Changes Ahead in Emergency Management in Los Angeles County Amid Eaton Wildfire Report

After months of waiting, a report critical of the protocols and organization of Los Angeles County’s emergency preparedness and response apparatus will be presented to the Board of Supervisors at its Tuesday, Sept. 30 meeting.

The meeting marks a moment when leaders could set in motion critical policies defining the county’s response in future disasters. In one case, an entire county department would be restructured under one proposal.

Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath both plan to make motions Tuesday in response to the report. Barger said during a Thursday afternoon news conference that her motion would “immediately advance implementation of the recommendations contained in the report,” emphasizing expanding, restructuring and bolstering the county’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM).

On Friday, Barger said her focus will be to ensure all the recommendations are implemented. She noted some changes are already in progress.

“The County Fire Department has integrated FireGuard into its operations and secured satellite-enabled hotspot tracking to enhance situational awareness, while the Sheriff’s Department has launched the Citizen Evacuation Tracker to better manage evacuations and keep residents safe,” Barger said in an email.

* See Also: Key findings in McChrystal Group’s after-action review of LA wildfires

The McChrystal Group’s review of fire alerts and evacuations pointed out that OEM was “underresourced” and was operating with staffing levels that were inadequate to address the litany of disasters in a county of 10 million people, such as fires, earthquakes, floods and pandemics.

In a direct response, Horvath’s motion would restructure the county department, and add more staffing and funding.

A copy of the motion was obtained Friday by the Southern California News Group.

The motion would make the OEM its own department. Currently, it operates as part of the Chief Executive Office. Being only a sub-department hinders its ability to make decisions, such as when and where to issue fire evacuation alerts, one of its many duties in an emergency, the motion explains.

“Given the rise in local emergencies that our county continues to face, we need an Emergency Management Department with its own autonomy, increased staffing, more clearly delineated authority framework, and a separate, stable operating budget,” the motion concluded.

If approved, the motion asks LA County CEO Fesia Davenport to write a “next steps” report evaluating the feasibility of a more powerful, independent OEM. It also asks the report to address the current agency’s “lack of autonomy and fragmented authority” that the motion says “undermines its ability to coordinate emergency management effectively.”

A report on staffing and funding would return to the board in about 120 days. This would also list what other programs and funding sources would flow to the new department.

One of the duties of the OEM is issuing emergency alerts and warning messages to the public during a disaster. These often take the form of a cell phone alert.

Questions about the county’s evacuation-notification system quickly arose after it was discovered residents west of Lake Avenue in Altadena received alerts hours after residents east of Lake Avenue received them — which may have contributed to deaths.

“It (the review) shows where we fell short during the January wildfires and where we must do better,” Horvath said on Thursday at a news conference.

OEM was staffed with 37 full-time employees during the fires, for a county of 10 million people, compared to New York City with 200 staffers for 8.5 million residents, said Shawn Tyrie, McChrystal Group partner and government president.

The full Board of Supervisors will receive a presentation on the report followed by an in-depth discussion about the findings and recommendations.

Those recommendations included:

* updating policies and the county code to ensure first responders and emergency management clearly understand roles and responsibilities;

* restructuring the Office of Emergency Management and increasing staffing comparable to other large emergency agencies;

* standardizing and enhancing preparedness and evacuation-specific training for county departments and partners;

* updating obsolete systems and technology;

* implementing field-accessible mobile dashboards and build in reliable data and internet connectivity; and

* developing a robust public education campaign to increase awareness of zone-based evacuation systems.

The 133-page report, created by the McChrystal Group at the behest of Barger and Horvath in January, stopped short of placing individual blame or calling out wrongdoing. Instead it pointed to failures in slow or nonexistent evacuation alerts to systemic and longstanding issues around technology and personnel.

The county’s contract with the McChrystal Group for the after-action report was approximately $1.9 million, according to the County Counsel’s office. The McChrystal Group is a consulting firm led by retired four-star Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

First District Supervisor Hilda Solis said the report showed the need for the county to modernize its response structures, enhance communication tools and invest in training.

