Portola Valley Emergency Preparedness Committee approves 2026 priorities and expands outreach, radio and evacuation work

The Portola Valley Emergency Preparedness Committee on Feb. 5 approved its 2026 priorities and scheduled a presentation of the package to the Town Council at 7 p.m. on Feb. 11. The committee also reviewed a range of preparedness initiatives — from volunteer CERT classes and a new community readiness map to fuel-mitigation progress, a planned defensible-space assessor pilot and work on the AM1680 emergency radio system.

Committee member Dale moved to accept the priorities and forward them to the council; the motion carried after one abstention. The chair said Vice Chair Kim will present one slide on the town's EOP/EOC setup during the Feb. 11 council meeting.

Why it matters: The priorities packet groups the committee's projects for the year and frames requests to the Town Council for attention or funding. Several items discussed on Feb. 5 affect how quickly residents can get preparedness help, how emergency messages reach residents during outages, and how the town manages fuel-mitigation and inspections.

Training and volunteer recruitment: Committee members were asked to help recruit for an upcoming SER basic skills (CERT) class. Organizers reported seven people registered and 10 are required to run the class, which is scheduled for Tuesday evenings, 6:30–9:30 p.m., at Station 19 in Woodside; make-up sessions will be available online or via neighboring agencies. Staff urged committee members to personally invite residents and neighborhood contacts to increase attendance.

Outreach and digital tools: staff from the Bureau of Fire Prevention and Life Safety said they will publish a monthly newsletter called "Ready Resident" and link it from the town's regular communications to raise awareness. The bureau also demonstrated a new online community map that, when given an address, shows the responding fire station, assigned fire inspector and will add a Firewise layer and links to local preparedness organizations. The presenter said roughly 1,300 parcels have been assessed in neighboring areas and "another 700ish" remain, a progress figure staff flagged as approximate.

Ordinances and permitting: staff reminded the committee that while California's AB 38 requires resale disclosures in very-high-fire-hazard zones, the town's ordinance applies defensible-space requirements across the whole district so new homeowners begin with consistent expectations. The bureau also reported a new online permitting and inspection software is in use after earlier implementation issues.

Fuel mitigation and volunteer assessors: the committee heard that the fuel-mitigation crew has worked through major arteries and many side streets and is now largely in a maintenance phase of an anticipated 10-year program. Staff outlined a proposed resident-run "defensible-space assessor" program (using a CalFire curriculum) to train volunteers to conduct preliminary home assessments using the district's software; pilots are planned in Westridge and Lera to help scale assessments beyond what staff alone can complete.

Communications and AM1680: the communications subcommittee updated the group on AM1680, a local TIS AM radio system intended as a backup for emergency messaging. Members debated a proposal to create three focused subcommittees for equipment, operations (message uploading and recording) and messaging content. Committee members stressed the importance of consistent content across channels and asked how AM1680 messaging will coordinate with the county SMC Alert system. Staff said protocols are being finalized and will be routed to the town manager for review; the committee discussed promotion, signage and neighborhood outreach to increase resident awareness of AM1680 as a fallback when cell service fails.

Evacuation planning and infrastructure: committee members discussed the concept of a town evacuation exercise for selected areas (not a townwide mandatory evacuation) to test alerts, the Genesis Protect app and assembly/reunification procedures. The chair said about $100,000 from a Stanford project, matched by another $100,000, may be available this year to support evacuation improvements — likely focused on Alpine Road widening — and that the committee may be asked to assist in planning.

Staffing update: a speaker introducing themselves as the district's fire chief said they had assumed the role and introduced deputy fire chief Vince Nanini; the district promoted other staff and is recruiting three firefighters for lateral hires this year.

Votes at a glance: the committee voted to approve the previous meeting minutes; it voted to accept the 2026 priorities for presentation to Town Council (motion moved by Dale; one abstention by Randy); and a motion to adjourn passed at the meeting's close. Specific tallies were taken by voice vote during the meeting.

The committee set its next meeting for March 5, 2026. The EOCC guide and an EOCC activation procedure are under town manager review; staff will continue developing position checklists and report back to the committee as documents are finalized.