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DEM tells supervisors pandemic lessons: translation, disaster workers and HSOC coordination
Summary
DEM said its COVID command work — mass translations, disaster‑service worker mobilization, and neighborhood outreach — changed how the city handles emergencies. Supervisors pressed DEM on HSOC's role in encampment work, coordination with police, and next steps for shelter exits and long‑term encampment strategies.
Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of the Department of Emergency Management, told the Budget Committee that the department’s pandemic role reshaped the city’s emergency operations and its approach to equity. Carroll said DEM translated more than 5,200 documents and materials during COVID, used human review rather than pure machine translation, and mobilized nearly 5,000 disaster‑service workers for up to 11,000 deployments, praising their localized community knowledge.
Carroll described HSOC (Healthy Streets Operations Center) as a DEM‑hosted, multi‑agency coordination body used during the pandemic to focus resources on large…
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