The City of Malibu has already begun overhauling its emergency operations systems following an independent review of its response to the Franklin and Palisades fires, city officials said Monday, with new technology, expanded radio systems and mobile warning sirens among the improvements now underway.
The City Council received the after-action report at its March 23 meeting, a document prepared by Witt O'Brien's, a national emergency management firm, that evaluated the city's Emergency Operations Center response to the Franklin Fire in December 2024 and the far more destructive Palisades Fire in January 2025. Together, the fires destroyed more than 700 structures in Malibu and ranked among the most consequential disasters in the city's history.
Public Safety Director Susan Dueñas told the council that several key recommendations from the report had already been put into action. The city has transitioned its EOC software to Microsoft Teams and trained staff on the new platform. The city's LA-RICS radio network has been expanded by 18 units to a total of 48 radios citywide, a change officials credited with improving field communications during the later stages of the Palisades Fire response.
The city is also in the process of acquiring two mobile siren trailers from the City of Los Angeles, to be deployed during critical red flag days as a backup alert mechanism for residents. A new EOC incident management team of approximately 15 specially trained staff members is also being developed, officials said.
Despite those gains, the report identified persistent vulnerabilities — none more urgent, council members agreed, than the city's inability to reliably warn residents when power and cell service fail simultaneously.
"The test has to be, can you wake everybody up at two o'clock in the night, without any power, without any cell service, without any telephone service?" said Council member Doug Stewart, who served as mayor during the fires. "That's what we face."
The city's primary alert system, the Everbridge notification platform, delivers warnings via landline, cell phone and email — all of which depend on functioning infrastructure. The after-action report found that Public Safety Power Shutoffs during both fires knocked out communications systems at critical moments, at times making it impossible to send alerts to residents or coordinate among EOC staff. Officials acknowledged that a comprehensive, infrastructure-independent alert system remains an unsolved problem.
Council member Haylynn Conrad noted the city has been discussing a citywide alert solution for years without resolution. Dueñas confirmed discussions are ongoing and that a NOAA radio repeater serving the area was also found to be non-functional during the fires.
A separate debate emerged over whether elected officials need more formal emergency training — and what their proper role is during a disaster.
Stewart, drawing on his background in corporate risk management, argued that all council members should complete Federal Emergency Management Agency's Incident Command System courses ICS-100 and ICS-700, foundational training required of all EOC personnel. He said the coursework would give elected officials a framework for understanding emergency operations without interfering in them.
"I'm not saying that the ICS training puts you in a chair at the EOC," Stewart said. "But in order for us to evaluate exactly what we have in front of us, we should understand what the staff is required to do."
Mayor Bruce Silverstein pushed back, citing the report's own findings. The after-action review found that the city's management team failed to formally convene the EOC policy group — which includes the City Council — during the fires, preventing elected officials from making high-level policy decisions. Instead, council members communicated informally with staff on an ad hoc basis, which the report found created "the potential for operational confusion by blurring the distinction between field-level priorities and the strategic policy decisions" that should rest with elected officials.
Silverstein said the council's proper role is not operational but legislative — meeting formally to set policy direction, coordinate public messaging, and press state and federal officials for resources. He said the council was repeatedly denied the ability to convene during the emergency.
Council member Marianne Riggins said the two positions were not mutually exclusive, suggesting the city develop formal training for council members focused specifically on when and how elected officials should engage during a crisis, and that a dedicated policy room separate from the EOC floor be established.
City Manager Joseph D. Irvin said he was committed to organizing joint training for both staff and council members before the next fire season.
"Ideally, you have a separate room that's the policy room," Irvin said. "And we could organize that, work with the city attorney and city clerk on meetings as needed."
The after-action report was received and filed without a vote. It will be submitted to the State of California in accordance with state reporting requirements. The city has scheduled a community workshop on evacuation planning for April 28 at City Hall.