On July 1, Santa Barbara County came one step closer to having a permanent Emergency Operations Center when the Board of Supervisors narrowly voted in favor of allowing staff to move forward with a plan to build emergency facilities outside of Santa Barbara.
The decision—which could be postponed for financial reasons—comes at a pivotal time for the county, considering that the need for an emergency center is virtually undisputed, and the county is currently battling an emergency situation in the flames of the Gap Fire.
The board voted 3-2, with Supervisors Brooks Firestone and Joni Gray dissenting, to begin preliminary development on the $7.2-million center, to be located on city property at 4400 Cathedral Oaks Road, west of Highway 154.
The board asked staff to return with another report before the publication of any construction bids. The report will focus on potential funding sources and a cost-benefit analysis.
Also, staffers were asked to solidify the possibility of forming financial and service-oriented partnerships with several local entities—including the city of Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, and the National Forest Service—that are interested in the project.
Once constructed, the site would serve as a “single focal point for the management of information, decision making, and resource support/allocation during all phases of local emergency,” according to a staff report from the county’s Office of Emergency Services.
During an emergency, the center would provide leadership and resources to other services throughout the county, including eight unincorporated areas and a handful of special districts.
“I think at this point in time we don’t need it,” said Supervisor Gray, when asked why she voted against the center. “It would be very nice to have, but we can get along without it.”
She compared the board’s choice to fund the project to a family trying to build an add-on to its home after the father lost his job.
“There are other ways to do this when you have a financial crisis—the high price of gas and the repossession of homes,” she said.
For example, she explained, there are two perfectly functional disaster centers funded and run by the Red Cross of Santa Barbara County in both the north and south parts of the county.
After visiting several other Emergency Operation Centers in the state, and assessing three potential sites in the county, staffers determined the Cathedral Oaks area to be the best place to build the Emergency Operations Center.
While making recommendations to the board, staffers based their decision on issues such as staff proximity, expandability, communications, security, and ability to withstand natural disasters.
The two other sites considered were county-owned properties, one near the Betteravia Government Center in Santa Maria and the other near the Santa Ynez Airport.
According the staff report, the Cathedral Oaks site received the highest criteria score with 720 out of 730 possible points, followed by the Betteravia site (650), and the Santa Ynez Airport site (340). The point system for the project assigned values to what were listed as high, medium, and low priorities.
The criteria for the building was based on Federal Emergency Management Agency standards, and the issues deemed of highest priority included staffing proximity, expandability, communications pipeline, and utilities.
The report states that while “the county continues to struggle with a workforce that is increasingly living in areas outside of the South Coast area,” an evaluation of potential staffers for the Environmental Operations Center found that approximately 75 percent of the staffers both live and work in the South Coast area.
Staff proximity is considered crucial for the center because the rate at which the center can respond to an emergency depends greatly on the availability of properly trained workers.
Also, it’s important that the facility be resilient to weather, fires, floods, and seismic activity. The facility should also be capable of operating on a 24-hour, seven-days-per-week basis.
Other important criteria for the project include helipad access, satellite communications, strong information technology, power, security, and media communications.
The staff report recommended developing a back-up Emergency Operations Center to be located at the Betteravia site, as well as deployable emergency service centers that would make use of specialty tents and other materials.
As of press time, calls made to county staffers involved with the project were not returned.
Contact Staff Writer Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 10-17, 2008.