“Our role now is to translate these findings into meaningful action,” Solis said in a statement. “That includes clarifying leadership roles during emergencies, expanding public awareness around evacuation procedures, and ensuring every resident receives timely, accurate alerts, regardless of where they live.”

The Board of Supervisors appears to be taking on a leadership role in ensuring the report leads to change. However, during Thursday’s news conference Barger’s message offered a contrast with those of other county leaders present.

In response to the first question of Thursday’s news conference Barger said that, “this McChrystal group report highlights the fact that we are not prepared, if God forbid, we have another emergency like this.”

Minutes later, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna, unprompted, made a “clarification for everybody.”

“Our county is ready for emergencies,” Luna said. “I don’t want anyone to walk away from here thinking that we are incapable or unwilling to do our jobs.”

L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone assured the public that “we are going to be better next time,” and also advocated for upgrading outdated computer-aided dispatch systems so that police, fire and emergency management teams could work more seamlessly than they did in January.

“If we think we can hire enough firefighters or buy enough fire trucks to put out a fire like that, we’re foolish,” Marrone said.

Instead, he said a focus needs to be put on defensible space, home hardening and fuel management.

Rep. Judy Chu, D- Pasadena, said in statement Thursday that the report raises more questions than it answers. Chu pointed out that it did not explain why evacuation orders for west Altadena were delayed for hours even after 911 calls from that area.

“I will be seeking more information from County leaders on how they will implement these reforms, and press for transparency into how west Altadena was left without timely warnings, who was responsible for those delays, and how these failures will be addressed,” Chu said in a statement. “I will continue pushing for regular public updates and concrete timelines to ensure reforms are implemented before the next disaster strikes.”

Altadena resident, local author and historian Michele Zack said Friday that the findings of the report around multiple failures and the need for reforms was not a surprise. Zack said while she’s also not a fan of the blame game, it is telling that amid the loss of life and other institutional failures, not a single county employee appears to have lost their job.

“So I do question if anyone is truly being asked to take responsibility,” Zack said in an email. “Actual, namable people were behind the system’s many failures — it wasn’t a robot or AI that caused them.”

Zev Yaroslavsky, former member of the Board of Supervisors from Horvath’s District 3, said that in March 2017, after he had retired from the board, he remembered getting an emergency test alert on his home phone meant for the Brentwood and parts of Bel Air ZIP codes. He lives in the Fairfax District in mid-city.

The city of L.A. was having problems with its emergency alert system and was testing it out. “I was alarmed at a mistake like this. Something was wrong with their algorithm,” he said on Friday.

“This has been a problem, going back the last decade. It didn’t start in January,” he said.

People in other parts of the San Gabriel Valley mistakenly received emergency alerts on their phone telling them to evacuate, when they were not in any danger from the Eaton fire, he said.

“There were multiple false alarms sent to many people who were not in any danger. And some didn’t get any at all who were — and people lost their lives,” he added.

Horvath’s office said alerts were sent appropriately to residents of the Palisades, Sunset Mesa and other fire-affected areas along the coast on Jan. 7.

She pointed to fire-watch organizations in that area and also in the Santa Monica Mountains with alerting the fire department before a fire gets out of control.

One of those, the Community Brigade keeps fire watch and helps with mop-up operations, which reduces the risks of more structures catching fire from flying embers, according to information provided by Horvath’s office.

Other organizations in the western part of L.A. County include: the Topanga Emergency Management Task Force and the Santa Monica Mountains Fire Safe Alliance. The latter helps homeowners manage their defensible space, while protecting nearby wildlands, Horvath’s office reported.

Finally, the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff Station includes a real-time watch center. This effort uses 26 cameras within the Santa Monica Mountains to look for smoke, as well as: citizen arson watch patrols and increased Sheriff Department staffing. Horvath’s Third District provides $541,000 in discretionary funds to the Lost Hills station for these activities, the office reported.

“I think our focus going forward should be on ensuring our departments have a communications platform that allows them to talk to each other in real time and share information so they can be on the same page – even during a chaotic situation,” Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement.

Tuesday’s meeting will be streamed live on the county’s YouTube channel.

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