Senate Standing Committee on Emergency Management

Alright. The Senate Emergency Management Committee will come to order. We're gonna start as a subcommittee. But if all members of the committee can come to Room 113, as well as the authors, I think we're still we have two more authors we're waiting on. But in the meantime, we have a very prepared author here ready to go.

So thank you, Assemblymember, for appearing, and please present at your discretion. I think you've got two bills before us today, filing number two, AB1960 and AB1964.

I'll do them in numerical order. Please. Great. That's alright. Thank you very much, Mister Chair and members.

Last year marked an historic, devastating year for wildfire in California. As climate change accelerates, the frequency and intensity of wildfires, is going to become worse, and so building community resilience is vital. AB 1960 allows CAL FIRE to fund community level hardening projects through their wildfire prevention grants. I just want to emphasize, neighborhood hardening is powerful. Neighborhood preparation is powerful.

So part of our job here is to have a giant marketing campaign in California to encourage people to Harden. But that marketing campaign should not be just individually focused. It should be focused on communities because when you Harden as a group, you buffer each other's home. So AB 2025 studying, mapping the impacts of, home Hardening demonstrates that substantial reductions in property losses are achievable with community wide mitigations are applied. This bill incentivizes homeowners to reduce risk by working together.

Respectfully ask for a nigh vote.

Thank you so much. We'll turn to if there are any leading witnesses in support, we'll hear from them at this time or just general witnesses in support just for name and affiliation. We'll take that testimony at this time. Welcome. Former Assembly member.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair and members. Jim Wood here on behalf of Fire Aside, a technology based wildfire management, risk management company in support of the bill.

Okay. Thanks for being here. Others, welcome.

Good afternoon, Chair. Martin Radosovich on behalf of MegaFire Action in support.

And Jeff Neal here representing the Orange County Fire Authority, also in support.

Thank you very much. Seeing no others in support, we'll turn into any opposition there may be. Seeing none, bring it back to the dais. Questions, comments, concerns? You have a coauthor here in the Chair. Excited about this legislation. I you know, the this will be an important piece of it, but I I do wanna flag going forward, we still you know, money talks.

And so, you know, as we go down the road on our prop four conversation, which I think is gonna be occurring through the recess and into August, I think, really trying to get these reforms and this sort of risk based community focused, not home by home giant project, but small things at large scales, approach is really gonna have to become a consensus Here, I think we can achieve that at a bipartisan and bicameral basis to go into the final negotiation, but we also know there's a lot of momentum on the side of just doing things the way they've been done and not rock the boat.

But I appreciate the the very productive boat rocking that we're we're doing here and stand with you in that. And at the appropriate time, I'll entertain a a motion. But I do not think we were there yet for quorum. So Thank you.

I'll allow you to close.

Thank you very much. And I really appreciate the partnership with you in terms of trying to pull off this significant change in how we approach things in in California with regard to wildfire. So thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Next up.

Next up is AB 1964. And this is a survey. Because we've had so many fires, the the focus has really become just how vulnerable are we, and we don't have comprehensive data on the state of home hardening in California.

AB 1964 requires a state fire marshal to conduct a survey that identifies a number of homes that need to modernize to very high fire hardening standards, and create an estimate of the cost to complete that so that you can't, you you really can't measure how well you're doing if you don't have a decent starting point. And so that's what this would be as a starting point that we need for this massive new change, that we've been talking about in terms of moving forward.

Okay. Thank you. We'll look to witnesses in support. Lead witnesses, can I have two minutes or just okay? Me too in support, come on up.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Isabelle Boebelio with The Nature Conservancy in support.

Thanks so much.

Jim Wood again here with Fireside in support.

Thank you.

Martin Radosevich with Mega Fire Action in support.

Appreciate it. Okay. Seeing no others in support, we'll turn on any opposition there may be. Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the dais. Questions, comments, concerns?

