Report 2019-103 Recommendation 4 Responses

Report 2019-103: California Is Not Adequately Prepared to Protect Its Most Vulnerable Residents From Natural Disasters (Release Date: December 2019)

Recommendation #4 To: Ventura County

To best prepare to protect and care for people with access and functional needs, the county should revise its emergency plans by following the best practices that we included in our report. The county should begin implementing these practices as soon as possible. By no later than March 2020, the county should develop a schedule for completing updates to its emergency plans.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2023

No change from information provided during last report.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented

Ventura County clarified that it has finished updating is alert & warning plan, and is currently working on an evacuation plan that it expects to finish in early 2024. We reviewed the alert and warning plan and found that Ventura County no longer references a separate annex for addressing access and functional needs, and instead within the alert and warning plan itself discusses considerations for ensuring that emergency alerts reach individuals with access and functional needs, which is consistent with best practice. We will review Ventura's evacuation plan when it submits it upon completion.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

In March of 2022, the County of Ventura Board of Supervisors adopted the updated version of the Ventura County Emergency Operations Plan. Updates to this plan included many of the suggestions proposed by the California State Auditor, including the full integration of disability, access and functional needs (DAFN) concepts. While working to complete the update, the County of Ventura established a DAFN working group that was instrumental on providing feedback and suggestions to the various topics covered by the plan. Lastly, the County of Ventura hosted a series of community workshops in multiple languages where participants from the community learned about the plan and were provided a forum to publicly ask questions and provide feedback.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented

Ventura County provided documentation demonstrating that it has implemented several best practices that we describe in the report, including updating its emergency operations plan while including representatives of people with access and functional needs, establishing agreements with transportation providers to assist with evacuations, creating an updated shelter plan that includes strategies for meeting access and functional needs, and establishing storage trailers that are pre-stocked with shelter supplies. However, Ventura has not yet documented an evacuation plan (which Ventura states is in progress) or updated its alert and warning and local assistance center plans to include strategies for meeting access and functional needs during those stages of emergency response.

1-Year Agency Response

The County of Ventura has and continues to update plans in accordance with state and federal requirements. This includes updating/adopting our Emergency Operations Plan on a 3-year cycle and our Hazard Mitigation Plan on a 5-year cycle. Numerous other plans that are not required by statute are updated as needed.

The County of Ventura is in the process of completing an update to our Emergency Operations Plan which includes the incorporation of Disability, Access & Functional needs (DAFN) concepts directly into the plan. These concepts were drawn feedback provided by a newly formed DAFN advisory committee. This committee is comprised of 50+ local stakeholders representing a variety of organizations and causes across Ventura County. The draft plan is slated to be published for public review and comment the first week of February and a virtual town hall will be held at the end of February before the plan is finalized and presented to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for adoption.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

Ventura's response indicates that it is in the process of updating its plans, but has not yet finished updating them. We look forward to reviewing Ventura's completed plans. If those plans - and the manner in which they were developed - adhere to the best practices that we describe in the report, we will consider this recommendation to be fully implemented.

60-Day Agency Response

The County of Ventura has drafted and approved an improvement matrix that addresses each one of the California State Auditors recommendations and a proposed implementation strategy and timeline. Some of the Auditor's recommendations have been implemented already and many remain in progress with a completion date of 12/31/2020 or sooner. Please refer to the attached matrix for more information.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

Ventura provided a timeline that includes a schedule for developing an alert and warning plan, an evacuation plan, a sheltering plan, and a local assistance center plan. The timeline also includes a schedule for implementing the best practices we discussed in the report. We will continue to track Ventura's progress through the subsequent follow-ups, and will assess the recommendation as fully implemented once the county has updated each of those plans in accordance with best practices.

All Recommendations in 2019-103

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.