Wildfire Prevention Grants Program: wildfire mitigation validation., the official text

An act to add Section 4124.9 to the Public Resources Code, relating to fire prevention.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities in California and extends eligibility for grants to, among others, local agencies, resource conservation districts, fire safe councils, the California Conservation Corps, certified community conservation corps, Native American tribes, and qualified nonprofit organizations. Existing law requires the department, on or before December 31, 2023, and annually thereafter, to post on its internet website certain information regarding hazardous fuel reduction and vegetation management projects funded or conducted by the department for the preceding fiscal year, including projects funded under the department’s Wildfire Prevention Grants Program, as provided.
Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to establish a statewide program to allow qualified entities, as defined, who have completed a specific training program developed and administered by the department to support and augment the department in its defensible space and home hardening assessment and education efforts.
This bill would authorize the department, commencing with the 2028–29 fiscal year, to disburse funds appropriated for the Wildfire Prevention Grants Program to identified cohesive fire communities, as defined, that partner with fire safe councils, as provided, to use for activities related to hazardous fuels reduction, wildfire prevention planning, and wildfire prevention education, among other activities. The bill would require the department to prioritize disadvantaged identified cohesive fire communities in its evaluation of applicants for the Wildfire Prevention Grants Program.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.
Section 4124.9 is added to the Public Resources Code, immediately following Section 4124.8, to read:
4124.9.
(a) (1) For purposes of this section, “identified cohesive fire community” means a community, as that term is defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 65302.10 of the Government Code, that has reached the applicable percent of homes certified by a home hardening certification program pursuant to the process described in paragraphs (2) and (3).
(2) In order to qualify as an identified cohesive fire community, a community shall, until or unless a state agency develops a home hardening certification program, reach the following minimum percentage of homes certified pursuant to a home hardening certification program developed by an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit scientific research and communications organization supported by property insurers, reinsurers, and affiliated companies:
(A) In the 2028–29 and 2029–30 fiscal years, 10 percent of homes certified as hardened.
(B) In the 2030–31 to 2032–33 fiscal years, inclusive, 30 percent of homes certified as hardened.
(C) In the 2033–34 and following fiscal years, 50 percent of homes certified as hardened.
(3) If a state agency adopts a home hardening certification program, the agency shall, for purposes of certification as an identified cohesive fire community, adopt timeframes and minimum percentage thresholds that are comparable to the timeframes and minimum percentage thresholds described in subparagraphs (A) to (C), inclusive, of paragraph (2).
(4) Upon the development of a home hardening certification program by a state agency as described in paragraph (3), a community that was previously certified as an identified cohesive fire community pursuant to paragraph (2) shall retain that qualification.
(5) For purposes of this subdivision, state and private certification programs shall base certification upon objective, verifiable, and periodically reviewed wildfire mitigation criteria supported by publicly available methodology and data.
(b) The department may, commencing with the 2028–29 fiscal year, disburse funds appropriated for the department’s Wildfire Prevention Grants Program to identified cohesive fire communities that partner with fire safe councils, consistent with subdivision (c), to use for activities related to hazardous fuels reduction, wildfire prevention planning, and wildfire prevention education, among other activities.
(c) For purposes of the funding described in subdivision (b), a fire safe council shall be both of the following:
(1) The entity that applies to the department for grant funding. The application shall be on behalf of an individual or group of individuals affiliated with an identified cohesive fire community.
(2) The entity that receives and manages any grant funding awarded to an identified cohesive fire community pursuant to the Wildfire Prevention Grants Program. The fire safe council shall determine how to use the funds in the identified cohesive fire safe community for hazardous fuels reduction, wildfire prevention planning, and wildfire prevention education, among other activities.
(d) Disadvantaged identified cohesive fire communities shall be awarded preference pursuant to the department’s established procedures for prioritizing disadvantaged applicants in their evaluation of applicants for the Wildfire Prevention Grants Program.
(e) Qualification as an identified cohesive fire community pursuant to this section shall not be used for purposes of the business of insurance, and shall not establish actuarial justification for insurance rate adjustments, catastrophe model modifications, underwriting changes, or mitigation credits absent supporting empirical and statistical evidence.