County officials are hoping their rebranded and upgraded emergency management department can begin to improve communication with West Marin when storms and other disasters topple trees, block roads and knock out power.
As of Jan. 1, Marin’s Office of Emergency Services became the Office of Emergency Management. To improve lines of authority and coordination, it was moved from the sheriff’s office to the fire department. It has a new director and is beefing up its staff, adding a public information officer, a technology officer and as many as three new emergency management coordinators, one of whom will serve as a liaison to West Marin.
“They will be able to coordinate with residents and neighborhood response groups,” said Steven Torrence, who came aboard as director last month. “We recognize that we don’t have as much of a footprint with them as we should.”
The Board of Supervisors recognized that the role of emergency services is becoming increasingly crucial, Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber said.
“After Covid and the almost constant state of disaster that California seems to find itself in, most of it climate-driven, the board realized we needed to make a bigger investment in emergency management,” Chief Weber said.
Counties around the state have been prioritizing emergency services in the wake of the pandemic and as the impacts of climate change become more pronounced.
Everyone who lives in West Marin knows how difficult it can be to get real-time information when storms blast through the region. With West Marin’s limited routes inland, flood-prone roads and aging trees, residents can be stranded or forced to try alternate roads with limited information about which ones might be open or closed due to flooding, downed trees or rockslides.
A restructured emergency management operation won’t provide a cure-all for those problems, but Mr. Torrence believes it will make a difference.
“I believe it will increase our ability to attend to those gaps—they are known gaps—of being able to reach out to West Marin,” he said. “We’ll have a direct liaison with the intent to share information at the front end, and during, an emergency.”
During last week’s storm, a key stretch of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard was shut down for two days. For part of that time, Platform Bridge Road was also closed. There was a delay in posting both the closures and reopening to the county’s public information website, which maps road closures during emergencies.
“We depend on field crews and road crews to notify us,” Mr. Torrence said. “The information didn’t get to us as quickly as we would have liked.”
Storms in March alone have caused flooding, landslides, downed trees and power lines, utility outages, oversaturated soil and coastal erosion. They have damaged homes, roads and other public infrastructure, causing roughly $2 million in damage. At least 10 houses and several cars were smashed by falling trees, and the Public Works Department removed at least 32 trees from roadways.
The impact of the January storms was even more extensive, causing between $15 million to $20 million in damages. That round of storms struck when high tides were peaking, inundating Stinson Beach, where 45 homes were damaged.
President Biden declared a state of emergency in California after the January storms, making federal funds available to people and businesses who sustained property damage. The county declared a local state of emergency following the March storms. After the most recent damage has been assessed statewide, it is possible more federal aid will be released.
“We’re seeing storms that we haven’t seen following droughts that are unprecedented,” Mr. Torrence said. “We’re starting to see new and emerging impacts. Our infrastructure is being pushed to its max.”
The Marin County Civil Grand Jury recommended the restructuring last May, pointing out that the reach of emergency services extends beyond law enforcement to public health and other areas overseen by the county administrator and Board of Supervisors. Bringing the department under their management would result in a more direct chain of command, the jurors said.
Supervisors hired Matrix Consulting Group to consider the idea and then agreed to incorporate the shift into this year’s budget. The move was intended to improve coordination between emergency management and other county agencies that respond during natural disasters and health crises like the pandemic.
“We are building an emergency organization for the future, recognizing the risks we face and the challenges that may come, and knowing we are facing lots of uncertainty,” said Dennis Rodoni, who represents West Marin on the board.
Mr. Torrence said that because the sheriff is elected and manages his own staff, the office “didn’t have as much capacity to integrate with the rest of the county family.” “Because the sheriff’s department is its own entity, it was a little bit more of a challenge for them to jointly work with Public Works or the fire department, who are critical partners during disasters,” he said.
Although the command structure will change, the sheriff’s office will still play a vital role in emergencies, said Capt. Scott Harrington, a department spokesman.
“The sheriff’s office supported the move and will continue to partner with the Marin County Fire Department during any future Office of Emergency Management activations,” he said. Similar changes were made recently in Sonoma, San Mateo and Santa Barbara Counties.
A Los Angeles native, Mr. Torrence, who is 35, comes to Marin after working in emergency management for 10 years, most recently in Santa Monica. Before accepting the position in Marin, he asked whether the sheriff’s office supported the move, as a similar restructuring in Los Angeles caused some friction between departments.
“Marin’s sheriff’s department saw that emergencies are starting to grow and that they are getting out of the purview of the sheriff’s lens. They understood there was a better nexus to the fire agency to be the command-and-control structure,” he said.