2023 March President’s Message

US Fire Administration
A reminder, on April 20, 2023 at 1000 hours at the California State Operations Center, US Fire Administrator Dr Lori Moore-Merrell and Deputy Administrator Tonya Hoover will be attending a Press Event as part of their cross country Climate Driver Wildfire Across America Tour.  The event is open to all California Fire Service Personnel and CalChiefs is asking for those who can attend, to be present in their Class A Uniform.

The event will highlight the recent release of the Proceedings Report from the 2022 USFA Summit on Fire Prevention and Control.  It will further address the fact that America is still burning and facing varied challenges such as:

• The growing threat and incidence of wildfire due to climate change
• The need to improve, implement and enforce existing codes and standards to protect our most vulnerable communities.
• The need to develop or enhance recruitment programs to address pending staffing
  challenges and for a diverse and well-trained American fire service
• The need to reduce the exposure of firefighters to cancer-causing chemicals.
• The imperative to provide mental resilience training and support the mental health of our first responders.

National Fire Leadership will also be in attendance for this event, and attendees include:

• General President of the International Association of Fire Firefighters, Ed Kelly
• International Association of Fire Chiefs President Chief Donna Black
• National Fire Protection Association, President/CEO Jim Pauley
• National Volunteer Fire Council representative Chief Kevin Quinn
• UL’s Vice President, Executive Director of UL Research, Steve Kerber
  

CalChiefs Organizational Task Force – Update
Past President Gayk and Treasurer Peterson have been leading a Taskforce that is assessing and will provide the E-Board with recommendations related to improving the dues structure, invoicing process, as well as the administrative structure, by-laws, tax statuses and processes, and efficiency of the CalChiefs organization.  Currently Chiefs Gayk and Peterson have been in the data collection mode.

I am aware that there are concerns amongst sections and members that the CalChiefs E-Board may take actions that hinder the current revenues and autonomy of our sections.  This is not the intent of this initiative and as a matter of fact we remain committed to keeping sections whole.  We are looking to modify the current process of paying dues to CalChiefs and the various sections, so the process is better aligned with the fiscal planning of agencies.  Many Fire Chiefs regularly communicate their frustration with multiple annual CalChiefs membership invoices, and billing periods that differ based on the sections and main CalChiefs organization.  We have been asked to look at creating a single dues structure (that combines all the sections), that better aligns for planning and payment.  We are also not looking to take control of the sections, but we are looking to improve communication and collaboration, and if we discover opportunities to increase efficiency and improve costs (i.e. having one set of taxes and tax process), to implement those if they benefit everyone.

Chiefs Gayk and Peterson are working to finalize the data collection into a spreadsheet for further discussions with each section to refine the information so that it can eventually be put into a recommendation for the E-Boards consideration.

Legislative Planning
On April 18, 2023, AB 40, legislation designed to address the APOT issue, will be presented at the Assembly Health Committee hearing at 1330 in the Swing Space Building (1021 O Street, Room 1100).  CalChiefs and CPF are asking for a large turnout of support from the Fire Service.  We are asking folks to wear their Class A Uniforms and we will be meeting at the PPA Headquarters (1015 K Street, Ste 200, Sacramento) at noon, and will walk together to the Capitol.  Please contact Kriss Gross at  PPA (Kriss@ppallc.com)if you plan to attend.

At the April 3, 2023 Executive Board Meeting, the Board voted to approve a position of support for AB1168.  This bill adds to sections to Health and Safety Code, 1797.11 and 1797.232, which authorizes retaining of an agencies .201 rights regardless of entering into, or existing a JPA.  CalChiefs also released a podcast of this Bill, which was an interview of Chief Hamilton by President Tubbs.

At the March Board Meeting, the Executive Board approved a request to set the legislative priorities for this year.  The legislative priorities for CalChiefs this year include:

1. SB 577 (Hurtado) This bill would provide a wider scope of sources to fund requisite firefighter training programs to provide essential workforce development and expand opportunities for increased diversity in the fire service.  (Sponsored).
2. AB 296 (Rodriguez) This bill would establish a 9-1-1 campaign to educate the public when it is appropriate to call 9-1-1. (Support)
3. AB767 (Gipson) This bill would expand community paramedicine services to include short-term follow-up for persons discharged from the hospital. (Support)
4. AB1180 (Rodriguez) This bill would remove the requirement that the Cal EMSA Director be a licensed physician or surgeon and would instead require the director to have substantial experience in the practice of emergency preparedness, response and recovery. (Support)]
5. AB297 (Fong) This bill would extend the sunset date on the local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening until January 1, 2034. (Support)
6. SB 504 (Dodd) This bill would require CalFire to give priority to grants for local governmental agencies that are qualified to provide defensible space assessments in high and very high severity hazard severity zones and who report that information using the common reporting platform. (Support)
7. SB 374 (Ashby) This bill would increase the fee paid by firefighters when renewing a license by $5 with the increase being used by the California Fire Foundation to renovate the California Firefighters Memorial at the Capitol Park. (Support)
   

