WEBVTT
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Good afternoon, I'd like to call the meeting to order.
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My name is Diane Fellman, and I am the Vice Chair
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of the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board.
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This is a meeting of the board,
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and it's our second public meeting,
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so welcome to my colleagues and welcome to the members
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of the California Public Utilities Commission
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Wildfire Safety Division staff who are present,
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as well as to members of the public.
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Please rise now for the Pledge of Allegiance.
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I pledge allegiance to the flag
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of the United States of America,
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and to the Republic for which it stands,
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one nation, under God, indivisible,
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with liberty and justice for all.
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Thank you, I would like now to turn our...
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Actually, I going to jump the agenda just one minute
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and introduce our staff so you know who they are.
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We are very pleased to have two advisors.
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The first one is Jamie Ormond,
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because she's putting our name tents out,
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and Jamie comes to us
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from the Public Utilities Commission staff.
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She has a variety of experience with the PUC.
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She's been working on renewable natural gas.
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She's served as an advisor to one of our Commissioners,
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Catherine Sandoval, and she has a broad background
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in water issues, especially during the droughts,
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so she's familiar with crisis management policy,
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and she is also an attorney.
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Our second staff member is Katherine Stockton
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who has also come to us from the PUC.
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I'll use that acronym,
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so hopefully everyone will understand that,
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it's the Public Utilities Commission.
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And she worked on the leading program policy development
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for the program with demand response,
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which is turning off devices
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to save electricity and help the grid.
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So Katherine's going to kick us off
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with the introduction today.
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Katherine?
Thank you.
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So I'm just going to read our safety announcement.
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The restrooms are through the rear doors
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at the back of the room.
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Go straight down the hallway
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and they can be found at the right.
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If it becomes necessary to evacuate,
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there are two emergency exits.
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The first is out the way you came
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through the rear double doors,
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then turn right and exit through the lobby.
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The second is through the doors
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down on your right for the audience.
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For board members, it's on your left.
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If you go out those doors, turn left
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and head out to the end of the hallway.
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The exit will be on your right.
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And now we'll give it back to Diane.
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Thank you, Katherine.
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I'd now like to turn to my colleagues on the board
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to give a quick introduction
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so everyone can know who they are,
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and let's start on my left with Chris Porter,
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and we'll go right down the line, and I'll go last.
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As Diane said, my name is Christopher Porter.
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I'm currently a assistant business manager
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for Local 47 IEBW.
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I was appointed by the speaker of the assembly,
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Anthony Rendon.
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I bring in the experience of being
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a over 20-year journeyman lineman.
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I've worked for Southern California Edison,
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I've worked for the outside contractors.
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I currently am a safety liaison for the Local
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with two of the investor-owned utilities in our territory.
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I am also utilized in that role
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with a couple of the munis.
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I'm very honored to be here and thank you.
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John Mader, excuse me, I'm John Mader.
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I'm an electrical distribution engineer,
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graduating from Sacramento State.
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I've been a distribution engineer at PG&E for 22 years.
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15 of those years has been as the distribution engineer
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for Amador and Calaveras County.
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Distribution engineers do the capacity
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and reliability planning for communities.
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They take into account when they're doing their analysis
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on reliability where population centers, travel routes,
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economic importance and other critical infrastructure,
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such as hospitals and customers
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that need critical care due to medical need.
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So from that perspective, I bring 22 years
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of planning and experience on what is necessary
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to keep the grid running
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during when it's experiencing issues and problems,
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and that's what we have here, right?
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We've got both a capacity issue
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and trying to design a system
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to be able to provide power to these communities
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and this high fire-threat district areas
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when there's a high wind event,
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but also how to provide as much reliability as possible.
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And so from that perspective,
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I think that I will be able to help in the development
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of these Wildfire Mitigation Plans and the guidelines
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to try and achieve the goal of reducing wildfires themselves
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and the impacts to our communities,
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but also the interruptions that come from PSPS events
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when those are necessary to be able to reduce those
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and mitigate those as much as possible.
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Hi, I am Alexandra Syphard.
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I am a research scientist.
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I have spent the last couple of decades
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studying wildfire patterns over space and time.
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I look at the causes of fires, the drivers of fires,
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the impacts of fires, both socially and ecologically,
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and I also look at changes in fire patterns over time,
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how they've changed before, and how different factors
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may result in chances in the future.
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I do a lot of mapping and geographical analyses.
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And I've also in the last 10 years done a lot of work
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understanding wildfire risk to human communities
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and why some homes burn in fires and why some homes don't.
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So I hope to bring this research experience
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and knowledge of wildfire to the board.
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Is this on?
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My name is Jessica Block,
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and I'm the associate director for the WIFIRE Lab,
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which is a research group at UC San Diego.
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My expertise is in using technology
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for greater understanding of fire behavior and response,
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and in particular situational awareness
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and understanding how fire behavior
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is becoming an emerging threat
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at the wildland urban interface.
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I'll leave it at that.
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Good afternoon, my name's Ralph Armstrong.
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I'm also a journeyman lineman, 35 years in this industry.
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I started my career out in Florida,
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working for Florida Power and Light,
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moved to California in 1995
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working for Western Area Power Administration,
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Department of Energy.
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During my tenure there, I was a lineman with them,
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as well as an occupational safety and health specialist,
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before coming on staff with IBEW Local Union 1245,
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which represents about,
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well, it's about 23,000 men and women
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that are on the front lines working in the industry.
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My role, I'm a senior assistant business manager
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with Local 1245, and my primary roles are dealing
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with all the contractors that are out here
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doing the fire hardening work and regular routine work,
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all in Northern California and Northern Nevada,
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as well as all the line clearance tree trimmers
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that are out here moving all the brush and trees
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that pose a risk to this industry.
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So, I deal with the frontline people on a regular basis,
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the workers in the field, plus the contractors
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doing the work, as well as the utilities.
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And I also take care of most of the safety
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associated with our members
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and their employers within the Local.
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It's a pleasure to be here
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and looking forward to doing good things.
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Thank you all.
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Our seventh member, Marcie Edwards, who serves as our Chair,
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was unavoidably detained
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and could not make this meeting today.
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However, she is actively involved
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and participating as our leader.
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She has served a long career,
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starting actually in power plants for LADWP.
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She's an engineer and she rose through the ranks there,
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and then served as the general manager
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of the Anaheim publicly-owned utility
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as well as the general manager of the City of Anaheim,
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and most recently served as the general manager of LADWP.
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So she brings both operational
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and publicly-owned utility experience to our board.
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I'm Diane Fellman, who has, (chuckling)
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referring to myself in the third person, I have,
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I'm an attorney and I've had a long career
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in California energy policy, starting in the state
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with the energy and public utilities Commissions,
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and then in private practice.
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I worked for two national energy companies,
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both NRG Energy and Florida Power and Lights,
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NextEra Energy Resources.
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Ralph and I did not overlap.
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At the end of my career, I retired at the end of 2018,
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I served as a staff policy analyst
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at the Public Utilities Commission
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working on Customer Choice, the Customer Choice project.
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So I think with that introduction,
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we can go to the next part of the agenda,
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and that is I'm turning it back over to Katherine
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to talk about background on our board
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and what we will be doing today.
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Great, so because this is only the second meeting,
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we'd like to start with a brief background on the board.
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The Wildfire Safety Advisory Board
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was created by Assembly Bill 1054 and 111.
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As you can tell, the board consists of seven members,
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one is absent for this meeting.
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Five members were appointed by the Governor
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and one member appointed by the assembly,
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and one by the senate.
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So the objective of this board,
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the tasks that the statutes have given the board,
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are in four different areas,
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to create recommendations to support
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the Wildfire Safety Division based on the contents
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of the recently filed Wildfire Mitigation Plans,
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on the guidelines for future plans,
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on wildfire mitigation performance metrics
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to evaluate investor-owned utilities compliance
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with the Wildfire Mitigation Plans,
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and on the safety culture of each utility.
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And we'll go over a timeline of this later.
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For the publicly-owned utilities
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and electrical cooperatives, the board will review
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and provide advisory opinions regarding the content
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and sufficiency of each of the Wildfire Mitigation Plans
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and any additional recommendations for wildfire mitigation.
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The board will also provide other comments,
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advice, and recommendations as requested
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by the Wildfire Safety Division or its successor.
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And with that,
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would you like to review the agenda or shall I, Diane?
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Yes, why don't you go ahead
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and walk us through the agenda as well?
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And then can we move on to the next...
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Oh, perfect.
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(chuckles)
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Well, we have a slide.
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Oh, there we go.
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There we go, so there's the agenda,
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so here we're on zero on the welcome,
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and after we get through this agenda review,
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we will go over public comment.
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The goal of this board meeting
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is to get feedback from the public to seek board approval
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on the board's foundational documents,
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to discuss the approaches that the board will take
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in the review of the 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plans,
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and we'll also receive two presentations
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from the Wildfire Safety Division.
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So after the first round of public comment,
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we will discuss the bylaws,
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and after that, we will go over public comment
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on items three and four, which are the timeline
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and the Mission, Work Plan, and Principles document.
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There are limited numbers of copies
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of all of those documents at the back of the room.
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After that, we will review these,
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we'll have another opportunity for public comment
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on item number five, which is the suggested approach
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to review of publicly-owned, coop utilities
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Wildfire Mitigation Plans.
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And then we will have two presentations
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from the Wildfire Safety Division.
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One, the review and discussion
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of the approval criteria for independent evaluators
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that will be assessing the utilities' compliance
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with the Wildfire Mitigation Plans, and then a review
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of the Wildfire Safety Division's review of the plans.
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And then we'll have one more item,
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we'll have public comments at the end.
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And all of these documents are available on the website.
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Thank you.
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I want to add to the agenda an item
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that discusses the distribution.
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I'm just gonna mention the distribution, Jason.
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Is that all right?
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It's not on the agenda.
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Thank you, I'm looking to our legal counsel, Jason Rieger.
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We are committed to transparency
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and to a broad dissemination of our information.
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We have our own page on the CPUC's website,
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which is included in the notice of the meeting
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in the agenda, and Katherine, what is that website, please?
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It's www.cpuc.ca.gov/wsab.
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We also have our own email and we're asking,
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we each have our own cpuc.ca.gov emails with our names,
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and we're also asking if you want to communicate
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with the board or you have any questions,
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we have a general mailbox at Wildfire Safety Advisory Board
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at cpuc.ca.gov, it's also on our website,
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it's also on the notice of the meeting.
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And Katherine and Jamie will be monitoring that,
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and that will be an important place to file,
00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:10.930
you should file all your comments there
00:17:10.930 --> 00:17:12.260
if you have any written comments
00:17:12.260 --> 00:17:13.780
or if you have any questions,
00:17:13.780 --> 00:17:17.860
please just send them to the general mailbox.
00:17:17.860 --> 00:17:20.130
We are also before each meeting,
00:17:20.130 --> 00:17:23.400
we are required under law to post our materials
00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:25.070
that are going to be discussed at the meeting
00:17:25.070 --> 00:17:26.680
10 days in advance.
00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:31.680
We are also sending notice to all the service lists
00:17:32.040 --> 00:17:37.040
that are for the proceedings relating to the wildfire
00:17:37.570 --> 00:17:40.230
and Wildfire Mitigation Plans.
00:17:40.230 --> 00:17:41.790
So hopefully, we'll figure out a way,
00:17:41.790 --> 00:17:43.850
so instead of getting eight emails,
00:17:43.850 --> 00:17:45.890
you can get one email on that,
00:17:45.890 --> 00:17:50.890
but we will be sending that out as each...
00:17:50.940 --> 00:17:54.460
I was advised by counsel every board from the Commission,
00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:56.390
Public Utilities Commission, does that,
00:17:56.390 --> 00:18:01.120
and we invite parties to those proceedings who...
00:18:01.120 --> 00:18:06.070
We are not a formal board in the sense of having hearings
00:18:06.070 --> 00:18:11.070
or the Office of Administrative Law Procedures.
00:18:11.820 --> 00:18:13.240
We are an advisory board.
00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:16.550
We will be providing, as Katherine said,
00:18:16.550 --> 00:18:20.400
recommendations and advice on the Wildfire Mitigation Plans.
