community group to talk about 72 hour preparedness and how you can prepare for a crisis and disaster.

So we continue to do those every year.

Planning, we are involved in various planning for everything from A to Z that you can imagine with our local business partners, our regional partners, our hospitals, our health care partners, our public safety agencies.

There's always several planning efforts that are going on at any given time.

We also participate in what are called exercises.

And what an exercise is, think of it as a war game.

We do participate in those every year.

We've had some this year where including police department, fire department participated in everything from what we call a tabletop exercise, which is a room like this, to we have responders in the field that are doing things.

Also, our team, the response, we maintain an on-call duty officer 247-365.

I was duty officer last week.

And we also will respond to incidents across the city and county if it's large scale enough.

Or we can do a virtual meeting or a phone call.

Just a lot of different ways we do that.

Also, if we know there's really really bad weather and we don't need to stand up an operation center, but we'll put two people on calls duty officers.

Also, with the coordination and collaboration, we have in what is called the City County Emergency Operations Center.

And the emergency operations center is a physical space where we all come together, whether it's 10 people, up to 60 or 70 from all our partnering agencies.

We've had people in for a variety of incidents and events that we will stand up our emergency operations center.

Right now, our primary emergency operations center is at 301 North Church Street at the Forsyth County Public Safety Center.

We also have alternative backup sites that we we have moved to at other times depending on what's going on in downtown.

So we maintain both the operations center and what we call the Situation Room, which is a smaller version of the Situation Room, which is up and running all the time.

So we maintain those two for coordination and collaboration.

Also on coordination, we maintain relationships, as I said earlier, with over 100 agencies from law enforcement, fire, EMS, public health, health care, regional, state, 911, school systems, nonprofit, non-governmental.

It's uh our list of partners is pretty extensive, and we're always working to keep that list uh maintained because all those groups can come into play depending on the incident or event that impacts us.

So this is just a snapshot.

I picked seven years since that's uh how long I've been back as director, and you can see all the things that have happened here in our area.

Uh multiple hurricanes and tropical storms.

It's hard to believe this, but we have had ice storms uh in the past, pretty significant ones.

We've had significant snow events which have gridlocked the county.

We have had some very serious flooding incidents, and and as always with flooding, I give a shout out to the Winston Fire Department and their team, which we've had to use a lot locally, and we're fortunate they're able to deploy to help our surrounding communities.

Uh Hurricane Helene deployments, myself and two other of my team members deployed up to the mountains, including other our other partnering agencies here of the city.

We were able to go and assist them, and that system is designed that way.

They were impacted in western North Carolina, but the next time, if we're impacted, they will come and help us.

Obviously, COVID-19, we were involved with public health extensively on that.

The Weaver fire, we did open what was called a coastal mega shelter at the LJVM Coliseum several years ago, and we had 600 people housed for over two weeks at the Coliseum.

That took a pretty uh extensive partnership with Wake Forest University to do that.

Unfortunately, we've had you know human-cause man-made events like a school shootings, uh, we've had plane crashes, the major cyber event.

Anytime there's very large events, again, you don't see this happening, but very large protests, large concerts, other events, uh the NASCAR race.

There's a lot of planning and things that coordination that take place in the background with our partners.

Uh anytime we've had presidential or campaign visits, we'll work with the planning for those events and obviously NASCAR is a recent example.

There was a lot of planning that took place behind the scene to make sure we had a safe and successful response.

And that's not even a list of everything that's happened the past seven years.

This is just sort of a visual uh aid or visualization of some of the things that have happened the past few years.

Um the Weaver fire, we've had other large fires since then.

The picture in the bottom left is the Clemens tornado.

I think that's important because due to some quick alerts, those houses that were destroyed, there were people in those houses that were given notice to get to their basement.

And uh they had about 30 seconds, but no one was there were no fatalities from that storm in that area.

Obviously, flooding uh can continue to be an issue, and then we're fortunate to have two major transportation quarters, I-40 and US-52, but that means there's a lot of hazardous materials going up and down the road, and we unfortunately have accidents or incidents like that that you can see there where we have to it takes a large response to to recover and clean up from that.

Just in the past three weeks was uh just trying to think uh we had the we went from one extreme to the next.

We had extreme heat planning.

Uh obviously there was a lot of conversations around that.

We spoke to the media a lot, a lot of community groups about ways that could try to plan and prepare for that.

We also responded out to uh Alamance County with that pretty extreme flooding they had from Tropical Storm uh Chantel, and um they're in the snow camp area in Mebben and a couple other areas.

And then three weeks ago we had what was referred to as a micro burst in East Winston off Augburn Avenue, which initially was reported as a tornado.

Uh so we had a very large response out there to make sure there were no injuries, which there were not, and but there was some damage to some of the community out there.