We're a subcommittee right now, so can't entertain a motion. Yet again, big fan of the bill. Can't man manage what you don't measure. We have plenty of targets when it comes to looking at, how we're progressing, say, on forestry goals, even on biodiversity, 30 by 30.

We have acreage goals for forestry, and yet we have we have no way of even measuring how we're doing on the hardening side, except to know that, I think the one estimate that we saw from Stanford says, about 2,000,000 homes in what's broadly considered the wooly.

Maybe it's moderate, high, very high. That's a one rough estimate out there. But I think the total number of homes that we've hardened, right now under the state's hardening program is under a 100. So, if you're under a 100 done and you got, one point one one million nine hundred, 90,000 to go. It's a it's a problem.

So gotta get on top of this. Anyway, appreciate the bill. We'll entertain a motion at the appropriate time.

Thank you very much. And I'd like to thank again the the collaboration. This has been bipartisan support for this this these these bills, these fire bills in general, out there. And I really appreciate the support of the people that showed up to speak today and the organizations that they represent. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Thanks for presenting. Okay. We're, we'll be looking for miss Petrie Norris, not to call you out, and miss Bauer Kayehan. Get ready for a text.

We'll pause for A Brief moment. Okay. We have an author. Please welcome, Senator Petrie Norris. Members, we're on file item number five, AB 2385.

At your discretion, please, we get

Good afternoon, Mister Chair and members. Thank you for your patience. I know we're all trying to be in four places at once today. Pleased to join you to present AB 2385. As we know, natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe all across the state of California.

Every one of our communities has been touched, but what we have found is that local governments often lack clear authority to plan for and execute recovery when disaster does strike. By way of background, some forty years ago, the legislature passed the disaster recovery reconstruction act to equip local governments with tools to proactively plan for disasters. It authorized regional entities to manage recovery with powers including tax increment financing and authority to enter into contracts for large scale rebuilding.

However, because this act references now defunct community redevelopment agencies, the authority to perform this recovery work has effectively been eliminated. What we've seen is that this ambiguity delays rebuilding, increases costs, and leaves communities vulnerable to disorganized recovery and speculative development.

AB 2385 clarifies state law by allowing local governments to create local reconstruction agencies. The bill enumerates specific powers necessary for comprehensive recovery. In addition, it offers state support directing the Office of Emergency Services and the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to develop model ordinances and provide technical assistance to local governments. Pleased to be joined today by Melissa Sparks Kranz from the League of California Cities.

Thank you. Welcome.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and members. Melissa Sparks Kranz with the League of California Cities. We're pleased to be in support of AB 2385 and thank Assembly member Petrie Norris for her leadership in carrying this bill. AB 2385 does clarify state law that would allow a city or county to develop these disaster recovery plans prior to a disaster occurring to help facilitate the expeditious and orderly recovery and reconstruction, should a disaster occur.

These disaster recovery plans would provide local agencies the ability to better define operational structures, roles and responsibilities within their leadership, coordination with state and federal agencies in the event of a disaster, as well as recovery priority strategies and procedures to follow. Developing these plans unlocks a very powerful tool at the local level. It authorizes the establishment of a local reconstruction agency and would empower local governments to use a portion of their tax revenue to help finance the disaster recovery.

Cities from across the state have shared, their deep concerns about the threat of disasters with us, and what that looks like in their communities. Disasters look different in different regions of the state, including wildfires, earthquakes, droughts, extreme heat, flooding, storm surges, and coastal erosion.

AB 2385 proposes a valuable change in state law that would support any community or any city with, you know, their recovery from a future disaster. And we respectfully request your aye vote on this bill. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We'll, we'll hear from others in support. Any others wishing to testify in general support? Now would be the time. Seeing none, we'll look for anyone in opposition to this measure.

Any lead opposition or general opposition? Seeing none. Bring it back to the dais. Members, comments, questions? We almost have a quorum or one away. Senator Grayson?

Thank you, Mister Chair. And I wanna commend the author for an absolute tremendous bill that is proactive, gets ahead of of things, ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. And I just working very hard in the district created the East Bay Regional Wildfire Task Force. This is exactly what we've been talking about, what we need to be able to do that.