00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:24.950
However, we are a public body and we encourage your input.
00:18:24.950 --> 00:18:27.900
And with that, I will see if there's anyone
00:18:27.900 --> 00:18:29.790
who would wish to make public comment
00:18:29.790 --> 00:18:31.010
at the beginning of the meeting.
00:18:31.010 --> 00:18:32.630
Please identify yourself.
00:18:32.630 --> 00:18:35.813
We will not be having public comment on the phone today.
00:18:41.220 --> 00:18:43.080
If anyone would like to make public comment,
00:18:43.080 --> 00:18:45.013
you can step up to the podium.
00:18:50.350 --> 00:18:53.440
Seeing that there are no public comments,
00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:58.440
we will proceed to the next topic, which is...
00:18:58.760 --> 00:19:02.470
Oh, before I do that, I've just laid out some things
00:19:02.470 --> 00:19:07.470
on our practice with the public and engaging for comment.
00:19:07.660 --> 00:19:10.140
I also wanna mention, and we'll discuss this more
00:19:10.140 --> 00:19:14.100
in the mission statement, that we have formed
00:19:14.100 --> 00:19:18.430
under the statutory requirements of the Bagley-Keene Act
00:19:18.430 --> 00:19:22.260
various working groups on the 10 categories
00:19:22.260 --> 00:19:27.050
that the maturity models in the Wildfire Mitigation Plans
00:19:27.050 --> 00:19:32.050
are being submitted by, and we're grouping by expertise
00:19:32.670 --> 00:19:35.970
with no more than three members on each of those,
00:19:35.970 --> 00:19:39.010
and that is how we will be performing our work
00:19:39.010 --> 00:19:44.010
in providing input for our products.
00:19:44.830 --> 00:19:48.570
So I just wanted to let everyone know in the public
00:19:48.570 --> 00:19:52.770
how we were approaching our work and that each of us
00:19:52.770 --> 00:19:57.493
is going into the effort
00:19:58.700 --> 00:20:02.310
based on our individual expertise,
00:20:02.310 --> 00:20:04.160
so we're applying it that way.
00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:08.550
So before we go to the first action item,
00:20:08.550 --> 00:20:11.940
is there anyone who would like to make some comments
00:20:11.940 --> 00:20:15.370
on the organization or operation of the board
00:20:15.370 --> 00:20:16.613
from my colleagues?
00:20:20.350 --> 00:20:24.730
I also wanna thank everyone, because we were here about,
00:20:24.730 --> 00:20:28.340
what, six weeks ago, and we have come so far.
00:20:28.340 --> 00:20:32.520
We attended the workshops, we represented at the workshops
00:20:32.520 --> 00:20:36.280
and participated in the staff workshops on the WMPs.
00:20:36.280 --> 00:20:39.030
We've done a lot of work on organization,
00:20:39.030 --> 00:20:42.510
and that is exactly what we're going to be doing today.
00:20:42.510 --> 00:20:45.640
The reason I'm talking so much is,
00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:49.830
and I won't (chuckling) be the only member talking,
00:20:49.830 --> 00:20:53.400
but I did a lot of the organizational work,
00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:55.380
and Marcie would be running the meeting,
00:20:55.380 --> 00:21:00.380
so those roles combined in me today.
00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:05.010
So we'll now turn to the bylaws.
00:21:05.010 --> 00:21:07.750
As I introduce Jason, he helped us draft
00:21:07.750 --> 00:21:10.173
the original version of the bylaws.
00:21:11.637 --> 00:21:15.507
Has everyone on the board had a chance to review the bylaws?
00:21:16.663 --> 00:21:17.496
Yes.
Yes.
00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:20.970
So for the members of the public,
00:21:20.970 --> 00:21:25.210
these are bylaws that were prepared by the PUC staff.
00:21:25.210 --> 00:21:26.480
I don't know if we have...
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:29.510
We don't have a slide on that, I think, no.
00:21:29.510 --> 00:21:34.510
So we looked at this and based on how we were operating,
00:21:34.870 --> 00:21:38.020
we adopted most of the boilerplate.
00:21:38.020 --> 00:21:43.020
However, we did add a few sections.
00:21:43.790 --> 00:21:45.970
I'll go over those quickly.
00:21:45.970 --> 00:21:50.970
The first is that, and as I've mentioned earlier today
00:21:51.580 --> 00:21:54.570
that we will use our broad expertise
00:21:54.570 --> 00:21:56.590
to develop and provide comments, advice,
00:21:56.590 --> 00:21:59.630
and recommendations regarding wildfire safety.
00:21:59.630 --> 00:22:02.740
We felt that was very important to underscore
00:22:02.740 --> 00:22:04.350
how we were going to do our work
00:22:04.350 --> 00:22:07.200
and what our commitment was as a board.
00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:12.200
We also, minor matter, changed some of the reimbursement
00:22:14.130 --> 00:22:16.670
we were allowed, because we wanted to be able
00:22:16.670 --> 00:22:19.160
to recover our expenses.
00:22:19.160 --> 00:22:22.030
We do have a budget that's carved out of the PUC's budget,
00:22:22.030 --> 00:22:24.530
and we wanted to be able to cover our expenses
00:22:24.530 --> 00:22:27.230
for doing our work, to site visits,
00:22:27.230 --> 00:22:32.140
and to travel to locations with the IOUs,
00:22:32.140 --> 00:22:37.140
POUs, wildfire areas outside of our meetings,
00:22:37.570 --> 00:22:39.863
and we are adopting that.
00:22:42.020 --> 00:22:44.700
I've mentioned earlier, we're an advisory board.
00:22:44.700 --> 00:22:48.010
We do not, and I'm going to underscore this,
00:22:48.010 --> 00:22:51.780
we do not have direct authority
00:22:51.780 --> 00:22:56.780
over any of the jurisdictional utilities for the PUC
00:22:57.350 --> 00:22:59.490
nor over the publicly-owned utilities,
00:22:59.490 --> 00:23:02.293
the municipal utilities, or electrical cooperatives.
00:23:05.560 --> 00:23:07.730
We did remove a sentence regarding that,
00:23:07.730 --> 00:23:09.493
because it was repeated elsewhere,
00:23:10.570 --> 00:23:13.560
but going into this, we wanted to let everyone know
00:23:13.560 --> 00:23:17.110
that we take our role very seriously
00:23:17.110 --> 00:23:19.930
and we are going to be working collaboratively,
00:23:19.930 --> 00:23:21.330
we'll talk about that in a minute,
00:23:21.330 --> 00:23:25.620
with the staff and the local governments.
00:23:25.620 --> 00:23:26.893
And finally,
00:23:28.950 --> 00:23:31.520
we indicated that we would have
00:23:31.520 --> 00:23:34.470
a staff member assigned to help us.
00:23:34.470 --> 00:23:37.940
So those are the major changes that we made.
00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:42.123
Are there any questions or comments on the bylaws?
00:23:46.380 --> 00:23:51.380
If not, then may I have a motion to approve the bylaws?
00:23:53.830 --> 00:23:55.270
I'd like to make a motion to approve
00:23:55.270 --> 00:23:58.300
and accept the bylaws as they are written.
00:23:58.300 --> 00:24:00.040
I second the motion.
00:24:00.040 --> 00:24:00.960
I'll call the question.
00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:02.398
All in favor?
00:24:02.398 --> 00:24:03.398
Aye.
00:24:05.077 --> 00:24:07.227
The motion passes unanimously, thank you.
00:24:11.120 --> 00:24:15.340
Now we will talk about the Mission, Work Plan,
00:24:15.340 --> 00:24:18.730
and Review Principles as well as our timeline.
00:24:18.730 --> 00:24:23.500
And I believe these were both posted on the web,
00:24:23.500 --> 00:24:26.410
and there are copies of our...
00:24:26.410 --> 00:24:30.080
It's not in the PowerPoint, but there are copies
00:24:30.080 --> 00:24:32.670
of the Mission, Work Plan, and Review Principles
00:24:32.670 --> 00:24:33.670
on the back table.
00:24:33.670 --> 00:24:35.900
Is that correct, Jamie?
00:24:35.900 --> 00:24:38.653
So if you want to have a hard copy of that right now.
00:24:43.550 --> 00:24:47.150
This exercise on our Mission, Work Plan,
00:24:47.150 --> 00:24:50.070
and Review Principles was very important for the board
00:24:50.070 --> 00:24:53.640
because we had an opportunity to really think
00:24:53.640 --> 00:24:58.640
about what we were doing, how we wanted to do it,
00:24:58.840 --> 00:25:03.643
and where our work fits in with the work
00:25:03.643 --> 00:25:06.150
of the Wildfire Safety Division
00:25:06.150 --> 00:25:09.100
and the California Public Utilities Commission
00:25:09.100 --> 00:25:10.940
for the investor-owned utilities.
00:25:10.940 --> 00:25:15.090
I will short that to IOUs for brevity's sake,
00:25:15.090 --> 00:25:16.850
as well as to the POUs,
00:25:16.850 --> 00:25:20.820
the publicly-owned utilities and electrical cooperatives.
00:25:20.820 --> 00:25:23.790
We'll be having a special agenda item,
00:25:23.790 --> 00:25:25.430
a separate agenda item on those
00:25:25.430 --> 00:25:29.143
that Board Member Porter will go over later.
00:25:30.980 --> 00:25:35.153
This also served as a mechanism
00:25:36.090 --> 00:25:41.090
for us to coalesce as a board around our directives
00:25:42.831 --> 00:25:44.910
and interpret them in a way
00:25:44.910 --> 00:25:47.400
that we could establish objectives
00:25:47.400 --> 00:25:52.130
that utilized our expertise, were achievable,
00:25:52.130 --> 00:25:56.960
and met the statutory timelines that we have before us.
00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:59.700
We wanna work collaboratively with the staff,
00:25:59.700 --> 00:26:02.960
as I mentioned, but also with the utilities,
00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:05.640
the city and county state governments,
00:26:05.640 --> 00:26:08.510
and the members of the public
00:26:08.510 --> 00:26:13.510
to bring to the Wildfire Safety Division and the POUs
00:26:15.930 --> 00:26:19.090
the best practices,
00:26:19.090 --> 00:26:23.813
the validation of work that they're doing,
00:26:24.660 --> 00:26:27.270
which may be the best practice,
00:26:27.270 --> 00:26:30.810
and also recommendations on how to improve.
00:26:30.810 --> 00:26:35.810
We wanna serve a function that we represent the entity
00:26:37.330 --> 00:26:40.940
that can ask the questions the public may wanna ask
00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:43.570
and doesn't have the expertise to ask.
00:26:43.570 --> 00:26:48.570
So that is part of our mission statement as well.
00:26:48.890 --> 00:26:50.983
And finally,
00:26:53.100 --> 00:26:58.100
we want to make sure that our work is focused on matters
00:26:58.500 --> 00:27:03.250
that we deem of the highest priority and importance,
00:27:03.250 --> 00:27:06.340
and there are thousands of pages
00:27:06.340 --> 00:27:08.270
in each Wildfire Mitigation Plan,
00:27:08.270 --> 00:27:10.720
so you may not see us opining
00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:13.720
on very section or every instance.
00:27:13.720 --> 00:27:18.720
However, we will designate what areas
00:27:19.350 --> 00:27:20.680
are of utmost importance
00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:24.110
and develop our recommendations on those.
00:27:24.110 --> 00:27:26.390
So that's an overview of what we have
00:27:26.390 --> 00:27:27.670
in our mission statement.
00:27:27.670 --> 00:27:30.200
Are there any other comments,
00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:33.983
or are there any comments from my colleagues?
00:27:37.290 --> 00:27:38.130
Thank you, Diane,
00:27:38.130 --> 00:27:41.430
I'd like to call your attention to reviewing the principles
00:27:41.430 --> 00:27:43.310
of the Wildfire Mitigation Plans
00:27:44.570 --> 00:27:49.187
in when we were attending the technical workshops
00:27:49.187 --> 00:27:53.160
and the presentations of the Wildfire Mitigation Plans
00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:56.270
from the IOUs,
00:27:56.270 --> 00:28:00.280
it became clear that when they were considering
00:28:00.280 --> 00:28:02.650
the impact of PSPS events,
00:28:02.650 --> 00:28:04.810
they weren't considering those as service interruptions,
00:28:04.810 --> 00:28:06.833
or at least some of the utilities weren't.
