 good afternoon Thank you all for being here today Would like to be able to introduce myself my name is Mike McGuire honor to be able to represent Sonoma County the state Senate we have representatives from Congressman Thompson's office here Congressman Huffman's office as well senator Dodd a similar member would Along with assembly members Aguiar Curry along with a similar Libyan I want to say thank you to our state and federal legislative delegation for all their incredible work over these past Many days, and we're also grateful to all of you for being here today What we'd like to be able to do is outline the debris removal process as we move forward now and over the next 10 days Assistant since the beginning of this unprecedented Firestorm local state and federal governments have been unified on the firefight the North Bay Firestorm will go down as the most destructive In deadly fire disaster in California history We've lost 42 of our neighbors And we have over a dozen still missing And I think I could speak for everyone in this building here today Words cannot express how sorry we are for your losses We also want to express our gratitude to the firefighters law enforcement National Guard nurses and doctors who came forward in our community's greatest time in need From across the world literally to be able to serve our community In addition to the firefight for the past week there has been a parallel effort That parallel effort advance was focused on preparing for the largest cleanup and debris removal Process in Golden State history and even with the firefighters still on the front lines We were focused on making sure there is a unified command cleaning up our community and Getting our neighborhoods rebuilt The size and scope of this debris removal effort will be one for the record books But what I can assure you For the first time in our state's history The Environmental Protection Agency the Army Corps of Engineers FEMA the office of emergency services a County of Sonoma in the city of Santa Rosa have come together in a unified front To begin the process of cleanup recovery and where we're focused Getting our neighborhoods rebuilt. We are resilient and we are Sonoma County strong and we're going to come back stronger than ever So without further I will share with you. We are going to have some tough days ahead We are going to get through this. We're going to get through this by working together And we have all the subject matter experts from across the nation who are here today to be able to talk about what you can expect In the weeks to come I'd like to be able to turn it over to the head of the California office emergency services for northern, California His name is Eric Lamarrow. He's going to be giving us an overview We're then going to be turned it over to Sonoma County director of public health Eric the podium is yours Thank You senator And first to the public that's assembled we will be staying after the press conference I will be here with our partners from the US EPA and the Army Corps to answer any questions You may have specific to debris That better better. All right Well, thanks everybody for being here today as a senator said is a monumental undertaking that's in front of us It's a historic cleanup that has to occur not only here in Sonoma County, but across northern, California Early on the city and county came to us and asked for more help They were going to need more resources in order to get this done and Governor Brown Reached out to the federal government to seek their help and we have with us today our partners from the US EPA's region 9 Office and the US Army Corps of Engineers who are going to be running two different projects here in Sonoma County Over the next several weeks and months You know our job has been to mobilize those resources and now the process begins this week That unification with the city and county to be very coordinated very fast very efficient in addressing All of the home sites that we've lost there's going to be two phases to this effort The first is going to be the removal of household hazardous waste toxic materials on the home sites. This is batteries This is free on this is other chemicals that have either were in place or have been generated as a result of these fires And so the US EPA is going to be moving into our communities this weekend this week Excuse me to begin removing those materials and that work is going to be coordinated with you But it's going to be done under the that we've got a public health emergency here in Sonoma County and Governor Brown on Saturday Directed that we go into each and every home site and remove those toxic materials So regardless of whether you'll be moving forward with us in a full cleanup US EPA is going to be moving throughout the community to eliminate those toxic materials and get those out as quickly as possible That'll be phase one and that'll be again that that work will be beginning this week Because we need to eliminate that threat Secondly is the full cleanup and this is what I know there's been a lot of talk in the community about the full cleanup The US Army Corps of Engineers and their contractors Similarly are mobilizing in the community and as soon as EPA finishes their sweeps of toxic materials Army Corps of Engineer contractors will be right in behind them on those properties where you've given us permission To eliminate all of the ash all of the debris that's in your property So at the end of the day we can return to you a safe and environmentally Clean site for your family to rebuild and our goal that we're pushing hard on in terms of mobilizing crews Is to have that work completed by early 2018 so come springtime You can begin the process of rebuilding and recovering the most important part of us moving forward on that full cleanup Is the right of entry forms? The county needs to receive permission from each and every one of you that have tragically lost a home So that we can begin the work of cleaning your home site And let me just dispel a couple misconceptions that I know we're out there on the right of entry form first and foremost We are not going to charge you for this cleanup if you have insurance That has a clause for debris will be looking to collect that If your insurance for debris is part of a larger category We're going to let you rebuild and if there's any