The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is a disgrace.
In response to the devastating fires in January, the supervisors took immediate action to commission a report by a third-party consultant, not even located in California. That report is now available.
“This isn’t about pointing fingers,” said L.A. County Board of Supervisor Chair Kathryn Barger, as quoted in the county’s online statement announcing the release of the report by the McChrystal Group.
The “after-action review” conducted by McChrystal “was not intended to investigate or assess blame,” the county’s statement continued.
“McChrystal Group conducted interviews with 147 participants and hosted six community listening sessions,” the county said.
It’s disgraceful enough to commission a narrowly-scoped report with the intention of letting everybody off the hook for the misguided priorities that made the January fires one of the worst disasters in the nation’s history. It’s even worse to hire a consulting firm to face furious constituents so the supervisors and their staff members don’t have to do it personally.
The January 28 motion by Supervisors Barger and Lindsey Horvath called for a review only of “the evacuation policies and emergency alert notification systems utilized by the County and its partners in responding to the Palisades and Eaton Fires.”
The county agreed to pay the McChrystal Group, headed by retired four-star Gen. Stanley McChrystal, approximately $1.9 million dollars to conduct the review, while highly paid L.A. County employees sat in their offices and waited for it to be completed.
Disgraceful.
Even worse, the review found that the county’s emergency preparedness was hampered by a lack of clear roles and responsibilities, lack of evacuation-specific training, obsolete systems and technology, and a lack of reliable data and internet connectivity.
Last November, voters in areas served by the Los Angeles County Fire Department were asked to approve a parcel tax to raise funds for staffing and equipment. “LA County firefighting vehicles are 27 years old on average,” the proponents wrote in their ballot argument to voters, citing “worn-out, broken-down equipment” as a factor in response times.
The Measure E parcel tax was aimed at raising about $150 million per year, but the annual budget of Los Angeles County is north of $45 billion. It’s disgraceful that year after year, as equipment aged and technology became obsolete, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors merrily spent billions of tax dollars on lower priorities than firefighting.
Voters narrowly approved the tax increase, even though there is already a special tax on property tax bills to fund the county fire department. Two months later, the Board of Supervisors voted to spend $1.9 million on a consultant report designed to hold no one accountable for “27 confirmed deaths and more than 15,000 structures destroyed” in L.A. County as of January 20.
In contrast, the city of Sierra Madre produced an after-action report on June 30 without a consultant. The “participating organizations” were “Residents and Community Stakeholders, Emergency Responders and City of Sierra Madre Staff.”
The city staff held listening sessions just like the McChrystal Group did, but they heard considerably more, because the “mission areas” included not only evacuations and alerts, but also “protection” and “mitigation.”
In a section headlined “Common Themes and Public Concerns,” for example, residents “strongly called on the City to take a more active role in fire prevention, preparedness, and interagency coordination.”
Specifically, “Eaton Canyon CANNOT remain NATURAL. Controlled burns and/or brush and grass removal are needed to decrease the fire danger.” And, “There have been 4 major fires in 46 years. This is a predictable, recurring hazard.” And, “SoCal Edison power lines are located over the canyon. This is an incendiary situation.” And, “The 2005 fire and the 2025 fire both started near the Edison infrastructure. What’s the mitigation plan?”
The “key takeaways” from the listening sessions, the city staff reported, included this: “There is widespread public awareness of the fire risk posed by Eaton Canyon and a strong appetite for visible, coordinated mitigation.”
Congratulations to Sierra Madre for its report recognizing the importance of fire prevention and mitigation efforts as well as the need to respond effectively during an emergency.
Too bad the Board of Supervisors is only interested in changing the subject.
