Unfortunately, with the County Board of Supervisors’ failure to support the Santa Barbara County Civil Grand Jury findings regarding emergency management, Kelly Hubbard was left with no choice but to resign her position as director of the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management (OEM). The responsibilities and duties of OEM are enormous. The failure of the county to provide adequate staffing and keep OEM buried in a fire response-oriented department, the County Fire Department, placed Hubbard in a no-win situation.
In 2006, then-CEO Mike Brown asked me to move from my position as deputy director of Public Health to the chief of Emergency Management. OEM had just been moved from the County Fire Department to the County Executive Office because of doubts in OEM’s performance and management. Brown stated that my background in law enforcement, emergency medical services, and particularly public health would be an advantage in OEM as he was becoming more concerned about a pandemic. Again, this was in 2006.
After assuming the executive role, and reporting directly to the CEO, alongside OEM staff I was able to accomplish significant improvements in the department.
One of my findings upon assuming the chief role was that the staff, while they were within the Fire Department, had been treated like second-class citizens. They all seem to be very aware that they were not firefighters and were not regarded as a true part of the department. Literally, for years, their salaries had been kept stagnant and they were woefully underpaid. In addition, as OEM vehicles came up for replacement, the Fire Department would take the new vehicles and hand old fire staff vehicles back to OEM staff. The demoralized staff knew they were not part of the “brotherhood” of firefighters.
The Fire Department’s plan for a new emergency operations center consisted of helicopter hangars in Santa Ynez. An afterthought was to put a small EOC [emergency operations center] in the helicopter hangar basement. The self-serving approach to a new EOC, the lack of staff salary equity, and the confiscation of new OEM vehicles confirmed the staffs’ perception of not being valued.
As the chief of emergency management, and particularly as an executive in the CEO’s office who reported directly to the county CEO, the Office of Emergency Management was able to implement strong disaster service worker training and had the full cooperation of the various county departments. In addition, with the strong support of area philanthropic organizations and the County Board of Supervisors, we abandoned the Fire Department’s self-serving EOC plans and built an EOC that fulfilled its emergency management and disaster responsibilities — an EOC that should make the community extraordinarily proud.
Burying OEM in the County Fire Department takes away the organizational imperative that was previously conveyed from the County CEO’s office. To be blunt, when I called a department head (almost all of whom were very supportive and I considered my friends and peers) they also knew I was calling with the authority of the County CEO.
In the Fire Department’s 2026-27 fiscal year budget, the department proposed eliminating two positions. One position was the ambulance manager. That of course makes sense as the Fire Department was not able to usurp the county ambulance contract process away from AMR. The second position was that of an emergency manager in OEM. The County Civil Grand Jury points-out that the OEM position cut was essentially a 14 percent reduction in staffing. Given the small OEM staffing, and the fact that they run a 24-hour, 365 days-per-year emergency management system, that is a significant cut. I can speak from personal experience that working 36 hours straight in the EOC because of short staffing is a profoundly unpleasant experience. Robust staffing is an absolute essential.
One of the primary responsibilities of government is to protect the public’s safety. President Clinton recognized that part of public safety is the ability to respond to emergencies and disasters. President Clinton made the FEMA director a member of his cabinet. President George W. Bush gave the FEMA director position to an immensely unqualified individual (also named Mike Brown). That Mike Brown’s performance during Hurricane Katrina was a national embarrassment.
Similar to President Clinton, former county CEO Mike Brown, who had direct experience during the Oakland Hills Fire (1991), and the Board of Supervisors, in 2006, recognized emergency management as a significant responsibility that needed leadership from the highest authorities within the county government. The board members’ reputations, and that of the CEO, are at risk during any significant emergency. Just ask L.A. city mayor Karen Bass.
The Board of Supervisors was mistaken in not agreeing with many of the Civil Grand Jury findings. That mistake will most certainly result in poorer incident management and timely response from OEM during our next emergency.
Michael Harris was Santa Barbara County’s chief of emergency management from 2006 to 2013.