proceeds left over we'll look to collect those for debris We understand at the end of the day We're not going to be able to recover our cost That's why the governor and the president have authorized state and federal assistance to cover the cost of this cleanup That cost is not going to be borne by you and it's not going to affect your ability To rebuild your home and begin that critical recovery so again Mobilization is key this week our partners from the US EPA are mobilizing. They're setting up their staging They're doing site assessments, and they're going to begin cleanups this week Partners from Army Corps of Engineers are similarly moving at an incredible pace to mobilize resources Higher local contractors and get the ball rolling So this at the end of the day will be just as strategic and unified as the firefight was So again, thank you, and I will now turn it over to dr. Karen Milman Good afternoon. Can everyone hear me? All right, is that better So I'm gonna hopefully be loud enough that all of you can hear me as the health professional coming in here I do want to pause and acknowledge about a difficult situation This is for many of you in this room and all of us My heart goes out to all of you who have lost loved ones and homes And I really hope that as we go through this we can all take a moment to recognize the suffering around us And that it can create anger and frustration and sadness And so please try to be compassionate with each other and try to be compassionate with everyone who's trying very hard to work to help with this So as mentioned, there's a lot of concern that is going on regarding the Public health and environmental health impacts of these fires Unlike a fire that occurs when you burn the wood in your home in your fireplace the ashram burned homes Contains many other items contains metals and chemicals and potentially asbestos Think of all the things in the building materials in your house in the pipes in the wiring And so this causes some concerns and we need to make sure that we have a very systematic way to address this So last week the director of environmental health and I declared Public health emergency and it was ratified by the county board of supervisors And what this does is it allows us to call on for additional resources From the federal government and the state government and also allows us to set up a systematic way to try to address the hazards In the community, I know that the processes we're putting in place may be a little frustrating And that everyone wants to move towards recovery as quickly as possible But in this unprecedented Precedent a disaster we only get one chance to do the cleanup right and so we want to make sure we're taking a step back And that we're making sure that we're going as fast as we can But also addressing the hazards for our family friends in the future residents of Sonoma County So to that end we're specifically focusing initially on the cleanup of the hazardous materials and Those when I speak of those I mean things like the propane materials and the paints and the pesticides And that's what we're talking about when we're talking about this initial first phase of the assessments And that that is really necessary to do consistently throughout the community So that we can ensure that all of the cleanup and every property is safe the second phase of the cleanup as you'll hear later is not is We'll be providing guidance and regulations so that individuals who wish to do the cleanup of their own have the standards that the health department and The other federal officials are recommending get cleaned up to so that everyone has Even standing and all of the material all of the properties get cleaned up to the same level in the community even for those Individuals who wish to do this on their own and separately So again, we the environmental health departments and we're working very closely with other health agencies to declare What are the a guidance guidelines that need and we're going to be issuing some additional? Regulations and guidelines in the future, which will be very clear about how how to go ahead and process things What we're asking right now is that I know people are very anxious to move forward We're not stopping anyone from going on to your properties to remove your personal property and go look for your heirlooms But we're asking that no one do large-scale debris removal until we've had a chance to make sure That the way the property debris is being removed is the best way to manage hazardous material So for example what we don't want to happen is for people to fill up a dump truck and have lots of hazardous material in it And it go down the highway and all the ash be spewing down the highway behind it So those are the type of Guidelines that we're going to be producing and sharing with you later on So we'll have a chance for some questions for that and I'm going to turn this over to our federal on the scene Coordinator from the EPA mr. Tom Duhlman Thank you Good afternoon. My name is Tom Duhlman. I work for the EPA emergency response program from San Francisco EPA has been on the ground here in Sonoma since early last week Conducting a rapid needs assessment just trying to get our arms around exactly what our task is going to be here in the coming weeks on Friday FEMA issued a mission assignment to EPA authorizing us to collect household hazardous waste in Sonoma County and I want to stress as others before I've said before me have said before me that EPA is operating within a unified command structure So we're coordinating coordinating very closely with the city the county FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers to have a very efficient and safe household Wake household hazardous waste collection event I want to speak to this event in a little more detail Our event will occur in two stages. The first is an assessment phase Which will involve EPA and our contractors coming through the properties and identifying properties that have Remaining household hazardous waste. We will document inventory that material and so that effort will begin this Wednesday We will have people on the ground starting Wednesday performing that task Following that once we have identified the president's the presence of household hazardous waste Our collection teams will follow shortly behind and we'll begin the