Oxnard fire chief asks council to introduce ordinance to modernize disaster council

Alex Hamilton, fire chief for the City of Oxnard, asked the City Council to introduce by title only an ordinance to amend Chapter 6 of the Oxnard Municipal Code to modernize the city's disaster council and align it with the city's emergency operations plan. "My name is Alex Hamilton, I'm fire chief of the city of Oxnard," he told the council.

Hamilton said the proposed amendment would clarify disaster council roles and responsibilities, remove procedural requirements that are not consistent with current emergency management best practices, and allow the council to convene as needed to address planning and coordination during emergencies. He told the council the updated language also simplifies the disaster council's composition to make it more adaptive to current conditions and peer practices used by surrounding cities and Ventura County.

Hamilton said the ordinance formalizes existing emergency management practices and "has no fiscal impact," adding the changes would not require additional staffing or operational expenditures. He said the disaster council's role includes coordinating preparedness, response and recovery planning; recommending emergency and mutual aid plans to the council; and supporting interdepartmental and regional partner coordination.

No formal vote or motion is recorded in the provided transcript; Hamilton described the recommendation as an introduction by title only with a waiver of further reading. He and Emergency Manager Candy Campbell offered to answer council questions about the proposal.

If the council proceeds with the introduction, the ordinance would update the city's emergency governance framework to match the emergency operations plan and regional best practices. Details of the ordinance text, including any specific membership changes to the disaster council, were presented on slides and summarized by Hamilton but are not spelled out word-for-word in the transcript.