KCEC Torres Right on Command Center

In a crisis, government needs to be able to manage the flow of information, coordinate the efforts of numerous responding agencies, and allocate scarce and competing resources appropriately — “triage the response” is the term professionals use. From experience, I can tell you that successful societies, organizations and communities always have single centralized control and one response manager. Not two, not three, but one place through which everything flows to manage the crisis: one command center. —David Torres (from The Taos News)

I couldn’t agree more with KCEC Trustee Torres remarks on advocating for a single emergency center. Taos needs a single E911—Dispatch and Command Center. The current County Complex is designed for E911-Dispatch. Broad public parking lots and a variety of meeting rooms, large and small complement the facility. The emergency medical facility and kitchen set up for the adult detention center can do double duty for emergency responders and victims needing first aid. The finance department can cut checks and grease the wheels in the middle of a disaster. The County has a FEMA-trained emergency manager on the payroll.

No other governmental entity commands a fleet of bulldozers, graders, trucks, ambulances, and fire fighting vehicles. At the County, employees know the volunteers, who operate rural fire departments. The 138,000 square foot Complex is central to any emergency in Taos. High tech security is designed to protect the building. The County’s in-house maps tell you where to find residents.

At the County, you have smart and experienced staff and elected officials from Taos—i.e. from here—who make it their business to know where people live, the roads and the neighborhoods from Rodarte in the south to Amalia in the north, from Tres Piedras in the West to Valle Escondido in the east. In an emergency, there is no substitute for “institutional knowledge” i.e. the folks who remember where Grandma lives and whether she’s on natural gas, electric heat, or keeps a wood supply for emergencies, whether the water’s rising in the stream or acequia next to her house.

Mr. Torres is right. We haven’t been asking the right question about the Command Center. The County has the resources and the institutional knowledge. In retrospect it seems obvious. As Mr. Torres said, “Public safety is too important to be politicized.”

Apparently, the County Commissioners and Mayoral Candidate Barrone knew this but nobody has been listening. We’re glad to hear Mr. Torres endorse the single best option for emergencies: the County Complex. Bravo Mr. Torres.