00:28:09.433 --> 00:28:12.090
From that, I've been able to surmise
00:28:13.010 --> 00:28:16.890
that the PSPS events themselves,
00:28:16.890 --> 00:28:19.520
because of the risk beneficiency analysis
00:28:19.520 --> 00:28:22.550
were considered some of the most cost effective ways
00:28:22.550 --> 00:28:25.960
of mitigating an undesirable condition,
00:28:25.960 --> 00:28:29.150
which is the ignition, the utility-initiated wildfires
00:28:29.150 --> 00:28:31.303
in the high fire-threat district areas.
00:28:32.730 --> 00:28:37.080
But we also saw a lot of public comments
00:28:37.080 --> 00:28:40.743
from folks that were questioning,
00:28:42.512 --> 00:28:46.050
who had a desire to avoid PSPS events in of themselves.
00:28:46.050 --> 00:28:47.730
And so that's one of the things
00:28:47.730 --> 00:28:49.950
that's in our mission statement.
00:28:49.950 --> 00:28:52.820
We are gonna be reviewing these Wildfire Mitigation Plans
00:28:52.820 --> 00:28:55.010
not just from the perspective
00:28:55.010 --> 00:28:59.230
of avoiding the utility-initiated wildfire,
00:28:59.230 --> 00:29:03.180
but also from the perspective of trying to avoid
00:29:03.180 --> 00:29:07.277
so much as possible the PSPS events
00:29:07.277 --> 00:29:10.683
and their impact and mitigate those impacts.
00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:20.603
Thank you, John.
00:29:21.530 --> 00:29:26.530
Just to highlight the contents of the Work Plan,
00:29:27.180 --> 00:29:32.180
in addition to what Board Member Mader just described,
00:29:32.670 --> 00:29:36.120
we incorporated our statutory responsibility,
00:29:36.120 --> 00:29:39.500
and I believe Katherine went over that at the beginning,
00:29:39.500 --> 00:29:42.680
but I wanna underscore that we will be looking
00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:47.050
at the contents of WMPs, Wildfire Mitigation Plans,
00:29:47.050 --> 00:29:50.640
we'll be looking at those beyond what was mandated
00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:54.750
by the enabling statute Senate Bill 1054,
00:29:54.750 --> 00:29:58.480
and I wanna underscore this,
00:29:58.480 --> 00:30:03.300
we have been asked to focus on and really hone in on
00:30:03.300 --> 00:30:07.050
wildfire safety and mitigation performance metrics
00:30:07.050 --> 00:30:12.050
for evaluating the WMPs and determining IOU compliance
00:30:13.570 --> 00:30:17.000
with them and using our expertise to do that.
00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:22.000
And finally, we have a general obligation under the statute
00:30:22.300 --> 00:30:24.350
to look at the scope and process
00:30:24.350 --> 00:30:27.840
for assessing the safety culture of each utility.
00:30:27.840 --> 00:30:32.840
So this is a very important document
00:30:33.100 --> 00:30:37.260
because we again identified our statutory responsibilities,
00:30:37.260 --> 00:30:39.633
John talked about what our principles are.
00:30:41.070 --> 00:30:46.070
How we're going to do our process is that we have,
00:30:46.550 --> 00:30:48.800
as I mentioned, our Bagley-Keene groups
00:30:48.800 --> 00:30:52.040
on each category of the 10,
00:30:52.040 --> 00:30:54.330
we'll be providing our evaluation.
00:30:54.330 --> 00:30:57.450
Our staff is serving, this is important
00:30:57.450 --> 00:30:59.850
because of Bagley-Keene restrictions,
00:30:59.850 --> 00:31:04.240
no more than three of us will be talking and gathering
00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:07.540
and focusing on any one particular subject,
00:31:07.540 --> 00:31:10.560
so staff will compile all that,
00:31:10.560 --> 00:31:14.660
we will have a document to review,
00:31:14.660 --> 00:31:16.630
and that document will be published
00:31:16.630 --> 00:31:21.630
at the same time to the public as it is internally to us.
00:31:24.270 --> 00:31:27.360
The members of the public and the Wildfire Safety Division
00:31:27.360 --> 00:31:30.360
won't be reviewing it, it'll launch out
00:31:30.360 --> 00:31:33.880
and we will all be looking at it at the same time,
00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:37.080
and that's how our review process will work.
00:31:37.080 --> 00:31:40.720
There may be instances where we do not form consensus,
00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:44.190
and in that case, we have a provision
00:31:44.190 --> 00:31:46.160
to allow for both concurrences,
00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:48.470
if somebody's come to the same conclusion
00:31:48.470 --> 00:31:52.623
through a different path or dissents if someone disagrees.
00:31:54.947 --> 00:31:56.723
And finally,
00:32:00.530 --> 00:32:04.600
we are going to focus on the four categories,
00:32:04.600 --> 00:32:06.540
and I'll underscore those again.
00:32:06.540 --> 00:32:09.500
Vegetation management and inspections,
00:32:09.500 --> 00:32:12.130
grid design and system hardening,
00:32:12.130 --> 00:32:14.540
the resource allocation methodology,
00:32:14.540 --> 00:32:16.910
including risk/spend efficiency,
00:32:16.910 --> 00:32:19.140
and communication with the community,
00:32:19.140 --> 00:32:21.760
planning, preparedness, and recovery
00:32:21.760 --> 00:32:26.260
after public safety power shutoffs.
00:32:26.260 --> 00:32:30.240
I don't even know, PSPS events, that's what it is,
00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:31.670
right, John?
Yes.
00:32:31.670 --> 00:32:35.133
All right, so that is an overview.
00:32:38.510 --> 00:32:41.530
We are adopting this and we will be working toward this
00:32:41.530 --> 00:32:45.330
as our north star during our process.
00:32:45.330 --> 00:32:48.870
So before we call the question,
00:32:48.870 --> 00:32:52.653
are there any other comments from the board?
00:32:57.130 --> 00:33:00.700
All right, may I have a motion for adopting
00:33:00.700 --> 00:33:04.510
the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board
00:33:04.510 --> 00:33:08.040
Mission, Work Plan, and Review Principles
00:33:08.040 --> 00:33:10.493
for the Wildfire Mitigation Plans?
00:33:13.671 --> 00:33:15.921
(laughing)
00:33:17.780 --> 00:33:20.410
Madame Chairperson, I make a motion
00:33:20.410 --> 00:33:22.357
to accept the language as is
00:33:22.357 --> 00:33:25.460
in the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board
00:33:25.460 --> 00:33:27.640
Mission, Work Plan, and Review Principles
00:33:27.640 --> 00:33:30.692
for the Wildfire Mitigation Plans.
00:33:30.692 --> 00:33:33.040
Thank you.
I second.
00:33:33.040 --> 00:33:35.801
I second.
All in favor?
00:33:35.801 --> 00:33:36.634
Aye.
00:33:37.890 --> 00:33:38.723
Thank you.
00:33:41.240 --> 00:33:44.193
Ooh, we're moving quickly today, good.
00:33:45.250 --> 00:33:49.960
The next item on the agenda is the timeline.
00:33:49.960 --> 00:33:53.533
The timeline has been published, there's copies in the back.
00:33:55.490 --> 00:33:57.130
There's a lot going on.
00:33:57.130 --> 00:34:00.653
We try to make this as clear as possible.
00:34:03.010 --> 00:34:07.030
There is a legend in the upper left-hand corner.
00:34:07.030 --> 00:34:09.760
It's very small to see on the screen.
00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:11.210
That's a little big bigger.
00:34:11.210 --> 00:34:16.210
It's color-coded so that red represents the below the line
00:34:16.530 --> 00:34:20.810
and there is no meaning or attribution
00:34:20.810 --> 00:34:23.480
on where things are located or what color they are,
00:34:23.480 --> 00:34:25.930
but the Wildfire Safety Division deadlines
00:34:25.930 --> 00:34:28.160
are below the line,
00:34:28.160 --> 00:34:33.160
our board activities are above the line,
00:34:33.990 --> 00:34:35.680
things relating in general
00:34:35.680 --> 00:34:39.230
or specifically to the IOUs are in black,
00:34:39.230 --> 00:34:41.690
and the POUs are in blue.
00:34:41.690 --> 00:34:45.670
And then we have our icons,
00:34:45.670 --> 00:34:50.123
which you can see in the box that we have advisory,
00:34:50.980 --> 00:34:54.120
our recommendation deadlines, which are the little notes,
00:34:54.120 --> 00:34:56.313
the meeting dates with the people.
00:34:57.800 --> 00:35:00.440
We wanted to also put out the posting dates.
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:02.940
I know many people aren't here today,
00:35:02.940 --> 00:35:05.703
so if you're watching or listening in,
00:35:06.700 --> 00:35:09.010
some of these dates are not 10 days before
00:35:09.010 --> 00:35:11.490
because we wanted in particular
00:35:12.600 --> 00:35:15.760
to give Wildfire Safety Division a chance
00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:19.340
to see our recommendations ahead of time,
00:35:19.340 --> 00:35:22.720
and in particular I also wanna emphasize
00:35:22.720 --> 00:35:26.700
that our next publication date will be March 31st.
00:35:26.700 --> 00:35:31.700
So we want to have that in advance of the May 3rd deadline
00:35:32.410 --> 00:35:37.163
of WSD's certification determinations.
00:35:38.520 --> 00:35:42.480
This is a very, very busy timeline
00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:46.290
between now and our deadline of June 30th,
00:35:46.290 --> 00:35:50.060
which is under the statutory requirement
00:35:50.060 --> 00:35:53.790
that we have our final 2021 recommendations
00:35:55.980 --> 00:36:00.267
on the Wildfire Mitigation Plans requirements.
00:36:03.780 --> 00:36:08.780
So that will be going to WSD, the Wildfire Safety Division,
00:36:09.080 --> 00:36:12.180
who will then take that, our recommendations,
00:36:12.180 --> 00:36:16.470
into consideration and they have a schedule where,
00:36:16.470 --> 00:36:17.980
and you'll see that in red below,
00:36:17.980 --> 00:36:21.140
where all the materials will be adopted
00:36:21.140 --> 00:36:23.423
by the full Public Utilities Commission.
00:36:26.273 --> 00:36:27.740
That is a long explanation.
00:36:27.740 --> 00:36:32.740
Hopefully, this is visually accessible to folks
00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:38.840
and you can sort out where things are happening.
00:36:39.250 --> 00:36:44.250
And for purposes of the board, these will be our guideposts
00:36:45.310 --> 00:36:49.180
for when we have to provide information.
00:36:49.180 --> 00:36:54.180
So any board questions on the timeline?
00:37:01.740 --> 00:37:03.740
Any staff comments on the timeline
00:37:03.740 --> 00:37:05.803
or on the mission statement?
00:37:08.930 --> 00:37:11.380
Regarding the timeline, can you hear me?
00:37:11.380 --> 00:37:13.810
Perfect, you will be hearing from us.
00:37:13.810 --> 00:37:15.610
We look forward to working with you.
00:37:16.580 --> 00:37:19.590
Thank you, and we're going to be...
00:37:20.730 --> 00:37:22.180
This is gonna be very fast,
00:37:22.180 --> 00:37:25.620
and I also wanna take this opportunity to thank,
00:37:25.620 --> 00:37:27.810
I think I said it earlier, but I'll say it again,
00:37:27.810 --> 00:37:32.240
to thank everyone for engaging and being really excited
00:37:32.240 --> 00:37:35.980
and actively involved in the board's work,
00:37:35.980 --> 00:37:39.590
'cause it's been remarkable, a fast timeline
00:37:39.590 --> 00:37:44.590
and remarkably in-depth input on this.
00:37:47.780 --> 00:37:51.400
All right, so before we have a vote,
00:37:51.400 --> 00:37:54.730
we are going to have public, I think it's on the agenda,
00:37:54.730 --> 00:37:56.510
we're gonna have public comment
00:37:56.510 --> 00:38:00.650
on either the mission statement or the timeline.