So there's uh I always feel like I'm full of bad news, but there's always things uh happening.

So, real quick, how does all this work?

And there's been a lot of misinformation about this recently at a national level.

How it works in the state of North Carolina and most states is we have a hundred counties with a hundred emergency management offices.

We typically will handle any major incident or event with the resources and agencies we work with locally.

If the need exceeds what we have locally, that's when we then reach out to the state or state partners through the division of emergency management.

If the state becomes overwhelmed, which can certainly happen, that's when we reach out to the federal emergency management agency and federal partners.

So there's this process that we go through.

Honestly, we don't want to have to see the state or the feds because then that means it's at a level that we can maintain and handle it locally.

So a few things about that.

Our planning, as as of right now, states we will not see any federal FEMA support for at least 72 hours.

We we are the planning is, and you have to be ready to be on your own for at least 72 hours.

And I think there's been some misconceptions recently that FEMA just rides out on a fire truck that says FEMA to respond to communities across the United States, and that's that's not how the system works.

Um, and we recognize that and understand it.

FEMA is never really in charge because like us, they don't have the constitutional legal authority to be in charge.

They their job is to coordinate like we do.

There's also what is called the Stafford Act.

This act requires federal help to come only when it's been requested.

That way they just don't show up and create more mayhem and confusion.

So we are operating under the Stafford Act.

After Hurricane Katrina, there's what is called the Post-Catrina Emergency Management Reform Act, which because of some things that occurred with Katrina, uh, allows FEMA to take some proactive actions.

So, example, with Chantel, with Helene, we were hearing from FEMA, they were doing some minimal movement of resources around and getting ready, which is a good thing.

They can pre-stage and do some things to get ready.

Also, with the FEMA process, um, cities and counties cannot directly go to FEMA.

And one reason why that happens is because you then have 10,000 cities trying to reach out.

That's why we have to work through this process from the county to the state.

We would ask the same thing here when we have events in the county.

We don't need nine municipalities and 30 agencies trying to reach out to the state.

That all funnels through us to try to coordinate that and keep those uh lines of communication open.

So this is what we want.

It keeps disasters locally led, state managed and federally supported, and that that's what we want to happen with this.

Again, I think probably the most uncertainty that we're looking at right now as far as the emergency management at both the local, state, and federal level is uh funding.

There's a lot of confusion and misinformation around our funding.

We we do receive funding for a wide variety of projects, both post-disaster, pre-disaster, uh operating funds, training equipment.

There's a wide variety that are related to public safety and emergency management.

Some of this is reoccurring, uh, some of it is you know a one-time deal.

So right now there's some new information coming down the hill to us, but that'll come to us from the state.

We will get an update actually this week on Friday about some of that funding.

But again, that that's probably been the biggest point of uh confusion and uncertainty is about what's going to happen with the funding.

And so obviously, as you know, it's hard to plan and prepare, not knowing what's going to happen with that.

So for this distinguished group.

Uh some things to think about.

What can happen in a crisis?

How can you assist?

And I know we have some new members.

Um we're always, you know, wanting to share this information.

But really, it's just understanding how government responds to emergencies and disasters.

You know, what does that mean?

What does that look like?

Being aware of what resources are available that we have both locally and resources that we can call for.

And we have had some major events where we had to call for help from the state and the feds.

And being aware of what type of assistance we can provide and what assistance we cannot provide.

So I think these are some of the elected officials' roles and responsibilities in a crisis.

And just as this work never ends, uh, we're continuing to work on planning training and exercises and all the other efforts that are ongoing.

Three kind of three items we're looking at major for key work items for us in the upcoming year.

And my my team is we're certainly continuing to take a look at what is called COOP or continuity of operation planning.

And what that means is if this building got flooded or damaged for a week, how would everyone in this building continue to work for a week?

You know, we learned a lot of this on the fly during COVID and some other events, but we're certainly looking at a more enhanced robust planning around that.

And that's a lengthy process, but we are looking at that.

Our office manages what is called the emergency operations plan that is due for a rewrite, and we are working on that now.

And here in the next couple months, that emergency operations plan, which is the hundred thousand foot view of how the city and county would respond to a major disaster, that too requires board approval, and we will be bringing that forward for you to look into you.

And as always, we're trying to continue to enhance that emergency operations center and that situation room that I told you about is is risk and hazards change and infrastructure changes.

We'll continue to try to improve that.

So that is uh a quick snapshot of what emergency management does and what questions would you have?

I always have questions.

Um what's your primary source of funding?

The city and the county.

It is a 50-50 split.

Okay.

Uh and then the state and federal are specific to disasters or an events.

Some of some reoccurring annual funding that we have to do with a lot of benchmarks with the state.