process of actually physically removing the household hazardous waste You know and that's really all I have to share with you today and again I'll be available afterwards for questions and with that I'll turn the microphone over to Christine Sosco who is the Sonoma County Environmental Health Director So thank you I'm Christine Sosco. I'm the director of environmental health I'm the director of environmental health and I also want to acknowledge Your loss and express express my deepest sympathy I'm from like I said the Department of Environmental Health and We're part of a team that the county and the city of Santa Rosa are assembling to assist you through the debris removal process We're working diligently together to make this process as smooth as possible I'm here to talk to you about the right of entry process The Department of Environmental Health will be operating the right of entry processing center This will be located at 625 Fifth Street and Santa Rosa it'll be open and fully operational on Wednesday October 25th, and it will be operating from 9 a.m. Till 6 p.m We are aware that there was some other information that was out So we have had some people show up with the applications And if you do show up with an application before then we will be receiving those applications But we're working diligently to get the center fully staffed and Also make sure that we have all those resources available for you on Wednesday When you do come to the right of entry center, we ask that you bring three things with you one is the right of entry form and With that form if you do not have that form you can get the form at the center And there will be someone to help you fill that out But if you have that form you can go ahead and bring that in with you The other piece is your identification and you want to bring Form of identification for you and any others that may be on your title So for instance if it's you and your spouse that are on your title you both need to bring that Form of identification and you need to sign the form If if your property was in a trust or an LLC We encourage you to talk to your Lawyer or somebody and find out exactly how to sign that form For the most part we do realize that there probably are properties that are in trust and If you can bring the first page of your trust and then the page of your trust that Talks about the signature authority We can take the signature authority form and have that person sign as a trustee the third piece that we need also is the Copy of your insurance you heard earlier about the insurance reimbursement and that and so Having a copy of your insurance will help us expedite that process and make sure that it's all processed properly So I just want to give you some some information as far as where you can go What are the right? avenues where we located what are the contact information and that is our office that's is at 625 5th Street and Santa Rosa the there is an email set up if you want to email your form in and That would be EH Roe at Sonoma hyphen county org With that if you're emailing your forms in know that we will have to be contacting you to complete that form process So that we can do the proof of ownership through the identification And we'll be working to call people back and then also there's a hotline if you have any information That is area code 107 565 6700 Sorry again, that's 565 6700 We're also there have been lots of questions about the opt-out process we are currently working on a plan and We are working on a plan that will assure that all those Anybody who opts out and goes through that process that those properties are clean to the same level That the Army Corps of Engineers is cleaning those that opt into the process so with that I'm going to thank all of you and I'm going to turn it over to Joss Jimmerfield who is with the Army Corps of Engineers. Thank you Thank you. Good afternoon My name is Josh Jimmerfield. I'm with the Army Corps of Engineers. I'm a debris subject matter expert I'd like to touch real quick on the overall process for what our debris removal will look like And give you some some hints on how that's going to go and what our plan will be First off right now We're going to wait until the EPA has cleared all the HHW from the site at that time We'll be able to go in assess the properties and begin our testing process We want to make sure that anything that we do is not putting any anybody else in the community in jeopardy health-wise So we will have coordination with EPA and the air quality boards to make sure that all of our removal of ash and debris We're constantly monitoring the air around us and the materials that we're pulling out and handling those appropriately Initially we will be pulling off the ash from the site removing that Testing that to make sure it's disposed of correctly in the proper landfills Following that will be removing foundations, stem walls, brick and mortar type structures The reason for the foundation removal we found in the past fires this hot and destroy the integrity of the foundations There's a process if you'd like to do this on your own where we recommend highly that an engineer come in to assess those Foundations for structural integrity Once that's done we'll begin testing the soil underneath those to make sure that that meets the standards of California for Cleanliness so that your family can go back and begin rebuilding if we need to remove soil and make sure that we leave the lot clean so that you have a place to rebuild that's safe for your family and You can move forward with your lives a Couple of things I'd like to mention about our contractors to the fullest extent possible our contractors will be using local labor sources They've already set up in the communities and are reaching out to local contractors And we will be using again to the fullest extent possible local sources So that the money that is being fed from the federal government is staying within the community and helps you get back on your feet The contractors one of the other pieces that we've put into their contract They'll be using a base camp so the the crews and the people that we bring in will not be taking away from those of you Who don't have a place to stay so the hotels and other areas where you guys can stay in We'll be using a base camp so that we do not put additional pressure on the