The E-Board adopted a resolution in February to oppose Initiative 21-0042A1, which has qualified for the November 2024 Ballot. The initiative would broaden the imposition of a 2/3 vote requirement on local governments going to the voters to raise revenues on the local level.  For more information about this initiative, visit:

https://www.csda.net/advocate/take-action/voterlimitations
or
https://www.calcities.org/news/post/2022/03/30/opposition-mounts-to-wealthy-corporation-backed-ballot-measure-threatening-voter-rights-and-local-services

Currently there are no Bills that CalChiefs is opposing.

EMDAC
Over the past year and a half, the CalChiefs Presidents have had engaged with the EMDAC leadership in an effort to build a relationship with the group.  There is a long history of distrust between the two groups, but the leadership of both Associations is committed to building bridges in the hopes that there will be opportunities to work and support each other’s interests.

Most recently our discussions have centered primarily around AB 1168, and AB 40. Recently EMDAC came out in opposition to AB 1168.  We are expecting that EMSAAC will also come out against the bill.

The leadership from EMDAC will be participating in a panel discussion at this year’s CFED conference and we are excited to partner with them.

CALOES Homeland Security Advisory Committee (HSAC)
President Tubbs was recently appointed by the CalOES Director, to sit on the HSAC Committee.  President Tubbs attended his first meeting on March 7th.  The one day meeting contained multiple presentations on a variety of HS issues such as the Opioid/Fentanyl Crisis, Human Trafficking and cyberterrorism and cybersecurity.  Chief Tubbs is working to see if any of these presentations can be made available to our membership.

CFED
CFED will again be hosted in Indian Wells.  We are excited to share that the California Fire Chiefs Association will be providing two days of pre-conference program content beginning May 21.  On Sunday the program will be focused on wildfire, and on Monday on EMS issues.  Program details can be found on the CFED website.  We are very excited about the pre-conference lineup and hope that you can attend.

Registration is now open, and more information can be found on the conference website: https://www.cfedwest.com/.

PP-GEMT
Steady progress has been made with regards to reaching out to individual agencies that have not sent in their Letters of Interest.  Our team of Scott Clough and Pilar Williams have been working with Chief Vogt on his calculations sheet, as well as with individual agencies in assisting a review of their calculations, to ensure their accuracy.

EMSAAC
We have met twice with the EMSAAC leadership in an effort to open ongoing discussions about a variety of EMS issues.  Most recently the leadership from both Associations discussed AB 1168 and AB 40.  Though on these bills we agree to disagree, engaging in the dialogue and seeking to understand each other’s concerns and perspectives, is helpful.  We are hoping that over time these discussions will lead to more opportunity to work together on EMS issues.

CalChiefs Emergency Management (EM) Section 
The newest section of CalChiefs is the Emergency Management EM Section. The EM’s specific and primary purpose is to develop and advance the fire service role in all-hazard emergency management. The EM section focuses on all-hazard emergency management to support the fire service organization. The EM section is intended to be a place and organization where fire-based emergency managers can find relevant information, services, and products to support the execution of their responsibilities.

In 2023, the EM section is working to increase participation in membership and with EM related committees. A fire service member that has responsibilities with emergency planning would benefit from being a member of the EM section.  Members of the EM section will have networking opportunities with professional Emergency Managers from other industries, access to EM related legislative discussions and a library of EM related resources.

For those interested in additional EM information or joining the EM section can visit the CalChiefs EM Section’s website https://em.calchiefs.org.

National Special District Coalition (NSDC)
As fire service leaders it is important to be aware of different organizations that advocate for the fire service. According to the National Special Districts Coalition (NSDC), they are the only organization representing all types of special districts at the federal level. NSDC was organized in 2018 and is comprised of state associations representing special districts in their states, organizations supporting special districts, as well as individual special districts. NSDC advocates for special districts’ inclusion in and favorable outcomes of federally-funded programs for local governments. Uniting special districts and stakeholders as one voice, NSDC fosters strong national collaboration to strengthen special districts’ ability to deliver essential community services, enhancing American communities’ quality of life.

