LAKEPORT >> In its final report for 2015-2016, the Civil Grand Jury stated that Lake County, especially the office of emergency services (OES), was unprepared and disorganized in its response to the Valley Fire.
The document, which was published on June 30, explained that the government failed to fix many of the weaknesses found by then-OES Manager Marisa Chilafoe in her 2014 strategic plan. Among the issues cited by the jury were a lack of community outreach, limited communication infrastructure, unclear availability of resources and the failure to update the 20-year-old emergency operations plan.
“While some steps were in progress to address certain areas (i.e. starting to updated the [EOP], holding training sessions), most remained in incomplete by the time of the Valley Fire fourteen months after,” the watchdog organization wrote. “The Grand Jury believes that disaster preparedness should be done before, and not while, responding to a catastrophic event.”
It also criticized the office’s instability, claiming that departmental responsibility for emergency services has changed four times since 1995, going through 11 different part or full-time managers. The last two were outside hires and both left their post — the most notable was Chilafoe, who resigned during the Valley Fire disaster.
The current OES Manager, Dale Carnathan, took up the post a few months ago. When asked about the report’s findings, he acknowledged the findings in the report but hesitated placing the blame on anyone, especially the first responders.
“The Valley Fire is hard to assess. It was so big and so fast,” he said. “You can’t fault the folks that were out there because they did the best they could. As far as the county as a whole, obviously not, but moving forward, we are going to change.”
Carnathan’s immediate focus is refurbishing the emergency operations center (EOC) in North Lakeport. So far, he’s acquired some temporary furnishing and equipment but the biggest need is grant funding, for which he’s applied.
“It’s rudimentary but we are a step ahead of where we were yesterday,” he added.
Along with updating the emergency operations plan, he also wants to assemble as large response team composed of department leaders.
According to Carnathan, he’s meeting with responders to discuss the matter next week. The goal: have every position on the team be three-people deep.
“We’re going to have to look at the resources we have and try to match them with our capabilities,” Carnathan said, adding that his goal is difficult.
But at the moment, he’s the only one in the office tackling these issues on a daily basis because, basically, he’s the only one there.
Another employee was allocated in the county’s preliminary 2016-2017 fiscal year budget, but that won’t be confirmed until the numbers are finalized in September. Despite this, he was sure that he would “get a lot of help” if another disaster broke out.
“The biggest thing I’m hoping to encourage is better communication,” he said, noting that there was a significant lack of it during the fire. “I want to make sure that the leadership has the information they need to support the emergency operation.”