communities for those contractors I think the last thing I want to touch on again just to be very clear our goal here is to be moving as soon as possible Ideally right now. We're looking at this weekend for our contractors to start their their process to begin ramping up They're in the area or finalizing agreements with them now And we are looking at this weekend to have trucks in the area We'll begin checking them for safety making sure that they're the right trucks for the for the job And then they can be safely on the roads Once that process starts will begin a much bigger ramp up, and I'm sure there'll be more questions of follow after that happens I'd like to turn it over now to mayor Chris Corsi and chairwoman Shirley Zane Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Shirley Zane, and I'm a Sonoma County supervisor and chair of the board As thousands of firefighters and emergency responders begin to return to their homes I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that our community has grown and our hearts go with them And there will always be a part of our community. We are so incredibly grateful Our attention now turns to rebuilding our beautiful County our communities and our lives together Today is the first step in that process, and we want to thank everyone who is here today in assisting with that Colossal effort We know that many of you have questions about the debris removal process And that's why we organize today's press conference to begin to address those questions We wanted you to hear from officials from the many state and federal agencies Who will be gathering with your city and county governments to make sure that you get the Assistance that you need and that our community is protected from serious health and safety concerns Please note that the opt-out Standards have yet to be adopted by the board of supervisors, and if you choose to opt out you will pay For yourself. I encourage you to be careful about the many people out there that are Advertising that they will do it for you at $15 an hour. Please be careful Now most importantly We want to let our residents know that your county and city governments are here for you in the days ahead We are all working together, and we're going to be prepared to tackle this recovery with each and every one of you Together we are Sonoma strong. Thank you Good afternoon everybody First of all, I want to thank our state and federal partners for bringing the resources that we need to recover and rebuild this community Now I want you to know that locally the city and the county are doing everything that we can to erase the lines that That separate these two jurisdictions. We know that this cleanup will be faster. It'll be more efficient It will be better for everyone if the county and city work together I'm encouraging all of you to join this partnership and opt-in to the cleanup process This will be the best way that we can get everybody everybody's property ready for rebuilding as soon as possible Tomorrow the city council is going to take some specific actions to reduce and streamline Regulations that will allow people to rebuild faster and more efficiently In the meantime, we have a new website that will help us all through this process Sonoma County Recovers.org will contain information about recovery and rebuilding It's the go-to place for information that we need right now Sonoma County recovers.org All right, well, thank you everybody in a moment. We'll get to some Q&A But I want to amplify a few points that were made today first off It is critically important to us that each and every one of you that lost a home has the opportunity to get onto your Property and look for those items that may have been left behind You'll have that opportunity if you haven't been able to re-enter yet when you do you'll have that opportunity as The EPA crews are coming through they will work with you To see if they can go on and remove toxic waste But if you need more time, you'll have more time and they'll come back So you will have that time rest assured you will have that time Secondly, we are fully committed and I can't stress this enough We're fully committed to moving rapidly and efficiently to remove this ash debris from your property and get your community Back on its feet again leadership at the highest level many of those officials who you've seen in your community already Have authorized us to mobilize hundreds of teams for both the EPA mission and the Army Corps of Engineers mission And they are prepared to give us whatever else we need to achieve the goal of being done with this cleanup in early 2018 so rest assured this is going to be done rapidly efficiently and Coordinated with you and your community leaders Finally, I can't stress enough and it's written clearly in the ROE And I'm happy to point people to the sections in the ROE. There is no cost to you We will look to collect your insurance proceeds if you have insurance and If your insurance proceeds are part of a large clause We will look to collect after you have rebuilt our objective here is not to make ourselves whole Our objective is to ensure that as taxpayers are paying for this We don't duplicate benefits and that's the reason that we want to collect what we can from your insurance But at the end of the day as I said the governor and the president have authorized state and federal funding to cover our collective cost So that will not be borne by you or borne on the back of your ability to rebuild We'll be happy to answer questions from the public After we have completed answering questions from the assembled media here So as I said, I will stay behind with our partner federal partners. So happy to take questions from our media No, it will not Will there be a lien on his property? No, there will not could you please announce what media organization you're with? All right, go ahead So whether you live in the country or the city Doesn't matter. We're looking at the entire Sonoma County and our partners at EPA and the Army Corps Once they've fully mobilized their crews once they understand which property owners want us to clean up those properties They'll begin to develop work plans to prioritize their work Right. So the the question is the first phase of cleanup being done and the unincorporated versus out in the country versus the city and And EPA will