Advanced notice of the meeting was published in the Bellevue Leader and Papillion Times. Copies of Proof of Publication are on file in the Sarpy County Clerk’s Office. All proceedings were taken while the convened meeting was open to the attendance of the public.

Chairman Wilson called the meeting to order and thanked everyone for coming. He extended thanks to Steve Young and Papillion Police Department for hosting the meeting. Roll call was done by sign-in sheet. Chairman Wilson reminded the members to sign in on the sheets in the back of the room if they had not already done so.

BOARD REPORTS:

Chairman Report: There were no written hazardous materials reports since the last meeting. Chairman Wilson encouraged the committee to keep membership going. Letters will be sent to anyone who has missed three meetings to ensure that the respective department sends a representative if the member cannot attend. There is a similar statement at the bottom of the meeting notices. Mike Hogan suggested sending the notices out earlier. Chairman Wilson and Coordinator Mastandrea indicated they would try to do that. Secretary Reiter reminded the members they could access the information anytime through the website. Coordinator Mastandrea referred the members to the web address, www.sarpy.com/ema/lepc.htm which is the main page for LEPC information. From there, members can link to the next agenda, previous meeting minutes, upcoming news and bylaws.

Chairman Wilson asked each member to sign up for a committee and each committee to meet at least twice a year. He offered to attend any of the committee meetings if asked.

Chairman Wilson asked for a motion from the floor to accept the March 16, 2005 meeting minutes. Steve Young made a motion to approve the minutes with a correction in the spelling of Veon Dillon’s name. The motion was seconded by J.R. Reider. All were in favor, none opposed and motion passed unanimously. Chairman Wilson asked if Veon was the CERT representative to the Sarpy County LEPC and if the LEPC had the correct contact information for him. J.R. Reider indicated that Veon received a meeting agenda but was unable to attend because he was involved in a family function. Secretary Reiter indicated that handouts of Mark Lohnes’ presentation were available in the back of the room. J.R. Reider asked for clarification of the Sioux Land Sub Area because it appeared to overlap other regions. Secretary Reiter offered to verify the information with Mark, but that Mark clearly stated on tape that the region extended from South Sioux City to southwestern Minnesota and as far north as Sioux Falls, S.D.

Vice Chairman: Vice Chair Schram informed the committee that CNN had a news crew in the Gretna area doing a story on the Wolmsley-Horneckel search this past winter. He didn’t know when it would be aired, but indicated that the reporters asked a lot of questions about caller locator systems. He advised the committee to expect to hear something about enhanced 911 systems on CNN. Marilyn Gable advised that CNN planned to interview Jeff Davis and do some additional filming at the 911 Center. She said they were doing a follow-up story to the interviews given by Rolly Yost and Dan Peterson shortly after the incident occurred.

Information Coordinator: Coordinator Mastandrea advised the committee that he was still receiving some Tier II Reports which were due 1 March. He said that he was in the process of entering the reports into a database. He mentioned that the reports were some of the raw materials he was using for the hazard vulnerability analysis which would be part of the LEOP rewrite.

Coordinator Mastandrea said he received a lot of feedback on the first draft of the LEOP revision. His goal will be to complete the edits for the second draft this week and distribute them on CD-ROMs next week. He’d like to get additional clarifications and/or corrections by the end of the month so that he can move forward with obtaining city and county resolutions of support. He asked for member support to meet these timelines. He intends for the document to be useful and that it needs just a little more work. Rolly Yost asked if the CD-ROM would include the whole LEPC Manual. Coordinator Mastandrea indicated that the CD-ROM would contain the LEOP. The LEPC Resource Book, which is different, is being redesigned with assistance from the United Way and will be a metro area book. He provided a baseline database to the United Way but was unaware of the changes being made or the project status and asked Vickie Stevens if she had an update. He mentioned that there would need to be a lot of data collection to catalogue all the resources similar to what was done for the Kansas City Metro Area. Government resources are listed in Annex M of the LEOP. Vickie Stevens stated that the design of the Resource Book has been done and Jim Rogers from Douglas County Emergency Management was reviewing it. Coordinator Mastandrea told the committee that during the design phase of the Resource Book, members might be asked what information they would want to have immediately available in a disaster in terms of names and phone numbers.

