City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: November 18, 2025
Agenda Item: 4.E
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Oliver Chi, City Manager, City Manager's Office
Subject: Approval to accept FEMA Public Assistance Grant funds to reimburse the City of Santa Monica for January 2025 Palisades Fire and windstorm incident response costs
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt a finding of no possibility of significant effect pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines;
2. Authorize the City Manager to accept a grant in the full amount awarded, of up to $1,541,271.89 from the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management through the State of California, Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Program for reimbursement of funds spent on The City of Santa Monica’s Palisades Fire and windstorm emergency response activities, in the City Manager’s Office, and to accept all grant renewals; and
3. Authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents to accept the grant and all grant renewals.
Summary
Staff seeks Council authorization to accept federal grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through the State of California, Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) program. The grants will reimburse the City of Santa Monica (City) for eligible city funds spent during the January 2025 Palisades Fire and windstorm. This funding was made possible by the Presidential declaration of a major disaster for the State of California (4856-DR-CA) dated January 8, 2025. The grant is being managed by the City of Santa Monica’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM).
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Under the Public Assistance Program, the City receives FEMA funds as a sub-grantee of CalOES. The subgrant conditions state that the Department of Homeland Security Standard Terms and Conditions as of the declaration date of the emergency flow down to the City as subrecipient. The Department of Homeland Standard Terms and Conditions in effect on January 7, 2025, do not include any conditions related to cooperation with federal immigration enforcement or dismantling DEI initiatives.
Grant funds will be used to reimburse the City of Santa Monica for completed emergency response activities that have been grouped into seven FEMA public assistance projects. The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq. (the “Stafford Act”) sets the federal cost-sharing thresholds for disaster public assistance projects, ranging from 100% - 75%. The City of Santa Monica has submitted applications for the reimbursement projects/grants listed below.
All work activities related to the projects have been completed, in accordance with the grants’ performance deadlines.
Project
#
Description Total Initial
Project Cost
Best Available
Reimbursement
Federal
Cost-Share
811095 Emergency Operations
Center and Incident
Command Post supplies
and equipment
$72,562.05 $72,562.05 100%
818103 City staff labor (straight
and overtime) to conduct
windstorm debris
removal
$97,200.00 $72,900.60 75%
818109 City staff labor (straight
and overtime) and
logistical costs to
conduct debris removal
on PCH for wildfire
mitigation activities
$24,177.98 $18,133.49 75%
818370 Memorial Park
windstorm fence repairs
$59,080.00 $44,310.00 75%
825922 Contract labor costs for
windstorm debris
removal
$202,576.60 $151,932.00 75%
826612 City staff labor
(overtime) to implement
evacuation and curfew
orders and conduct local
$1,171,433.75 $1,171,433.75 100%
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firefighting patrols
N/A City staff time for
management activities to
complete FEMA grant
activities
Est. $10,000.00 Est. $10,000.00 100%
TOTALS $1,637,031.18 $1,541,271.89
Discussion
On January 7, 2025, the Los Angeles region was under a “Potentially Dangerous Situation Red Flag Warning” with dangerous wildfire weather potential and high winds.
At 10:27am, Santa Monica OEM public safety dispatchers first received a call reporting smoke in the Santa Monica Mountains towards the Pacific Palisades. Twenty-five minutes later, Los Angeles Fire Department requested firefighting mutual aid to support a wildfire event, later known as the Palisades Fire.
Based on worsening wind conditions and the need to assist with Pacific Palisades and Malibu with evacuations along Pacific Coast Highway, the City of Santa Monica quickly activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The EOC was overseen by Office of Emergency Management personnel and comprised of trained personnel from several city departments, including Santa Monica City Manager’s Office, Police, Fire, Transportation and Public Works. This collaborative team worked to facilitate immediate response support including public communications, situation monitoring, oversight of evacuation procedures and liaising with city of Los Angeles and other regional response agencies.
