San Mateo County Department of Emergency Management Hires Ladris Technologies to Run Disaster Scenario Simulations and Drafting Risk Reduction Grant Proposals

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CONSENT AGENDA. From the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, June 25th, 2024 at 9:00am as a hybrid meeting.  SMCo Supervisor’s Board agendas.

 

Staff Report

To: Honorable Board of Supervisors

From: Shruti Dhapodkar, Director

Subject: Measure K: Ladris Technologies, Inc.

 

RECOMMENDATION

Measure K: Adopt a resolution authorizing an agreement with Ladris Technologies, Inc. for software tools to analyze near term risk to infrastructure and update response plans in San Mateo County, for the term of July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2027, in an amount not to exceed $1,180,000.

 

BACKGROUND

Measure K is the half-cent general sales tax initially approved by the San Mateo County voters in November 2012 and extended in November 2016 for a total of thirty years.

 

In response to Board direction, staff gathered community input regarding priorities for the allocation of Measure K funds. Staff collected feedback from Community Based Organizations, County departments and conducted a countywide survey and listening sessions to obtain resident input. At the October 3, 2023, Measure K study session, staff presented a report produced by InterEthnica, summarizing the results of the surveys and listening sessions which provided valuable input for the Board.

 

On October 17, 2023, after considering the County’s needs and community input, this Board finalized and approved the following priority areas for FY 2024-25 Measure K funding: Children, Families, and Seniors; Housing and Homelessness; and Emergency Preparedness. Mental Health is a component of each priority area rather than a stand-alone item. In addition to the approval of the priority areas, this Board authorized the County Executive to develop and proceed with a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) process to obtain applications for funding within the approved priority areas and subcategories identified by the Board.

 

On March 27, 2024, this Board approved recommended applications received pursuant to the NOFO and authorized the County Executive to negotiate agreements with applicants, to be returned to this Board for approval. By this action, the application of Ladris Technologies Inc. was approved for an award of Measure K funds under the Emergency Preparedness Priority Area.

 

DISCUSSION

Ladris Technologies (Ladris) will assist San Mateo County Department of Emergency Management (DEM) in analyzing near term risk to infrastructure in the county by providing tools for rapidly updating response plans to changes in risk and improve responsiveness of redress measures, communicating risk potentials and hazards to the community at large, and better protect San Mateo County residents before, during and after a disaster or emergency.

 

Ladris will accomplish this by providing the County with its Correlated Risk Evaluator Software tool (CORE), which allows users to forecast and visualize impacts of a disaster on infrastructure and quantify evacuation plans.

 

The software can run simulations of disaster scenarios before they occur and helps promote preparedness and community awareness which in turn helps to save lives and mitigate damage in the community.

 

Ladris will also provide DEM staff with necessary training and assistance on the use of CORE software. In FY 2024-25 Ladris will add additional capabilities, starting with automated drafting of grant proposals to fund work deemed necessary to reduce risk identified by CORE. This will be more efficient and result in an overall increase in funds available to the County.

 

Also, during FY 2024-25 of the agreement, a simplified version of CORE visual representations of disaster risk will be made available to the San Mateo County community as well as residents.

 

In the final year of the agreement, FY 2026-27 Ladris will provide an automated disaster plan writing feature which will automatically update a specified number of written plans for disaster preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. These features enable DEM to better prepare the county and community to mitigate, respond to and recover from any disaster or emergency.

 

The agreement has been reviewed and approved by the County’s Information Services Department.

The County Attorney’s Office has reviewed and approved the proposed agreement and resolution as to form.

 

PERFORMANCE MEASURE

Measure	FY 2024-25 Estimated	FY 2025-26 Projected
Increase Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessment Speed	By 2026, County Emergency Managers will be able to identify 2 times as many critical infrastructure vulnerabilities over a given time period from the current baseline.	By 2026, County Emergency Managers will be able to identify 5 times as many critical infrastructure vulnerabilities over a given time period from the current baseline.
Increase Infrastructure Mitigation Funding	By 2026, County Emergency Managers will increase the number of grant applications responded to for infrastructure mitigation by 25.  It is also expected to increase the win rate of these applications by 10% from the current baseline.	By 2026, County Emergency Managers will increase the number of grant applications responded to for infrastructure mitigation by 50%.  It is also expected to increase the win rate of these applications by 20% from the current baseline.
Improved Real Time Disaster Response Capabilities	By 2025, County Emergency Managers will have access to and control over at least 2 real time risk layers that enhance operational decisions and response execution.	By 2025, County Emergency Managers will have access to and control over at least 3 real time risk layers that enhance operational decisions and response execution.
Improved Community Disaster Education and Accessibility	By 2027, County Emergency Manager will have provided the public facing dashboard for one year, with associated outreach efforts. Ladris will assist County in showcasing the dashboard and communication capabilities at least once a year.	By 2027, County Emergency Manager will have provided the public facing dashboard for two years, with associated outreach efforts. Ladris will assist County in showcasing the dashboard and communication capabilities at least once a year.

 

The proposed agreement is submitted to the Board with this memorandum.

 

EQUITY IMPACT

This agreement will improve accessibility and equity measured by the number of outreach events held, improved tracking outreach, and participation and engagement of community members that use the public-facing dashboard. This will help ensure that an accurate assessment of use of the platform has generated critical issue awareness and engagement across a diverse range of communities and citizens.

 

FISCAL IMPACT

The term of the agreement is July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2027.The amount of the agreement is not to exceed $1,180,000 for the 36-month term (3 years) and will be funded entirely through Measure K funds. The Measure K funds are included in the FY 2024-25 Recommended Budget under Non-Departmental Services but will be transferred to the Department of Emergency Management’s budget during the September Revisions budget cycle.