Grand jury finds Gilroy’s emergency contact numbers aren’t
current, but officials disagree
Gilroy – Emergency officials in Gilroy are scratching their heads over a civil grand jury report that singled out Gilroy’s personnel records as out-of-date.
Stale records could endanger the city if extra officers and firefighters need to be mobilized from home during a disaster, jurors say – but Gilroy officials say the jury’s finding is too vague for them to understand what, if anything, needs to change.
The jury assessed emergency systems in five Santa Clara County cities and the county itself. Among the six agencies, only Gilroy lacked current personnel records, the jury found.
“In a major disaster – an earthquake, a terrorist attack – that isn’t the time to update your list,” said Dave Burnham, grand jury foreman pro tem. “No matter how quickly you can contact your emergency personnel, if the number isn’t current, it doesn’t matter.”
Jurors had a simple way of determining if records were current: They just asked, said Burnham.
“It’s pretty straightforward,” said Burnham. “We asked the people in charge, ‘Are the records current?’ We felt they’d be forthcoming. They’re professionals.”
But Gilroy staff who were interviewed for the grand jury report say they don’t believe their records are out-of-date, and don’t understand what criteria the jury used to dub Gilroy’s records dated.
“We have serious questions about the validity of that finding,” said Fire Captain Roy Shackel, the city’s assistant Office of Emergency Services coordinator. “I couldn’t venture a guess as to what they found to be out of date … My question is, what do they consider to be current?”
Gilroy police officers and firefighters are required to notify the city’s emergency communications center within 72 hours of moving, allowing dispatchers to update their emergency contacts. Rosters are updated electronically and new hard copies are then distributed to each dispatcher. Communications supervisor Steve Ynzunza said the callback numbers are current, and speculated that the out-of-date records might be for non-city services, such as tractors, that the city could call in during an emergency. But Burnham said that the grand jury’s criticism centered on personnel numbers.
The importance of the callback roster has been diminished by city cell phones carried by all officers and firefighters, which dispatchers can text message en masse in less than a minute. Officers are supposed to respond if texted, letting dispatchers know whether they’re available. If someone doesn’t respond, dispatchers resort to the callback list and contact the person at home.
“The text-messaging system works,” said Gilroy Police Capt. Debbie Moore. “It’s quick and it’s responsive.”
Though the grand jury noted Gilroy’s “text-paging system,” Burnham apparently did not understand that the system linked to a separate database of cell phone numbers, not the larger callback roster, remarking, “Whether it’s somebody dialing or sending a text message, it only works if the information is current.”
Nor could Burnham specify what information wasn’t current, and how dated it was. Because Shackel supplied the jury with redacted personnel lists to comply with privacy laws, the jury couldn’t check the numbers themselves.
Jurors also found that most agencies lacked automated systems to summon emergency workers, and recommended that the agencies develop them. Shackel said Gilroy has held off on switching to an automated system because the city just switched to a new Voice Over Internet Protocol phone system and dispatchers are still settling into the communications center in the brand-new police department.
Automated systems also are in the works on the county level, said Miguel Grey, Santa Clara County Emergency Services program manager. A new system could be in place within a year.
“We want a system that makes for a more efficient response,” Grey said. The jury’s recommendations haven’t altered their plans, he added – just affirmed them. “It’s confirmation that others recognize the importance of this type of technology being implemented.”
Seismic problems also troubled the grand jury, which noted that different agencies followed different codes to ensure that their emergency centers would survive an earthquake. The gold standard is California Building Code Chapter 16, Section 1632, according to the jury’s report – but when cities said they adhered to other standards, the jury couldn’t determine whether those codes were adequate.
“We’re not engineers,” said Burnham. “Municipalities need to verify that they’ve installed their equipment to standards equal to or greater than the California Building Code – for their own security.
“It’s an even more fundamental risk,” Burnham added. “If your communications equipment itself is destroyed [by an earthquake], you can’t contact anyone.”
Gilroy has 90 days to respond to the grand jury report, noting whether they agree or disagree with each finding and why. The city’s Emergency Management Organization, which consists of department heads and city administrator Jay Baksa, and the Office of Emergency Services, which consists of Shackel and Fire Chief Dale Foster, will review the report and craft a response, to be approved by Baksa.
“The most important thing is just to get clarification on these findings,” Shackel said. “If they can explain to me, ‘This is what we want to change’ – great, we’ll be happy to address it.”