More than 6,000 special districts provide fire protection and emergency services across geographically diverse regions and communities in the U.S. The presence and importance of these districts and the services they provide influence NSDC’s policy prioritization and work. Since 2022, NSDC has been spearheading research and advocacy efforts to address community gaps in water infrastructure for firefighting. Further, NSDC supports legislation to enhance the administration of the nation’s local fire services, support fire protection and emergency services districts’ access to federally funded local programs, promote better federal land management practices, and support efforts for community response to wildfire.

CALChiefs will continue to monitor NSP activities and work to participate in the best interest of the California Fire Service.

Volunteer / Combo Departments
As part of our Vision of “Being the Voice of the California Fire Service”, and our mission to “To Strengthen and Advocate for the California Fire Service through Leadership, Unity and Collaboration” we recently added in a provisional capacity pending a vote by the full membership in October, a new Section within CalChiefs for our Tribal Agencies. I shared this information in a previous E-Blast, but we have continued to reflect on the words we want to live into and have also offered a provisional membership to a new section we are creating, for our Volunteer and Combo Agencies.   Chief Jeff Gilbert (Williams fire Protection Authority) is assisting our Executive Director Chief Meston, in organizing this new section.  If you are interested in being a part of this new section, please reach out to either Chief Meston or Gilbert: (jeff.meston@calchiefs.org or c300@williamsfire.net).

Hall of Fame
We are also pleased to announce the creation of an award that recognizes California Fire Chiefs who have made an impact on the California Fire Service.

The California Fire Chiefs Association Hall of Fame (HOF) is designed to honor a Fire Chiefs lifetime achievement that have served the California Fire Service and contributing to its improvement. The award ceremony would be part of the annual conference and each year a class of inductees would be honored.  CFCA would automatically bring into the HOF that years past president (life member), that years Fire Chief of the Year (FCOY-life member), and could submit one or more Fire Chief for consideration, in addition to CFCA submitting a nominee, we would encourage a single submission from the Fire Districts Association of California, the League of City Fire Chiefs Section, the Metro Fire Chiefs, the Tribal Fire Chief Section, and the Volunteer and Combo Fire Chief Section each year.  All inductees shall be members of the California Fire Chiefs Association and members in good standing. Each year a minimum of eight Fire Chiefs would be admitted if all allied agencies participate and become that year’s class (i.e. Hall of Fame Class of 2024).

To catch up with all CFCA Past Presidents and FCOY the class of 2023 we are currently planning to go back in our history and start the award with those recipients.  CFCA Presidents that did not fulfill their full term, including past president are not eligible for the award, nor any past president who has discredited the Association as determine by the Executive Board of Directors.

The Fire Districts Association of California, League of City Fire Chiefs Section, Metro Fire Chiefs, Tribal Fire Chief Section, Volunteer and Combo Fire Chief Section may submit up to 2 nominations in for the Class of 2023.  Each recipient will have a 200-word bio, with name, photo and year admitted on our website as well as receiving a modest plaque.  Allied agencies would pay a modest fee once they have a member selected to cover the cost of web development and a plaque.  CFCA has 55 Past Presidents- 2 would be ineligible based upon the non-completion of term) and 18 FCOY that were non-presidents as part of the Class of 2023.

Voting for admission to the HOF will be conducted by the Presidents Committee of CFCA and the current President of FDAC. Recipients may only be inducted to the HOF once.

Submission criteria would be for external improvements for the California Fire Service, outside of the normal duties of the jurisdictions fire chief (County level contributions, State level contributions, National level contributions).

Recipients will be notified ahead of the ceremony so they can arrange for family, friends, and government officials to attend- but will be responsible to cover the cost for attendance (if this occurs during a luncheon).

Podcasts
As of the writing of this monthly update, we recently released a podcast on AB 1168.  President Tubbs interviewed Chief Alex Hamilton (Oxnard) on the bill and the catalyst behind it. I encourage members to listen to this podcast (and our other episodes as well). These interviews are designed to provide more detail about various issues, than can be explained in an E-Blast or email message. Many thanks to Chief Hamilton for his work on this bill, and his willingness to sit down and discuss this in a podcast.

We are also recently shared a link to a video interview conducted by Chief Dave Winnacker (Moraga-Orinda) with Staff Chief Jim McDougal (CalFire) of the recently released SRA FHSZ maps.

Please do not hesitate to let us know of any topics of interest you may have, or if you would like to be a part of our podcasts, please let me know.

We are your Association, and your participation and feedback are critical to our effectiveness and value.

Chris Tubbs, President