00:38:00.650 --> 00:38:02.910
And could you please step up to the podium,
00:38:02.910 --> 00:38:06.760
identify yourself, and our time for public comment
00:38:06.760 --> 00:38:09.120
is about three minutes.
00:38:09.120 --> 00:38:10.990
Good afternoon, my name is Nick Cronenwett,
00:38:10.990 --> 00:38:12.330
and I am here on behalf
00:38:12.330 --> 00:38:14.960
of the California State Association of Counties.
00:38:14.960 --> 00:38:17.980
We represent all 58 counties across California.
00:38:17.980 --> 00:38:20.570
Wildfire mitigation and PSPS issues
00:38:20.570 --> 00:38:22.690
are really a top priority for CSAC,
00:38:22.690 --> 00:38:24.450
particularly in the last few years.
00:38:24.450 --> 00:38:25.650
We've had a lot of our communities
00:38:25.650 --> 00:38:28.270
that have been really impacted dramatically
00:38:28.270 --> 00:38:31.023
by both wildfire and PSPS shutdowns.
00:38:32.470 --> 00:38:35.980
We are actively engaged in the rule-making at the CPUC
00:38:35.980 --> 00:38:39.360
on de-generalization and PSPS issues.
00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:41.730
We've been tracking those and providing comments
00:38:41.730 --> 00:38:43.140
on all those different phases.
00:38:43.140 --> 00:38:44.290
I know there are many.
00:38:44.290 --> 00:38:48.523
And actually also recently, too, we gave public comment
00:38:48.523 --> 00:38:51.650
in the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee hearing
00:38:51.650 --> 00:38:56.650
that was looking at the WMP plans as proposed by the IOU.
00:38:56.800 --> 00:38:59.390
And I'm gonna share just a couple of pieces of information
00:38:59.390 --> 00:39:00.900
that we shared with that committee as well
00:39:00.900 --> 00:39:02.710
in the hopes that this information
00:39:02.710 --> 00:39:04.870
will be helpful to this group, too.
00:39:04.870 --> 00:39:07.900
We are really strongly in favor of mitigation,
00:39:07.900 --> 00:39:12.490
as the number one priority in these WMP plans, obviously,
00:39:12.490 --> 00:39:17.050
with the vegetation management, grid isolation,
00:39:17.050 --> 00:39:20.860
being able to target how you shut down, when you shut down.
00:39:20.860 --> 00:39:22.340
That's very important to our members
00:39:22.340 --> 00:39:23.890
because it limits the impacts
00:39:23.890 --> 00:39:27.700
of both potential wildfires and then in the future PSPS.
00:39:27.700 --> 00:39:30.130
And then moving forward to PSPS,
00:39:30.130 --> 00:39:31.660
we realize that's a very effective
00:39:31.660 --> 00:39:35.710
and important tool for IOUs to be able to use,
00:39:35.710 --> 00:39:40.380
but in the event that that becomes the decision to be made,
00:39:40.380 --> 00:39:42.470
we hope it'd be the measure of last resort.
00:39:42.470 --> 00:39:47.143
And in the PSPS process, we've noticed a few things
00:39:47.143 --> 00:39:50.150
that we think would be really helpful to local governments.
00:39:50.150 --> 00:39:52.380
Local governments are great points of contact
00:39:52.380 --> 00:39:56.260
for all of these WMP plans and the IOUs.
00:39:56.260 --> 00:39:57.810
They have community resources,
00:39:57.810 --> 00:39:59.440
they're able to communicate really effectively
00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:01.070
with their constituents,
00:40:01.070 --> 00:40:03.310
provided that they're given reliable information
00:40:03.310 --> 00:40:07.500
from the IOUs about when the PSPS shutdown might occur
00:40:09.377 --> 00:40:13.760
and specific areas about where that PSPS might occur.
00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:16.460
Also, bringing us in early in the coordination process
00:40:16.460 --> 00:40:18.040
would be really helpful for these things
00:40:18.040 --> 00:40:20.100
so that we have open lines of communication
00:40:20.100 --> 00:40:22.610
with the IOUs prior to the PSPS event
00:40:22.610 --> 00:40:25.800
so we can really help inform constituents and rate payers
00:40:25.800 --> 00:40:28.590
of potential PSPS shutdowns.
00:40:28.590 --> 00:40:31.270
Finally, the other thing that we would say in terms of PSPS
00:40:31.270 --> 00:40:33.450
that could be something that this group could look at
00:40:33.450 --> 00:40:36.240
would be the community resource center piece.
00:40:36.240 --> 00:40:39.570
When IOUs have to provide services in areas
00:40:39.570 --> 00:40:41.950
that are blacked out, where are those locations?
00:40:41.950 --> 00:40:44.410
Are they safe, are they accessible?
00:40:44.410 --> 00:40:47.440
Can people charge their backups, that sort of thing.
00:40:47.440 --> 00:40:50.810
So again, we stand as definitely an able and willing partner
00:40:50.810 --> 00:40:54.350
to help the advisory board in whatever you might need,
00:40:54.350 --> 00:40:55.860
and again I wanna reiterate
00:40:55.860 --> 00:40:59.730
that it is a really important priority at CSAC.
00:40:59.730 --> 00:41:01.910
And finally, too, just on one last public comment,
00:41:01.910 --> 00:41:05.160
I know that the mission values were already adopted,
00:41:05.160 --> 00:41:07.240
but I wanted to point out that maybe under
00:41:07.240 --> 00:41:11.760
the second review principles for Wildfire Mitigation Plans
00:41:11.760 --> 00:41:14.640
at the top of page two, it says active community engagement,
00:41:14.640 --> 00:41:17.140
especially for limited ingress/egress, low-income,
00:41:17.140 --> 00:41:19.520
disadvantaged, and access and functional needs.
00:41:19.520 --> 00:41:20.780
And I thought maybe you could consider
00:41:20.780 --> 00:41:22.600
putting in local governments as well,
00:41:22.600 --> 00:41:26.360
because we have a connection to most of those groups,
00:41:26.360 --> 00:41:28.190
we run the health and human services programs
00:41:28.190 --> 00:41:29.740
in counties as well.
00:41:29.740 --> 00:41:31.550
So that might be something for the board to consider,
00:41:31.550 --> 00:41:33.740
so I put that up there for your consideration.
00:41:33.740 --> 00:41:35.585
And I'll leave my card here with the staff, too,
00:41:35.585 --> 00:41:37.400
so if you need to get in touch with us, you can.
00:41:37.400 --> 00:41:39.010
Thank you.
00:41:39.010 --> 00:41:42.810
Thank you, and Board Member Porter and I
00:41:42.810 --> 00:41:46.170
are working on that category,
00:41:46.170 --> 00:41:49.163
so if you can stay till the end of the meeting,
00:41:50.250 --> 00:41:54.460
we can connect and figure out a way to go to the next step.
00:41:54.460 --> 00:41:56.060
Does that sound good?
Sounds good.
00:41:56.060 --> 00:42:01.060
Okay, and I think I may have jumped the gun on the vote,
00:42:01.610 --> 00:42:02.993
but here we are.
00:42:04.740 --> 00:42:09.740
Now we're going to turn to what are we doing with 2020's
00:42:10.420 --> 00:42:14.690
because I incorporated in the mission statement
00:42:14.690 --> 00:42:17.330
talking about our overview.
00:42:17.330 --> 00:42:22.330
So before we go to the publicly-owned utilities
00:42:23.665 --> 00:42:28.060
and Board Member Porter, Katherine and Jamie,
00:42:28.060 --> 00:42:30.520
could you please just give us an overview
00:42:30.520 --> 00:42:34.090
of what we are going to be doing in the process for 2020
00:42:35.460 --> 00:42:38.723
for the IOU Wildfire Mitigation Plans?
00:42:42.840 --> 00:42:43.880
Thank you, Diane.
00:42:43.880 --> 00:42:48.880
This is Jamie Ormond again, a newly-assigned staff member,
00:42:49.020 --> 00:42:51.233
happy and excited to work with you all.
00:42:52.890 --> 00:42:55.630
An outline of the process going forward
00:42:55.630 --> 00:42:58.610
for this first document that we're putting together
00:42:58.610 --> 00:43:02.090
for the IOU review, we have a template
00:43:02.090 --> 00:43:06.380
that is nearly complete that will sort of provide you
00:43:06.380 --> 00:43:09.230
with guidance for the recommendations
00:43:09.230 --> 00:43:11.270
that you're going to be making.
00:43:11.270 --> 00:43:14.420
We are very hopeful that within your BK groups,
00:43:14.420 --> 00:43:17.000
we will start hearing back from you
00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:19.730
with your preliminary thoughts about the guidance
00:43:19.730 --> 00:43:23.140
written down by Wednesday, the 18th,
00:43:23.140 --> 00:43:25.310
so that's a week from today.
00:43:25.310 --> 00:43:26.830
It doesn't have to be 100% done,
00:43:26.830 --> 00:43:28.960
but we're very hopeful that your guidance
00:43:28.960 --> 00:43:31.640
is going to start rolling in to us,
00:43:31.640 --> 00:43:34.430
your staff, next Wednesday.
00:43:34.430 --> 00:43:36.700
We will put together a document.
00:43:36.700 --> 00:43:38.680
We will make it look pretty good.
00:43:38.680 --> 00:43:42.260
We will figure out how we're going to be circulating
00:43:43.912 --> 00:43:45.530
review questions to make sure
00:43:45.530 --> 00:43:48.630
that we're all moving forward on the same page.
00:43:48.630 --> 00:43:50.500
That doesn't mean we're gonna be making any decisions.
00:43:50.500 --> 00:43:52.130
We're just gonna be doing some editing
00:43:52.130 --> 00:43:53.390
and getting some comments.
00:43:53.390 --> 00:43:56.340
And then once we pull it all together,
00:43:56.340 --> 00:44:01.340
it will get posted on the website on the 31st as our draft.
00:44:02.380 --> 00:44:04.930
That draft will then be more
00:44:04.930 --> 00:44:06.810
formally reviewed by board members.
00:44:06.810 --> 00:44:11.350
You will be sending us your formal comments on the draft.
00:44:11.350 --> 00:44:14.300
We will figure out how to incorporate those comments,
00:44:14.300 --> 00:44:18.240
and then have a final document ready for a vote
00:44:18.240 --> 00:44:22.593
at the next meeting on April 15th.
00:44:23.880 --> 00:44:25.820
Do you have anything questions for me at this time?
00:44:25.820 --> 00:44:28.540
Happy to take any questions.
00:44:28.540 --> 00:44:30.670
You will definitely be getting emails from me
00:44:30.670 --> 00:44:34.940
probably tomorrow at the earliest, maybe tonight, soon,
00:44:34.940 --> 00:44:36.860
and you can always call me.
00:44:36.860 --> 00:44:39.260
I'm your staff, so please don't hesitate.
00:44:39.260 --> 00:44:40.210
We're here to help.
00:44:43.620 --> 00:44:45.177
All right, Diane, if you don't have any questions,
00:44:45.177 --> 00:44:46.580
if the board doesn't have any questions,
00:44:46.580 --> 00:44:47.580
thank you very much.
00:44:50.170 --> 00:44:55.170
We'll now turn to an area that this board is formulating
00:45:01.439 --> 00:45:06.043
on its own because the publicly-owned utility sector,
00:45:08.710 --> 00:45:10.067
including the municipal utilities
00:45:10.067 --> 00:45:14.100
and the electrical cooperatives is not jurisdictional
00:45:14.100 --> 00:45:15.630
to the Public Utilities Commission
00:45:15.630 --> 00:45:19.163
nor is there any other oversight authority for those.
00:45:20.932 --> 00:45:23.830
Could we put up the slide
00:45:23.830 --> 00:45:26.560
on the publicly-owned utilities, please?
00:45:26.560 --> 00:45:31.560
This slide was prepared by that cohort,
00:45:33.240 --> 00:45:35.400
and we wanna thank them.
