Piedmont Braces for El Niño as Staff Warn Residents to Prepare

Piedmont's fire, public works, police and communications staff spent nearly an hour Oct. 19 telling the City Council that a forecast El Niño winter could stretch a small city's crews thin. The message to residents was blunt: storm messaging starts this week, and the more households prepare on their own, the more responders can focus on life-safety calls. Earlier in the evening, nine public speakers pressed the council to go beyond the Deering Memorial and negotiate a settlement with the Deering family.

---

• El Niño readiness report: 98% El Niño odds, 46 drainage hotspots, a six-person crew
• Residents told to self-prepare and sign up for AC Alert, with about 12% enrolled
• Nine public speakers urge Deering settlement talks, financial atonement and a redress task force
• Mayor says the council cannot comment on litigation and points to the permanent memorial

---

Storm Season Puts Limited Crews to the Test

The basics: Item 3 was an information report on 2026-27 El Niño winter storm preparedness. The council took no vote, and no members of the public spoke on the item.

Why it matters: Piedmont has steep hillsides, older drainage, a history of landslides and a small maintenance staff. Staff were candid that a prolonged storm could exceed local capacity, which shifts more of the burden onto households and county partners.

Where things stand: Fire Chief Dave Brannigan said forecasters give a 98% chance of El Niño, though rainfall totals remain uncertain. He said the city is planning for the wet worst case: downed trees and power lines, blocked roads, landslides and flooding at known trouble spots.

“We don't have any official floodplains in the city of Piedmont, but we do have localized flooding that impacts us fairly significantly,” said Brannigan. He pointed to February 2023, when he said “the fire department ran 26 calls for service in one 24-hour period during one of these storms.”

Public Works Director Bonnie Tam described the scale of the system. The city has 480 catch basins and 46 hotspots, and a six-person maintenance team handles the work. Crews prune about 1,000 trees a year and have increased street sweeping by 50% since 2023. The city has 1,100 feet of wattles, including compost wattles, which are tube-shaped barriers that slow runoff. Sandbags are available at the Corporation Yard, with “up to 10 sandbags per household,” Tam said. Locations discussed included Bushy Dell Creek, Drusina Park and Moraga Avenue.

What changed since 2023: Staff said police dispatch triages incoming calls, and life safety comes first. The city does not clear private trees on private property. When local resources run short, the city turns to Alameda County, mutual aid and its Emergency Operations Center.

Since 2023, Public Works has joined the regional JPA radio network, and a new dispatch center now has its own separate generator. City Administrator Rosanna Bayon Moore said on-call contracts are also in progress. “That effort is very much underway to make sure if it's beyond work that we can perform, that we have an option to quickly and expeditiously engage a third party to perform that work,” said Bayon Moore.

Gaps on the record: Council questions covered vulnerabilities, call volume, staffing, shelter and cooling sites, and pool closures. Brannigan acknowledged that “we don't have an appropriate facility for a cooling site in town on particularly hot days.”

Decisions and stakeholder impacts: No action was required. The practical effect falls on several groups:

• Homeowners, who must maintain sump pumps and private trees.
• Residents near drainage hotspots and landslide-prone slopes, who face the highest localized risk.
• The six-person Public Works crew, which will depend on contractors and county mutual aid if a storm runs long.

Vice Mayor Conna McCarthy asked that the slides be shared with the public, and the city administrator agreed.

Alerts Will Come From the County

Why it matters: Most emergency alerts will not come from City Hall, and too few residents have signed up to receive them.

Where things stand: The city's communications officer said storm messaging begins this week through a dedicated storm webpage, email and social media. “The more people do in their own homes before a storm, the more that frees up our emergency responders to deal with the most urgent and essential life safety issues,” the officer said.

Staff said the city does not keep lists of contractors, to avoid appearing to endorse businesses.

Brannigan said “Piedmonters are likely to get AC alerts that originate from Alameda County, not from the City of Piedmont.” He also acknowledged the AC Alert sign-up site is not intuitive.

Mayor Betsy Smegal Andersen noted that about 12% of residents are enrolled. “We can do better than 12%,” said Andersen. She also asked staff to move storm information closer to the website's landing page.

