Most good ideas take some time to develop...granted. That is what happened in Atherton and Palo Alto with their emergency service volunteer programs. The key that spurred and sped up their development, beyond the persistence of a few noble volunteer leaders, was a receptive City government coming to the table to support, promote and legitimize the volunteer effort. While volunteer leaders in Menlo Park have tried organizing and mobilizing over the years, only a few Menlo Park neighborhoods actually have a developed ESV network. Why is that? In my view, there has been insufficient support by Menlo Park Council Members, City Managers and Police brass over the years.

One would hope that in an emergency like this that the need would be clear and the City would be more than interested in building out a neighborhood volunteer network throughout Menlo Park. For the first time in years, there is strong cohesive movement by residents in Menlo Park to organize teams to help their neighbors. Indeed, an umbrella citizen's group called MPC Ready has been created and is helping recruit ESV members and create communication channels across the City's neighborhoods. But with very minimal Menlo Park City support to date, this effort is taking too much time. We are missing an opportunity to really ramp up a network when many are keen to help and get involved. And in an emergency like this, there isn't any time to waste.

Menlo Park City officials, if not now, when? When will you support an emergency volunteer infrastructure that can be called upon for help in a variety of emergencies (e.g., an earthquake) should they occur? If it can be done in other communities, it can be done in Menlo Park. And if this volunteer effort is officially supported by City governments in other neighboring communities, it can be supported in Menlo Park. Unfortunately, in Menlo Park, our City leaders haven't ever really valued this important effort in the past and, even more unfortunately, the City continues to barely acknowledge it, let alone sanction it, even now - in the midst of a critical event when eyes, ears and a neighborly helping hand can be especially valuable.

Why is the City of Menlo Park not following the Best Practices of its neighboring communities?

Both Palo Alto and Atherton have an extensive network of FREE Emergency Service Volunteers making sure that their neighbors are ok and providing them with assistance.

Menlo Park, even though it is projecting a huge budget deficit, is instead using a very few PAID staff to do welfare checks for a much smaller number of its citizens:

""Community members who would like to refer a vulnerable neighbor, or family members wanting to sign up a loved one, can request a wellness check online. City staff, who are background checked and supervised, will be able to connect those referred with various City, county, and nonprofit resources available to them and will check on them weekly until the stay-at-home order is lifted." "

If Menlo Park staff were called upon to do welfare checks for the same percentage of its citizens as Palo Alto and Atherton are doing with their ESV's the Menlo Park staff system would collapse.

So what is the difference? Palo Alto and Atherton local governments are Citizens Centric while Menlo Park's government is Staff Centric.

It's considered a municipal best practice to establish a trained and ready, volunteer-based group that helps to prepare residents (and neighborhoods) to be self-sufficient following a major disaster. On any given day, Menlo Park has very few first responders present given our City's population and the number of “day workers” coming in to work at Facebook, etc. On any given day, the numbers present in Menlo Park can double our official population which is likely to hit 45,000 in the 2020 Census.

Few first responders live in Menlo Park or nearby. With the major roads, and the airports possibly closed following a major earthquake, additional help might not arrive for 7-14 days or more! The First Responders present will also be working off their designated priority lists and most residential neighborhoods are not top priority!

This is why it is so critical that households are prepared to be self-sufficient, and then help their neighbors, until the first responders can arrive. Organized neighborhoods can also deter potential looters. Looting often starts within 30 minutes of a major disaster. Organized neighborhoods also help with reconnaissance and then in sending information to the overall Incident Commander via a chain of Block, Neighborhood and Area Coordinators. We can let the Incident Commander know when a neighborhood is safe and self-sufficient. That way, the first responders can help neighborhoods in greater need.

The MPC Ready Organization launched January 25, 2020 with the participation and support of Mayor Cecilia Taylor. There had been a prior organization that fizzled out over time, mostly due to a lack of official support and volunteer burn-out at the Herculean effort. We don't want this to happen again!
Although a new organization, the COVID-19 Emergency enabled MPC Ready to relatively quickly recruit, Block, Neighborhood and Area Coordinators. We now have about 300 volunteers, but we need about 1000 more. Neighbors are meeting neighbors through the Block Coordination effort and Block Coordinators are conducting welfare checks, and providing support, and laying the foundation for Phase II of MPC Ready. As soon as we can, MPC Ready wants to help neighborhoods with proactive readiness for other major disasters such as a major earthquake, flood or canopy fire. You can sign up to be a Block Coordinator at www.mpcready.org.

MPC Ready has had some direct support from the City of Menlo Park via a designated Liaison during the COVID-19 emergency. Mayor Taylor and Police Chief Bertini also spoke at the most recent community meeting (April 25, 2020). We have heard positive comments about MPC Ready and we look forward to deeper conversations (about our official role) as soon as can be practically accomplished.

MPC Ready would like its organization, and the capabilities of its volunteers, to be formally incorporated into the City's official Emergency Operations Plan, the City's Safety Element (of its General Plan) and the Police Strategic Plan! Our neighboring City, Palo Alto, has an Emergency Operations Center Volunteer program that is our "role model" for how a City can work with resident volunteers. We would like to see a similar effort in Menlo Park. Web Link

Our Block Coordinator recruitment efforts would be so much easier with a formal endorsement from the City of Menlo Park. Until then, we will continue to make progress but it will be slow compared with what it could be!

Lynne Bramlett, Co-Chair, MPC Ready

Given the City's budget crisis now would be a very good time to outsource police services to the Sheriff as do Woodside and Portola Valley. And then look to County OES to embrace the incredible cost effectiveness of Emergency Service Volunteers.

That would save Menlo Park millions every year and provide better service.

An excellent article on what Palo Alto is doing:
"Risberg isn't alone in her watchfulness over fellow residents during the public health crisis. Throughout Palo Alto, neighborhood preparedness coordinators like her — members of the city's Emergency Services Volunteers program — have been fanning out, working the phones and checking in on neighbors.

"We are like little owls when we go out ... keeping our radar sharpened," said Risberg, who's been devoting eight hours a day to the role. "Also, we're like farmers: We dig up things that could be potential problems later and nip them in the bud."

The Emergency Services Volunteers (ESV) were quietly activated by the city on March 23 to aid residents during the pandemic. "

Web Link

In contrast the City of Menlo Park refuses to use ESV's and therefore has NO idea what is going on in its neighborhoods.