Murrieta staff outline emergency operations, urge wider Genesis adoption

Murrieta fire and emergency-management staff briefed the City Council July 1 on how the city prepares for and responds to large-scale incidents, stressing interagency agreements, the role of the Emergency Operations Center and improvements to public notifications.

Deputy Fire Chief Mike Lopez described the city's reliance on automatic aid (the closest unit responds regardless of agency patch) and mutual aid (formal requests when an incident outgrows local resources). "Emergencies don't care about city boundaries," Lopez said, adding the council approved an automatic-aid agreement with the city of Riverside in 2023. He explained that mutual aid can bring region- and state-level resources, and that the California mutual aid system is the mechanism used for large wildfires.

Disaster Preparedness Coordinator Rachel Hollinger described the EOC as a hub for information, resource coordination and public information. "We help establish, maintain and share situational awareness," Hollinger said, noting the EOC activated five times last year and twice so far this year. She outlined activation levels from a management watch to a level 1 "all hands on deck" incident and said the city is aligning its local policies — including changing a municipal-code requirement from 14-day renewals of emergency proclamations to the state-minimum 60 days.

Hollinger also highlighted notification tools: Genesis Protect, a zone-targeted alert app that can show evacuation zones, shelters and staging areas; and Alert Rivco, an opt-in county registration used for people who are out of the area. She said a recent Genesis update adds "favorite location" functionality so residents traveling away from home can still receive alerts for their home zone.

Council members raised operational questions after the presentation, including how costs are shared between automatic aid and mutual aid (Lopez said long-duration incidents typically shift to billable personnel after 12 hours, with some exceptions), gap areas in EOC staffing and the need for pre‑made, clear templates for public alerts. Councilmember DeForest and others asked to be included in faster PIO updates during incidents; staff pledged to add a council-facing PIO channel and plug-and-play templates with clear call-to-action language.

The presentation closed with staff noting continuing training and exercises — FEMA IS courses, ICS 300/400 and localized EOC training — and requests for council support where policy decisions (for example, temporary changes to city services during an extended incident) would be required. "Our success is a result of excellent planning," Chief Malloy said. "But none of this will be possible without an incredibly supportive city manager and city council."