What's next: Expect the storm webpage and outreach this week, with the presentation slides posted online. Residents can register for AC Alert and pick up sandbags at the Corporation Yard.

---

Nine Speakers Press for Deering Redress

The basics: All nine speakers during the public forum addressed the Deering family. Speakers referenced Sidney and Irene Deering and the Deering Memorial the city is creating. The council took no action.

Why it matters: The speakers formed a coordinated, multigenerational push. They thanked the city for the memorial but argued it is a starting point, not an endpoint. Because the family's litigation against the city is ongoing, the council is legally limited in how it can respond publicly.

Where things stand: Don Tamaki cited the precedent of Japanese American redress and called for meaningful financial atonement. “We ask that negotiations commence to resolve the Deering litigation in a way satisfactory to the city, to the plaintiff and to the Piedmont community as a whole,” said Tamaki.

Jesse Burke asked for a memorial status update and good-faith negotiations with compensation. He cited a UN framework on restitution and compensation as well as actions taken by other cities. “We owe this family money,” said Burke.

Other speakers framed redress as broader than money:

• Diana Lee asked for a memorial progress update and for the council to restart a committee on redress options, including education and partnerships.
• Roger Tsai, founder of Piedmont Food Fest, said: “I'd urge City Council to build on the momentum of the Deering Memorial by forming a task force.”
• Robin Wu, a former Park Commission member, called the memorial an educational component of redress but said full justice requires more.

Students and faith voices: Hunter Fastow, president of the African Affinity Student Union, supported reparations and described the experience of Black students. Violet Williams, a Millennium High School student, proposed giving statue funds to the family and renaming a cross street after them. Kim Hunter asked for K-12 education on Piedmont's history, along with acknowledgment and apology. Lois Corrin, a longtime resident, said the Deering family is part of her St. Augustine church community.

The other side: Andersen said “we cannot comment on an ongoing litigation matter.” She called the events of 100 years ago abhorrent and said the city is creating a permanent memorial with the support of the Deering family.

Decisions and stakeholder impacts: The council took no action. The requests now sit outside the public agenda, with the litigation as the main channel. The speakers' asks fall into three areas:

• Compensation through settlement negotiations with the family.
• Governance through a task force or a restarted committee.
• Schools through K-12 education on Piedmont's history.

The memorial remains the city's stated commitment.

What's next: No council follow-up was scheduled. Speakers requested a progress update on the memorial.

---

Cora Wood Day Caps 32 Years

Andersen proclaimed Oct. 19, 2026, as Cora Wood Day, “today, October 19th, 2026,” honoring a Recreation Department employee who started in 1994 and served under three recreation directors.

Several people offered tributes:

• Former Recreation Director Mark Delventhal credited her work on registration systems, facilities projects and mentoring. He called her “the most consequential employee in the history of Piedmont.”
• Recreation Supervisor Liam Kelly called her a force multiplier.
• John Tullock described her as the spirit of the department.
• Madeline Wood, her daughter, spoke about her as a mother and grandmother.

Wood thanked colleagues and said she will remain a Piedmont resident.

---

Minor Items

• Sewer financing: The council authorized a State Revolving Fund application for Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Phase 7 (For: 5, Against: 0, Absent: 0). Vice Mayor Conna McCarthy moved the item and Councilmember Jennifer Long seconded. No dollar amount was stated.
• Minutes pulled: Approval of the minutes (Item 1) was removed from the agenda and will return at a future meeting.
• Early voting: Councilmember Lorrel Plimier announced a League of Women Voters event on Oct. 30 and noted a vote center at Veterans Hall. “I just want to make a plug for people to vote as early as you can vote,” she said.
• Bioswale test: Councilmember Tom Ramsey said the Fairview Avenue bioswale, a landscaped channel that absorbs runoff, handled a recent water main break. “And it performed as designed,” he said.
• Older adult singing group: Long announced a new group starting Nov. 10 at 801 Magnolia.

---

Looking Ahead

Storm outreach launches this week, and the city's disaster-preparedness survey, which takes five to seven minutes, remains open. Community events ahead include the Piedmont High School Boosters Oktoberfest and the Piedmont Adult Expo.