BOT Meeting re-cap 11-24-12

The following is a brief unofficial recap of many items that occurred or were discussed at the November 24, 2012 BOT Meeting.  Official minutes will be posted online at www.southorange.org when they are available or the video can be viewed on-demand at southorange.org/videoViewer.asp

Note: Alex Torpey and Janine Bauer were absent

Discussion

The purpose of the special meeting was to elicit feedback from Trustees on a proposed timeline and tasks to review and improve the Village's response to Hurricane Sandy.  Trustee Davis Ford presided

- Discuss Hurricane Sandy follow-up timeline at December 10th BOT meeting
- Post an online survey to Village Website to solicit residents comments & feedback by early December

• Need to determine who will develop survey
• Survey should not be anonymous
• Full Board of Trustees must review and provide feedback before posting the survey

- Hold meetings with residents to answer questions & gather feedback during December & January

• Chair of our Citizens Public Safety Committee to help facilitate informal meetings with neighborhood associations to gather feedback and answer questions
• Need to also have "town hall" meeting, to allow full BOT to hear comments and to provide a venue for those who are not part of a formal neighborhood association
• Need to identify dates and locations of meetings

- Need to discuss policies for use of Village's Alert System

• Need to discuss frequency of messages
• Need to discuss content of messages
• Need to discuss duration of messages
• Need to determine replication of consistent content in multiple places (phone, email, leaflets etc)

- Sign up residents for Alert system & recruit for CERT during December & January

- Expand/ identify the outlets and methods by which we communicate with the public by end of January.  Some examples noted:

• Posting leaflets
• Dial-in conference number
• Driving around with bullhorns
• Need to identify list of residents with special needs (i.e., medical, elderly etc)

- OEM update to be provided by late January

- Identify preventative measures that Utilities can take. (i.e. smart grid, tree trimming, infrastructure maintenance)

- Setup special meeting for BOT to discuss our input into what was done well and what needed to improve:

• Village staff's response
• Communication (with residents and within the BOT)
• Transportation (use of jitneys; communications with NJ Transit)
• Infrastructure (need for generators etc)

- Review of community feedback /BOT suggestions by late January

- Policy/Budgeting/etc. by late January

- Collaborate with Board of Trustees and directly with our State Representatives 

Public Comments

• John Purkert - would like to see Village's emergency plan; Suggested the Village reach out to towns that did well in storm to learn from them; Suggested the Village reach out to people with expertise in survey design; Encouraged the use of all channels of communication, including Maplewood Online; Encouraged a focus on transportation; Requested a review of the Fire Dept policy with regard to helping homeowners pump basements.

For any questions or comments, please post below or email me at mgoldberg@southorange.org