Venice CAB approves release plan for hurricane after-action survey; board sets three-week comment window and March 19 meeting

The Citizen Advisory Board for the City of Venice spent the bulk of its meeting reviewing a draft hurricane after-action survey and agreed on steps to finalize and distribute it to residents.

Board members raised several substantive edits and clarifications: add an initial item to indicate whether the respondent was present in Venice during hurricanes Helene and Milton; mark contact-name fields as optional; reword the final rating question about the city's response so it does not read as a simple grade ("excellent to very poor"); and reconsider some questions that probe evacuation and post-storm experiences that may lie beyond the city's direct authority but could still be useful for communication and intergovernmental coordination.

Lorraine Anderson, the city's public information officer, described the planned distribution: placement on venicegov.com (with an emergency banner), posts on social media (Facebook/X/Instagram/LinkedIn), e-mail distribution to media and HOA lists, and outreach through Venice Main Street and the Chamber of Commerce. Anderson also said city staff would provide a laptop kiosk in the Planning and Zoning reception area for residents who cannot access the survey at home.

Board members discussed how to preserve the credibility of survey results and suggested a front-page instruction or question asking respondents to confirm whether they were living or working in Venice during the September–October 2024 storms. Anderson confirmed the survey preamble already requests respondents be living or working in Venice during the storms; the board voted to add a clearer screening question.

After considering two procedural alternatives for finalizing and releasing the survey, the board voted to grant the chair authority to incorporate the discussed edits and release the survey without returning to the full board for another formal review if the changes were minor. A roll-call vote recorded six votes in favor and no opposing votes for that motion.

The board also set the public comment window at three weeks and scheduled a special meeting for March 19 to receive preliminary results, begin compiling responses, and assign follow-up work to board members. During discussion, members and staff noted the city administration is producing a staff after-action report on a parallel timeline; board and staff products are intended to complement one another.

Speakers emphasized how the survey data will be used: as input for public messaging, for the city's hurricane guide and the May hurricane expo and to shape recommendations presented to City Council. Board members noted practical constraints (staff time to analyze open-ended responses, the risk that small respondent counts could be overinterpreted by media, and the city's limited authority over utilities and private-sector price issues) and recommended questions be edited for clarity and to identify which issues the city can act on.

Actions taken at the meeting included a motion to give the chair authority to finalize and release the survey (approved by roll call), a motion setting the survey availability period at three weeks (approved by voice vote), and a motion to schedule a March 19 meeting to review results (approved by roll call, 5-1). Board members were assigned outreach responsibilities to ensure representatives of schools, business organizations, HOAs and other community groups circulate the survey to their constituents.

The board asked staff to return with preliminary results in advance of the March 19 meeting so members could plan how to code and summarize open-ended answers and prepare recommendations for City Council.