JULY/AUGUST 2004 LEGISLATIVE REPORT
CALIFORNIA FIRE CHIEF’S FIRE PREVENTION OFFICERS
The following is legislation in the California Legislature being monitored by the FPO Legislative Committee.
For current information or to review any of these bills go to www.leginfo.ca.gov
The Committee is watching bills without a Support or Oppose by Cal-Chiefs
AB = Assembly Bill
SB = Senate Bill
AB 224, Kehoe: Cal-Chiefs: Support
Topic: Roof covering materials.
Status: In Assembly
Summary: This bill would provide that a common interest development (Home Owner’s Association and such) may not require a homeowner to install or repair a roof in a manner that violates the requirements of current law.
AB 1802, Bogh Cal-Chiefs: Support
Topic: Illegal dumping, penalties.
Status: Approved by Governor and Chaptered
Summary: This bill would increase the fines for dumping waste material in commercial quantities.
AB 1907, Pacheco Cal-Chiefs: Support
Topic: Arson.
Status: Approved by Governor and Chaptered
Summary: This bill would eliminate the existing January 1, 2005, sunset from the provision in the crime of "aggravated arson" that the crime applies to fires causing greater than $5 million in damages, including the cost of fire suppression.
AB 1924, Bogh
Topic: Fire Prevention Penalties.
Status: Approved by Governor and Chaptered
Summary: This bill would increase fines for entering closed public lands and for violating laws relating to flammable solid waste.
AB 1996, Bogh Cal-Chiefs: Support
Topic: Arson registry: Internet.
Status: Failed passage from Assembly Public Safety Co. on March 30, 04
Summary: This bill would repeal the prohibition on public inspection of registration information and would require the Department of Justice to make specified registration information available to the public via the Internet
AB 2065, Nakano Cal-Chiefs: Support *
Topic: Health and care facilities: fire protection.
Status: Senate Appropriations
Hearing Date: August 2, 2004
Summary: This bill would require new Residential Care Facilities or the Elderly and Adult Residential Facilities licensed for six or fewer residents to install fire sprinklers after January 1. 2005 and existing Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly and Adult Residential Facilities licensed for six or fewer residents to have fire sprinklers installed by January 1, 2010.
AB 2133, Oropeza Cal-Chiefs: Support
Topic: Entertainment: Emergency Exits
Status: Assembly Public Safety Committee
Hearing Date: Unknown
Summary: This bill would require that an announcement be made of the location of every emergency exit prior to the beginning of the concert, show, film, play, dance, or other event.
AB 2241, Campbell
Topic: Building Standards.
Status: Assembly Business and Professions Com.
Hearing Date: 4/20/04 - Failed passage. Reconsideration granted.
Summary: This bill would require the appointed members of the California Building Standards Commission to include a licensed general building contractor and a local chief building official.
AB 2343, Nation Cal-Chiefs: Support *
Topic: School facilities: sprinkler systems.
Status: Senate Appropriations Committee
Hearing Date: August 2, 2004
Summary: This bill would require an automatic fire sprinkler system to be installed in facilities modernized pursuant to the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998, which are located in local jurisdictions that have local ordinances requiring retroactive sprinkler systems.
AB 2337, Corbett Cal-Chiefs: Support
Topic: Fire suppression assessments.
Status: Approved by Governor and Chaptered
Summary: This bill would restore language in the Government Code authorizing the assessments of local fire protection districts to include both fire suppression and fire prevention.
AB 2381, La Suer
Topic: Forest resources: Wildfire threat.
Status: Assembly Natural Resources Com.
Hearing Date: 4/12/04 - Failed passage.
Summary: This bill would declare the Legislature's intent to enact legislation to exempt from the Z'berg Nejedly Forest Practice Act of 1973 the cutting and removal of trees to reduce the threat of wildfire, and to require surface fuels that could promote the spread of wildfire to be chipped, burned, or otherwise removed within 45 days from the date of commencement of timber operations.
AB 2401, Harman
Topic: State Fire Marshal.
Status: Senate Appropriations Committee
Hearing Date: August 2, 2004
Summary: This bill would authorize the State Fire Marshal or his or her designee to stay the suspension of a license on condition that the licensee pay a specified monetary penalty and incur no other cause for disciplinary action, as specified.
In addition: Inspect every jail or place of detention for persons at least once every 2 years.
AB 2545, Koretz (new bill)
Topic: Employment: locking-in employees
Status: Senate Appropriations
Hearing Date: August 2, 2004
Summary: This bill would require that, beginning January 1, 2006, any employer who establishes any rule or engages in any practice that results in a serious and willful violation of any regulation regarding the maintenance and access to exits, that results in death or serious bodily injury of an employee, be assessed a penalty of 10 times the applicable civil penalty
AB 2632, Bogh Cal-Chiefs: Oppose
Topic: Health facilities: construction plans: expedited approval.