00:45:35.400 --> 00:45:38.580
They worked very closely with our Chair, Marcie Edwards,
00:45:38.580 --> 00:45:43.050
so I want to acknowledge her work in this and everything
00:45:43.050 --> 00:45:47.740
in supporting the development and organization of the board.
00:45:47.740 --> 00:45:50.070
This slide in particular was put together.
00:45:50.070 --> 00:45:54.190
We asked for a consolidated view
00:45:54.190 --> 00:45:59.190
of what the POUs were doing with their WMPs
00:45:59.760 --> 00:46:02.430
and how they planned to comply.
00:46:02.430 --> 00:46:06.210
So this is an official thank you from the board
00:46:06.210 --> 00:46:09.060
to those entities for putting this together,
00:46:09.060 --> 00:46:11.890
and I'm going to turn this over to Board Member Porter
00:46:12.990 --> 00:46:15.530
who has been actively involved in this
00:46:15.530 --> 00:46:18.193
to lead the discussion.
Thank you, Diane.
00:46:37.782 --> 00:46:39.320
There we go, yeah.
00:46:39.320 --> 00:46:44.320
Part of the POU/BK and we met and had a few discussions
00:46:46.970 --> 00:46:51.513
about how and what we'll be looking for.
00:46:53.270 --> 00:46:57.450
Our discussions basically started out
00:46:57.450 --> 00:46:59.240
with how we are going to accept
00:46:59.240 --> 00:47:02.393
the submission of the WMPs from the POUs.
00:47:04.140 --> 00:47:09.140
We understand that by statute, the deadline has been set,
00:47:09.170 --> 00:47:14.170
which is July 1st, but we wanted to set a date
00:47:15.209 --> 00:47:20.209
to begin to accept POU Wildfire Mitigation Plans
00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:27.120
starting now, which actually I wanted to make a motion
00:47:27.120 --> 00:47:31.987
to start to set an acceptance date of April 1st,
00:47:33.976 --> 00:47:36.260
and if anybody would like to second that,
00:47:36.260 --> 00:47:37.310
or have a discussion.
00:47:41.530 --> 00:47:43.670
I want to just check with legal counsel
00:47:43.670 --> 00:47:46.463
since we didn't announce that as an action item.
00:47:47.400 --> 00:47:49.220
If we can have it as a formal motion
00:47:49.220 --> 00:47:51.210
or we just have it as a consensus of the board.
00:47:51.210 --> 00:47:55.540
So Jason Rieger, could you please let us know
00:47:55.540 --> 00:47:56.690
if we can vote on that?
00:48:00.530 --> 00:48:01.840
Yes, I've looked at your agenda,
00:48:01.840 --> 00:48:04.560
and I think it's sufficiently wide in scope
00:48:04.560 --> 00:48:05.960
that you could do this here.
00:48:07.580 --> 00:48:08.580
Thank you.
00:48:14.300 --> 00:48:15.133
Or discussion.
00:48:17.520 --> 00:48:21.600
Actually, why don't we go through,
00:48:21.600 --> 00:48:24.380
'cause there may be other things we want to vote on
00:48:24.380 --> 00:48:26.030
or you may want us to opine on,
00:48:26.030 --> 00:48:30.130
so I think because this is new to everyone
00:48:30.130 --> 00:48:35.130
except myself and Marcie Edwards,
00:48:36.980 --> 00:48:38.550
is that okay if you do that, Board Member Porter?
00:48:38.550 --> 00:48:39.900
Absolutely.
Thank you.
00:48:41.140 --> 00:48:45.300
So in our discussion, we expressed a desire to work
00:48:45.300 --> 00:48:49.140
with the POUs and their representatives,
00:48:49.140 --> 00:48:51.300
which right now we'd like to invite
00:48:51.300 --> 00:48:54.350
the Northern California Power Agency,
00:48:54.350 --> 00:48:59.350
Southern California Public Power Authority,
00:48:59.500 --> 00:49:03.940
and the California Muni Utility Association
00:49:03.940 --> 00:49:08.940
to help us discuss a type of standard template
00:49:09.180 --> 00:49:10.920
in order to evaluate
00:49:11.900 --> 00:49:16.900
the areas that we right now think are important to address.
00:49:18.330 --> 00:49:21.423
We understand that each one of the munis is different,
00:49:22.520 --> 00:49:25.970
that they are unique in scope,
00:49:25.970 --> 00:49:30.750
some are less than 30 square miles,
00:49:30.750 --> 00:49:33.700
others 500 square miles,
00:49:33.700 --> 00:49:38.700
and they have unique responsibilities and characteristics.
00:49:39.210 --> 00:49:42.880
However, we do believe that we'll be able to find
00:49:42.880 --> 00:49:47.420
some commonalities in their operation,
00:49:47.420 --> 00:49:50.223
due to the fact that they truly are utilities.
00:49:53.550 --> 00:49:56.674
We want this template to focus in on
00:49:56.674 --> 00:49:59.100
as we go through their WMPs
00:50:00.930 --> 00:50:05.800
identifying the high fire-threat areas
00:50:08.150 --> 00:50:09.883
within their jurisdiction,
00:50:12.240 --> 00:50:14.870
their mitigation plan
00:50:15.720 --> 00:50:20.060
under situation awareness,
00:50:20.060 --> 00:50:21.060
how they are to
00:50:25.840 --> 00:50:27.000
move forward with that,
00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:32.000
their actual implementation of those plans
00:50:32.070 --> 00:50:33.997
concerning situational awareness,
00:50:36.170 --> 00:50:40.780
also their focus on hardening
00:50:40.780 --> 00:50:44.893
the areas that are in Tier 2 and Tier 3,
00:50:47.060 --> 00:50:52.060
the scope of their assets in those areas,
00:50:58.370 --> 00:51:03.363
also their plans to initiate a PSPS event.
00:51:07.320 --> 00:51:11.800
We wanna make sure that there is a acceptable threshold
00:51:11.800 --> 00:51:16.800
that mitigates and limits the level of threat of ignition
00:51:19.020 --> 00:51:24.020
from all the POUs that border and operate within the IOUs
00:51:25.397 --> 00:51:27.893
who have an acceptable standard.
00:51:31.990 --> 00:51:36.990
We also want to have them look at what they've done now,
00:51:38.640 --> 00:51:40.973
in what current state they're existing,
00:51:42.070 --> 00:51:47.070
and what their plans are moving forward to get to a reduced
00:51:49.160 --> 00:51:52.573
and mitigated level of threat of ignition.
00:51:58.440 --> 00:52:01.830
And I think that to give us time to review those,
00:52:01.830 --> 00:52:05.670
ultimately I believe there's over 40 POUs
00:52:05.670 --> 00:52:10.670
that we'll be reviewing in a varying size of plan
00:52:11.870 --> 00:52:13.070
giving us enough time
00:52:13.070 --> 00:52:14.930
which would be what I was trying to say
00:52:14.930 --> 00:52:18.440
that I think we should start the submissions
00:52:18.440 --> 00:52:21.440
and give us enough time to review them in April,
00:52:21.440 --> 00:52:22.423
starting in April.
00:52:27.839 --> 00:52:29.280
Is that it?
Yeah, that's it.
00:52:29.280 --> 00:52:34.280
Well, now what we'll do is we'll have board discussion
00:52:36.160 --> 00:52:39.870
on this item, then we'll have public comment,
00:52:39.870 --> 00:52:41.930
and then we'll have a vote,
00:52:41.930 --> 00:52:43.680
we'll have the motion and the vote.
00:52:45.140 --> 00:52:46.177
Mr. Mader?
00:52:58.590 --> 00:53:01.780
I believe we have attempted, but we would like to work
00:53:01.780 --> 00:53:04.823
with the associations that represent those POUs.
00:53:06.068 --> 00:53:08.450
Can I suggest that we consider setting a date
00:53:10.760 --> 00:53:15.760
for the issuance of those guidelines and requests,
00:53:15.870 --> 00:53:18.950
and then setting a date afterward
00:53:18.950 --> 00:53:22.023
sufficient for them to comply with those guidelines?
00:53:25.350 --> 00:53:27.620
That's a very good suggestion,
00:53:27.620 --> 00:53:32.620
and the BK group can work, as Mr. Porter said,
00:53:34.800 --> 00:53:38.280
with the associations to come up with a workable schedule.
00:53:38.280 --> 00:53:42.510
So as I interpret this April 1st deadline,
00:53:42.510 --> 00:53:47.120
it's really to underscore the urgency,
00:53:47.120 --> 00:53:49.300
and then we'll figure out exactly,
00:53:49.300 --> 00:53:51.100
will let people know what they want,
00:53:51.100 --> 00:53:54.190
and let them have time to comply.
00:53:54.190 --> 00:53:57.433
Is that a fair statement?
Yes.
00:53:58.410 --> 00:54:01.983
So we should plan on having another meeting.
00:54:03.070 --> 00:54:04.580
I think there's a way to do it by phone
00:54:04.580 --> 00:54:08.150
in order to effectuate a vote
00:54:08.150 --> 00:54:11.303
to set a date for the required submissions.
00:54:13.970 --> 00:54:18.380
Again, I'll call upon Mr. Rieger, but my thought,
00:54:21.720 --> 00:54:23.320
and let's see if it's legal,
00:54:23.320 --> 00:54:27.140
my thought is that that can be delegated to the BK group
00:54:27.140 --> 00:54:28.940
as a procedural matter.
00:54:28.940 --> 00:54:30.333
Is that correct?
00:54:34.110 --> 00:54:37.390
So we're talking about setting one of these dates
00:54:37.390 --> 00:54:39.863
through the BK group?
00:54:41.400 --> 00:54:43.730
The BK group can talk about it
00:54:43.730 --> 00:54:46.910
and find out what will be the best date.
00:54:46.910 --> 00:54:50.570
The BK group cannot act on behalf of the board.
00:54:50.570 --> 00:54:52.600
It would need the board's vote
00:54:52.600 --> 00:54:55.853
to say this is the word of the board,
00:54:56.750 --> 00:54:58.540
but it can certainly come and say
00:54:58.540 --> 00:55:02.110
this is what the BK group thinks is the best date,
00:55:02.110 --> 00:55:06.240
this is the date we will be advising
00:55:06.240 --> 00:55:08.640
or requesting the full board to take a vote on,
00:55:08.640 --> 00:55:10.403
or something along those lines.
00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:13.153
First a meeting--
Could I just--
00:55:13.153 --> 00:55:15.110
Excuse me.
So given that,
00:55:15.110 --> 00:55:19.900
what I'd suggest, and I'm also part of the POU/BK,
00:55:19.900 --> 00:55:22.692
so I'll look to...
00:55:22.692 --> 00:55:23.720
We're doing this in realtime,
00:55:23.720 --> 00:55:28.720
so here's actual public decision making, exciting.
00:55:31.426 --> 00:55:35.560
What I would suggest is we talk since it's March,
00:55:35.560 --> 00:55:38.980
what's today, March 11th, that we come back and get,
00:55:38.980 --> 00:55:41.810
we have a working outline and we come back
00:55:41.810 --> 00:55:44.690
and get board authorization on April 15th.
00:55:44.690 --> 00:55:49.663
I think that'll be close enough to the date.
00:55:52.100 --> 00:55:52.950
He's thinking...
00:55:56.870 --> 00:55:58.436
Yes, that would be fine.
That'll work?
00:55:58.436 --> 00:55:59.800
Yeah.
Okay.
00:55:59.800 --> 00:56:04.310
And if it doesn't work, if April 15th is too soon
00:56:04.310 --> 00:56:06.650
for whatever reason, we can always push it
00:56:06.650 --> 00:56:08.480
to the next meeting, but we'll sort that out
00:56:08.480 --> 00:56:11.070
through a recommendation of the BK group,
00:56:11.070 --> 00:56:14.130
and again, Mr. Porter and Ms. Edwards
00:56:14.130 --> 00:56:16.303
will be leading that effort.
00:56:17.670 --> 00:56:22.670
Chairman Fellman, I believe that in order to be effective,
00:56:22.740 --> 00:56:26.450
we should probably issue a guidance
00:56:26.450 --> 00:56:30.270
on what we are looking for in these WMPs,
00:56:30.270 --> 00:56:31.760
which I believe would require action
00:56:31.760 --> 00:56:35.060
by the board to sanction,
00:56:35.060 --> 00:56:39.470
and then a sufficient period of time from that date
00:56:39.470 --> 00:56:44.470
to require submission of WMPs from the POUs.