Jane Nitchals asked if the Tier II Forms would be on the CD. Coordinator Mastandrea advised that the information was among some of the more sensitive material contained in the LEOP and didn’t think it a good idea to be made known to the public at large. He recommended planning with SIDs in potentially impacted areas and talking with them about evacuation, shelter-in-place and even drilling with them. There’s some similar material that has been taken out for homeland security purposes, so this committee will need to decide if it should be made available. The information is available to responder agencies. Coordinator Mastandrea described the program used to house the information. It consists of a chemical information database with over 60,000 chemicals including synonyms. The program includes everything from the physical properties of the chemical to first aid, what you need to do if there is a release, what you need to do if there is a fire, etc. Coordinator Mastandrea said that he provides a 24-hour training class which can be shortened and tailored to individual agency needs. Depending upon agency Standard Operating Procedures, more than one information source may be required. Traditionally, fire departments like to have three to compare and contrast information.

Chairman Wilson asked for grant information. Coordinator Mastandrea informed the committee about the $5.1M Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Grant administered through Omaha Police for the metro area. The UASI committees decided how the funding will be allocated. It includes some funding for fire departments for communications. A separate grant, the Law Enforcement Terrorism Protection Program, will enable Sarpy County Law Enforcement agencies to obtain an additional 24 radios. There are also firefighter grants. Sarpy County agencies are successfully managing their respective grants.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Exercise: Coordinator Mastandrea gave the report. A DVD was produced of Operation Secure Metro, a two-county exercise hosted by Douglas and Sarpy Counties March 11-12, 2005. Documenting was an area that was lacking; the DVD contains great footage. Coordinator Mastandrea proposed showing the video as the program for the August meeting. Paperwork for agency overtime and supplies from that exercise has been submitted to the State. When the State pays the County, the County will reimburse the respective agencies who submitted bills. The exercise was successful and involved more than 400 victims among all the sites. Many agencies participated including volunteers, hospitals, United Way, Law Enforcement SWAT and Bomb Teams, Fire and Health Departments. Feedback from that exercise indicated that agencies should be working and training together more. An After Action Report will be provided which will tell what we need to improve. People will be assigned to work specific issues with associated timelines for issue resolution.

Exercise Subcommittee Members will meet with the OMMRS Drill Subcommittee from 2:30-4:30 P.M. at Methodist Hospital. There are three upcoming exercises. Offutt AFB is hosting Code Silver Exercise on June 8 th which will exercise how the base works with the county. On June 14 th, out of the UASI Grant, there will be an Improvised Explosive Device Workshop. The Omaha/Council Bluffs Sub Area Contingency Plan Group will conduct a tabletop exercise on June 6 th. for response to a hazardous material release in the Missouri River. Most of the OMMRS Drill Subcommittee Meeting will be devoted to the Offutt Major Accident Response Exercise on July 23 rd.

Chairman Wilson reminded the committee about the new meeting rotation. Committee meetings will be held in February, May, late August due to school vacations, and November. He’d like the meeting held at a different location each time.

Financial: Secretary Reiter reported that the balance in the LEPC checking account is $903.75.

Outreach: Chairman Wilson asked for the date of the Sarpy County Fair. Vice Chair Schram informed him that it would be held the first week in August and offered to obtain booth space for the LEPC. Vice Chair Schram asked Coordinator Mastandrea if one space worked well and if he was satisfied with last year’s location. Coordinator Mastandrea and Secretary Reiter both indicated that the location was very good. Steve Young stated he would take care of signing up volunteers to staff the booth. Committee members were encouraged to volunteer to staff the booth for two hours at a time.

Legislative: Vice Chair Schram informed the members that there were no bills pertaining to LEPCs this year.

Response Plan: Information was provided in the Information Coordinator Report.

Training: Coordinator Mastandrea advised the Training Committee that it needed to elect a new chair with the retirement of the previous chair, Dan Peterson. In the interim, he reminded the committee that everyone in the response and response support community were required to be NIMS-compliant by 1 October. The easiest way to do this is to take the online IS700 Course through the fema.gov website. You’ll get a certificate from the Federal Government when you complete it if you pass the test.

Every other year, Region 7 puts on an LEPC Training Conference. This year it will be held at the Clarion Sports Complex in Kansas City. Coordinator Mastandrea referred the members to the website address where they could register online for the conference. He anticipated getting one scholarship from the State which would cover the cost of the hotel room. The conference includes the following five tracts: Basics of LEPCs, Radiation, Health & Medical, Exercise Issues, and Homeland Security. The conference runs Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and Sunday morning. There are five all-day training sessions on Thursday, August 18 th which include 8-hr HAZWOPER Refresher, Secrets of Successful Grant Writing, Radioactive Materials for First Responders, Properties of Hazardous Materials, and the Basics of Incident Command.

