Sheriff Baca Urges Local EOC Facility But
County Has Other Plans
To thunderous applause, Los Angeles County
Sheriff Lee Baca told the crowd at last week’s town hall
meeting that he wants to bring a state-of-the-art emergency
operations center training facility and policing station to the
old Malibu sheriff’s station.
“It is a very exciting
concept,” seconded Captain Tom Martin of the Lost Hills
Sheriff’s station. “To have an actual training
facility in this area.”
The law enforcement representatives talked
about how the training campus proposed for the station closed
in 1991 would have access to the radio relay tower, heliport
and fuel pumps already in place. It would consist of two
classrooms and the EOC.
Martin said the office space might also be
used by the California Highway Patrol or the fire
department.
Martin made the case that while Malibu is a
safe community, more that 43 percent of the arrests in the
Lost Hills jurisdiction occur in Malibu. He said a local
substation would reduce travel time for officers and the
public.
Baca talked about how disaster personnel
would benefit from being in a perfect location for training
because of the geographic features and the fact that there are
50 percent more disasters than anywhere else in the county.
But what wasn’t discussed is that the
building is owned by the county and its use is determined by
the board of supervisors. And currently, the board is in
negotiations with Santa Monica College to sell the building for
its use.
Baca had made it clear months ago that he
was displeased with any other county plans for utilizing the
station for anything but law enforcement.
However, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who
said he did not want to engage in any war of words with Baca,
confirmed that the county owns the building and any disposition
of the property is determined by the board of supervisors.
Yaroslavsky indicated that the county is
proceeding with sale of the property and negotiations have
reached a breakthrough. “We are actively negotiating
with the college. I personally have spoken with the president
of the college. We are looking at preserving some space for a
substation,” said Yaroslavsky, who added the plans
for acquiring the property call for tearing down the building.
The supervisor said the first time anyone
in the county heard about the sheriff’s plans for an EOC
in the complex is when they read about it in the Malibu
Surfside News.
“Nobody was consulted. Neither
myself, the chief executive officer, the fire department. The
EOC training center came out of left field. It does not make
sense to have a fixed EOC in various regions. We have an EOC in
East Los Angeles. You have got to be mobile in places liked
Malibu and Santa Clarita. You can’t be a prisoner of a
fixed asset. That is why we spend thousands of dollars on vans,
trucks and other mobile units,” he said.
The supervisor indicated he believes it
will be no more than two months before a sales deal is
finalized and a term sheet brought back to the board.
“The voters have said they wanted a college. The county,
the city and the college have been working on this,” he
said.