be looking at that and they'll be working to get their crews everywhere Okay, our goal is that by spring time people will be The question was how early will people be able to begin rebuilding and our goal is for folks to be able to be Rebuilding come spring we expect an art The question is how long will the actual cleanup take place? It's going to take place over the next several months with the goal of being done in early 2018 Well, certainly if in that process of time we've completed folks will be able to begin rebuilding So certainly as the crews are doing their work over the next several months sites will be ready for rebuild What the goal that I am outlining is when we will be completed with all home sites So the question is at what time was testing done to deem that no footings are good and can be salvaged as part of our cleanup We're basing our assessment on the work that's been done across California countless times on similar cleanups like this The majority of the time the structural integrity of those foundations is not safe to rebuild So if you choose to go with our program We'll remove those if you want to test your foundation because you believe it's still structurally Sound you can certainly do that and that's an option. You've got but you'll need to move forward with the cleanup yourself Purple shirt So the the question if you opt into our program You're authorizing us to conduct that cleanup that full cleanup with the Army Corps of Engineers You'll be notified in advance of when they will you will be notified in advance of when they Will be there to clean up your property Additionally on the ROE on the back page You have the opportunity to lay out any issues and concerns you have with your particular property site So that you can work with the Army Corps and its contractors to articulate if there's something you want to ensure Does not get damaged in that process that'll be your opportunity But you'll be notified and it and it spells out in the ROE you'll be notified 48 hours in advance Forget the core they have the core answer the question quickly I would say for our faceport engineers before we start any removal We will be notifying homeowners 24 to 72 hours in advance that we will be on their property and conducting our first initial assessments So real quick everybody what we're gonna do is we're gonna take two questions over here and we're gonna go straight to the middle So gentlemen Hand up right there, sir. Please if you don't mind shouting out So several questions there related to propane tanks represented from a propane company Wanting to know about getting people back online where they haven't been lost Collecting tanks that have been destroyed Collecting propane from tanks on properties that have been destroyed can the Army Corps first speak to On the homes that have been destroyed the collection of propane or the collection of the tanks So again, my name is Tom don't come in I'm with EPA shouted out You know, I think we want to work very closely with the propane companies and Perhaps somebody can help us You know assemble a list of the various propane companies that operate in the county so that we can coordinate with you regarding either the return of your tanks on the burned properties or You know the tanks that are obviously damaged empty We're just gonna mark within it with the initial probably to say empty and leave that behind for you to pick up But I think I think the short answer is that we need to coordinate with all the propane companies in the county If you don't mind, I'll catch you after the meeting I said we had a question right here Then we're going to go to three questions over here And I just want to let folks know we're going to be standing by afterwards all of our core OES and FEMA To be able to answer questions as well right over here, sir I'll repeat it So the question was about schools and the EPA sweeps the commercial Properties that have been completely destroyed will be Reviewed by EPA and any toxic materials removed We'll have to get back to you on the on the partial destroyed but on Complete loss for commercial properties. We will be doing the sweep We're gonna go right here to the woman who's sitting and they're gonna go to the gentleman in the black No, sir the woman first So first-year question on Watershed protection. I'll let the Army Corps speak to that So for watershed protection, especially things going into storm drains, I know that's a huge concern That's one of our mitigation processes from the outset We will be making sure that we have the appropriate measures so that there's no runoff as we wet down material None of that will be going into the storm drains and that's it within our contract We'll have quality assurance officers on-site to review and make sure that the those protocols are being followed correctly by the contractor On-site afterwards if we need to mitigate those for storm runoff We'll be evaluating those on the as needed basis and we have are looking at a cadre of people H&H folks to evaluate those sites and we'll work with FEMA to make sure that that's done appropriately On your question about trees on the property as part of the operation If there's trees that are impeding the the footprint of where the home was lost and the crews will be Addressing those either removing limbs or removing trees if they're in the way or if they're leaning in as as far as Watershed issues and larger tree issues the county's mobilizing contractors to address watershed issues And we actually have a task force that's been formed the Cal fire is leading That's going to look at overall watershed issues So I don't have a specific answer on whether we're going to have a program to deal with other trees But but that the overall watershed impacts is something that's being looked at So folks are going to go to the gentleman in the black shirt woman with a scarf and the gentleman in the green right over here next sir So the question is about the infrastructure of the water system and drainage system within coffee park I don't think we have anybody here from the county that's that's prepared to address that But that that would be something that the county would look at in their in their overall Planning relative to the rebuild So the Army Corps will have measures in place to mitigate impacts on the environment during the cleanup and