Gov's Vetoes Highlight Poor Planning, Spending Priorities for State's Fire Safety

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With more than 3000 firefighters from around the state putting their lives on the line to battle the Topanga Fire, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger failed to sign several bills, recommended by his own blue-ribbon commission, to help these brave men and women do their jobs.

Last year, “State and local firefighters and chiefs who gathered [October 19, 2004] to discuss [2003’s] wildfires blasted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying he has not done enough to provide the equipment and staffing needed to battle a fire disaster…. [M]any of the fire officials who spoke at the hearing complained that most of the 48 suggestions of a blue-ribbon commission appointed by Schwarzenegger had been not been implemented.…” the governor vetoed four bills in 2004 “intended to implement some of the panel's key recommendations.” (Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2004)

The bills the Governor should have signed were:

• SB 1611 (Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego) - Requires the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (CDF) to maintain a four-person fire engine crew statewide during fire season and year-round in Southern California.

• SB 902 (John Burton, D-San Francisco and Nell Soto, D-Pomona) – Transfers federal funds to assist the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) in phasing-in the purchase of 150 additional fire engines. These additional engines will be added to the current OES fire engine fleet and will be assigned throughout California for use by CDF and local fire agencies to beef up their response not only to wildland fires, but also to potential acts of terrorism and other natural and human-caused emergencies.

• AB 1588 (Gloria Negrete-McLeod, D-Montclair and Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego) - Gives CDF the statutory authority it needs to buy and maintain additional firefighting aircraft or equipment, including firefighting helicopters using federal funds. Through cooperative agreements, acquired aircraft or equipment will be staged for use by local governments in urban areas with high fire risk.

• AB 2406 (Rudy Bermudez, D-Norwalk) – Expands the scope of information already required to be reported to the State Fire Marshal to by California fire agencies to include local response time and staffing statistics. The information, collected by the State Fire Marshal, would enable the state to annually compare how each fire department measures up to other fire departments and to national response time and staffing standards as well.

And this year, the Governor has vetoed:

• AB 3087 (Assembly Government Organization Committee) – This measure would require the Office of Emergency Services, California Highway Patrol, the Governor's Office of Home Security, and the California Department of Forestry to conduct a study to determine the effectiveness of the State Emergency Plan and the mutual aid system.

And, according to the Legislative Analysts Office, in the past 4 years, the state of California has received over $800 million in federal Homeland Security grant funds to spend on things like adding to and upgrading fleets of fire trucks and other vital public safety concerns.

However, because the Governor continues to veto legislation like SB 902 (Burton), less than a third of the money has been spent.

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