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Santa Paula Disaster Response Workers received their badges at the Monday City Council meeting. Pictured above, left to right are: Ken Stock, Richard Macias, Sgt. Jim Fogata, Mayor John Procter, Martha Brown and Beverly Frady |
City Council: Disaster Response
Workers receive official badges
November 06, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Santa Paula Disaster Response Workers received their badges at the Monday City Council meeting, more than two years after 13 citizens were sworn in to be official responders when an emergency strikes.
Santa Paula Police Sgt. Jimmy Fogata presented the badges to those able to attend the meeting and noted there is an effort to build up “our volunteer corps…”
Santa Paula along with “major cities is designated to have Disaster Service Workers,” whose basic training includes Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) training.
Retired Santa Paula Fire Captain and Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Steve Lazenby “Did an awesome job of training about 1,000 residents of the city,” in CERT.
Those receiving their badges Monday Fogata noted, “Are the first-ever Disaster Service Workers in Santa Paula…each has a specialty field,” per national DSW criteria, ranging from logistics, animal control and search and rescue to environmental health and safety assessments that would be utilized during an emergency.
“There are people that are retired from SCE,” also knowledge valued by DSW that could be deployed during a disaster.
But other emergencies, such as locating a lost child, would also benefit from the help of DSW.
Fogata told the council the city is now in the process of making each employee an officially designated Disaster Service Worker.
Councilwoman Jenny Crosswhite clarified that the DSW workers given their badges were sworn in more than two years ago.
The effort to create the program, which required recruitment and advanced training, started years ago under the auspices of Fogata, Lazenby and the Santa Paula Citizens Corps, one of the oldest such disaster response preparedness councils in the state.
The duties of the DSW are very diversified in supporting public safety officers on the street during an emergency. Once they’ve taken the oath, each DSW is an official responder covered by workers’ compensation during approved training as well as response duty, a cost borne by the state and not by the city.
