During a post-disaster assessment, it was decided that a few tweaks needed to be made in the arrangement among architects, professional engineers, and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
George Salinas, AIA, and George Roarty of VDEM met Sept. 26, 2011, to discuss how the logistics and processes did and did not work. It was decided that a more up-to-date list of trained volunteers was required and that it must be updated every 12 months at a minimum.
To begin, VDEM will trim its list to those individuals who have taken the disaster-assessment training sessions within the past year. While Roarty and Salinas agreed that the onus of maintaining current contact information should remain on the individual, the VSAIA will keep a duplicate list and attempt to keep its members’ contact information current.
These sessions, developed for online training at the instigation of Salinas, will continue in subsequent years. In addition, Salinas has volunteered with the AIA to initiate training along the more extensive lines of that begun in California.
Roarty and VDEM will undertake a review with the attorney general’s office to clarify the liability issues exposed during the earthquake and hurricane that battered Virginia in late Augustwithin days of each other. These include whether volunteers could drive state vehicles and whether they would be shielded by the Commonwealth’s workers’ compensation coverage.
Roarty indicated that he had been under the impression that volunteers recruited after a disaster would be treated as temporary employees. If that is the case, the vehicle liability and workers’ compensation coverage would be in place. But he determined that such a designation must be clarified.
The VSAIA will be kept abreast of these discussions on both the VDEM liability investigations and the more extensive training opportunities. For the latest information, Salinas may be reached at salinas_central@verizon.net.