SB 1001: Local agency, corporation, or mutual water company: personnel access: Personal Identity Verification-Interoperable.

Existing law creates the Office of Emergency Services within the office of the Governor and sets forth its powers and duties, including establishing by rule and regulation various classes of disaster service workers, the scope and duty of each class, and the way disaster service workers of each class are to be registered.

Existing law authorizes officers of the Department of the California Highway Patrol, police departments, marshals office or sheriffs office, and officers or employees of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or the Department of Fish and Wildlife designated as peace officers to close to all unauthorized persons an area where a menace to the public health or safety created by a calamity exists for the duration of the menace and the immediate area surrounding any emergency field command post or any other command post activated for the purpose of abating a calamity, riot, or other civil disturbance, as specified. Under existing law, an unauthorized person who enters or remains in a closed area, as prescribed, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

This bill would would, beginning on July 1, 2028, require the Office of Emergency Services to develop a water utility worker identification program to issue identification cards to employees of a city, county, city and county, special district, water Services, upon request, to issue a local agency, corporation, or mutual water company that provides water utility services to authorize responsible for public works and critical infrastructure with specified credentialing to facilitate personnel access to an area during or following a flood, storm, fire, earthquake, or other disaster, for the purpose of protection of public health and safety, preservation of life and property, and repair and restoration of water service. natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster. The bill would specify that the credentialing, a Personal Identity Verification-Interoperable (PIV-I), would conform with the federal Personal Identity Verification standards pursuant to federal National Incident Management System guidelines.

This bill would require the application for a water utility worker identification PIV-I card to be signed by a duly authorized representative of a local agency, corporation, or mutual water utility company and include a certification by the local agency, corporation, or mutual water utility. Because this certification would be under penalty of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime. company.

This bill would authorize the office to impose and collect a fee from a local agency, corporation, or mutual water utility company for an identification a PIV-I card that does not exceed the reasonable costs of the identification card program.

This bill would specify that the authorization for particular officers to close an area, as described above, shall not prevent an individual who holds a valid water utility worker identification PIV-I card from entering an the closed area so closed unless a peace officer finds that the disaster is of such a nature that it would be unsafe for the cardholder to enter or that the presence of the cardholder would interfere with disaster response.