BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 1112 (Hueso) - School Fire Alarms
Amended: March 25, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 12, 2014 Consultant: Jacqueline
Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1112 requires schools to submit a copy of
records of maintenance, inspection and testing of fire alarm
systems to the chief of any city or county fire department or
district providing fire protection services, as specified, and
requires the receiving entity to review of these documents
within a reasonable time.
Fiscal Impact:
Mandate: Schools - Significant reimbursable mandate on
schools, likely in the high hundreds of thousands of
dollars, to require that they submit inspection and
maintenance records to local fire protection authorities, in
a manner prescribed by the recipients.
Mandate: Local fire protection authorities - Significant
reimbursable mandate on cities and counties to receive and
review inspection and maintenance documents.
Background: Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to
prepare, adopt, and submit building standards relating to fire
and panic safety and to prepare and adopt regulations
establishing minimum requirements for the prevention of fire and
for the protection of life and property against fire and panic.
These regulations must relate to the means of egress and the
adequacy of exits from, the installation and maintenance of fire
extinguishing and fire alarm systems in, the storage and
handling of combustible or explosive materials or substances,
and the installation and maintenance of appliances, equipment,
decorations, security bars, grills, grates, and furnishings that
present a fire, explosion, or panic hazard, as specified.
(Health and Safety Code �13143)
Existing law requires local fire departments to annually inspect
every building used as a public or private school within his or
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her jurisdiction, for the purpose of enforcing regulations
adopted pursuant to the Health and Safety Code � 13143 not less
than once each year. The State Fire Marshal, and his/her
authorized representatives, are required to make these
inspections not less than once each year in areas outside of
corporate cities and districts providing fire protection
services. (HSC � 13146.3)
Proposed Law: This bill requires a public or private school to
submit a copy of the maintenance, inspection, and testing
records of the fire alarm system to the chief of any city or
county fire department or district, providing fire services, as
specified. This bill further requires the review of these
records by the chief of any city or county fire department or
district, providing fire protection services, as specified,
within a reasonable time.
Staff Comments: This bill places new state requirements on local
fire protection authorities, including the responsibility for
placing and enforcing new requirements on schools whose fire
alarm systems they inspect.
Requiring an individual school to submit inspection and
maintenance records to local fire protection authorities, in a
manner prescribed by the recipients, is unlikely to result in
significant costs to that particular school. Though, costs would
vary depending on the requirements that local fire protection
authorities place on LEAs for submission. School districts can,
however, aggregate their costs in order to meet the minimum
$1,000 threshold for filing a state mandate test claim. If even
half of the more than 1,000 school districts statewide were to
have districtwide costs of $1,000, state costs would exceed
$500,000. The requirements of this bill are likely to be deemed
by the Commission on State Mandates to be reimbursable.
This bill also requires the fire protection authority to review
the records submitted by schools in its jurisdiction "within a
reasonable time." What would constitute a reasonable time is
unclear. Requiring local fire protection authorities to
communicate instructions to schools on how to submit their
reports, enforcing report submittal, reviewing the reports, and
likely following up with schools if something in the report
seems amiss or cause for concern, are activities also likely to
be deemed by the Commission on State Mandates to be
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reimbursable, as are the costs to train fire authority personnel
on what the bill requires.
Staff notes that it is unclear what the consequence would be to
a school that did not submit maintenance and inspection report
copies, and what entity would be responsible for enforcement.
The role of the local fire protection authority, after reviewing
the reports, is also unclear. If the agency was expected to be
involved in overseeing corrective actions, costs would increase
substantially.