Los Angeles County agencies had the chance to review and propose edits to the after-action report on emergency alerting during the Eaton and Palisades Fires, but the county has refused to release drafts of the report in response to a public records request by KNX News.
The analysis by the McChrystal Group, which cost the county $1.9 million in taxpayer funds, was criticized after its September release for failing to answer key questions or to hold any agency or individual accountable for the multi-hour delay in sending alerts to West Altadena, where 18 of the 19 Eaton Fire victims died.
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County officials told KNX News it is standard practice for agencies to review such a report before its release.
“This process is to ensure that findings are accurate and complete, and that the recommendations are realistic and informed by the stakeholders who must implement them,” said Principal Deputy County Counsel Truc Moore in a statement emailed to KNX News.
That process is not disclosed in the report, which is characterized as an independent review.
“To me, that’s not a real after action report,” said Sylvie Andrews, who lost her home in West Altadena. “You can’t get the full picture of what happened if people are allowed to leave information out.”
Since the McChrystal report’s release, controversy erupted when it emerged that the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after-action report on the Palisades Fire was significantly watered down in the editing process to shield officials from scrutiny.
It is not clear if substantive edits were made to the County’s alerting report. Months after KNX News requested the drafts under the California Public Records Act, the County Counsel’s office declined to release them, citing legal privilege.
“McChrystal Group was retained by County Counsel to do this work, and drafts of any documents, including of the Alert AAR, are not going to be released because they are drafts and are also protected by attorney-client or attorney work product privileges,” Moore said Tuesday.
There is no categorical exemption for drafts of documents under the Public Records Act. The City of Los Angeles released drafts of the LAFD report to the Los Angeles Times in response to a similar records request.
Nic Arnzen, the chair of the Altadena Town Council, said his instinct is to avoid jumping to conclusions, but the county’s response raises questions: “Why aren’t you being completely transparent? What do I not know that would help me understand that decision [to withhold the drafts]?”
“The priority should not be protecting yourself from some kind of liability or obfuscating what happened if your true goal is improvement of a future state and making sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Andrews, the Eaton Fire survivor.
Asked whether she thinks the public has the right to see drafts of the report, L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the Eaton Fire area, responded in an emailed statement.
“My priority is obtaining the truth to prevent future tragedies. This is why our Board invested nearly $2 million to have a specialized, independent third party—the McChrystal Group—conduct this review with the highest level of integrity. While internal legal protections are necessary to encourage the brutal honesty required from stakeholders, I expect the McChrystal Group’s professional standards to have delivered validated findings that are helping us build a safer County,” Barger said.
“I understand internal legal protections being necessary,” said Arnzen, the town council chair. “At the same time, we need the honesty of what’s going on, and we need answers.”
A spokesperson for Sup. Lindsey Horvath, who represents the Palisades Fire area, did not respond to a request for comment.
Alex Silverman can be reached at alex.silverman@audacy.com
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