City of Calabasas creates a new public safety commission





By Michael Picarella
Acorn Staff Writer

A commission being renamed in Calabasas should help the city deal more effectively with disasters, according to city council members. The city council recently changed the community policing commission to the public safety commission.


"We’re bringing together all of our emergency services under one roof and it’s aimed at giving real status to the Calabasas Emergency Response Program, which makes sure that we’re fire ready and emergency ready," said Calabasas City Councilman Barry Groveman. "CERP has been a voluntary organization for many years with a lot of hard-working people. But it has missed the linkage with the sheriff and the fire services and the coordination at city hall."


CERP was founded in 1994 as a response to the Northridge earthquake. The program, made up of more than 200 volunteers including medical representatives, is dedicated to helping residents prepare for and survive a disaster.


CERP meets monthly and provides information to citizens to prepare them for a disaster. The program has also situated five medical caches—or first aid stations for the walking wounded—around the city, including locations at Calabasas High School, Calabasas Hills Park, De Anza Park, the Calabasas Tennis and Swim Center and Grape Arbor Park.


"CERP teaches the general citizenry how to prepare and how to respond when we have these major events like fires, mudslides, earthquakes and even terrorism," said CERP director Karmen Brower. "There are appropriate ways to (act)," she said.


CERP’s inclusion with the city’s safety services will make it more effective, according to Groveman.


"When we have an emergency like the recent fires, we have an emergency response room in city hall, and the city manager calls together all of the agencies to try and coordinate. CERP needs to be an active player in those meetings. CERP needs to always know what the fire circumstances are, whether it’s controlled and what neighborhoods are affected so that they can activate their radio communication system and inform seniors and people in the canyons on where it is, how to get out and what response is necessary. That access to the community is vital."


Brower feels the new commission will help give CERP greater visibility and promote it, she said.


Groveman added, "This effort is to not only consolidate all sheriff, fire and emergency response under one roof or commission, but also to focus it very definitely on empowering the CERP program. This is going to make Calabasas much more in tune with the kind of emergency response that we need for fires like we just had and any other kind of an emergency where the community will be in a position to receive better communication and better coordination neighborhood by neighborhood."


Calabasas Mayor James Bozajian agreed.


"I think it will serve a much broader role and it will have a greater impact on the community because of its expanded duties," Bozajian said.


The Calabasas Public Safety Commission will meet once or twice a month, Groveman said, and the meetings will be televised.



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