Good time to update your emergency plan

Pasadena Star News  

By: Cynthia Kurtz                   

Posted 9/18/2013

September is National Preparedness Month and a good time to reassess your disaster plans.

The unfortunate truth is that most folks think about getting ready for a disaster right after a disaster. The American Red Cross is trying to change that thinking with the “Prepare the San Gabriel Valley Campaign” and their “Ready Rating Program.”

“Only six percent of Californians have made plans for what to do before, during and after a catastrophic event,” says Ben Green, CEO of the Red Cross San Gabriel Pomona Valley Chapter. “Preparedness is critical in preventing and alleviating the impact of disasters and city officials, businesses, and individuals are encouraged to participate in the campaign.”

If you are thinking that you really should review your plan, National Preparedness Month is a good opportunity to start. The Red Cross knows how important it is to be prepared now. They respond to 70,000 disasters every year. 

It’s not just earthquakes. Disasters come in many forms - wildfires, tsunamis, home fires, pandemics, heat waves, floods, landslides, downed power lines and terrorism. No one is immune from disasters at home or at work.

One-third of businesses have no plan for how they will respond if a disaster interrupts operations. But 82 percent of businesses say they would develop a plan if someone made it easy. 

The Red Cross’s Ready Rating Program makes it easy and convenient. Best of all, it’s free.

Ready Rating is on-line program at www.readyrating.org. After you sign up for the free membership, the 4 minute and 31 second “1-2-3 assessment video” will tell you everything you need to use the site.  

A simple questionnaire allows you to assess your current level of preparedness, create a tailor made plan, begin to implement the plan and even learn how to help others during a disaster. As a member you have access to your assessment anytime you want.

The site allows you to generate customized reports about your plan. Whenever you update your information, a new score card is generated enabling you to track your progress. This easy self-paced tool can dramatically improve your level of preparedness.

Revamp should create level playing field

Pasadena Star News  

By: Cynthia Kurtz                   

Posted 9/18/2013 

Let me start with apologies to my readers who are getting tired of so many columns about CEQA reform. However, for people who are interested in how policy is made, this issue is the gift that keeps on giving.

This was to be the year for CEQA “modernization.” The Governor said it would get done. SB 371 was introduced by Senator Steinberg and touted as the CEQA reform bill for California. Interested parties were engaged and business advocates asked for changes to give more certainty to timelines and reduce excessive litigation. 

However, Senator Steinberg said that what business wanted went “too far” and so didn’t include the business-backed changes in his bill.

Last week SB 743 popped up - a “gut and amend” bill also authored by Senator Steinberg. Gut and amend means that at the end of the session a bill that is clearly not going to pass gets rewritten with a new topic and purpose which has nothing to do with the original topic and purpose. When the changes are made at the end of the session, the bill can avoid all the pesky public hearings that are part of the normal legislative process

Last year when a CEQA reform bill that was backed by business was proposed by Senator Rubio at the end of the session there was a hue and cry that CEQA was too important to be changed through gut and amend legislation. Didn’t hear any objections to the process for SB 743. But I digress.

SB 743 expedites the CEQA process for the proposed new downtown Sacramento NBA basketball arena by allowing the project to go straight to court in the event there is CEQA litigation thereby giving more certainty to the timeline. It provides for mediation of disagreements over environmental issues as a shortcut to avoid litigation and requires the courts to issue a ruling within 175 days.

As reported in the Sacramento Bee, the bill was introduced to cut through what “Steinberg and others have called a burdensome environment impact study process under the California Environmental Quality Act.”

In case you aren’t following other northern California news, Senator Steinberg is a candidate for mayor of Sacramento.

I am not suggesting that SB 743 was a bad bill. The arena is not getting an environmental exemption. It will have to meet ALL environment standards. It will have to complete all the studies and reviews required under CEQA. It will have to mitigate its impacts. It will have all the public review required by the California law. 

What I am asserting is there should be a level playing field. If Senator Steinberg and the Legislature believe this process is good for the arena why shouldn’t it apply to other projects? SB 743 was pushed as a job-creation bill. In case there is any misunderstanding, developing housing, expanding manufacturing facilities, and building public infrastructure also creates jobs.

SB 743 passed. SB 731 did not.

Even after this state legislators will continue to scratch their heads and wonder why, year after year, California keeps ending at the bottom of the list of “business friendly” states.

Looking at origins of American holiday

Pasadena Star News

By: Cynthia Kurtz

Posted 9/04/2013
 

This past Monday, America celebrated Labor Day. Labor Day is always the first Monday in September. Among other meanings, it signifies the end of "summer" - even though officially the last day of summer is September 22 - the autumn solstice.

That doesn't stop us from putting things off until summer is over...right after Labor Day. Most schools start the Tuesday after Labor Day. The last summer weekend vacation is planned for Labor Day weekend. But Labor Day's origins don't have anything to do with summer. Labor Day is our celebration of workers - the "workingman's holiday."

A strictly American holiday, the first Labor Day was planned by the Central Labor Union on September 5, 1882 in New York City. In some ways the original plans for the day were a lot like the way we celebrate today. There would be a parade to "show the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations." That would be followed by a "massive picnic" for the laborers and their families' recreation and amusement.

In other significant ways, that first "labor day" was very different. The New York police were concerned about violence. They were out in force along the route and surrounded city hall.

It wasn't a "real" holiday - not yet - so workers had to take unpaid time off to participate. At 10:00 a.m., the parade's appointed starting time, organizers were worried. There were just a few participants and no band. Everyone knows you can't have a real parade without a band. What do you march to?  

Patience was all they needed and a little after 10:00 a.m., 200 workers from the Jewelers Union of Newark Two were spotted crossing on the ferry...with a band. Other marchers joined along the way. It is estimated that 10,000 workers joined the procession around lower Manhattan that morning. Everything was peaceful.

The organizers had searched for the right picnic spot and settled on Wendel Elm Park at 92nd and 9th. It was the largest park in New York City in 1882. There were flags, fireworks and of course, kegs of beer. Some 25,000 people joined in the fun which continued until 9:00 pm that night.

Recognition of Labor Day grew slowly. A few industrial cities began to celebrate along with New York. A few states selected the first Monday in September as a holiday - New York, New Jersey and Colorado were among the first.

Twelve years later in 1894 Senator James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced S. 730 making Labor Day a national holiday. It was approved on June 28 of that year.

It's fine to mark Labor Day as the end of summer. However, don't forget to remember that Labor Day is a day to celebrate the contributions of American working men and women. It is the single holiday that celebrates the rise of the middle class, a day for business and labor to recognize all the things they agree upon and reunite in the power of working together for America.