What I my hope is is that it remains a tool and not just another layer of bureaucracy that ends up being created that makes it even that much harder for recovery.

But that's not for us to determine how someone uses a tool that we hand them on a silver platter. So hopefully, people will use it as a tool and not just as another blanket or layer. With that, I again, I commend you. This is incredible work here and, would love to come on as a coauthor at your discretion.

Thank you. Thank you. Senator, really appreciate those comments, and, we would love to have you. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other questions, I'll just commend you also. Blue Ribbon Commission, after the wildfires in LA, had this as a core recommendation at the end of their process. It's been frustrating because we feel like some of that that commission report has sat on the shelf, but this clearly is not.

We're putting it into action. So it's a big deal. I'll join in. Add me on, if you don't mind. I think this is powerful.

And, yeah, there there should be enough authorities in here to really make this meaningful. So I'll just urge you to be vigilant and hold on to the, you know, hold on to the the parameters of this bill as we've currently got it. And, I think, you know, whatever amendments have been made up until this point are are fine, but we don't wanna see sort of a whittling away here at in any of these authorities.

So we think, at least personally, I think more is better, and, I like where it's at. So at the appropriate time, we'll take a motion.

You can close it.

Thank you so much, Mister Chair. I appreciate those comments and respectfully ask for your aye vote at the appropriate time.

Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Alright. Before we lose it, we are going to establish a quorum.

Let's call the roll.

Senator Stern?

Here.

Stern here. Sarato? Allen? Here. Allen here.

Ashby? Blake Spear? Here. Blake Spear here. Dali?

Here. Dali here. Grayson? Here. Grayson here.

Perez, Rubio. We've reached a quorum.

Okay. Okay. We've got a quorum established. We've had a few bills presented. There's only, there's one left, but I would entertain a motion on the consent calendar if anyone's willing to make one.

So on the consent calendar, we have file item AB 1699, AB 2473, and AB 2475. The motion's from Senator Grayson. Please call the roll.

Senator Stern?

Aye.

Stern, aye. Saratoga? Allen? Aye. Allen, aye.

Ashby? Blake Spear? Aye. Blake Spear, aye. Dally?

Aye. Dally, aye. Grayson? Aye. Grayson, aye.

Perez, Rubio.

Okay. Five. 5. We'll leave it on call for the absent members. There I would entertain also a motion on AB 1960 from Assembly member Bennett.

So the motion is do passed to appropriations. This is file item number two, AB 1960. Bennett, please call the roll. Senator Allen. Sorry.

Senator Allen moved.

Senator Stern?

Aye. Stern,

aye. Saratow, Allen? Aye. Allen, aye. Ashby, Blake Spear?

Aye. Blake Spear, aye. Dally? No. No.

Grayson? Aye. Grayson, aye. Perez, Rubio.

Okay. Four to zero. We will leave that on call via absent members. Filing number 3, a B1964 would entertain a motion. Would entertain a motion.

Motion from Senator Dolly. The motion is do passed to appropriations. Please call the roll.

Senators Stern? Aye. Stern, aye. Searto? Allen?

Aye. Allen, aye. Ashby, Blake Spear? Aye. Blake Spear, aye.

Dally? Aye. Dally, aye. Grayson? Aye.

Grayson, aye. Perez, Rubio.

Okay. Five. We'll leave that on call for the absent members. And finally here, AB 2385, Petrie Norris would entertain a motion. Senator Grayson moves.

The motion is do passed to appropriations. Please call the

roll. Senator Stern? Aye. Stern, aye. Sciarrao?

Allen? Aye. Allen, aye. Ashby? Blake Spear?

Aye. Blake Spear, aye. Dally? Aye. Dally, aye.

Grayson? Aye. Grayson, aye. Perez Rubio.

K. We'll leave that on call for the absent members. Five zero. And we are on the brink of having our final author here imminently. Hold your breath, Depending on how long you can hold your breath.

