Full Notification

The following Press Release was provided by J'Amy Brown, Commisioner on the Montecito Planning Commission.
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Montecito Planning Commission—Interactive Informational Presentation “Emergency Management—Professional Response and Citizen Preparation”

When: August 21, 9AM (Montecito Planning Commission Regular Meeting: First agenda item. The item is expected to last 1.5 hours.)
Where: Planning Commission Hearing Room, County Engineering Building, Room 17, 123 Anapamu Street. The presentation will be televised live on Channel 20 beginning 9AM (On Cox, Channel 20 is on the Non-HD, lower community channels.)

What: The Commission will receive a community disaster preparedness report and an emergency management joint-presentation by the Montecito Fire Protective District and the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Services.

Who: Chip Hickman, Chief Montecito Fire District, Terry McElwee, Operations Chief Montecito Fire District, Geri Ventura, Public Information Officer. and Richard Abrams, CEM, Office of Emergency Management, County of Santa Barbara will lead the presentation.
Special Interactive Opportunity: Questions from the public will be accepted both before and during the presentation. Please email Commissioner J’Amy Brown ([email protected]) Due to privacy issues, questions will be read, but names will not be announced.

Quote from MPC Chair, Sue Burrows, for Publication:
“The Montecito Planning Commission believes a safe community is a well-planned community and, because this is a very dry fire season, we felt the August meeting of the MPC would be an opportune time to hear about local emergency preparedness from both Montecito Fire District and the County’s office of Emergency Management. The presentations will include a report on current local brush clearance, a discussion about how to plan a fire safe home an explanation of emergency incident command hierarchy and local emergency communications resources.

“Personal preparedness plan is also part of community preparedness, so the MPC will seek input on how citizens should prepare themselves before an emergency. The discussion will include pet evacuation, family communications plans, 72-hour emergency preparedness supplies, and how to pre-planning your evacuation.
“Due to the important nature of this presentation, we want to encourage the community to participate in the discussion in a timely manner. To that end, we invite the public to attend the hearing, which starts at 9AM in the Planning Commission Hearing Room, or citizens may send questions to the commission before the hearing. We are also going to make a special effort to take questions, live, during the hearing via email. Questions may be addressed to Commissioner J’Amy Brown at [email protected]”

Media Contact: For more information, please contact Sue Burrows, 969-4441 or [email protected]

Community Contact (For information on process or to pose emergency preparedness questions: ) J’Amy Brown, 969-5515 / [email protected]