Portantino Proposes Emergency Planning Bill

After urging Governor Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency in the recent windstorm-affected areas—Brown declared an emergency Saturday—Assembly member Anthony Portantino is now focusing on public utilities.

The democratic legislator, who represents the 44th Assembly district, which includes Eagle Rock, is proposing a bill that would require each utility to report with every county in its service area every two years to review, update and improve its emergency, disaster and preparedness plans, according to a statement from Portantino’s office Monday.

"We learned some things from this calamity that will forever change the way we look at these disasters,” said Portantino in the statement. “Like most ratepayers, I know that a portion of my bill is intended to pay for emergency preparedness and response; let’s make sure it does. A review every two years will hold utilities accountable, increase coordination, public awareness and scrutiny. It’s a practical and prudent course of action."

The bill would also do the following:

• Ask counties to inform cities within their jurisdiction about each meeting so cities and the public can provide input into emergency planning.

• Call on the California Public Utilities Commission to use its regulatory authority to set preparedness standards (for example, the use of weather reports to pre-position manpower and equipment before a storm and methods of improving communication between government agencies and the public).

The bill is being written as an urgency measure, meaning it would go into effect once signed by the governor and would require California public utilities to start holding the emergency preparedness meetings within three months of the bill becoming law.

In an action similar to Portantino's last week, Council member José Huizar introduced a motion in the Los Angeles City Council that sought a review of the City's response to the Nov. 30-Dec. 1 windstorm as well as proposals from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Bureau of Street Services, the Bureau of Sanitation and the Emergency Management Department for strategies to improve responses to natural disasters in the future.