Several months after the departure of Brad Davis from his role as emergency services coordinator with the City of Malibu, officials announced his position would be replaced with that of public safety manager — “a newly-created position that is part of a more comprehensive approach to public safety and emergency management,” a city press release states.
The person selected to fill that position was also announced: Susan Dueñas, former Oxnard emergency services manager, who before that position spent nearly 15 years as a senior program administrator for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services. In total, Dueñas comes to Malibu with more than 20 years of experience in leadership of emergency management.
Davis’s departure caused a great deal of angst among Malibu’s CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) community and caused many to question who would be in charge to coordinate should a major emergency, such as a fire, occur in town. Starting Monday, April 24, that responsibility will fall on Dueñas, as well as what’s described by the city as “higher level management responsibilities.”
Dueñas’ experience includes training and leading CERT programs, developing and implementing disaster training, managing city emergency alert systems, work coordinating with Homeland Security and training from FEMA, among a laundry list of other areas of expertise, training and experience.
“Malibu is vulnerable to many types of emergencies, from wildfires and floods to earthquakes and mudslides, as well as a variety of public safety challenges, so the newly expanded role of the public safety manager is crucial,” Mayor Lou La Monte said in a statement released to The Malibu Times. “Susan Dueñas brings deep expertise in every facet of emergency and public safety management, which is what we need to take Malibu’s preparedness to the next level.”
That “next level” involves what the city describes as a “shift to a more integrated approach to emergency and public safety management” and will call on the new public safety manager to “coordinate with outside agencies on all public safety and emergency preparedness matters, train staff on emergency protocols, oversee the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), manage the city’s emergency and public safety volunteers, including CERT, interact with the community, and serve as part of the city manager’s management team.”