Hazardous Materials commission operations committee finalizes Sept. 11 forum logistics and outreach plan

The Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials Commission operations committee on a recent meeting advanced planning for a public forum set for Sept. 11 at the County Administration Building, confirming venue layout, staffing roles and a distribution plan for printed materials and web links.

Committee members agreed the main presentation will occur in the Board of Supervisors chambers with information tables in adjacent Rooms A, B and C. The committee asked staff to arrange an on‑site logistics walkthrough in August to finalize room layout, security and check‑in procedures and to confirm IT support; county staff had already reserved the rooms and requested maximum tech support.

Commissioners settled on a single one‑page commission handout that lists presenters and topics on the front and places QR codes and short URLs on the back so attendees can follow up online. The group agreed to limit printed table handouts to roughly six core topics because of space constraints; the prioritized topics were flaring, sea‑level rise/living levees, brownfields, PFAS, lithium‑ion battery safety and pharmaceutical collection. Where possible the committee will use premade brochures provided by partner agencies (for example, Confire for lithium‑ion battery safety and the Center for Creative Land Recycling for brownfields) rather than re‑creating materials.

Staff were assigned several logistics tasks. Adam Springer, identified in the meeting as Assistant Director for the county Hazards and Trails programs and staff to the commission, will coordinate printing and bring paper copies to the forum. Commissioners asked the county PIO to produce a shareable social graphic and a printable one‑page flyer and to help extract short video or slide excerpts from prior presentations for the forum web page.

To manage public questions, the committee agreed in‑room questions will be written on index cards, collected and consolidated by two or three designated people (county staff plus commissioners) and then read during a single Q&A period at the end of the panels. Remote attendees on the Zoom webinar will submit questions through the Q&A tab; a Zoom monitor will pass those to in‑room staff for consolidation. Commissioners emphasized a single consolidated Q&A to avoid long back‑and‑forths with online participants.

Accessibility and discoverability were repeated priorities: the committee asked staff to post short, discoverable links to presentation clips on the commission website so attendees do not have to search meeting archives to find referenced materials. The group also recommended including short URLs under each QR code for people who cannot scan codes.

Next steps: staff will circulate a draft flyer to the ad hoc group for review, produce the requested handouts and confirm panelists and roles prior to the August walkthrough; the committee plans to finalize logistics at a scheduled August meeting and report back to the full commission in follow‑up.