00:56:44.940 --> 00:56:47.920
So there's actually two working dates here
00:56:47.920 --> 00:56:50.150
that need board approval, right?
00:56:50.150 --> 00:56:52.823
And there is the pressing matter of time,
00:56:54.442 --> 00:56:57.303
as Board Member Porter has raised,
00:56:58.180 --> 00:57:02.610
so is it possible that we would consider that the BK group
00:57:02.610 --> 00:57:07.100
could work on a draft guidance for the POUs
00:57:07.100 --> 00:57:08.900
and then we could plan to have
00:57:08.900 --> 00:57:11.040
some sort of teleconference meeting in order
00:57:11.040 --> 00:57:14.320
to authorize those to facilitate the submission
00:57:14.320 --> 00:57:17.980
of those WMPs by April 15th,
00:57:17.980 --> 00:57:22.173
if that is indeed the decision of the board
00:57:22.173 --> 00:57:23.813
or the desire of the board?
00:57:26.260 --> 00:57:28.080
Did you wanna comment, Mr. Rieger?
00:57:28.080 --> 00:57:31.860
Yes, I wanted to respectfully make a suggestion,
00:57:31.860 --> 00:57:35.100
is that you have the board here in full right now,
00:57:35.100 --> 00:57:38.640
you could adopt the dates you like,
00:57:38.640 --> 00:57:40.860
subject to change at a further meeting
00:57:40.860 --> 00:57:44.840
after the BK partnership group goes
00:57:44.840 --> 00:57:46.370
and talks to the stakeholders.
00:57:46.370 --> 00:57:48.297
They could come back and say,
00:57:48.297 --> 00:57:49.857
"The dates we approved were perfect,
00:57:49.857 --> 00:57:50.830
"we're gonna stick with them."
00:57:50.830 --> 00:57:52.277
They could come back and say,
00:57:52.277 --> 00:57:55.137
"We suggest the board modify those dates."
00:57:56.020 --> 00:57:58.290
In terms of teleconference meetings,
00:57:58.290 --> 00:58:01.560
I editorialize here that Bagley-Keene
00:58:01.560 --> 00:58:03.580
is willfully out of date,
00:58:03.580 --> 00:58:07.210
and there are some serious limitations
00:58:07.210 --> 00:58:11.390
to have a 100% virtual teleconference meeting.
00:58:11.390 --> 00:58:16.250
You may have teleconference meetings from public locations
00:58:16.250 --> 00:58:20.030
such that one of them could be here, one could be in LA,
00:58:20.030 --> 00:58:21.290
but they all need to be at a place
00:58:21.290 --> 00:58:23.780
where the public can show up.
00:58:23.780 --> 00:58:26.510
The other thing is since you are an advisory board,
00:58:26.510 --> 00:58:30.340
you may also have one physical location
00:58:30.340 --> 00:58:31.670
where the public can show up
00:58:31.670 --> 00:58:34.070
and a majority of members are present
00:58:34.070 --> 00:58:36.200
at that public location,
00:58:36.200 --> 00:58:40.890
but the other members can call in from a nonpublic location,
00:58:40.890 --> 00:58:43.433
such as their home office or what have you.
00:58:47.020 --> 00:58:51.030
Here's my recommendation based on your advice,
00:58:51.030 --> 00:58:54.623
Mr. Rieger, and your concerns, Mr. Mader.
00:58:55.700 --> 00:58:59.030
I'm hesitant to have us set dates right now
00:58:59.030 --> 00:59:00.680
because part of our process
00:59:00.680 --> 00:59:04.240
is having input from the stakeholders.
00:59:04.240 --> 00:59:07.050
However, I think what we could to,
00:59:07.050 --> 00:59:09.020
what I'd like to suggest that we do,
00:59:09.020 --> 00:59:11.860
is use April 15th
00:59:11.860 --> 00:59:14.390
as the time to approve
00:59:19.080 --> 00:59:23.457
the guidance documents as well as the deadlines,
00:59:24.750 --> 00:59:26.530
the schedule for submission.
00:59:26.530 --> 00:59:28.430
I think we can have both of the...
00:59:28.430 --> 00:59:31.940
And then if we need to change that, we can,
00:59:31.940 --> 00:59:34.050
but I think if we set April 15th,
00:59:34.050 --> 00:59:38.950
that is a realistic 30-day deadline from now
00:59:38.950 --> 00:59:40.753
in order to pull all this together.
00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:45.890
Chairman Fellman, that would mean that we'd be setting
00:59:45.890 --> 00:59:47.770
the due date after April 15th
00:59:49.814 --> 00:59:53.100
and giving the POUs a sufficient amount of time
00:59:53.100 --> 00:59:55.163
to comply with the guidance.
00:59:56.160 --> 01:00:00.710
I am somewhat concerned because of the numbers,
01:00:00.710 --> 01:00:02.910
the need for urgency,
01:00:02.910 --> 01:00:05.260
but if you think that that would be sufficient.
01:00:06.370 --> 01:00:11.180
Well, and I'm gonna turn to Katherine Stockton
01:00:11.180 --> 01:00:13.280
to advise us, but my recollection
01:00:13.280 --> 01:00:18.280
is that the WMPs are due July 1st.
01:00:18.780 --> 01:00:19.960
Right, that's what I was gonna say,
01:00:19.960 --> 01:00:24.960
the statute requires that they have mitigation plans
01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:28.690
in effect prior to January 1st, 2020,
01:00:28.690 --> 01:00:32.430
but the first time they have to submit them to us
01:00:32.430 --> 01:00:34.970
under statute is July 1, 2020.
01:00:38.960 --> 01:00:41.420
By guidance by April 15th,
01:00:41.420 --> 01:00:46.083
and they will submit them by July 31st, all right.
01:00:47.240 --> 01:00:49.380
But you could also set another date
01:00:49.380 --> 01:00:51.760
that says if you'd like to turn them in early,
01:00:51.760 --> 01:00:54.253
please do, and here's this other date.
01:00:55.360 --> 01:00:57.490
Yeah, my suggestion for an early in
01:00:59.590 --> 01:01:01.900
really is due to the...
01:01:01.900 --> 01:01:04.193
They're gonna be in varying sizes.
01:01:05.634 --> 01:01:10.530
LADWP is gonna be larger than a smaller municipality
01:01:11.610 --> 01:01:13.083
near Stockton.
01:01:15.091 --> 01:01:16.323
SMUD is gonna be larger.
01:01:17.920 --> 01:01:19.850
Giving us enough time to review them
01:01:19.850 --> 01:01:24.850
and find commonalities in each one, to set best practices,
01:01:24.900 --> 01:01:28.093
that's important for us not just to rubber stamp them.
01:01:30.870 --> 01:01:34.863
Just looking at the IOUs WMPs, they were vast.
01:01:35.850 --> 01:01:37.890
It was more for us, not for them,
01:01:37.890 --> 01:01:39.220
(laughing)
01:01:39.220 --> 01:01:41.360
to asking for them to be in early.
01:01:41.360 --> 01:01:44.260
The guidelines that we would set forth,
01:01:44.260 --> 01:01:47.090
and again we would wanna work with the associations
01:01:48.290 --> 01:01:52.350
to prepare them, not just to do this in a vacuum,
01:01:52.350 --> 01:01:55.320
show up and go you should have known we wanted this
01:01:56.660 --> 01:02:00.130
and issue an opinion and then a recommendation
01:02:00.130 --> 01:02:02.763
that they're not prepared to meet.
01:02:03.690 --> 01:02:06.593
So with that, bringing them in early,
01:02:08.390 --> 01:02:13.130
giving them enough time to submit, sit down and focus,
01:02:13.130 --> 01:02:17.680
and hardening, veg management, situational awareness,
01:02:17.680 --> 01:02:21.190
and also matching some threshold with the IOU
01:02:21.190 --> 01:02:24.673
that they share a territory with a PSP event,
01:02:25.630 --> 01:02:27.360
that's reasonable,
01:02:27.360 --> 01:02:29.203
that's the reason for the early in.
01:02:32.411 --> 01:02:33.880
And again, I think my...
01:02:37.353 --> 01:02:38.847
Is this on?
01:02:38.847 --> 01:02:43.847
My recommendation then...
01:02:47.210 --> 01:02:48.043
Testing.
01:02:51.920 --> 01:02:53.220
My recommendation...
01:02:54.060 --> 01:02:54.893
Is someone...
01:02:54.893 --> 01:02:57.220
Oh, there it is, I heard it now, okay, thank you.
01:02:57.220 --> 01:03:02.220
My recommendation is that the things we want to accomplish,
01:03:03.530 --> 01:03:08.480
that goal and to have the input realistically,
01:03:08.480 --> 01:03:13.480
we're looking at April 15th that we lay it out by then.
01:03:13.740 --> 01:03:18.540
I mean, this will be an ongoing communication.
01:03:18.540 --> 01:03:22.370
Again, they are to submit by July 1st,
01:03:22.370 --> 01:03:24.640
so we want them to have...
01:03:24.640 --> 01:03:26.430
We should be talking to them,
01:03:26.430 --> 01:03:28.420
we want that to be a robust discussion,
01:03:28.420 --> 01:03:30.850
and then we have an opportunity,
01:03:30.850 --> 01:03:33.740
and there's a question mark in our timeline,
01:03:33.740 --> 01:03:38.740
we don't have a deadline like the June 30th
01:03:39.320 --> 01:03:41.270
to the Wildfire Safety Division.
01:03:41.270 --> 01:03:44.733
We have an open deadline on our recommendations.
01:03:46.040 --> 01:03:50.630
We can schedule this
01:03:50.630 --> 01:03:53.760
so it meets our board's objectives
01:03:53.760 --> 01:03:58.760
and fully incorporates the input from the publicly-owned.
01:04:01.260 --> 01:04:04.690
Because I'm struggling with,
01:04:04.690 --> 01:04:07.760
I hear that you want to have it early,
01:04:07.760 --> 01:04:09.730
but I'm struggling with just the...
01:04:10.590 --> 01:04:11.423
I'm looking at it
01:04:11.423 --> 01:04:13.820
from a practical base, yes.
Logistics of it, yes.
01:04:15.090 --> 01:04:20.090
I ultimately believe the lion share of the POUs
01:04:20.780 --> 01:04:25.780
understood that July 1st was coming as a deadline
01:04:27.690 --> 01:04:32.690
to have their POUs Wildfire Mitigation Plan submitted.
01:04:34.100 --> 01:04:38.580
I believe that there are several ready to submit them now
01:04:38.580 --> 01:04:43.580
and I also believe from the last hearing that we had,
01:04:45.260 --> 01:04:49.200
we were asked to sooner than later
01:04:49.200 --> 01:04:51.390
set a date for them to submit.
01:04:51.390 --> 01:04:55.043
And I do actually believe the date was April.
01:04:57.220 --> 01:05:02.220
So it behooves us to get it in sooner than later,
01:05:03.340 --> 01:05:08.190
even though we don't have a statutory date
01:05:09.360 --> 01:05:14.360
of a deadline to issue opinion and recommendations.
01:05:14.530 --> 01:05:18.373
No, I'm just again from the practical standpoint,
01:05:19.986 --> 01:05:23.163
I'm trying to understand, I'm a bit confused.
01:05:24.070 --> 01:05:28.563
The POUs have prepared Wildfire Mitigation Plans, correct?
01:05:30.080 --> 01:05:31.810
Is that what you're...
01:05:31.810 --> 01:05:35.430
And we are going to provide a guidance document.
01:05:35.430 --> 01:05:40.430
So number one, are you asking them to submit their WMPs
01:05:41.700 --> 01:05:44.380
that they have already done as soon as possible?
01:05:44.380 --> 01:05:46.020
Is that your question?
Yes.
01:05:46.020 --> 01:05:47.250
Okay, so that's different.
01:05:47.250 --> 01:05:51.350
So that's the WMPs that have already been done,
01:05:51.350 --> 01:05:55.210
yes, absolutely, those can come in if they have...