We'll make it quick for you. You're on file number four, AB 2093. Senator, please.

Thank you, Mister Chair and members. Good afternoon. As many of you are aware, in 2022, the legislature passed AB 988, and it was signed into law in California by governor Newsom. Many of you supported this legislation. And despite its popularity, bipartisan support, and life saving mission, the ninety day implementation has been at best delayed and rocky.

It is critically important that we provide comprehensive ninety day services to Californians. That means they have someone to call an access point into the continuum of care, someone to come, both of which are supposed to be set up by the ninety day system, and then hopefully somewhere to go using the work we've done through the bond measure. As I have looked into the rollout of this bill, I found that we have not done the interoperability that we were hoping to do.

We have not achieved the ability to transfer from 911 to 988 and 988 to 911, which if someone calls the wrong number is critically important, and that can be true if you're entering the phone system in either direction. And we have found that the funding mechanism which we set up to go through OES, although maybe made sense at the time because OES had to do rollout of the technology, now as we continue to route the system, maybe is better placed across

I

was supposed to say all this, I'm not gonna say all this. Okay. Turning over to you. Steinberg Institute.

Welcome. Two minutes.

Good afternoon, Chair and members. Tara Gamboa Eastman with the Steinberg Institute, Institute, proud cosponsor of AB 988 and AB 2093. When the legislature passed AB 988, California made a commitment to build a comprehensive behavioral health crisis response system with someone to call, someone to come, and somewhere to go. As implementation has moved forward, a number of challenges have emerged that cannot be solved administratively alone. These issues have not been identified by any one stakeholder or in any one forum.

Over just the last six months, they have been discussed repeatedly in multiple budget hearings, an informational hearing, the AB 988 policy advisory group, and most recently, the Assembly's May oversight hearing examining the performance of the nine eight eight system. The findings have been remarkably consistent. Unclear statewide leadership, gaps in coordination between nine eight eight, nine one one, and mobile crisis teams, and funding processes that make it difficult to plan for future demand and system growth. AB 2093 is reflected of those findings.

It is a targeted cleanup bill that responds directly to the lessons learned during implementation, and addresses problems that cannot be fully resolved without statutory changes.

I respectfully request your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We'll look for other witnesses in support, general testimony in support. You are welcome. Name and affiliation at the appropriate time.

Hi. Teresa Comstock with two organizations, California Association of Local Behavioral Health Boards and Commissions and the California Coalition for Behavioral Health in support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mister Chair and members. Mike Sharif on behalf of the Steinbrink Institute, the Kennedy Forum, the Miles Hall Foundation, California Association of Alcohol Drug Executives program executives, excuse me, Smart Justice, Drug Policy Alliance, California Association of Social Rehabilitation Agencies, nine eighty eight California, and the Crisis Support Services of Alameda County in support.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair. George Cruz on behalf of the California Behavioral Health Association, proud cosponsor and support. Thanks.

Hi. Alexa Lamio on behalf of cosponsor Mental Health America of California. I'm also here on behalf of the California Youth Empowerment Network and LGBTQ plus inclusivity, visibility, and empowerment or live in support. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Danny Offor with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, also known as NAMI California, another proud cosponsor in support. Thanks very much.

Great. Thank you. Alright. Seeing no others in support, anyone in opposition willing to testify at this time? Please.

Good afternoon, Mister Chair and members. Malik Bynum with the County Behavioral Health Directors Association with the respectful oppose unless amended position. However, looking forward to continued, conversations with the sponsors and the author. Thank you.

K. Thank you. We will, seeing no others, we'll bring it back to the dais. Questions, comments, motions?

Thank you. The motion from Senator Allen. Seeing no questions, it's a great bill. Thank you for working hard on this throughout, and I think you've you've you've done a good job of putting a framework together that covers a lot of the gaps, and now we just gotta step up and deliver. We know the funding's gonna also be a big part of the equation too, but I think this deals with all the policy stuff.