We're subject to audit.

There's tasks we have to accomplish, so some of that funding helps us think of our normal day-to-day operations and operational budget.

And then there's others that could be around training, around exercises.

It really depends on the specific grant.

So the slide that you said, elected roles and their responsibilities.

Could you give us a cheat sheet for that so that we'll know exactly what to say to people so it's not up to our interpretation of what is actual and what is real?

I would certainly be glad to do that.

That would be very, very helpful so that we are all on the same page with the same information and not assuming something.

That would be great.

Absolutely.

Any other questions, concerns, things you always always wanted to know about emergency management, but you were scared to ask.

None.

I had this presentation in October.

It was nice.

Okay, great.

Well, thank you, Vernon, very much.

Thank you very much.

Very good.

We actually are at the end of our meeting.

Uh, Council members, do you have any other questions, concerns, thoughts, or anything you'd like to say?

Before we um end, I would like to say thank you, Chief Penn for Oh, I'm sorry.

Officer Penn.

Thank you so much.

For uh and Chief is sitting there beside you.

You might ask him for permission to answer this question or take this.

But anyway, Chief Penn, thank you so much for um oh, I'm sorry.

Officer Penn and Chief Staff.

Uh thank you so much for all you did recently with the homicides we had in our city.

Um I want to say that community safety really starts with residents, and uh I applaud you for taking a stance that for young people who are under 18, they are not legal adults, that their parents are still responsible for them, and that it's up to the parents to make sure their children are acting appropriately in all situations.

Um so I thank you for that.

Um that is something that's a major step, and uh uh new chief.

I want you to get the word out to all of your friends that they need to behave, do what's right, because it starts with you and your friends.

So I know you'll be a great ambassador for us to get that word out to your peers because it really matters, and I I thank you, Chief.

And I'm so happy we have a a chief with us today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh and Chief Mayo and all of our wonderful firemen and the staff of the uh fire department.

Um we don't always take time to say thank you.

We take you for granted, like we take our police officers for granted.

We take that you're gonna always do an excellent job every day.

Uh and we thank you.

Um we thank you because that's the greatest thanks we can give.

And we also want you to constantly know it never hurts to use this committee to tell the public things they need to know to prevent fires.

And because that that is important.

We don't tell people enough.

Uh I don't know about you guys.

You guys might be too young, but I remember growing up where there was always Smokey the Bear, only you can prevent forest fires.

So only the residents can prevent in-home fires.

Only the residents can prevent homicides.

We just need to make people remind them that that's their responsibility so that we can have safe communities.

Thank you so much.

And uh Councilmember Hall.

Thank you, uh, Chairwoman Scipio.

I just want to echo the words that you said and um to uh show homage to uh Officer Penn uh for his leadership and also for um with all of our um folks in public safety do for us throughout the year um whether they receive the thanks or not, but um particularly um want to acknowledge the way that I have seen community to show up within the past um week and a half, I would say, in doing even um stops on the street with signs and honk if you were wanting to stop gun violence and um people doing the back to school events and um unfortunately even folks that are doing the balloon releases um to in in memory of of loved ones that were lost, but I have at least um in the storm been able to see some sort of rainbow with community coming together and trying to make a public acknowledgement of their stand and trying to make sure that they send the message that this they do not want this city to be continuously plagued with gun violence, and so I want to shout out uh the city of Winston-Salem, the residents while also shouting out um our officers uh in blue, and then of course, always like Councilmember Scipio said, Um, recognizing and acknowledging our folks in fire service and also in emergency management.

I also I have the mic want to give a shout out to the police department for the job well done that they did on last Tuesday in observance of National Night Out, um, understanding that the citywide event um had to be canceled due to the weather, but I do want to give a shout out um to them and what I did see even on social media with going to various stops in various neighborhoods that um did still have their events and so want to shout out them but also shout out the community again uh for making a very public uh statement and stance against violence and also um uh fellowshipping with fellow residents.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Andreho, Andrew Hall.

Andrew Hall.

Andre Bowen.

We got married.

I got you.

I do.

No, um thank you, thank you, Chair.

Um just kind of reiterate what a lot of our my colleagues have said.

So that I was uh fortunate enough to attend the national night out in indoors at Healy Towers, and um the residents there were very grateful the um for the presence of the police, but also for city staff and um the aspi the new aspire uh group was there uh representing them, so they were grateful for them.

Uh so thank you for the the leadership for the police department there and then the leadership with the the fire department.

Um as many of you know, we had the the vote last Monday, so just want to um reiterate the need for um addressing those pay needs for our firefighters and look forward to seeing what process that looks like over the the remainder of the year.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, I make a motion to adjourn.

Thank you.

So adjourn.