Blog note: very similar to a letter-to-the-editor on the same subject with the same publication a day ago.
EDITOR: When Sonoma County’s civil grand jury speaks, does anyone listen? Apparently not. The 2004-05 grand jury, following up on recommendations made after the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm, found “most of senior management and elected officials interviewed were well distanced from, and in some cases ignorant of, salient pieces of (emergency management) plans.” The report was titled “A Disaster Waiting to Happen!”
Guess what. The disaster happened. It was called the Tubbs fire. The 2017-18 grand jury reports many parallels between then and now. Who is paying attention? Who is accountable? Supervisors and senior civil servants use phrases like accountability, best practices, lessons learned and it will never happen again. The recent grand jury report clearly exposes the myth behind those words.
Why wasn’t the county better prepared, especially in light of recent Lake County experiences with the devastating Jerusalem, Valley and Clayton fires? Why was the county emergency services manager out of the county attending a conference when a red flag warning was in effect during the most dangerous month of the fire season? Who is listening to this grand jury? What will be different this time?
July 11, 2018
The Press Democrat
By Jere Jacobs, Santa Rosa
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