Status: Senate Appropriations Committee
Hearing Date: August 2, 2004
Summary: This bill would require construction or alteration of skilled nursing and intermediate care facilities to be exempt from conformance with the latest edition of the California Building Standards Code, and to be exempt from independent review and inspection by OSHPD when, among other things, the construction or alteration is undertaken to repair existing systems, or to keep up the course of normal or routine maintenance.
AB 2638, Cogdill
Topic: Building standards: public information.
Status: Senate Appropriations Committee
Hearing Date: August 2, 2004
Summary: This bill would deem any interpretation of the California Building Standards Code and any rules and regulations to clarify the application of the code by a local enforcement agency to be a public record for purposes of the Public Records Act.
AB 2694, Bogh Cal-Chiefs: Support
Topic: Litter: cigarettes: increased fines.
Status: Referred to Assembly Public Safety Committee
Summary: This bill would substantially increase the fines for discarding waste matter upon public or private property, when the waste matter discarded is a cigarette, cigar, match, or any flaming or glowing substance.
SB 1255, Hollingsworth
Topic: Fire protection: firebreaks.
Status: Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Com.
Hearing Date: Failed passage in committee. Reconsideration
granted
Summary: Existing law requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt regulations implementing minimum fire safety standards related to defensible space, that are applicable to state responsibility area lands under the authority of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
This bill would provide that notwithstanding
any other provision of law, or the provisions
of a convenant, condition, or restriction
regarding landscaping in a planned development,
an owner of property, or his or her agent,
may construct a firebreak for the protection
of a home or other structure on the property.
SB 1267, Morrow Cal-Chiefs: Support
Topic: Healthy State Lands Act of 2004.
Last Action: Senate Environmental Quality Committee
Hearing Date: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author
Summary: (1) Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare or cause to be prepared by contract, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report for any project it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect, unless exempt from the act.
This bill would establish the Healthy State
Lands Act of 2004, which would provide an
exemption to CEQA for activities related
to aggressive fuel modification on state
lands that are intended to prevent fire emergencies.
SB 1278, Senate Committee on Natural Resources
Topic: Natural resources: forestry and fire protection.
Status: Approved by Governor and Chaptered
Summary: (1) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before December 1, 1995, to report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature on the impacts of designating very high fire hazard severity zones, as specified. This bill would repeal that provision.
SB 1369, Kuehl Cal-Chiefs: Support
Topic: Fire protection: high fire hazard zone.
Status: In Assembly. Third Reading
Summary: This bill would revise existing requirements in very high fire hazard severity zones to require the removal of all brush, flammable vegetation, or combustible growth that is located within 100 feet from an occupied dwelling or occupied structure or to the property line, or at a greater distance if required by state law, or local ordinance, rule, or regulation AND would require an owner, prior to constructing a new dwelling or structure or reconstructing a dwelling or structure damaged by a fire in a very high fire hazard severity zone, to certify to the property insurance carrier that insures the dwelling or structure, that the dwelling or structure will be constructed in compliance with all state and local building codes, including specified standards covering fire prevention.
SB 1898, Burton:
Topic: Seismic safety: gas shutoff devices.
Status: Senate Housing and Community Development Com.
Hearing Date: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
Summary: Existing law requires any new seismic gas shutoff device sold in this state to be certified by the State Architect, who is required to establish a fee for the certification that is continuously appropriated to the State Architect for the costs of administering the certification program.
This bill would provide that an automatic
gas shutoff device that is not activated
by motion, but is activated by significant
gas leaks or overpressure surges, means a
gas shutoff device that shuts off the gas
in a building if it detects, during or immediately
after an earthquake, an increase in the flow
of gas, as specified, shuts off the gas in
a building if the flow of gas in the main
line in a building exceeds its design limits,
and detects small leaks within 24 hours,
as specified.
SB 1908, Sher:
Topic: Forestry and fire protection.
Status: In Assembly. Held at Desk
Summary: Existing law authorizes the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to exempt any person engaged in forest management whose activities are limited to, among other things, the cutting or removal of trees in compliance with specified laws that eliminate the vertical continuity of vegetative fuels and the horizontal continuity of tree crowns for the purpose of reducing flammable materials and maintaining a fuelbreak for a distance of not more than 150 feet on each side from an approved and legally permitted structure that complies with the California Building Code.
This bill would include in that exemption a person who owns, leases, operates, or maintains an occupied dwelling or structure on land with a very high fire hazard severity zone, and is engaged in forest management activities who is in compliance with a specified law regulating fire prevention maintenance activities in specified areas or lands around that structure.