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| | 1. | | Call the Order.
Minutes note: Meeting called to order at 1:34 p.m. | | | |
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| | 2. | | Roll Call.
Minutes note: Jackie Carter is excused from this meeting.
Robert Thiel serving as a member in place of Sheronda Grant for this meeting. | | | |
Roll call
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| | 3. | | Introductions.
Minutes note: Chief Lipski commented on the May 15, 2025 event and the need to improve safety response precautions and measures. He thanked members for serving and mentioned other folks are working on improving employee safety.
Members made brief introductions. | | | |
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| | 4. | | Reminders Regarding Public Records and Open Meetings.
Minutes note: Mr. Owczarski said all plural bodies need public records and open meetings law training, that such training will be provided at a future meeting by Assistant City Attorney Peter Block (who could not attend today), and that Linda Elmer is the staffing clerk for this body.
Chief Lipski said that the committee may enter into closed session if needed at future meetings (notice required).
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| | 5. | | Review of Enabling Legislation Including Deadlines.
Minutes note: Members reviewed the enabling legislation particularly regarding duties and reporting requirements. He would like this body to not become waylaid by things outside its scope. He would like to work through items conversationally. | | | |
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| | 6. | | Establishment of Workgroup Communication and Information Flowpaths.
Minutes note: Chief Lipski said that the committee was created by Common Council resolution. Mr. Zollicoffer has been working on safety concerns since May and this body may focus on gaps and not duplicate work of the other body. This group's mission is to make things better and safer. Any formal requests of the other group should be made through Mr. Zollicoffer, who will be used as a contact to communicate with the Mayor's group and the co-chairs should be made aware of these requests.
Mr. Owczarski said that the committee was a recommendation body first and foremost and recommendations would be tracked by the Staff Assistant. The Legislative Reference Bureau is available to do research as needed. This is an opportunity to make timely recommendations, and forge better communication and knowledge with the Common Council - City Clerk's Office. Chief Lipski concurred and we will find a way to increase communication and knowledge. | | | |
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| | 7. | | Introduction/Review of Existing Work to Improve Emergency Preparedness Measures at City Hall Complex.
Minutes note: Mr. Zollicoffer presented an overview on the Employee Safety Program Tracking Matrix (contained in file 250758) which was created by a multi-department action team. The Operation Safety team identified 29 assignments with 13 completed, 15 pending review, 1 cancelled or paused, and 1 not started.
Mr. Zollicoffer went over each assignment and its current status. Assignments 1-4 will include 20-minute, webinar training for city employees.
Assignments 6 and 7 are completed.
Assignment 8 is pending.
Assignment 9 is the 20-minute webinar trainings.
Assignment 10 is completed. Chief Lipski said that the Fire Dept. and the City Hall complex should have received timely notification, which did not occur during the May 15th event. It was important for live notification to occur for everyone at the same time. 911 internal calls to go to City Hall Security as well as the 911 communication center. If an employee calls 911, that call will go the City Hall Security so they are immediately aware of the issue as well. City Hall Security is listening to the 911 call in real time. City Hall Security is the Mayor's Office security. All the officers serving City Hall operate under the Mayor's Office supervision. Those officers will receive direction from the Lieutenant in the Mayor's Office Security.
For the matrix, "Completed", per Mr. Zollicoffer said the act of the mission has been completed; it's in execution (ie for the Webinars, they are ready to roll out). They are ready for implementation. It's been tested and ready to go.
Ald. Dimitrijevic noted that some assignments may require funds and have costs associated so an additional column may be needed in the matrix. Chief Lipski said that costs were not something that the committee was tasked with to determine but rather a policy decision for policy makers to determine. This body will have no way to determine cost and starting with cost rarely works well for public safety.
Assignment 11 would set colors for various emergencies, which would hopefully result in action.
Assignment 12 will go out through FEMA and he will work with departments to identify emergency response team leaders.
Assignment 13 - Mr. Tarkowski said cameras were added in the City Hall atrium.
Assignment 14 - completed.
Assignment 15 - build on the webinars and a newsletter and safety meetings, led by the emergency response team leaders. They will also be doing mock exercises in the near future.
Assignment 16-17 - the current emergency response flip book will be updated.
Assignment 18 - Healthy Rewards will be tied to the 20-minute employee trainings.
Assignment 19 - City Hall Security will be notified of any separations or terminations of employees.
Assignment 20 - create a joint information center so the message to the media is consistent.
Assignment 21 - Panic button testing to occur in 84 locations that have panic buttons and testing will be done quarterly.
Assignment 22 - City Hall security granted full access building cards so there is no longer a requirement to have facility operations managers accompany them. The keeper of who uses what keys when is recorded by DPW, per Mr. Tarkowski. The keys will be kept in crash boxes. The biggest challenge in May for MPD was getting access to that floor, per Mr. Thiel. Is there an action plan on how MPD to access those crash boxes for the right building? Mr. Zollicoffer will follow up and let him know. The goal of this Assignment was to ensure MPD isn't prohibited and has full access. Ald. Dimitrijevic asked about employee access to the Security Office and how employees could communicate a fear and if there are active patrols. Chief Lipski said employees have been calling a specific security officer at City Hall, rather than calling 911, for serious issues. Only the phones that are wired that call 911 will go to City Hall Security as well. They are investigating geotracking for cell phones in the complex. Mr. Zollicoffer said there is a geofence around the City Hall complex, which must be done by the operator for a specific notification and response. Specific officers would be notified immediately within that geofence. The caller wouldn't be aware of the geofence, but the address will ping it within the geofence and the response is pre-loaded. It is an improvement although there is more to do.
