An Organizational Review of San Bernardino County's Response To

An Organizational Review of San Bernardino County’s Response to the December 2, 2015 Terrorist Attack June 18, 2018 CPARS Consulting, Inc. Organizational Review San Bernardino County Response to 12/2/15 Terrorist Attack This page is intentionally blank. Organizational Review San Bernardino County Response to 12/2/15 Terrorist Attack Dedication This report is dedicated to the San Bernardino County employees present during the December 2, 2015 terrorist attack, including fourteen (14) deceased victims1 and fifty-eight (58) survivors that continue to be, and will forever remain, beloved members of the San Bernardino County Family; as well as the countless members of the San Bernardino County Family who worked tirelessly and selflessly to safeguard the community and support those affected with compassion, dedication, and professionalism. 1 One of the fourteen (14) deceased victims was not a San Bernardino County employee, but is nonetheless remembered by this report. Dedication i Organizational Review San Bernardino County Response to 12/2/15 Terrorist Attack This page is intentionally blank. ii Organizational Review San Bernardino County Response to 12/2/15 Terrorist Attack Acknowledgements Critical Preparedness and Response Solutions (CPARS Consulting, Inc.) would like to thank the following individuals with San Bernardino County who recognized the importance of memorializing the County’s response to the December 2, 2015 terrorist attack, who made this report possible, and offered the full commitment of their time and County resources to make this effort a priority and success: Robert Lovingood, First District Supervisor, Board Chairman Janice Rutherford, Second District Supervisor James Ramos, Third District Supervisor Curt Hagman, Fourth District Supervisor, Board Vice Chairman Josie Gonzales, Fifth District Supervisor Gary McBride, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Leonard Hernandez, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Gregory Devereaux, CEO (Ret.) Dena Smith, COO and Interim CEO (Ret.) Mary O’Toole, Principal Management Analyst (Ret.) CPARS also wishes to thank the hundreds of County employees, past and present, who contributed information and/or participated in interviews and data gathering efforts. This report would have lacked value without their candor, time, and generosity of spirit. Lastly, CPARS would like to thank its team, which demonstrated great commitment, heart, and professionalism working with San Bernardino County stakeholders in the creation of this report: Nick Lowe, Project Manager/Co-Author (CPARS Consulting, Inc.) Kathryn Humphrey, Deputy Project Manager/Co-Author (K-Rise Enterprises, Inc.) Julie Quinn, Co-Author (QuinnWilliams, LLC) Katherine Williams, Co-Author (QuinnWilliams, LLC) Sheri Benninghoven and Scott Summerfield, Communications/Public Information Subject-Matter Experts (SAE Communications) Jean Roque and Christine Thelen, Human Resources/Employment Subject-Matter Experts (TruppHR, Inc.) Acknowledgements iii Organizational Review San Bernardino County Response to 12/2/15 Terrorist Attack This page is intentionally blank. iv Organizational Review San Bernardino County Response to 12/2/15 Terrorist Attack Executive Summary On December 2, 2015 the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health (DPH) Environmental Health Services (EHS) Division was hosting an annual training event at a conference center that is part of the nearby Inland Regional Center (IRC). Seventy-two (72) County employees were in attendance from the EHS Division and DPH. At approximately 10:30 a.m., an Environmental Health Specialist (the male perpetrator) left the meeting and returned a little less than half an hour later with his wife (the female perpetrator). They were armed with multiple firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, home-made explosives, and were dressed in tactical military-style gear. At 10:58 a.m. they approached the IRC Conference Center first killing two people near the entrance to the building before proceeding into the meeting space where the male perpetrator’s colleagues were gathered. The perpetrators indiscriminately fired upon the attendees killing a total of 14 people, injuring 22, and traumatizing all the survivors who witnessed the attack. The perpetrators fled in a rented vehicle before law enforcement arrived. Later that afternoon they were tracked down by law enforcement and both were killed during a gun battle approximately one mile from the IRC around 3:15 p.m. Two days later, law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed the attack was a premeditated act of terror inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/the Levant (ISIS/ISIL). The attack had direct and serious impacts on the department and division targeted. The deceased (with the exception of an IRC contractor), the survivors, and one of the perpetrators were County employees. Without precedent, the County, including the department and division targeted, was faced with critical decisions associated with personnel accountability, security, benefits, psychological counseling, public information, memorials, and reconstituting a critical division left void of personnel, among other matters. However, the attack would ultimately have an effect on the entirety of San Bernardino County governmentnearly 22,000 employees affectionately and genuinely referred to as the “San Bernardino County Family.” The attack also marked an amalgamation of previously independent threat and response elements simultaneously present in one incident: active shooter incident; terrorism; victim and responder; employer and community service provider. Although there were countless correlations between San Bernardino County’s experience and other incidents, few previous incidents had the complexities of all those characteristics and, at the time, there was no resource available to guide the County’s response. With the complementary 12/2/15 Terrorist Attack Legacy Report2, San Bernardino County hopes its experience will help other jurisdictions and organizations better prepare for, and if necessary, respond to, this new threat environment and improve the care and support for victims. This report endeavors not only to capture the breadth of the impacts on the County, but also to highlight the hundreds of actions taken by dedicated County employees to address those 2 The 12/2/15 Terrorist Attack Legacy Report is available at: http://www.sbcounty.gov/uploads/CAO/reports/December2LegacyDocument.pdf Executive Summary v Organizational Review San Bernardino County Response to 12/2/15 Terrorist Attack impacts (personal, operational, fiscal, etc.). As an organizational review, it is intended to capture the most important aspects of the County’s response and the resilience of the County family as a whole. In addition, it aims to understand the performance of the County as a whole unit with some special attention paid to individual programs and/or projects that were uniquely affected. This report is primarily organized into two sections: 1) a timeline of major events and actions that tells the County’s story chronologically; and 2) a selection of narratives organized into six categories that tell the County’s story in-depth by topic. The timeline is intended to be a quick reference that illustrates the momentum, magnitude, and duration of the County’s experience and response efforts. The six topical categories and the narratives contained within are as follows: 1) Emergency Protocols: This section explores those situations San Bernardino County faced, and actions it took within its purview, to address imminent threats to human life, the safety and security of personnel, and the immediate wellbeing of victims and survivors. The narratives in this section address the role County departments played in directly supporting public safety incident response operations, the challenges of implementing actions to protect employees during a quickly evolving incident, the application of security measures, the dismissal of personnel and office closures, accounting for the status of personnel, and the care for victims’ remains and notification to their next-of-kin. 2) Operational Response: This section addresses the actions and resources employed by the County to manage crises, enable necessary emergency actions, and position the County toward recovery. The narratives in this section describe the role of the County’s pre-existing emergency plans in the response to the terrorist attack, including efforts to continue essential operations. In addition, it explores the role of the County’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the coordination of policies, tasks, information, and resources to support incident response operations and recovery, and similar management practices used across departments to strategically select objectives, assign tasks, document activities, and monitor progress. The County’s Proclamation of a State of Local Emergency, addressed in this section, enabled emergency authorities and triggered programmatic eligibility, including emergency procurement and possible State or Federal reimbursement, among other provisions to aid recovery. This section goes on to address a variety of other actions taken by the County to pave the road to recovery. 3) Communications: Perhaps the most integral part of every organization’s ability to effectively respond, manage impacts and crises, and achieve a new steady state, is communication and coordination. Both were at the heart of every situation and present in the activities in which San Bernardino

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