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Team Rubicon outlines disaster-response, mitigation and volunteer support for San Clemente
Summary
Team Rubicon officials described training, debris-removal and mitigation services the volunteer organization can provide to local emergency managers and offered to coordinate with San Clemente staff and county partners.
Kevin Cotho, state administrator for Team Rubicon’s Southern California region, told the San Clemente Public Safety Committee on Feb. 25 that the volunteer-led organization can support local response and mitigation work, including debris removal, chainsaw operations, sandbagging and point-of-distribution operations.
The presentation explained what Team Rubicon does and why the committee should consider the group an operational partner. “We are a volunteer led, or veteran led, humanitarian organization responding to before, during, and after disasters,” Cotho said. He described local training, mitigation projects and the organization’s rapid-deployment model.
Team Rubicon said it stages regionally for different hazards, provides chainsaw and heavy-equipment teams, runs points of distribution and assists with volunteer management after incidents. Cotho said the group focuses mitigation work on people who cannot do defensible-space work themselves and on isolated or at-risk neighborhoods. “We do focus on people that can’t do the work themselves,” he said.
Committee members asked about liability and coordination. Cotho said Team Rubicon carries liability coverage and uses right-of-entry agreements for private-property work: “Our organization is covered by $2,000,000 liability insurance, so per incident,” he said. He described the organization’s donor-funded budget, said roughly 80% of contributions go to operations, and listed corporate donors including Carhartt, Ford, Bank of America, Home Depot and Under Armour.
Cotho described recent Southern California deployments — to wildfires, floods and the LA fires — and said Team Rubicon can often provide an initial surge of trained volunteers within 12–24 hours depending on lead time. He also said the organization prepares a valuation package after deployments for agencies pursuing FEMA reimbursement.
The committee and Team Rubicon discussed points of contact and coordination with county emergency operations. Cotho said Art Possegado typically manages Orange County operations and that Richard Wheeler is an Orange County logistics member who was attending the meeting. Committee members asked how to request support; Cotho left business cards and directed partners to teamRubiconUSA.org.
The committee did not take formal action on the presentation. Staff indicated they would follow up to clarify local points of contact and formal coordination steps.