Winds increased dramatically during the evening of January 7, 2025, and continued throughout the night. Local straight-line winds resulted in 178 tree branch or whole tree failures within Santa Monica. The wildfire in Pacific Palisades grew to an unprecedented level, burning 23,448 acres and resulting in the total loss of 6,837 homes, businesses and other structures. Significant fire growth to the south resulted in the City of Santa Monica implementing evacuation orders for the most northern part of the city on January 7, 2025 and expanding the evacuation order zone based on continued fire growth the following day. In response to the wildfire and required evacuations, city officials proclaimed an emergency on January 8, 2025. This order included a curfew 4 of 6
order for all evacuated areas within the city of Santa Monica to ensure the protection of evacuated properties.
To facilitate the evacuation and curfew orders, Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) maintained and monitored traffic closure points in the evacuation order zone and patrolled the curfew order zone 24/7 to ensure security in evacuated areas and prevent criminal activity. Santa Monica Fire Department (SMFD) personnel conducted brush firefighting patrols of local evacuation order areas and coastal bluffs with the high brush fire vulnerability. SMFD also served as key liaisons to firefighting resources assigned to the fire’s southern edge and the Cal Fire Incident Management Team, who led and managed the disaster event. Santa Monica Department of Transportation personnel made free transportation available to evacuees for pick-up and drop-off at the American Red Cross evacuation shelter. Voluntary evacuation warnings were lifted in Santa Monica on January 18, 2025. City of Santa Monica did not sustain any direct wildfire property damage.
Debris management activities were quickly implemented to ensure the safety of residents and emergency response activities proceeded unhindered. The city of Santa Monica’s Public Works Department facilitated the collection of approximately 445 tons of windstorm vegetation debris. Debris management activities were performed by city personnel and contractors under existing contract emergency provisions. Contractors cut down and removed larger fallen trees and city staff transported debris to appropriate waste sites. City personnel also collected smaller tree branches, palm fronds, and large amounts of pine needles deposited on city streets and sidewalks to reduce wildfire ignition points and hazards on public right-of-ways. Public Works evaluated city properties for damage and oversaw the repair of wind-damaged baseball field fencing at Memorial Park. In addition, during the public closure of Pacific Coast Highway due to emergency vehicle traffic, the city of Santa Monica worked with Cal Trans and Cal Fire to perform debris management and wildfire mitigation activities along the steep coastal bluffs adjacent to Pacific Coast Highway. These mitigation activities resulted in the collection and disposal of an additional 86 tons of vegetation debris by city Public Works employees. Debris activities started at the beginning of the event and concluded by January 31, 2025.
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The costs submitted to FEMA were required during Santa Monica’s governmental response to protect the lives and safety of Santa Monica residents, businesses, and visitors and prevent property damage within city borders. All city actions were coordinated by the multi-departmental Emergency Operations Center, overseen by Santa Monica OEM. The documentation of city disaster response spending, including staff hours, is planned pre-disaster by OEM and the Finance Department based on FEMA reimbursement requirements. In the wildfire recovery phase, OEM has facilitated and reviewed all incident documentation and has worked closely with FEMA and Cal OES personnel to submit reimbursement projects that maximize Santa Monica’s reimbursement opportunities.
Environmental Review
The acceptance of grant funds is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) of the CEQA Guidelines, which states that CEQA does not apply, “where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment.” Grant funding would be used to reimburse costs for the Palisades Fire. Therefore, it can be seen with certainty that the agreement would not result in adverse physical impacts on the environment, and as such, exempt from CEQA.
Financial Impacts & Budget Action
There is no immediate budget action necessary as a result of the recommended action.
OEM has submitted applications to FEMA to request reimbursement totaling $1,541,271.89, which is the maximum that the City can receive for its costs relating to the Palisades Fire and windstorm emergency response activities.
The exact timing and amount of the reimbursement revenues are indeterminate at this time. Reimbursement revenues will be deposited in the Miscellaneous Grants Fund account 20200002.406190 and in turn, transferred to the appropriate fund that incurred the original expense. Budget adjustments would be incorporated in a future budget cycle, if needed.
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Prepared By: Lindsay Call, Chief Resilience Officer
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Written Comments