Future Ready: Stronger Policies to Curb Wildfires
Join the upcoming Topanga Town Council meeting to hear from Senator Ben Allen & Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin about how to shape future wildfire prevention and response on Wednesday, Feb 19, 2025, from 6-8pm at the Topanga Library or via Zoom. Your voice matters! Register and share your concerns.
📍 Register by Feb 16:
✅ In-Person Participation: Email contact@topangatowncouncil.org
✅ Virtual Participation: Register here for Zoom access
Why It Matters:
Our State Legislators have immense power to directly affect our lives with the laws they pass in Sacramento each year. When it comes to wildfire prevention and response, there is a lot that they can do. From mandating that property insurers cover hardened homes to re-instating solar rebates in wildfire-prone areas or compelling State Parks to clear brush, our very own Senator Ben Allen (District 24) and Assemblymember Irwin (District 42) could profoundly alter the course of wildfire prevention and recovery in California with their actions this year. The Topanga Town Council urges residents to attend the upcoming public meeting on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 (6-8pm) at the Topanga Library to hear what is being planned and to share their own ideas. (a Zoom option is also available).
Now, a quick primer on what exactly it is our State representatives can and cannot do. Many folks find themselves puzzling over which aspects of daily life our different levels of government control. While the lines do get a little murky sometimes, the Tenth Amendment provides that all powers not delegated to the United States [federal government] by the Constitution, are reserved to the states, respectively. In practice, that means that our California State Legislature[1] has responsibility for:
ownership of property;
education;
implementation of welfare and other benefits programs;
distribution of aid;
protecting people from local threats;
maintaining a justice system;
setting up local governments such as counties and municipalities;
maintaining state highways and setting up the means of administrating local roads;
regulation of industry; and
raising funds to support their activities
Suffice it to say, our State Legislators can do quite a bit, provided that they can get a majority of their peers to vote alongside them. All in, we have 40 State Senators in the upper house, representing just shy of one million constituents each. In our lower house, we have the State Assembly, which has 80 members, each representing approximately half a million residents.
Our State Senator, Ben Allen represents the 24th Senate District, which includes: Agoura Hills, Beverly Hills, Calabasas, El Segundo, Gardena, Hermosa Beach, Hidden Hills, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills, Santa Monica, Torrance, West Hollywood, and Westlake Village; the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Bel Air, Beverly Grove, Brentwood, Fairfax, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills, Mid City West, Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, Venice, Westwood, Westwood Village; Topanga and the unincorporated Los Angeles County communities of the Santa Monica Mountains and Marina Del Rey.
Jacqui Irwin, our State Assemblymember for the 42nd Assembly District, represents significant portions of both Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, including the communities of Malibu, Brentwood, Topanga, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley Moorpark, about half of Camarillo, and a few other areas.
As you can see, both of our State Legislators represents several wildfire-prone areas in high value real estate markets, so they will each be focusing extensively on that issue this legislative session.
At a February 6th roundtable conversation, entitled: “Working Together for a Successful Palisades Recovery & Rebuild,” Senator Allen and several Senate colleagues discussed several bills that they were working on to help California better equip itself to recover from this fire and gird itself against future fires. A few bills already in the pipeline aim to:
· convert approximately 3,000 seasonal CAL FIRE firefighters into year-round employees;[2]
· mandate that the one-year moratorium on insurance policy non-renewals and cancellations be extended to commercial policies;
· provide school districts with supportive funding to absorb repair/rebuilding costs and restore any/all lost revenues due to fire damage and/or student attrition
· require water districts to provide backup power for their water pumps in high risk areas in Ventura County; and
· several other measures. See the Senate’s list of proposed bills here.
There are several more things that could be added to the current slate of bills or to future bills. Some of the items that the Topanga Town Council would like to see prioritized include many items related to brush clearance support and enhancing the insurance market that Commissioner Lara’s December 2024 reforms have not yet sufficiently addressed, such as:
· requiring insurers to cover all homes that meet home hardening standards set by a Home Hardening Commission that includes knowledgeable leaders from Firewise communities;
· increasing the FAIR Plan dwelling limit from $3 million per parcel to at least $5 million per parcel;
· allowing the $3 million (or proposed $5 million) FAIR Plan cap to extend to each permitted structure on a parcel;
· creating a State-level backstop/reinsurance pool for any losses that individuals sustain beyond the $3 million cap IF they were compelled to join the FAIR Plan due to a lack of any other choice.
· working with State Parks and Conservancies to ensure that they perform the same brush clearance activities that residents are required to do;
· providing aid to low-income seniors and other residents who cannot afford their annual brush clearance costs;
· issuing meaningful financial assistance to low-income residents to help them harden their homes in communities with the highest wildfire risk;
· expanding the number and adequacy of fire hydrants (and their water sources) in all wildfire-prone communities in the State.
There are many other ideas that could significantly improve how we cope with wildfire risk as a community. That said, we are particularly concerned about insurance accessibility and affordability, as the absence of a robust property insurance market in our area hampers the real estate market in our region and frankly jeopardizes the very viability of private property ownership in Topanga and other high-cost residential areas in the WUI (wildland urban interface or intermix) landscape. While the California Department of Insurance (CDI) has regulatory responsibility for the insurance market in our state, it is the legislators who have the ability to pass legislation that could address some of the gaps that Lara’s reforms cannot or have not addressed.
We urge you to attend this important public meeting and participate in this extremely important conversation.
[1] https://www.open-dc.gov/documents/state-and-local-government-basics[2] https://www.firehouse.com/california-fire-storm/video/55265853/state-legislators-ask-for-year-round-staffing-for-cal-fire