Sunday, August 29, 2021

[Santa Cruz County] Grand jury report

During the meeting [the Santa Cruz City] council members also responded to the CZU Fire report from the Santa Cruz Civil County grand jury, saying it was impractical to create fire safety community groups throughout the city.

Mayor Donna Meyers, responding on behalf of the council, also partly disagreed with the report findings regarding how the city has dealt with the fire dangers posed by homeless encampments. Specifically, the city took issue with the idea it has not done enough to clear these areas and has not been as transparent with the public as it could have been.

The report analyzed the effectiveness and response time from city and county leadership, including the city’s response and handling during and after the tragedy. It included nine findings and six recommendations, with the only one not fully or partly implemented being one regarding the establishment of FireWise communities in the wildland-urban interface area.

The decision to reject the recommendation, Meyers said, was the fact it was unrealistic to create such communities — which make up about two-thirds of the city’s area — within a 12-month timeline.

Santa Cruz Lookout
By Neil Strebig
August 25, 2021

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