01:05:55.210 --> 01:05:58.200
And let me ask--
That they have already done?
01:05:58.200 --> 01:06:01.450
Not to submit WMPs tailored specifically
01:06:01.450 --> 01:06:03.600
for our guideline.
Correct, thank you.
01:06:03.600 --> 01:06:05.290
Yes, that wasn't clear.
Yes, I'm sorry.
01:06:05.290 --> 01:06:10.230
And if I may turn, is anyone, Susie Berlin,
01:06:10.230 --> 01:06:14.263
if I may ask you to step up and put you on the spot?
01:06:23.210 --> 01:06:25.053
There's three parts to this,
01:06:28.320 --> 01:06:30.150
and let me make sure I understand
01:06:30.150 --> 01:06:31.820
what Mr. Porter's trying to do.
01:06:31.820 --> 01:06:32.653
We'll wait a minute.
01:06:32.653 --> 01:06:34.580
And did you have a question,
01:06:34.580 --> 01:06:35.413
Dr. Syphard?
Oh, no, well,
01:06:35.413 --> 01:06:37.443
I was just wondering if they had already been done?
01:06:38.860 --> 01:06:43.120
So number one, the three parts that I understand
01:06:43.120 --> 01:06:48.120
we're looking for, number one is having this sector,
01:06:48.460 --> 01:06:52.460
the publicly-owned utilities and the electrical cooperatives
01:06:52.460 --> 01:06:55.940
submit the WMPs that have already been done,
01:06:55.940 --> 01:06:56.790
correct?
Yes.
01:06:56.790 --> 01:07:00.040
Secondly, based on reviewing those,
01:07:00.040 --> 01:07:02.640
we will provide guidance to them
01:07:02.640 --> 01:07:07.273
for the July 1st submittals, is that correct?
01:07:08.640 --> 01:07:10.843
The second thing will be a guidance document
01:07:10.843 --> 01:07:12.130
from the board.
Guidance, yes,
01:07:12.130 --> 01:07:15.210
on ultimately what we will be focusing on
01:07:16.593 --> 01:07:20.507
in the POU Wildfire Mitigation Plans that we have, yes.
01:07:20.507 --> 01:07:22.300
Good, and the third thing will be
01:07:22.300 --> 01:07:24.383
they'll submit them on July 1st,
01:07:25.251 --> 01:07:28.510
or no, yes, they'll submit the board--
01:07:28.510 --> 01:07:30.510
They're all required to have, yes.
01:07:30.510 --> 01:07:35.510
The board guidance WMPs on July 1st,
01:07:35.680 --> 01:07:39.230
and then we'll review those for the next round.
01:07:39.230 --> 01:07:40.110
Okay, I'm clear.
01:07:40.110 --> 01:07:43.610
Are there any other clarifying questions
01:07:43.610 --> 01:07:45.823
or comments from board members?
01:07:47.980 --> 01:07:51.160
I was just wondering, so they do already,
01:07:51.160 --> 01:07:54.360
all of them have Wildfire Mitigation Plans in hand
01:07:54.360 --> 01:07:55.793
that they could turn over?
01:07:57.000 --> 01:07:59.780
I don't know if every single one,
01:07:59.780 --> 01:08:04.060
but we were asked to provide them a submittal date,
01:08:04.060 --> 01:08:09.060
and due to the size in volume of the documents
01:08:09.070 --> 01:08:11.694
I believe are going to come in,
01:08:11.694 --> 01:08:14.263
some I believe will be two paragraphs long,
01:08:19.360 --> 01:08:23.160
I believe that they understood what they were required to do
01:08:23.160 --> 01:08:25.013
and they have been working on that,
01:08:26.150 --> 01:08:28.640
and so now it's time to open the door
01:08:28.640 --> 01:08:30.310
and allow those to come to us,
01:08:30.310 --> 01:08:33.500
so that we can start to vet them.
01:08:33.500 --> 01:08:38.000
So Ms. Berlin represents a number CMUA...
01:08:38.000 --> 01:08:39.530
Well, you can tell us who you represent,
01:08:39.530 --> 01:08:41.502
and can you please answer the question
01:08:41.502 --> 01:08:44.140
of whether there are already...
01:08:45.131 --> 01:08:49.033
Are there existing POU Wildfire Mitigation Plans?
01:08:49.980 --> 01:08:51.250
Yes, I can answer the question.
01:08:51.250 --> 01:08:52.320
My name is Susie Berlin,
01:08:52.320 --> 01:08:54.860
and I do work for the Northern California Power Agency.
01:08:54.860 --> 01:08:57.120
I don't represent CMUA,
01:08:57.120 --> 01:09:00.550
the California Municipal Utilities Association,
01:09:00.550 --> 01:09:03.940
but the statutory requirements were for the POUs
01:09:03.940 --> 01:09:06.760
to adopt a Wildfire Mitigation Plan
01:09:06.760 --> 01:09:07.860
before the end of the year
01:09:07.860 --> 01:09:11.860
and then submit those plans to the board by July 1.
01:09:11.860 --> 01:09:14.600
It was a month's long process,
01:09:14.600 --> 01:09:19.370
and the plans that the different POUs adopted
01:09:19.370 --> 01:09:21.630
all addressed the various statutory elements
01:09:21.630 --> 01:09:23.930
that are already set forth,
01:09:23.930 --> 01:09:26.010
and they will take different forms and shapes
01:09:26.010 --> 01:09:29.793
because they have different utilities were preparing them.
01:09:33.778 --> 01:09:37.377
As a practical matter, I don't envision any scenario
01:09:38.500 --> 01:09:41.160
where a plan that took months and months and months
01:09:41.160 --> 01:09:45.900
to prepare would be able to submit it even after April 15th
01:09:45.900 --> 01:09:49.313
and get your feedback and resubmit it by July 1.
01:09:50.210 --> 01:09:54.140
I believe that the guidance,
01:09:54.140 --> 01:09:56.360
the areas that you're looking to focus on
01:09:56.360 --> 01:10:00.200
that working with NCPA and CMUA and SCPPA
01:10:00.200 --> 01:10:03.370
that a template of sorts can be put together
01:10:03.370 --> 01:10:07.210
that would allow the POUs to maybe provide a cover sheet
01:10:07.210 --> 01:10:09.830
or something that says here are areas in our plans
01:10:10.700 --> 01:10:13.130
where those sections are covered,
01:10:13.130 --> 01:10:15.940
and I believe that's exactly the kinda thing
01:10:15.940 --> 01:10:20.750
that you would provide feedback on for the next iteration
01:10:20.750 --> 01:10:25.320
when the plans are submitted for the next year.
01:10:25.320 --> 01:10:29.840
So, (chuckling) with respect to...
01:10:29.840 --> 01:10:34.840
So were there any WMPs submitted in December of '19
01:10:37.840 --> 01:10:39.440
or prepared for December?
01:10:39.440 --> 01:10:41.540
When you say the end of year,
01:10:41.540 --> 01:10:45.040
do you mean end of '19 or end of '20?
01:10:45.040 --> 01:10:46.300
'19.
01:10:46.300 --> 01:10:48.900
The plans were prepared at the end of '19,
01:10:48.900 --> 01:10:50.220
correct?
Yes.
01:10:50.220 --> 01:10:53.670
So everyone has, everyone of these entities,
01:10:53.670 --> 01:10:57.600
or at least to your knowledge with NCPA,
01:10:57.600 --> 01:11:01.720
they have a plan already.
01:11:01.720 --> 01:11:03.893
They have Wildfire Mitigation Plans, yes.
01:11:05.440 --> 01:11:09.220
And I think what we're asking is what they already have
01:11:09.220 --> 01:11:12.000
when we should to--
So to clarify,
01:11:12.000 --> 01:11:15.520
it isn't to resubmit again
01:11:15.520 --> 01:11:20.520
a revised WMP by July 1st,
01:11:21.250 --> 01:11:26.250
it is then to address the recommendations after July 1st.
01:11:26.300 --> 01:11:27.223
Get them in.
01:11:29.399 --> 01:11:30.270
(laughing)
01:11:30.270 --> 01:11:35.270
Everyone has their WMPs in so that we can review them,
01:11:36.670 --> 01:11:39.510
get our opinions and recommendations to that,
01:11:39.510 --> 01:11:41.290
hopefully we can all work together
01:11:41.290 --> 01:11:45.040
and create a template by which we can move forward,
01:11:45.040 --> 01:11:49.890
understanding exactly what this board would like to see,
01:11:49.890 --> 01:11:52.650
and then issue those recommendations
01:11:52.650 --> 01:11:54.570
after the submittal sometime.
01:11:54.570 --> 01:11:59.050
Again, there is no date when we do that for each entity.
01:11:59.050 --> 01:12:01.563
Maybe it's separate, maybe it's holistically.
01:12:03.700 --> 01:12:07.650
But sooner than later, 'cause I assume
01:12:07.650 --> 01:12:11.230
that you represent the individuals or entities
01:12:11.230 --> 01:12:12.723
that have them ready now.
01:12:13.900 --> 01:12:17.680
Well, I think again we're conflating a few things here.
01:12:17.680 --> 01:12:22.680
So, I wanna make sure we get what is needed,
01:12:23.510 --> 01:12:27.233
so I think what we're asking,
01:12:28.170 --> 01:12:30.340
I think it's going to be impossible
01:12:30.340 --> 01:12:34.930
to get the next iteration, if you're asking for the July...
01:12:34.930 --> 01:12:37.020
Are you asking for the July 1st submittals
01:12:37.020 --> 01:12:39.070
to be accelerated?
01:12:39.070 --> 01:12:40.740
Is that what you're asking for?
01:12:40.740 --> 01:12:45.170
No, just a date to begin to allow them to come in.
01:12:45.170 --> 01:12:48.020
Right now, I think maybe one,
01:12:48.020 --> 01:12:52.913
Katherine or, has any POU submitted a WMP to us?
01:12:54.960 --> 01:12:55.793
We got one
01:12:55.793 --> 01:12:57.540
from the Imperial Irrigation District
01:12:57.540 --> 01:13:01.640
and LADWP, but there might--
But those are the ones
01:13:01.640 --> 01:13:04.980
that were done at the end of '19, correct?
01:13:04.980 --> 01:13:06.277
I believe so, yes.
01:13:06.277 --> 01:13:09.110
So everyone can submit to you
01:13:09.110 --> 01:13:13.993
what they've already done as of December 2019,
01:13:15.520 --> 01:13:18.890
then we can look at those,
01:13:18.890 --> 01:13:22.220
we can develop some guidance quickly,
01:13:22.220 --> 01:13:26.290
send that back to them, so in their July submittals,
01:13:27.160 --> 01:13:32.160
they reflect our input, and then they submit in July,
01:13:32.710 --> 01:13:36.033
we look at July, and then we do another turn.
01:13:38.000 --> 01:13:40.100
Okay, I'm gonna ask a question,
01:13:40.100 --> 01:13:41.360
and I'm gonna have to use your first name
01:13:41.360 --> 01:13:43.123
'cause that was easier to remember than the last name.
01:13:43.123 --> 01:13:45.096
(laughing)
01:13:45.096 --> 01:13:50.096
So the WMPs prepared in December are for the 2020 submittal.
01:13:52.970 --> 01:13:54.053
Correct.
Okay.
01:13:55.110 --> 01:13:58.253
And so if those are ready,
01:13:59.190 --> 01:14:01.700
you are capable of submitting those to us
01:14:01.700 --> 01:14:04.317
by April 15th or April 1st?
01:14:05.210 --> 01:14:07.830
I an unable to say that all of the POUs
01:14:07.830 --> 01:14:11.790
would be able to submit them by April 1st.
01:14:11.790 --> 01:14:14.837
I mean, I don't know, some of them may have to have
01:14:14.837 --> 01:14:17.790
a city council meeting or some other board action
01:14:17.790 --> 01:14:21.270
to formalize the submission of the plans.
01:14:21.270 --> 01:14:25.710
I do know that for purposes of the July submittal,
01:14:25.710 --> 01:14:29.660
we are talking about plans that are the 2020 plans,
01:14:29.660 --> 01:14:31.290
and that nothing...
