State Senate Bill 109, introduced Jan. 6, would create a new Office of Wildfire Technology Research and Development within the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES). The legislation, from state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, was sent Jan. 28 to the state Senate Governmental Organization Committee for consideration. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.
“We’re not trying to advance any one technology. We’re in the land of innovation and we ought to be able to understand what’s out there and how it works and how it could benefit our taxpayers and … the state of California in general,” Dodd said. Among the takeaways:
- Dodd told Techwire he and other legislators frequently hear from people with ideas for combating wildfires like the ones that have charred his district annually for the past six years — but aren’t always able to vet them, “and the current system for evaluating them in my view is not as nimble or as robust as we had hoped it would be.” Additionally, the state’s current IT infrastructure, the state Senator said, needs “a shot in the arm.”
“What’s happened with unemployment, the [Department of Motor Vehicles] DMV and everything else, we’ve just got to get ahead of this IT issue in the state of California. This is not an issue of Gov. Newsom’s making. He inherited this issue, it’s been around a long time, it’s time to address (it),” said Dodd, whose 2019 bill, SB 209, created the Wildfire Forecast and Threat Intelligence Integration Center. - Per its text, the bill would establish the Office to “study, test, and advise regarding procurement of emerging technologies and tools in order to more effectively prevent and suppress wildfires within the state,” and function as the “central organizing hub for the state government’s identification of emerging wildfire technologies.” Dodd said he’s been in contact with CalOES about the bill, and sees a peaceful co-existence between his proposed Office and Newsom’s Request for Innovative Ideas (RFI2). RFI2 is the flexible approach to IT procurement that last year yielded a three-year contract with Technosylva, to integrate its software with state computer-assisted dispatch systems and CAL FIRE units; and generate fire behavior predictions statewide. Technology ideas and legislative goals, Dodd said, are never a “silver bullet” but when combined can be “a patchwork quilt … of laws and regulations and programs that together really can make a difference.”
- The bill’s potential timeline isn’t clear yet, but Dodd said it would likely be 2022 before any action occurs, if the Legislature approves it and Newsom signs it. Its likely cost is also unclear, but the senator said it would likely be a General Fund item, aimed at striking a better balance between fire prevention, on which the state spends $300 million annually; and fire suppression, on which it spends $300 billion annually.
