Bill Text: CA AB418 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Emergency services: grant program.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Vetoed) 2022-02-10 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB418 Detail]

Download: California-2021-AB418-Introduced.html

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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 418

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Introduced by Assembly Member Valladares

February 04, 2021

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An act to add Article 16.7 (commencing with Section 8654.15) to Chapter 7 of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code, relating to emergency services.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 418, as introduced, Valladares. Emergency services: grant program.

Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act establishes the Office of Emergency Services in the office of the Governor and provides that the office is responsible for the state’s emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies.

This bill would establish the Community Power Resiliency Program (program), to be administered by the Office of Emergency Services, to support local governments in priority areas including schools, elections offices, food storage reserves, COVID-19 testing sites, and traffic signals and street lamps. The bill would authorize the office to allocate specified sums, pursuant to an appropriation by the Legislature, to local governments, special districts, and tribes for various purposes relating to power resiliency, and would require those entities applying for funding to either describe the portion of their emergency plan that includes power outages or provide an attestation that power outages will be included when the entity revises any portion of their emergency plan. Cities, special districts and tribes would be eligible, under the provisions of this bill, to apply for competitive grants, while counties would be allocated a noncompetitive amount based on population and required to spend at least 50% of funds in priority areas. The bill would authorize the office to retain 3% of the total appropriation and would require the office to administer the program.

The bill would specify that the Legislature intends to enact future legislation to transfer $100,000,000 from the General Fund to the Office of Emergency Services for the program.

The bill would specify sums which would be allocated to the entities if the Legislature enacts future legislation to allocate only $50,000,000 to the office for the program.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

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

SECTION 1.

 Article 16.7 (commencing with Section 8654.15) is added to Chapter 7 of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code, to read:

Article  16.7. Community Power Resiliency Program

8654.15.

 (a) For purposes of this article, the following terms have the following meanings:

(1) A “critical facility” means any building, structure, or complex that in the event of a disaster, whether natural or manmade, poses a threat to public safety, including, but not limited to, airports, oil refineries, and nuclear and conventional fuel powerplants.

(2) “Electrical corporation” has the same meaning as defined in Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code.

(3) “Local publicly owned electric utility” has the same meaning as defined in Section 224.3 of the Public Utilities Code.

(4) “Office” means the Office of Emergency Services.

(5) “Program” means the Community Power Resiliency Program.

8654.16.

 (a) (1) The Community Power Resiliency Program is hereby established, to be administered by the office, to support local government efforts to improve resiliency in response to deenergization events by electrical corporations or local publicly owned electric utilities.

(2) The office shall also provide competitive and noncompetitive grant funding through the program to local governments, special districts, and tribes to plan and deploy energy resiliency projects that maintain energy services during a deenergization event.

8654.17.

 (a) The office shall allocate funds, pursuant to any future appropriation by the Legislature, to counties on a noncompetitive basis, to be divided between all counties based upon the population. Counties shall use at least 50 percent of the allocation to support community power resiliency for one or more of the following priority areas:

(1) Schools.

(2) Elections offices.

(3) Food storage reserves.

(4) COVID-19 testing sites.

(5) Traffic signals and street lamps.

(b) The office shall allocate funds, pursuant to any future appropriation by the Legislature, to cities on a competitive basis. Cities shall be eligible for grants of up to three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000). The office shall give preference points to cities that did not receive a grant award from the 2019 Community Power Resiliency appropriation or the 2020 Community Power Resiliency appropriation. Grant recipients are encouraged to allocate funds to one or more of the following priority areas:

(1) Schools.

(2) Elections offices.

(3) Food storage reserves.

(4) COVID-19 testing sites.

(5) Traffic signals and street lamps.

(c) The office shall allocate funds, pursuant to any future appropriation by the Legislature, to special districts on a competitive basis. Special districts shall be eligible to apply for grants of up to $300,000 if the special district has an identified critical facility or facilities, or if it provides critical infrastructure, pursuant to the deenergization guidelines adopted by the California Public Utilities Commission.

(d) The office shall allocate funds, pursuant to any future appropriation by the Legislature, to California federally recognized tribes on a competitive basis. Tribes are eligible to apply for grants of up to two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) without specification of prioritization of funding. The office shall give preference points to tribes that did not receive a grant award from the 2019 Community Power Resiliency appropriation or the 2020 Community Power Resiliency appropriation.

(e) All entities applying for funding who are required to have an emergency plan shall do either of the following:

(1) Describe the portion of their emergency plan that includes power outages, whether resulting from power shutoff events or for any other reason.

(2) Provide an attestation that power outages, whether resulting from power shut off events or for any other reason, will be included the next time the local or tribal government revises any portion of its emergency plan.

8654.18

 The office shall retain three percent of any appropriation to administer the program, including the competitive grant resource allocation, approval determination, and procedures for allocating preference points.

SEC. 2.

 It is the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation to transfer 100 million dollars ($100,000,000) to the office to support the Community Power Resiliency Program as described in Section 1 of this act. If the Legislature transfers 100 million dollars ($100,000,000) to the office, the office shall allocate the funds based on Section 1 of this act and the following:

(a) Thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) to counties.

(b) Thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) to cities.

(c) Thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) to special districts.

(d) Seven million dollars ($7,000,000) to tribes.

SEC. 3.

 If the Legislature enacts future legislation to transfer 50 million dollars ($50,000,000) to the office to support the Community Power Resiliency Program as described in Section 1 of this act, the office shall allocate the funds based on Section 1 of this act and the following:

(a) Twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) to counties.

(b) Thirteen million dollars ($13,000,000) to cities.

(c) Thirteen million dollars ($13,000,000) to special districts.

(d) Two and one-half million dollars ($2,500,000) to tribes.