So have an eye recommendation on the bill and allow you to close at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Senator. We did this bill in the memory of Miles Hall, a young man who was shot and killed in the middle of a behavioral health crisis in mine and Senator Grayson's district. And victory to his mother, she was so delighted that his memory would save other people. And this continues that work, and I hope we can save more Californians. And with that, I respectfully ask your

eye vote. Let me answer that. The motion is do pass to appropriations? Okay. So Senator Allen made the motion.

We'll call the roll.

Senator Stern?

Aye.

Stern, aye. Saratow, Allen? Aye. Allen, aye. Ashby, Blakespeare?

Aye. Blake Spear, Aye. Dally? Aye. Grayson?

Aye. Grayson, Aye. Perez? Rubio. Alright.

Okay. We'll leave that on call for the absent Members. Thanks. Please apologize to Senator Arreguín for me. It's not my fault. Okay. Okay. Good. Good. Alright. I think now we're gonna take a brief recess while we wait for absent Members. Alright. We're gonna take a brief recess.

All right. Senate Emergency Management Committee will reconvene in 30 seconds. Sorry.

Okay. Senate Emergency Management Committee will reconvene. We are gonna lift the lift the call on the consent calendar first. That's file items one, six, and seven. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

We'll leave that on call for the absent Members. Next, we have file item number two, AB 1960. That is Bennett. The current vote is four to zero. Chair voting aye. The motion is do pass to Appropriations. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

5-0. We'll leave that on call for the absent Members. File number three, AB 1964, Bennett. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Current vote is 5-0. Chair voting aye. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Okay. 6-0. Leave that on call for the absent Members. File number four, AB 2093, Bauer-Kahan. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Current vote is 5-0. Chair voting aye. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Okay. Lastly, file number five, AB 2385, Petrie-Norris. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Current vote is 5-0. Chair voting aye. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Okay. 6-0. Leave that call on call for the absent Members and take a brief recess.

Senate Emergency Management Committee will reconvene in 30 seconds. Okay. Senate Emergency Management Committee will reconvene. We are going to lift calls for the absent Members. We're gonna start off with the consent calendar. File items one, six, and seven. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

We will leave it on call for the absent Members. File number two, AB 1960, Bennett. The motion is do pass to Appropriations. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

We'll leave that on call. File number three, AB 1964. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Okay. File number four, AB 2093, Bauer-Kahan. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

Okay. We'll leave that on call. And lastly, AB 2385, Petrie-Norris. Motion is do pass to Appropriations. Please call the absent Members.

[Roll Call]

We'll leave it on call for the absent Members, and we'll take a brief recess.

Send an emergency management committee. We'll reconvene in thirty seconds. Alright. Senate Emergency Management Committee will reconvene.

We're gonna go through this one last time here for the absent members. We're gonna start off with the consent calendar, which is file items 1, 6, and 7. Please call the absent members.

[Roll Call] That's 8 to 0.

Okay. Bill's out. Bills are out. Consent calendar's out. Final number two, AB 1960 Bennett.

The motion is do pass to appropriations. What you wanna just repeat the current vote?

Yeah. The current vote is 6 to 0 with the Chair and vice Chair voting aye. [Roll Call], that's 7 to 0.

Okay. 7-0 , bill's out. File number 3, AB 1964 Bennett, do pass to appropriations of the motion.

Vote 7 to 0. [Roll Call]. That's 8 to 0.

8 to 0, the bill is out. File number 4, AB 2093 Bauer-Kahan. Motion is do passed to appropriation.

Vote 7 to 0. [Roll Call]. 8 to 0.

Okay. 8-0. Bill's out. Lastly, AB 2385. Petri Norris.

Motion is passed to appropriations.

Current vote is 7 to 0. [Roll Call] That's 8 to 0.

Bill's out. Alright. We're just gonna say thank you to all the members and the staff for their analysis, their work today, and Senate emergency management committee is hereby adjourned.

That bill is out.