Assembly Standing Committee on Emergency Management

We're gonna try this again. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Assembly Committee on Emergency Management. I'm Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom. Before we start, two of our standing members are out today. That is vice chair Hedwick and Assemblymember Calderon.

So for today's hearing only, assembly member Alanis is will be joining us, and assembly member Avila Farias will be filling in for assembly member Calderon. Six bills are eligible to for today, four of which are on consent. Each bill is entitled to one primary witness in support and a primary witness in opposition. Each will be allotted up to two minutes for their testimony. Following the presentations, additional individuals may approach the microphone to state their name, their affiliation, and position on the bill.

Written testimony may also be submitted directly to the committee. With that, let's establish a quorum. Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, madam secretary. Okay. Next, we are gonna move forward to our consent calendar. We will make the motions for the following items on the consent calendar. We have Assembly Bill 1749 by Dixon, which is a do pass to the Committee on Judiciary.

We have AB 1866 by Rogers, which is a do pass to the Committee on Appropriations. We have AB 1873 by Bennett, which is a do pass to the committee on utilities and energy. We have AB 2471 which is the emergency management committee's bill that is a do pass to the committee on insurance. Is there a motion and a second on items on the consent calendar? Thank you.

We have a motion by Arambula and a second by Bennett. Secretary, please call the vote on the items on the consent calendar.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, committee. This the vote is . We there is yeah. We will hold the roll open, for the absent member. Next, we are going to move forward to our bills on the agenda.

And first up, we have Assembly bill 1934 by Assembly member Bennett regarding state fire marshal home hardening certification program. Assembly member Bennett, you may begin.

Thank you very much, chair. California's wildfire destruction has reached a tipping point. Wildfires are now sweeping into urban areas in new and more intense and uncontrollable ways. Since 2018, California's lost three whole communities, Paradise, Palisades, and Altadena. We're facing a existential crisis.

In many of our communities, the greatest risk to your house burning down is your neighbor's house catching fire. The science is clear. Home hardening works, but it needs to be holistic and comprehensive. It must include home hardening and defensible space. AB 1934 would direct the wildfire mitigation advisory committee under the state fire marshal to establish a voluntary, and I emphasize voluntary, home hardening certification program that identifies hardening measures including defensible space that can be implemented during a renovation.

We need to provide the public with public pathways for hardening that we can easily build incentives around. I respectfully ask for your aye vote and point out the California Professional Firefighters Association has submitted a letter to this committee about their support for this bill.

Thank you, Assembly Member Bennett. Let's see here. Okay. I just wanted first of all, I wanna commend you for your leadership in this particular space.

You have been beating this drum very loudly, so we definitely appreciate the bill. My question is we did we did send over some amendments. Did you accept the committee amendments .

Yes we accept the committee amendments, and I appreciate the work that your committee's been able to do with my staff.

Awesome. Thank you. Are there any witnesses in opposition, or are there any witnesses in support of this bill? Are are you gonna be serve as a witness or do you wanna

Just me too. Okay.

Hold on one second. Are there any witnesses in opposition of this bill? Okay. Well, seeing none, if there's anyone who would like to come forward and state their opposition for the record, please state your name and your or your your maybe your support.

I'm sorry. Support. Your support. Julianna Boris on behalf of the California City is in support. Thank you

Thank you.

And Jordan Wells on behalf of the California State Association of Counties in support. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright. Is there anyone else who would like to make public testimony? Okay. Seeing that, I'm gonna just check-in with the committee.

Are there any other questions? We have a motion of first and second, but are there any questions for the assembly member? Awesome. So we have a a motion by mister Demayo Assemblyman Demayo, and then we have a second by Assembly member Arambala. With that being said, did you have any closing comments?

Respectfully, ask for an aye vote.

Alright. Thank you for that. Secretary, please call the vote. The motion is do passed as amended to the committee on natural resource resources.

[Roll Call]

Awesome. Alright. So we're gonna turn the committee over to assembly member Bennett so that assembly member Ransom can present her bill. Alright.

Welcome to a day in the life, people.

Welcome to this committee, Assemblymember.

Thank you, sir.

You're you're open, and you may begin.

Awesome. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present Assembly Bill 2472 which is the emergency services catastrophic plans bill. California is one of the most disaster prone states in our nation, and given the vast array of natural disaster risk our communities face,

prioritizing catastrophic planning is important. It's crucial, and it's necessary. This was explicitly stated in the California Catastrophic Incident Base Plan concept of operations or CONOP, which was jointly developed by Cal OES and FEMA in 2008.

The conduct recommended multiple catastrophic plans, including the four plans already developed by Cal OES that this bill codifies. It is also recommended that two that have not been implemented, the pandemic incident plan and the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and

explosive, or CBRNE incident plans. This bill rectifies this gap in our catastrophic planning efforts by requiring Cal OES to develop these two plans as well as develop a wildfires in the wildland urban interface inter incident plan.

As seen in the in the catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires, the state needs to prepare so that the level of loss and destruction does not happen again. Additionally, we we need to ensure that the lessons learned from Covid 19 and CBRNE incidents are applied to our future emergency response efforts.

This bill will ensure that the emergency management systems are most prepared to swiftly and effectively respond to and recover from catastrophes. With that, I respectfully ask for your Aye vote.

We have a motion. Second. We have a second. Are there any other witnesses on behalf of the bill of chair Ransom?

No, sir.

Are there any is is there anybody here to speak in opposition to the bill as a primary witness? If not, are there is there anybody in the audience ready to speak in support of the bill? Anybody here to speak in opposition to the bill? We're ready to take questions. Assembly Member.

I noticed in the committee backup material, there was reference to suggested amendments from the minority and wanted to see if you'd reviewed the amendments, if you'd be open to responding to those.

I'm happy to respond to them. Did you have a specific question that you the reason for the minority non non support?

Yeah. I don't I think it's support if amended. And I think that it is focused on making sure that the the plans that are required under the legislation would not be duplicative of existing efforts

Okay.

To make it become harmonized. Okay. I would be happy to hear more about that. We were not given any analysis from the minority party. We just simply received notice that it was requested to come off of consent due to opposition, but I don't specifically know what that opposition is.

Our staff did reach out, but I'm happy to entertain that if you'd like to share.

I think the the suggestion would be that maybe some language that could be added down the the road that if other plans can contain the information required under the bill that we would, simply utilize those existing plans, augment them to comply with the requirements of of the legislation, but that we could piggyback on those existing planning documents.

Okay. I do appreciate that. Just to be clear, this is to, be in addition to existing catastrophic plans. So this is to cover the missing gaps, to fill in the gaps of our existing catastrophic plans as was suggested and recommended way back in 2008. So it is not our intent to be duplicative.

We are looking to fill in the gaps with this bill in order to ensure that areas that were previously mentioned are also covered, so that we can be able to respond properly. Okay. But thank you very much.

Good to me.

I appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions from Committee Members? We have a motion and we have a second. We're ready to vote.

AB 2472 committee on emergency management. The motion is due passed to the committee on appropriations. [Roll Call]

Thank you. I believe that bill is successfully out, but we'll leave the rest of this meeting to Chair it.

Thanks, sir. Yes, sir. We can. Yeah. Alright. So now we're gonna go back to alright. Thank you all. I think at this point, we're going to go back to assembly bill. The con let's see. Consent calendar. We're gonna go back to consent.

On the consent calendar. [Roll Call]

Okay. That bill is out with 660. Alright. This sorry? Okay.

Meeting is adjourned.

Thank you, boss.