Bill Text: CA AB1060 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Governor’s Office of Emergency Services: California Alert.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2022-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB1060 Detail]
Download: California-2021-AB1060-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 1060
| Introduced by Assembly Member Rodriguez |
February 18, 2021 |
An act to add Section 8585.3 to the Government Code, relating to emergency services.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1060, as introduced, Rodriguez.
Governor’s Office of Emergency Services: California Alert.
The California Emergency Services Act authorizes the Governor to declare a state of emergency, and local officials and local governments to declare a local emergency, when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist. Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services within the office of the Governor and charges it with responsibility for the state’s emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies, including responsibility for activities necessary to prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of emergencies and disasters upon people and property. Existing law requires the Office of Emergency Services, in consultation with, at minimum, telecommunications carriers, the California cable and broadband industry, radio and television broadcasters, the California
State Association of Counties, the League of California Cities, the disability community, appropriate federal agencies, and the Standardized Emergency Management System Alert and Warning Specialist Committee, to develop guidelines for alerting and warning the public of an emergency.
This bill would require the office to establish a statewide emergency alert system called California Alert. The bill would require California Alert to utilize Wireless Emergency Alerts authorized by the Integrated Public Alert Warning System, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency information to the public through mobile phones within a designate cell tower’s coverage area. The bill would require the office to contract with a private vendor that provides alerting systems to send California Alerts to registered phone numbers that are not location based. The bill would require the office to establish standards for
issuing emergency alerts to California residents across local jurisdictional boundaries.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 8585.3 is added to the Government Code, to read:8585.3.
(a) (1) The office shall establish a statewide emergency alert system called California Alert.(2) California Alert shall utilize Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) authorized by the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency information to the public through mobile phones within a designate cell tower’s coverage area.
(3) The office shall contract with a private vendor that provide alerting systems to send California Alerts to registered phone numbers that are not location based.
(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), primary responsibility for sending out emergency alerts to California residents shall lie with city-operated, county-operated, or city- and county-operated public emergency warning systems. California Alert operated by the office shall act as a backup to those alert systems and the office shall assist local government in sending out alerts, when requested to do so.
(c) The office shall establish standards for issuing emergency alerts to California residents across local jurisdictional boundaries.
