Los Gatos council OKs $1 million for emergency management in wake of LA fires

The Los Gatos Town Council at its Tuesday meeting voted to set aside $1 million for emergency management efforts in the wake of fires in Southern California that have resulted in thousands of acres of destruction and mass evacuations.

In addition to emergency and wildfire preparedness initiatives, the council’s vote will fund a new position for a fulltime emergency manager, something town manager Chris Constantin said he’d intended to suggest for the upcoming fiscal year but decided to expedite given the recent fires.

Constantin said the funds will also be used in emergency responses. “The money needs to be available in the course of an emergency. If today, if tomorrow a fire starts, an earthquake occurs, and I need to spend $200,000 towards an emergency authorization,” Constantin said.

Constantin, who managed Chico’s finances during the 2018 Camp Fire, said it would be up to the emergency manager to decide how to use the rest of the funding.

The council’s decision comes after San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan called for the city to assess its fire safety procedures in light of the destruction in Los Angeles.

“The whole point of what we’re doing in doing it this quickly is not to hide the efforts but to put that front and center for the community to see because of the questions that we’re getting: Are we ready? What’s Los Gatos going to do? Are we prepared?” Constantin said at the meeting.

The $1 million is being redirected from the town’s special or capital projects reserve. Though the budget for the current fiscal year is balanced at about $60 million, staff have warned of a budget deficit to come – about $2 million per year for the next five fiscal years.

The emergency manager position, which staff said would ensure “necessary expertise and leadership” for the town’s emergency services, would cost $95,000 for the remainder of the year and $308,000 annually.

Council member Rob Rennie, who did ultimately vote in favor of the resolution, was the only member of the council to express concern, saying he was worried that the move would serve as a “blank check” with little oversight. Constantin said staff would commit to updating the council routinely on the emergency management team’s progress and that the council would still have oversight on the signing of contracts for services over $100,000.

The council’s decision comes after a history of targeted wildfire management and disaster preparedness efforts in an area that’s particularly prone to wildfires and in close proximity to the Santa Cruz mountains,  which has left many Los Gatans on high alert.

The handful of community members at the meeting during the late hours of Tuesday night were supportive of the move, calling it an essential investment for the town.

“The LA fires are a call to action for Los Gatos,” resident Rob Stump said at the meeting. “Let’s act now.”