1 STATE OF CALIFORNIA 2 GOVERNOR’S BLUE RIBBON FIRE COMMISSION 3 4 5 BEFORE THE GOVERNOR’S BLUE ) RIBBON FIRE COMMISSION, ) TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS 6 ) 12/04/03 Senator William Campbell, Chair ) San Bernardino, California 7 ) 8 9 CHAIR CAMPBELL: Good afternoon, Ladies andGentleme n, we’d like to call the order the 10 second meeting of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on fires. We’d like to begin with - self 11 introductions. We’ll start down at the left. Goead, ah Blair Springer. You’re name and whom you 12 represent. 13 MR. SPRINGER: Blair Springer, consultant to the Blue Ribbon Commission. 14 MR. SEDIVEC: Jeff Sedivec, President of the California State Firefighters Association. 15 MR. PRATHER: Chip Prather, Governor’s Emergency Council and the Fire Chief of the Orange 16 County Fire Authority. 17 MR.BILL McCAMMON:Fire Chief, Alameda County Fire Department and President of 18 California Fire Chiefs Association. 19 CHIEF BOWMAN: Jeff Bowman, Chief of San Diego Fire Department. 20 CHIEF ZAGARIS: Kim Zagaris, Chief, Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. 21 MR. WILLIAMS: Jerry Williams, National Director of Fire and Aviation Management, U.S. 22 Forest Service. 23 CHIEF BAMATTRE: Bill Bamattre, Fire Chief, Los Angeles, representing the California 24 Metropolitan Fire Chiefs. 25 MR. MARTINEZ: Rick Martinez, California Office of Homeland Security. 26 MR. FREEMAN: Michael Freeman, Los Angeles County Fire Department, representing 27 FIRESCOPE. 28 MS. TUTTLE: Andrea Tuttle, Director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Governor’s Blue Ribbon Fire Commission Page 1 of 94 December 4, 2003 1 MAYOR MURPHY: Dick Murphy, Mayor of the City of San Diego. 2 MR. JACKSON: Jimmy Jackson, representing Senator Dede Alpert. 3 MR. HANSBERGER: I’m Dennis Hansberger, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, San 4 Bernardino County. 5 MR. LEWIS: Jerry Lewis, Ihave the privilege of representing this countya long ways away – 6 Washington, D.C. 7 MR. GERBER: I’m Robert Gerber, I’m with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and 8 I’m serving as the executive secretary to the commission. 9 MR. DUTTON: Ted Dutton, representing Assemblyman Robert Dutton. 10 MAYOR VALLES: Judith Valles, Mayor of the City of San Bernardino. 11 MS. SMITH: Donna Smith, legislative counsel for Congresswoman Susan Davis from San Diego. 12 MR. MILLER: Michael Miller, Chief of Staff to Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe. 13 CHIEF ROPER: Bob Roper, Fire Chief, Ventura County, representing Judy Michaels, Chair of the 14 Ventura County Board of Supervisors. 15 MR. FUKUTOMI: David Fukutomi, Federal oordinatingC Office with FEMA, Department of 16 Homeland Security. 17 MR. VERGA: Pete Verga, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, or Homeland 18 Defense. 19 MR. WILLS: Carroll Wills, California Professional Firefighters, representing Bob Wolf. 20 MS. DELGADO: Marilyn Delgado, here representing tribal governments. 21 MR. HAMILTON: I’m Larry Hamilton, I’m the National Director of Fire and Aviation for the 22 Bureau of Land Management, representing the Department of the Interior. 23 MR. WILEY: George Wiley with Speaker Herb Wesson’s office of Sacramento. 24 CHAIR CAMPBELL: Thank you very much. I’dlike to excuse the members of the Senate and 25 the Assembly. There’s some little issue coming together in Sacramento right now, and we’re unable to 26 leave. But if we could, Ladies and Gentlemen, if we’d stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag lead 27 by Dennis Hansberger 28 [Pledge of Allegiance is recited.] Governor’s Blue Ribbon Fire Commission Page 2 of 94 December 4, 2003 1 CHAIR CAMPBELL: I’d like to introduce Bob rberGe to talk a little bit about some of the 2 housekeeping things here for the members of the committee, and others. 3 MR. GERBER: Members of the commission, you can see in front of you, you have a number of 4 handouts. It was our endeavor to help you get organized as we go through this hearing process. We have a 5 three-ring binder in which you can place all of the material that you receive at the hearings, and we’ve 6 indexed them by the counties in which we were going to be holding the hearings. So any information that 7 we do get here, testimony that you can file in these three-ring binders. Also, you have an updated roster of 8 the membership of the commission. If you can take looka at that and see that we have all the accurate 9 information, I would appreciate it. And also you have an ID for the commission, also please take a look at 10 that. If there’s any errors or any other issues, please bring them to me and we can correct them. The other 11 thing that I would ask is if there’s anybody in the audience as well as any pagers or cell phones, if we could 12 put them on silent, that would be appreciated. Thank