after the clean-ups concluded We're gonna so we're gonna go to Gentleman in the way we're gonna go sir sir. I'm gonna hang on one sec sir We're gonna go and we're gonna go to the woman in the scarf We're gonna go to the gentleman in the green shirt and then we're gonna come straight to you sir I promise you sir. We're gonna come straight to you sir So We have folks who have been it happens so I promise you sir. I Appreciate the question the question the question is About foundations and it's about the specific issues in coffee park about peers right now Our process is going to be to remove the foundation if you don't want that to We are not going to be charging you to remove a foundation and that sir the replacement Is the is the choice that you have to decide Okay, you have to decide because we will remove the foundation so it's going to be part it's going to be part of the Exactly you have to make a choice if you want to go with our program based upon our experience The safety of your foundation is not safe to rebuild if you disagree with that You have the option of going forward on your own to do your cleanup Let's get to the woman and I'll be happy to stay behind sir and answer your question and everybody else here in the room Let's go to the woman with the scarf So the first question is about your liability if I'm interpreting it correctly with our contractors on your property So built into the contracts between the state and the Army Corps of engineers and the con They accept liability for any injuries or damage that they cause to their equipment or personnel During the course of the operation you are not liable for any injuries or damage to their equipment that occurs I'll get to them. I'll get to the follow-up question. Yes. I have you are not you are not liable For damage that the contractors incur to their own equipment or personnel The contract language is in place between the state and the entities that will be doing the contracting and that Contract language which you don't see in your that contract language is very clear that they assume Responsibility and liability for their injuries. They've got to provide workers comp. They've got to cover the cost of their damage so again if the Homeowner decides to sell the debris proceeds. We still have to collect those debris proceeds As part of this project if there's debris coverage as part of a larger category Then we will work with the homeowner in terms of identifying what we can collect from that Okay in the back. Yes, sir Sir one moment. Let me let someone else have the opportunity Sir, we will look at your yeah So quickly I Wanted to say thank you For your patience. Let me just talk about process if it's okay with folks We have a gentleman here who has had his arm up What we'd like to be able to do is I promise later this week Because not everyone is here who has lost a home We will bring forward another town hall to be able to spend time Going through every detail whether it's the issue of foundations great points or what you're listening Mr. Stevens brought forward in regards to foundations in regards to liability. Thank you so much, ma'am And she she just beer is gonna ask her last name. I promise you we're gonna have another in-depth Town hall or we'll have individuals and the mayor has suggested this in the chairwoman at individual stations So you can all ask the content experts on whether it's the issue of foundations or liability or timeline We'll get that scheduled for later this week But what I'd like to be able to propose is this if we can I know folks are frustrated if we can go one by one in questions We're gonna spend another about 15 20 minutes on questions And we're gonna hang here and answer more questions afterwards We this gentleman has had his hand up for a long time right over here. Please go right ahead So the question was Don't have a debris clause Then that's all we're gonna look to collect No So let me be clear again. Can you repeat the question the question is The belief that we're gonna go after your full insurance Okay We if there is a debris clause on your insurance That is the only thing that we will be looking to collect and it says that in the second paragraph of item 2 in the Right of entry form it let me let me if you have a debris clause that is the only part of your insurance We are gonna look to collect So you're talking about your debris clause it says if it's not enough you're gonna go into the rest That's if you're doing it yourself and your insurance company. That's not for us. That is not for us We are gonna look to collect your debris Component in your debris clause the only time we would be looking at any of the rest of your insurance If you do not have a debris clause and after you have rebuilt if there are any proceeds left Then we would be looking to collect So the So the question was the contractor that will be utilized and local contract So right now our prime for this area is aspirate and they will be hiring local contractors They have not finalized all those yet I will check and see if we can get a list of those local contractors out Through the county contacts once that list has been finalized. We anticipate that happening with them the next Probably five to six days. They'll have their initial list out But aspirate will be the prime contractor on this Part of the reason that we do this is we hire contractors that have the capability In management, they are not bringing any of their subs from Florida to do this work They're hiring all local to the full extent possible to do this work all local So your question is mr. Jalati who I assume is a local contractor all local contractors will have Opportunities there's going to be more than enough work to go around and we have made it very clear to the federal government We need to hire local and we need to hire prevailing wage Those are top priorities as subcontractors are brought on board the sir So the question is disagreement about how we're going to collect I will point you to paragraph 2 of item number 2 In the ROE it specifically calls out. We will work to collect from the debris clause Look, this is not you contracting to do your cleanup This is us coming into contract and attempting to collect to the extent we can what we can from your insurance We are not looking to make ourselves whole here the federal government and state