OLD BUSINESS: J.R. Reider revisited an issue he first raised a year ago about the Sarpy County LEPC taking on the role of the Citizen Corps Council for Sarpy County. He stated that the CERT program in Sarpy County already had almost 100-trained volunteers now, of which 18 were set up in Bellevue, training on a monthly basis and looking to expand the program. J.R. explained some of the benefits to his proposal. First, the LEPC already has representation from most of the organizations, if not all, that the Citizens’ Corps needs to have in order to thrive. Second, he didn’t think it would involve much more work to do both Citizens’ Corps and LEPC. Third, it would open up new opportunities in terms of programs and volunteers that the LEPC doesn’t have now. Fourth, there are a number of LEPCs across the country that have taken on the Citizens’ Corps role. He advocated the LEPC taking an active upfront role with it rather than have the program duplicating the same resources. Finally, the Citizens Corps has the ability to go after grants every year both from homeland security and other resources and that could be a plus for all the organizations. Secretary Reiter asked if it would mean monthly meetings for the LEPC. J.R. said the idea would be to have a subcommittee that could do the business of the Citizens’ Corps. Secretary Reiter asked how they were doing it in Douglas County because the Douglas County LEPC had not taken on that role. J.R. said the Citizens’ Corps in Douglas County was established by the Omaha Police Crime Prevention Units several years ago and expanded it program through Law Enforcement. CERT is now directly affiliated with the Fire Department in Omaha and Medical Reserve Corps is directly involved with OMMRS, so there’s quite a few organizations involved in the mix. J.R. recommended setting up a group of people to look into it further and discussing the idea with the people that are already involved in establishing the Council.

The Council would need to initially establish a chain of command and define its role across the board in training and planning and exercising. Vice Chair Schram asked if they were fully funded by homeland security. J.R. said it could be, but not always. CERT was awarded $32K this year from the UASI Grant and they’ll apply for whatever funding is available next year from the federal government. In Douglas County, they’ve started going after the business community. Vice Chair Schram asked if the grants received were specifically for the CERTS competed with by other agencies. J.R. replied that it was strictly Citizens Corps funding entirely. Chairman Wilson asked how that funding would apply to the LEPC if it took on the role of the Citizens Corps Council. J.R. said it depended upon how the grant was written and what other agencies would interact as part of the program. It also would depend upon how the Council chooses to go about it. Each organization will have its own wants and needs as well.

Vice Chair Schram asked how members are insured if injured in a training exercise or incident. J.R. indicated it was Good Samaritan Act coverage as far as liability risk like any other volunteer. Vice Chair Schram pointed out that if Citizens Corps was in affiliation with the LEPC, there would be a question. J.R. Reider mentioned coverage under Worker’s Comp if activated through Emergency Management. Rod Buethe advised not voting on the proposal until the committee got an answer to the question of liability.

Vice Chair Schram asked if CERT was a 501(c)(3) organization. J.R. said it could not be during the course of grant period in which it received federal grant funding. Vice Chair Schram indicated that in previous incidents that resulted in a governor’s emergency declaration, the County’s insurance covered volunteers. If the governor has not declared a state of emergency, there would be a liability issue. J.R. explained two levels to that, one being EM activation versus a state declaration. Vickie Stevens mentioned that the United Way carried an insurance policy on volunteers. She said that there were a certain number of volunteers the United Way could activate and manage each day and they would be covered under the United Way.

Ron Clark described the initial purpose for CERT being that of taking care of immediate family and neighborhoods during an incident. After 911, the role has expanded and there have been opportunities to utilize these people in different roles. But, initially it was a group of people trained in their respective neighborhood to work together to solve the immediate needs of their neighborhood. J.R. said CERT members responded to Hallam and because of their training, they were put in charge of groups of volunteers. During the hurricanes in Florida, he received activations from FEMA to find CERT members from across the state of NE who would be willing to be sanctioned and trained by FEMA and credentialed and put to work in the affected areas. The State sent 28 people, some of whom were deployed between 4-5 months.

Rod Buethe made a motion that the officers meet with the Citizens’ Corps and come up with how the chain of command would work, how it would fit into the LEOP, and who’s covered as far as insurance and report back to the next meeting with a recommendation which the committee could then vote on. J.R. seconded the motion All were in favor, none opposed, and motion passed unanimously.

Chairman Wilson asked for an update on the 800 MHz system upgrade. Coordinator Mastandrea indicated that the County went to digital capable, APCO 25 compliant. The County was working with Douglas County to get increased fleet mapping which would increase interoperability with the Douglas County system. Vice Chair Schram informed the committee that there was a bill to raise surcharge for cell phones but it didn’t make it out of committee.

NEW BUSINESS : None

Program: Vickie Stevens presented a program on the Medical Resource Corps.

Chairman Wilson asked for a motion to adjourn. Dick Williams moved, seconded by Rod Buethe. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully Submitted,

MARIA REITER

Secretary

Created December 1, 2005