Assignment 23 - Desktop alerts is an idea which will need funding, and is paused for the moment. Computers could be locked in place until a "lock in place" notice is acknowledged.
Assignment 24 - Safety newsletter by DER accompanying the 20-minute employee trainings.
Assignment 25 - City Hall door access went into effect 1-2 months ago (15 minutes before 8 am at City Hall).
Assignment 26 - Floor Maps/AED/Pull Stations - doing safety audits with MFD and DPW involved and noting locations of these items as well as alerting employees to the location of these items.
Assignment 27 - Depository for ongoing Common Council concerns. Ald. Dimitrijevic asked how the Council will know about the depository. Mr. Owczarski and she will help communicate that.
Assignment 28 - Code Red Community Alerting Protocol, which is pending on community-wide notifications of what is occurring at the City Hall complex.
Assignment 29 - Visitor and Parking Policy was new over the weekend. This will be getting out to folks for review.
Mr. Tarkowski said items 12 and 15 mention Emergency Response Team (ERT) Leaders which were set up for evacuation and those leaders will be leaders will become ERT leaders. Those roles are being expanded to become all-encompassing, including communication on- and off-site. They will need to sign off on the training that they have taken and that their staff have taken. ERT leaders will be responsible and accountable for safety on their respective floors. Chief Lipski said the city can compel employees to follow the evacuation procedures and other safety procedures.
Mr. Thiel asked about Assignment 13 and access to the camera system. MPD does currently have access, per Mr. Tarkowski. That has been corrected.
Ald. Dimitrijevic said about Assignments 7-9 relating to communication and not seeing internal communication to employees or visitors being addressed. Why not use a text messaging to employees' phones or even mandate it? She doesn't see that the city is communicating with employees. Chief Lipski said that people become numb due to the large number of e-mails they receive and the Code Red System is set up to do that. Response hasn't been overwhelming. For city-owned devices it can be mandated, but the city attorney would need to determine if it can be mandated for employees' personal devices. Employees have to also take action to partake. Code Red did not go out in May and we do need someone to trigger this for the entire system.
Chief Lipski said communication will be 99% of this.
Mr. Owczarski wants more details and has questions on the Emergency Response Team. There has not been an audit or training done on active shooter at various locations, which has been done for fire events and is fairly simple. On May 15th, some employees in the City Clerk's Office were never told of the incident. He thinks we do have to do training for an active shooter.
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| | 8. | | Discussion of Known or Suspected Gaps Needing Attention.
Minutes note: Agenda items 8 and 9 were discussed together.
Chief Lipski said members' assignments are to gather and compile ideas.
Ms. Danyus thinks we need to elevate active shooter drills and discuss with employees who don't have immediate access to security staff. What kind of realistic timeline can we expect for information to be shared? Chief Lipski said it is as quickly as we can get it done. Mr. Zollicoffer said the city could do mock exercises and talk to local law enforcement in terms of how rooms will be cleared; there are some details to work out. Each department will be different based upon what facilities it has to retreat to. Mr. Thiel said MPD is happy to be a partner.
Ald. Dimitrijevic asked about retraining and stronger protocols on badge access in terms of permitting folks to enter after you. She also asked about who is patrolling and are the bathroom stalls being checked? Mr. Thiel said there are officers roaming who deal with hostile public members and parking issues. She is also concerned about access to public meetings. Mr. Thiel noted that the subject matter expert is Officer Roberson.
Chief Lipski asked who is "pending review" on these various assignments and who is providing supportive documents and if members can get those documents. He want this committee to be part of assignments together and not just reactionary to the assignments.
Mr. Goyke said his office will report back on an opt-out choice for employees for Code Red and there should be an assignment 30 on how to implement these assignments and receive feedback from general city employees. The city might want to think about required corrective trainings similar to ITMD cyber security trainings so employees take it seriously. Mr. Goyke excused from the rest of the meeting at 2:55 p.m.
Mr. Tarkowski said he will check if paid security patrol the restrooms after hours. Facilities has made some changes since May and are looking at other ways to improve safety. They have held off some requests so they can consult with safety experts. They were looking at translucent glass and also manual door stops, so the door can't be forced open. We also need to be cognizant of being able to provide access for MPD. Mr. Owczarski thought a hard stopper would become a barricade. More than one department needs to audit these spaces and DNS is knowledgeable on building codes.
Ms. Danyus asked if ERT leaders' names are known (they are) and Mr. Zollifcoffer said that training would be a FEMA webinar of 4-6 hours. Chief Lipski said the Incident Command System training is for multiple jurisdictions with different courses and different levels of expertise. Employee buy-in is an issue and we don't need to make it more confusing to employees. Real-world training can be provided for interested entities and practice can be done in a real-world environment. MFD will help in any way it can.
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| | 9. | | Workgroup Member Areas of Desired Focus.
Minutes note: Items 8 and 9 were discussed together under item 8. | | | |
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| | 10. | | Set Next Meeting Date.
Minutes note: Next meeting date and time - doodle poll next few days by Chief Lipski.
Meeting adjourned: 3:05 p.m.
Chris Lee, Staff Assistant
Council Records Section
City Clerk's Office | | | |
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250758
| 0 | | Communication | Communication relating to the 2025/26 activities of the City Hall Campus Emergency Preparedness Committee. | | | |
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