City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: January 28, 2025
Agenda Item: 16.M
1 of 1
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Nikima Newsome, City Clerk, Records and Election Services Department Subject: Request of Councilmember Hall and Mayor Pro Tempore Torosis, that, in order to accurately capture lessons learned during the City’s response to the Palisades Fire and to better prepare for the next natural disaster or emergency crisis, the Council direct the City Manager, City Attorney, and City Clerk’s Offices to conduct an After Action Review across all City Departments and to return to Council no later than 12 months from now with a public report, improvement action items, and implementation plan.
Prepared By: Nikima Newsome, City Clerk
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. 20250128 16 Item - After Action Review of City Response to Palisades Fire - Hall Torosis
16.M
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Meeting: January 28, 2024
1 16 ITEM BY COUNCILMEMBER DAN HALL AND MAYOR PRO TEMPORE 2 CAROLINE TOROSIS
3 Request of Councilmember Hall and Mayor Pro Tempore Torosis, that, in order to 4 accurately capture lessons learned during the City’ s response to the Palisades 5 Fire and to better prepare for the next natural disaster or emergency crisis, the 6 Council direct the City Manager, City Attorney, and City Clerk’ s Offices to 7 conduct an After Action Review across all City Departments and to return to 8 Council no later than 12 months from now with a public report, improvement 9 action items, and implementation plan.
10 After Action Reviews ( AAR) are a critical tool used by organizations to assess an 11 organization’ s performance during an event, capture lessons learned, determine 12 improvements to be made, and strategize over improvement implementation. 13 Following the destructive riots and looting of May 31, 2020, Council directed the 14 City to conduct a thorough AAR involving an independent, third party consultant, 15 community members, City staff, and City advisory bodies and commissions. This direction 16 resulted in a 121 page report from the OIR Group that outlined 44 recommendations for 17 the City to improve. The City has since implemented 38 of those recommendations and 18 have improved our operations.
19 We are eternally grateful for the preparedness and actions of our Santa Monica 20 Fire Department, Santa Monica Police Department, Office of Emergency Management, 21 Public Works Department, Department of Transportation, and City Manager’ s Office - and 22 all of our City team during the Palisades Fire emergency. This item should not be 23 interpreted as an indication of Council’ s displeasure at any department or office’ s 24 response, rather as our guidance to seize this opportunity to improve as an organization. 25 As the City of Santa Monica sits at the nexus of massive urban sprawl, fault lines, 26 an ocean, mountains, and increasing risk of wildfires with a nearby suburban- rural 27 interface, we believe it is prudent for the City to use its largely successful response to the 28 Palisades Fire to prepare for future natural disasters. It is imperative to assure our entire 29 City staff, community leadership, and the general public that we are effectively capturing 30 these lessons, seeking wide community feedback, and improving where needed. 31 WE THEREFORE MOVE THAT THE COUNCIL:
32 1. Direct the City Manager, City Attorney, and City Clerk’ s Offices to effectuate a City33 wide AAR for each department and office, with an emphasis on looking at the City 34 as a whole and across departments.
35 2. Direct the City Manager to retain an independent, third party consultant to lead this 36 effort and produce a comprehensive public report.
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16 ITEM BY COUNCILMEMBER DAN HALL AND MAYOR PRO TEMPORE CAROLINE
TOROSIS
Palisades Fire After Action Review
37 3. Direct the City Manager to return to Council no later than 12 months from today 38 with the above comprehensive public report outlining recommendations for each 39 department or office, and the City as a whole, with a plan to implement ( or having 40 implemented) said recommendations.
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