you. 13 CHAIR CAMPBELL: Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. My name is Bill Campbell, and I’m 14 the chair of the Governor’sBlue Ribbon Fire Commission. The members of the commission and I 15 welcome you to this second hearing, and review theof state’s efforts to combat the recent siege of 16 destructive wild land fires that engulfed many areas and damaged several communities throughout southern 17 California. As a former chair of the California State Legislature Select Committees on Fire Services, and 18 the Joint Committee on Fire, Police, Emergency and Disaster Services, I have personally witnessed the pain 19 and destruction caused by periodic wild land fires that have struck our state. During my 20-plus years in 20 the California legislature, I conducted several reviews of the steps taken by local, state and federal 21 agencies, as well as our private sector organizations, to prevent, combat and recover from the destructive 22 fires. We will learn how these resources are assessed. We will learn how they are dispatched and 23 coordinated, and we will learn how the different agencies exercise command and control and communicate 24 with one another, and what types of resources compliment one another. I propose that this commission 25 hold its third hearing on Wednesday, January 7, in the Ventura County area. And by the way, we will hold 26 one hearing in each of the five counties affected by the fires. This hearing will focus on pre-fire 27 management and fuel reduction programs, including community efforts such as those projects implemented 28 by local fire safe councils. I have also requestedpresentations be made on our previous recommendations Governor’s Blue Ribbon Fire Commission Page 3 of 94 December 4, 2003 1 for strengthening our fire-prediction programs and to improving our wild land and wild land urban interface 2 firefighting capabilities, following the similar major complications that have occurred in the past. 3 A hearing in San Diego tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, January 21, and it is my hope that 4 this hearing will focus on after-action reviews conducted by other federal, state and local entities relative to 5 the October-November fires. The San Diego hearing will be following by a hearing on specific issues of 6 interest to the commission. For example, onee ofissu particular interest to me is interagency 7 communications. This will allow a greater depth of review in areas that members want to address, or 8 obtain answers to any remaining questions. If anymember would like to recommend an area of specific 9 interest, please contact the commission’s executive secretary, Bob Gerber. A hearing will be scheduled to 10 review and discuss the commission’s draft report andpropose recommendations prior to submission to the 11 Governor. We may choose to hold an additional ng,heari or hearings, prior to this to consider any 12 additional concerns. At all hearings, individualswill be allowed to address the commission. Those who 13 wish to speak today, please see Mr. Springer at the end of the dais. Do you want to raise your hand again, 14 Blair? If you wish to submit written testimony instead, Mr. Springer can inform you of where to send that 15 information. Before we begin the presentations,I have asked Congressman Jerry Lewis, and we’re 16 extremely fortunate in the state of California to have Congressman Lewis as chair of the Subcommittee of 17 Appropriations on the defense budget, who, along withSenator Feinstein, was able to make tremendous 18 efforts on behalf of the state of California. I’ve known him for, I was going to say when we both had dark 19 hair – but I think that’s about it. That wasn’t a long time. That was a few weeks ago. [Laughter.] Anyway, 20 we’re pleased to have him here and what he and, particularly he and Senator Feinstein have done has been 21 a remarkable, remarkable achievement and will be hopefully finalized on Monday. So, Jerry, I’m going to 22 turn it over to you. Congressman Jerry Lewis. 23 CONGRESSMAN LEWIS: Thank you very much, Senator Campbell. Indeed it’s a pleasure to be 24 with my friend from the state legislature again. I particularly appreciate your chairing this commission and 25 bringing all these people together to help us focus upon perhaps one of the greatest tragedies that we’ve had 26 in California in my lifetime. I particularly wantto follow up on your comments regarding my work with 27 Diane Feinstein. I’m sorry that she can’t be here today, but she has been a tremendous partner in this 28 process as we attempted to communicate to our committees, not just the challenge of our overdeveloped Governor’s Blue Ribbon Fire Commission Page 4 of 94 December 4, 2003 1 and oft times under managed forests, but in turn dealto with the committees to try to respond to this 2 tragedy that we just recently experienced.