The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday received an independent review of the city's response to the 2025 Palisades Fire, as residents pressed officials to measure how many people the city's evacuation routes can actually move.
The after-action report, prepared by consultant Jacob Green & Associates, lays out 36 recommendations touching nearly every city department. The council took no formal vote, and Mayor Caroline Torosis said the report was "received and filed."
Two residents and a neighborhood association asked in written comments that the council require a quantitative evacuation capacity study as part of the report's recommendation for a comprehensive evacuation annex. Chief Resilience Officer Lindsay Call said such a study is moving forward but is not yet under contract.
"Community development has identified potential funding to use for the evacuation capacity study that Ms. Lopez is referring to," Call said in response to a question from Councilmember Lana Negrete, referring to resident Eve Lopez. Asked when it would be finished, Call said, "There's not a contract yet."
Lopez, a Sunset Park resident, wrote that any evacuation plan must start with a basic question: "How many people can our evacuation routes actually move, and how quickly?" The North of Montana Association also asked that the study account for how increased housing density could affect evacuation capacity.
The fire burned from Jan. 7 to Jan. 31, 2025. It killed 12 people, destroyed more than 6,000 structures and burned 23,448 acres, according to a city staff report. It came within 0.4 miles of Santa Monica's northern boundary but caused no wildfire damage in the city, though mandatory evacuation orders affected about 5,550 Santa Monica households and businesses.
Councilmember Dan Hall, one of the makers of the motion that requested the review, used the discussion to apologize for wrongly reporting during the fire that it had crossed into Santa Monica.
"It was me that put out the bad information about fire breaking into our jurisdiction," Hall said. He said "we were all acting on information received directly from the acting city manager" and that he corrected the error in his next newsletter.
"I certainly apologize for the confusion and fear that that mistake caused," he said.
The report found that council members, many of them new to their roles, needed more training in emergency operations and in how public communications are verified and approved. Negrete recalled that council members "were sort of kept in the dark about the process" during the fire.
Call said staff completed a disaster handbook for the council, paired with online training, and said she believed it had been provided to the city manager's office. She said she hoped it would be "an evergreen document that is a tool at any time to answer council's questions." Councilmember Natalya Zernitskaya said daily talking points during the fire were "incredibly helpful."
Torosis questioned the size of the city's emergency management staff. "What's our plan to rectify the staffing shortage, or do we have one?" she asked.
Call said the city has two emergency management positions, then amended that to 1.5, and said a vacancy during the fire has since been filled. She urged the council to consider the issue as the city prepares for major special events.
"If one person goes on vacation, it's still at one person," Call said. She said many studies are examining emergency management, calling it "a hot topic pretty much everywhere as we have more climate-related disasters and incidents."
Call said the city has increased its identified Emergency Operations Center staff by 76% and has renamed its evacuation zones "so they aren't weird numbers and letters." She said the fire department has adopted an upstaffing and tiered recall policy, and that 11 police leaders have completed a weeklong all-hazards training.
A multidepartment team is also drafting a detailed evacuation response plan. "Partly the planning process is sometimes more of a benefit than the actual plan," Call said.
She said keeping staff engaged is a challenge. "People forget very quickly," she said.
Call said the same employees handle preparedness, emergency response and special event planning. A busy El Niño season "could mean delay in the implementation" of some wildfire-focused work, she said. According to the staff report, technology improvements and consultant-supported training may require additional funding.
Hall asked for regular updates on the recommendations "so we don't lose them over time." He suggested the council might eventually broaden the city's Public Safety Reform and Oversight Commission into a wider public safety commission, or in the meantime send the recommendations to the audit subcommittee to track.
Councilmember Ellis Raskin said he is interested in converting the Interstate 10 freeway into a surface boulevard, in part for "potentially restoring north-south connections through the city," and how that could open evacuation routes.
"We can certainly take that direction and see if it could be evaluated, especially as part of the evacuation capacity study," Call replied.
The report is posted on the city's wildfire preparedness website. "I encourage the public to read it," Call said.
Torosis closed the item by thanking the fire personnel in attendance. "Really proud to have such professionals in our city," she said.