government have authorized funding to cover our costs So if you have a debris clause will look to collect that if you do not and it is clearly spelled out in paragraph 2 Obsession to if it is part of a larger insurance category after you have rebuilt if there are any proceeds left We will be looking to collect from there I'm gonna go right over here right the white Asbestos or lead paint they were not declared hazardous waste sites Why is it that my home is declared a hazardous waste site? How do you justify that requiring? Owners protocols and thousands of dollars more in cleanup for something that if it had burned down last year would not have had this so the question is The question is why has this been declared an environmental hazard when other? Losses of homes and other parts of the country have not I'll let our local Public health officials speak to that the magnitude of the fire that has occurred here. Sorry There with me apologies the magnitude of the fire that has gone here has not Does not enable us to at this time do individual home assessments So what we are doing is looking at what is known from all of the experiences of prior fires of this size in other Locations which have clearly indicated that there are toxic chemicals that are available That are like like ending up on the properties and so at this point in time That is why we're joining these initial hazardous cleanup working with the EPA and working through the processes So the question is about the legal Documentation then requirements and statements here what has been declared is not individual home sites again we have declared a public health emergency for the entire county based on the magnitude of the Toxic material and the burns that have occurred and we are working through a process to address the county-wide issues Which does include having this whole process that you're hearing detailed here with you to make sure that we are addressing the safety of not Only your property, but of the other individuals who are around it I got the gentleman in the vest. We have the gentleman in the plaid and the gentleman with his hat up So gentlemen in the best Yeah, it is not our intent The question is recommending that we do in fact Put and sir correct me if I'm paraphrasing this wrong, but that we do in fact Put that Responsibility potential liability back on the homeowners as part of this Yeah, so the question is about adding the homeowner as a second insured on the contractor's policy I don't have an answer for you on that, but we can certainly follow up on that All right, let me just be clear our intent is not to charge you and not to sue you and we will stick by that We're gonna go to the gentleman in the plaid right here in the gentleman with the hat So the question is about how we can put the burden on a homeowner to identify Where sewer lines are when they may not be aware of it it where it is And our contractors will be working with local government to identify where all those key hazards are Especially in the more urban areas like coffee part I think what that speaks to more sir is especially out in the unincorporated and in areas in the country where you've got septic Where you've got leech lines to the extent you can identify that ahead of time for us It'll help the contractors be more be more efficient in their operation If there's any information you can share with us about your property that that you likely know better than anybody else We want to hear that but we'll be as I said This is going to be a unified effort the city and the county are going to be working with the contractors to identify those types of issues I think what we'll do is take two more questions with them gentlemen in the hat And then we have another gentleman new with the sunglasses on his hat, and I apologize I'm not trying to be disrespectful by identifying you like that. Let's go to the gentleman I'll repeat the question They're going to require So the question is when is the deadline going to be to sign the right of entries That's something that we're still discussing internally with the with the city and county and as soon as we've identified when that'll be We'll communicate that out. So we don't have a deadline at this point. Absolutely The gentleman with the sunglasses on his hat Sir, there won't be an opt-out form. The only form is opting into the program Okay, I'm sorry There will be an opt-out form and we we are we're sorry There will be we will set up an opt-out program and we will outline the plan we're working on that right now with the city and All the other agencies to set up those standards as soon as we have that available We will get that information out to you and share that with you and the we'll also share the process We're working we're working diligently on it. I can't give you a Solid time, but I can tell you we're working as quickly as possible and hope to have it out very soon We've been in the fish with a young lady in the blue, please Right, so two questions one what assurances can be made to residents that are turning to homes that weren't lost Regarding their safety and the second is about the transport of debris through the community So maybe if public health can can speak to The first question and then I'll let army corps speak to how the material be transported We have posted some guidance on the Sonoma County website regarding Ways to clean up your house if you've re-entered it With guidance with that with in regards to individual houses The other recommendation that I might have is that many insurance companies will offer to come and do assessments for you and That they can also provide some additional re-assurance for you So two things one My understanding is County is not going to be making recommendations on standards They are going to be identifying a standard that must be followed for individuals who want to do it themselves And those standards are going to be consistent With the standards of the army corps will be using so let me let the army corps kind of speak to the transport of Materials and how that's handled to protect the integrity of the community So right now our standards will be to work with the air quality board and ensure that any material that needs to be what we Call burrito wrap so fully encased within a truck that that's done properly and the contractor understands that that's