BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 1385 (Leyva) - California Disaster Assistance Act: Inland
Regional Center
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|Version: March 29, 2016 |Policy Vote: G.O. 10 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: April 25, 2016 |Consultant: Mark McKenzie |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 1385 would provide state disaster-related relief to
local agencies impacted by the shooting that occurred at the
Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino County on December 2,
2015.
Fiscal
Impact: Estimated General Fund costs of approximately $1.6
million, payable over several fiscal years beginning in 2016-17,
based upon preliminary estimates of eligible disaster-related
costs.
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Background: On December 2, 2015, a terrorist attack occurred at the Inland
Regional Center in San Bernardino County when several
individuals opened fire on county employees participating in a
training event, killing 14 people and injuring 26 others.
Governor Brown proclaimed a state of emergency for San
Bernardino County on December 18, 2015, noting that the
circumstances of the attack, by reason of its magnitude, are or
are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel,
equipment, and facilities of any single government and require
the combined forces of all appropriate mutual aid.
Existing law, the California Disaster Assistance Act (CDAA),
requires the state to pay 75 percent of specified local costs
for any state-declared emergency. When there is a federal
declaration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) pays
local governments for 75 percent of eligible disaster mitigation
costs, and the state pays 75 percent of the remaining 25 percent
of eligible costs. For purposes of the CDAA, the term
"disaster" is defined as a fire, flood, storm, tidal wave,
earthquake, terrorism, epidemic, or other similar public
calamity that the Governor determines presents a threat to
public safety. Local costs eligible for reimbursement include
expenditures for local agency personnel, equipment, and
materials used during disaster response activities, repair and
replacement of public facilities damaged as a result of a
disaster event, debris removal, and other emergency work.
Existing law, AB 2140 (Hancock), Ch. 739/2006, prohibits the
state share for any eligible project from exceeding 75 percent
of state eligible costs unless the local agency has adopted a
local hazard mitigation plan as part of the safety element of
its general plan. For some statutorily specified disasters, the
state has paid 100 percent of the non-federal eligible disaster
mitigation costs.
Proposed Law:
SB 1385 would require the state to pay 100 percent of total
state eligible costs connected with the shooting that occurred
at the Inland Regional Center on December 2, 2015.
Related
Legislation: The following measures were intended to provide
SB 1385 (Leyva) Page 2 of
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CDAA disaster relief to local agencies, but none of them were
enacted:
AB 18 (Dodd), which was held on this Committee's Suspense File
last year, would have added the South Napa Earthquake that
occurred on August 24, 2014 to the list of disasters eligible
for full state reimbursement of local costs.
AB 1429 (Chesbro), which was vetoed by Governor Brown in 2011,
would have added the tsunami that affected Del Norte County in
March of 2011 to the list of disasters eligible for full state
reimbursement of local costs. The veto message stated the
following:
The state has not paid for a local government's share of
disaster costs since 2006 and this measure would cost the
state over $1 million. In addition, if I sign this measure,
other counties that sustain similar damages would likely
request the same relief -- a precedent that the state
currently cannot afford.
Staff notes that AB 1308 (Cox) and SB 1537 (Kehoe), both of
which would have provided full state reimbursement of local
disaster-related costs related to specified wildfires, were
chaptered by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008, but failed to
become operative because they were contingent upon the enactment
of SB 1764 (Kehoe), which was vetoed. As noted in the above
veto message of AB 1429 (Chesbro), the state has not provided
full reimbursement of local agency disaster-related costs since
2006, when AB 1798 (Berg), Chap 896/2006, added severe
rainstorms in specified northern California counties to the list
of disasters eligible for full state reimbursement of local
agency costs.
Staff
Comments: Payment of local shares of disaster-related costs is
made with a Budget Act appropriation to the California Emergency
Management Agency, based on preliminary estimates. Because the
state attempts to reimburse all claims received in the budget
year, and does not control when claims are submitted, the amount
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appropriated rarely matches the amount ultimately required in
any given year. When claims exceed the budget appropriation, a
supplemental appropriation may be made.
The San Bernardino tragedy is the first "terrorist" attack for
which the Office of Emergency Services is responsible for
determining what costs will be eligible for reimbursement.
Preliminary estimates indicate that total local agency costs
associated with the shooting at the Inland Regional Center that
are eligible for reimbursement are approximately $6.4 million.
Under this bill, the state would pay its share of $4.8 million,
and assume the local share of $1.6 million.
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