written into the language So that it as we go down the road We're not blowing ash and toxic materials out of those vehicles So when we get on site that'll be an initial testing as we go throughout the mission We will continue to test not just at the site But within those communities in those areas where we're moving so we're getting a holistic look at What the toxicity is and ensuring that we're we're meeting the standards at California sets for safety for the particulate matter And the toxins that are there a result of our debris collection So we're gonna take three more questions and here's what we're gonna do. I just would like to suggest We're gonna have army corps Office emergency services and EPA on the other side of the staircase. We're gonna have Young lady here in blue. You have a young lady in blue and the gentleman right here in white So then what we're gonna do so then so then what we're gonna do and I We're gonna talk about the I promise you before we adjourn here We'll talk about the abatement process The question was if and I'm gonna use the technical term if my neighbor has a whole bunch of crap that they're refusing to clean up Am I right? Yes, and I clean up my property. What are you gonna do to make sure that they clean up theirs? We're gonna talk about the abatement process here shortly We're gonna get to it I want to go to the question right here and we'll answer it as Eric answers this next question three more questions And we want to meet you over there Army Corps OES FEMA EPA are gonna be hanging here to answer additional questions, ma'am So if the burned-out vehicle is on your ash on the ash footprint of the home or in your driveway It'll be collected as part of the Army Corps project if it's out on the street Then you can work with your insurer to get to get it removed What you're telling me is auto insurers can Remove vehicles on the street, but they cannot remove vehicles in driveway So we're certainly gonna work with every survivor who's affected who have applied for FEMA assistance to ensure that they First my name is Robert Pezzapane. I'm the FEMA division supervisor for Sonoma County Everybody who's registered for FEMA assistance We're gonna work close with each survivor an applicant to ensure that they're getting everything they're entitled to so in terms of the Duplication of benefits in terms of what we're providing assistance for and what insurance is providing assistance for in the debris removal We will have a coordinated effort to ensure that the survivor is not unduly taxed or In the insurance process for that so we're gonna work closely to make sure that each survivor gets everything they're entitled to The question is can we remove the cars if you're gonna go with our project? We would ask that you not remove the car And then I'll just want one more thing I would also just encourage everybody to take photos of everything so as we do have FEMA inspectors looking at Homesites and automobiles, please just go ahead and take pictures of everything and again We're gonna work with each survivor on each applicant to make sure they're getting everything they're entitled to so If you have any questions of concern, I would just take the picture and work with the government officials to clear the debris We're gonna answer the question about abatement. We're then gonna go to Young lady in steel blue and then we're going to go to the gentleman in great So to your question the individual who just refuses to clean or the individual that decides to clean on their own The county will have an abatement process for that individual that's refusing to clean They're also going to be adopting a standard if you're cleaning it yourself. They have to comply with that standard Timeline for I can't speak to whether there'll be a timeline for their cleanup I can say that for those individuals that are deciding to to to not take advantage of our program We're likely going to be from the from the Army Corps side They're going to be looking at hiring contractors those individuals who do it themselves are probably going to be looking at a lot of those Same contractors so we believe that for the safety of the community and the ability to maximize all the resources that are here in this community Participating in our program is going to allow us to get Sonoma County back much quicker So that's a question I'm going to need to follow up on I don't have a I don't have a good answer for you right now But it's something certainly that I'd like to talk to you offline so that I can clearly articulate up what your particular Concern is I'm not sure at the end of the day We're going to have the answer that that that's going to meet your Satisfaction and again, that's going to have to get back to part of your decision-making process on whether you want to utilize our program or not Gentlemen right here You can attract actual costs of individual properties and build we build against individual policy limits I'd hate to use up that whole limit We are going to track our costs we owe it we owe it to the taxpayers to track what this cost Overall, so we will be aware of what the cost is on your particular property and each individual We're going to work with one-on-one. We'll look at the county will be looking at their insurance policy look at the proceeds available But the effort will not be to fully recoup our costs It is Even if you spend half that amount Right the question is are we going to track actual costs Especially if in the case our costs come in below what you've got set aside I will tell you our experience generally is it costs us more to clean your site Then you have set aside in your insurance policy for debris But I'll be happy to follow up with you when we corral in the back. Let me go to the gentleman in the back Just real quick on that policy. We're using it's called the ADMS system automated debris management system The goal behind that is so that we can track very closely It's not a hundred percent accurate But we're going to do our our best effort to track exactly what's pulled from each property so that we'll have a price per property When you go out to dinner and everybody throws money on the table, it's not split You know five different ways even though you may have only got a salad and this guy over here got a T-bone So we will try and track that as best we can per property