01:14:32.150 --> 01:14:33.860
It's not a brand new plan
01:14:33.860 --> 01:14:36.770
that would be created between now and July.
01:14:39.520 --> 01:14:42.870
So if the beginning of the submittal date
01:14:44.420 --> 01:14:47.340
began April 15th, and by the way,
01:14:47.340 --> 01:14:50.710
it's April 15th through July 1st
01:14:50.710 --> 01:14:53.690
is the actual submittal period,
01:14:53.690 --> 01:14:56.090
would they be able to do so,
01:14:56.090 --> 01:14:58.113
the entities that you represent?
01:15:00.620 --> 01:15:02.230
I can tell you that everybody
01:15:02.230 --> 01:15:05.070
would be able to submit them by July 1.
01:15:05.070 --> 01:15:06.700
I believe that there are those
01:15:06.700 --> 01:15:09.730
that would be able to get them in sooner.
01:15:09.730 --> 01:15:11.980
I can't speak for exactly when that would be,
01:15:11.980 --> 01:15:15.387
but I do believe that working with the NCPA
01:15:15.387 --> 01:15:17.720
and CMUA and SCPPA and coming up
01:15:17.720 --> 01:15:20.690
with what it is you're looking for, for these submittals,
01:15:20.690 --> 01:15:24.333
and a request to get them in as soon as possible
01:15:24.333 --> 01:15:25.450
makes a lot of sense,
01:15:25.450 --> 01:15:30.450
but the fact that they may have different
01:15:30.700 --> 01:15:33.770
approval processes, wait for different city council meetings
01:15:33.770 --> 01:15:36.070
to say, yes, this can now be sent off,
01:15:36.070 --> 01:15:37.860
I cannot commit to saying everybody
01:15:37.860 --> 01:15:40.163
could have them to you in six weeks.
01:15:41.630 --> 01:15:43.030
So for clarification,
01:15:43.030 --> 01:15:46.430
currently they are able to submit now,
01:15:46.430 --> 01:15:47.890
so we've got two of them already,
01:15:47.890 --> 01:15:49.940
so putting a date there doesn't matter.
01:15:49.940 --> 01:15:52.810
I would suggest that we make a recommendation
01:15:52.810 --> 01:15:57.810
to all the POUs to submit as soon as possible
01:15:58.000 --> 01:16:02.850
so that we can look and help build the template
01:16:02.850 --> 01:16:05.400
that you're recommending.
01:16:05.400 --> 01:16:09.393
I don't think we can put a date, increase,
01:16:11.224 --> 01:16:14.940
up the date that's required by law in the first place,
01:16:14.940 --> 01:16:17.760
but the fact that some are submitting already,
01:16:17.760 --> 01:16:19.920
they have the avenue to submit,
01:16:19.920 --> 01:16:22.130
so I don't believe we need to add a date
01:16:22.130 --> 01:16:23.430
if they can do it already.
01:16:27.499 --> 01:16:28.580
I also wanted to let you know
01:16:28.580 --> 01:16:31.030
real quick, sorry, we also received
01:16:31.030 --> 01:16:34.640
Glendale Water & Power's Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
01:16:34.640 --> 01:16:38.370
And in the simplistic form, really what this is,
01:16:38.370 --> 01:16:39.923
is where the starting line is.
01:16:40.799 --> 01:16:42.213
(chuckling) That's all it is.
01:16:43.390 --> 01:16:47.550
We're not asking to burden any of the POUs.
01:16:47.550 --> 01:16:50.690
It just lets them know, hey, starting on Tuesday
01:16:50.690 --> 01:16:51.523
I can start to
01:16:53.991 --> 01:16:57.840
send my WMPs to the board.
Thank you.
01:16:57.840 --> 01:17:01.250
Thank you, so that helped a lot.
01:17:01.250 --> 01:17:05.030
So what we're doing, and let me make sure I understand,
01:17:05.030 --> 01:17:10.030
what we're doing is the WMPs that have been prepared
01:17:10.350 --> 01:17:13.660
statutorily have to be filed by July.
01:17:13.660 --> 01:17:16.440
We're asking those to come in as soon as possible.
01:17:16.440 --> 01:17:21.440
Based on all of those, up to July 1st submittals,
01:17:23.887 --> 01:17:28.887
we will develop a template for 2020 for the next one
01:17:29.800 --> 01:17:34.800
that will be filed at the end of the year, end of 2020.
01:17:35.720 --> 01:17:37.170
Got it, okay.
01:17:37.170 --> 01:17:40.470
Any other questions or clarifications?
01:17:40.470 --> 01:17:42.400
And that's what you're asking for.
01:17:42.400 --> 01:17:43.930
Absolutely.
That went a long way,
01:17:43.930 --> 01:17:48.930
but thank you for hanging in there with me.
01:17:51.460 --> 01:17:52.840
Does staff have any questions
01:17:52.840 --> 01:17:54.423
before we go to public comment,
01:17:58.110 --> 01:18:00.330
since you'll be helping us?
01:18:00.330 --> 01:18:02.930
All right, is there any public comment on this item?
01:18:07.090 --> 01:18:11.740
All right, Mr. Porter, you earlier started with a motion,
01:18:14.020 --> 01:18:15.020
so let's have a vote.
01:18:15.020 --> 01:18:17.873
Do we have a motion on this item?
01:18:21.190 --> 01:18:22.740
Mr. Mader?
01:18:22.740 --> 01:18:25.740
Point of order, Chairman Fellman,
01:18:25.740 --> 01:18:27.490
is it really necessary to have a motion?
01:18:27.490 --> 01:18:31.760
Can we just issue a request that the POUs,
01:18:31.760 --> 01:18:35.530
when they can, as soon as they can, submit their WMPs?
01:18:37.357 --> 01:18:40.860
All I'm asking for is a motion
01:18:40.860 --> 01:18:43.410
to authorize us to make that request
01:18:43.410 --> 01:18:46.293
since we're advancing the statutory deadline.
01:18:49.790 --> 01:18:51.510
Chairman Fellman, I don't actually believe
01:18:51.510 --> 01:18:54.790
that we are advancing the statutory deadline.
01:18:54.790 --> 01:18:57.430
I thought we had come to some sort of consensus
01:18:57.430 --> 01:18:59.870
that we were just requesting that when they could
01:18:59.870 --> 01:19:04.730
that the POUs would submit their WMPs.
01:19:04.730 --> 01:19:07.620
Right, file in advance of the statutory deadline.
01:19:07.620 --> 01:19:09.651
I would like to have a vote on it,
01:19:09.651 --> 01:19:11.901
because I think it's something...
01:19:11.901 --> 01:19:14.010
I'm suggesting we vote on it because it's something
01:19:14.010 --> 01:19:17.780
that we wanna work with the WMPs,
01:19:17.780 --> 01:19:20.560
but Mr. Porter in his discussion
01:19:20.560 --> 01:19:22.490
felt strongly about setting that
01:19:22.490 --> 01:19:25.630
and I think we should have an expression
01:19:25.630 --> 01:19:27.023
of board support on that.
01:19:29.240 --> 01:19:31.820
Chairman Fellman, I move that the board request
01:19:31.820 --> 01:19:36.820
that the POUs submit their WMPs as soon as possible
01:19:36.990 --> 01:19:39.710
to the Wildfire Safety Advisory Board.
01:19:39.710 --> 01:19:43.688
And to clarify, that's the 2020 WMPs?
01:19:43.688 --> 01:19:47.130
Is that what year they're for?
01:19:47.130 --> 01:19:48.771
I accept the clarification.
01:19:48.771 --> 01:19:50.421
I just wanna make sure we're...
01:19:52.350 --> 01:19:53.183
I second.
01:19:54.820 --> 01:19:56.730
All right, all in favor?
01:19:56.730 --> 01:19:57.563
Aye.
01:19:58.900 --> 01:20:01.560
Motion passes and we will delegate this back
01:20:01.560 --> 01:20:06.090
to the POU/BK to work with the entities involved
01:20:06.090 --> 01:20:10.500
to execute on this and with staff.
01:20:10.500 --> 01:20:13.290
Yes, Katherine?
Just one clarification.
01:20:13.290 --> 01:20:16.380
The publicly-owned utilities and cooperatives
01:20:16.380 --> 01:20:20.910
can email them to us, Wildfire Safety Advisory Board
01:20:20.910 --> 01:20:23.280
at cpuc.ca.gov.
01:20:23.280 --> 01:20:27.240
If the file is too big to send through email,
01:20:27.240 --> 01:20:31.253
we can work that out, but just give us a holler.
01:20:34.030 --> 01:20:34.863
Great.
01:20:42.000 --> 01:20:46.970
All right, let's take a 15-minute break.
01:20:46.970 --> 01:20:50.430
We're a bit ahead of schedule, so let's take a 15-minute,
01:20:50.430 --> 01:20:51.530
and then we'll go into
01:20:51.530 --> 01:20:54.530
the Wildfire Safety Division presentations.
01:20:54.530 --> 01:20:55.363
Thank you.
01:41:00.130 --> 01:41:04.069
Pass those down.
01:41:04.069 --> 01:41:06.319
(laughing)
01:41:13.095 --> 01:41:16.678
Put those back away.
Yeah, take it away.
01:41:18.803 --> 01:41:20.220
John, want one?
01:41:22.430 --> 01:41:23.923
Okay, hello, board members.
01:41:25.270 --> 01:41:29.663
While Melissa's helping to get that presentation brought up,
01:41:29.663 --> 01:41:31.900
I just wanted to say good afternoon.
01:41:31.900 --> 01:41:33.070
Name is Christopher Meyer.
01:41:33.070 --> 01:41:35.620
I'm the manager of the compliance branch
01:41:35.620 --> 01:41:37.510
in the Wildfire Safety Division
01:41:37.510 --> 01:41:40.430
and the item that I was bringing to you
01:41:40.430 --> 01:41:43.640
is for information only at this point,
01:41:43.640 --> 01:41:46.480
and the reason therefore is that
01:41:46.480 --> 01:41:48.560
what I am gonna be talking about today
01:41:48.560 --> 01:41:52.250
is going to be finalized in a written form
01:41:52.250 --> 01:41:54.590
and put out for a 14-day public comment period.
01:41:54.590 --> 01:41:56.590
So it's nothing that we're looking at people
01:41:56.590 --> 01:41:59.560
having to make decisions on today.
01:41:59.560 --> 01:42:01.490
It's just to give you an idea
01:42:01.490 --> 01:42:04.330
of what our ideas or concept is
01:42:04.330 --> 01:42:07.300
so that we can get any feedback
01:42:07.300 --> 01:42:11.040
and if we need to make modifications to the draft
01:42:11.040 --> 01:42:12.850
that we're working on now, we can do that prior
01:42:12.850 --> 01:42:14.193
to put it out for comment.
01:42:21.140 --> 01:42:22.465
And I can give you a little background
01:42:22.465 --> 01:42:24.503
while they're bringing that up,
01:42:25.710 --> 01:42:27.480
but basically this is
01:42:29.505 --> 01:42:32.220
part of the Public Utilities Code 8386.3(c)(2)(A).
01:42:35.160 --> 01:42:39.780
It's where it requires the Wildfire Safety Division
01:42:39.780 --> 01:42:42.940
in consultation with CAL FIRE to make available
01:42:42.940 --> 01:42:46.240
a list of qualified independent evaluators.
01:42:46.240 --> 01:42:51.240
One thing just, too, for clarification
01:42:52.370 --> 01:42:55.430
is there are, if you look at 8386 and 8387,
01:42:55.430 --> 01:43:00.430
there are four distinct independent evaluators talked about.
01:43:03.900 --> 01:43:04.733
Thank you.
01:43:06.020 --> 01:43:08.860
So here let me advance this a little bit, oh, I can.
01:43:11.930 --> 01:43:14.230
Chris, your microphone's a little muddled,
01:43:14.230 --> 01:43:16.930
so I don't know if you have to...
01:43:18.640 --> 01:43:19.678
Yeah, thank you.
01:43:19.678 --> 01:43:21.200
That is probably just my voice,
01:43:21.200 --> 01:43:23.923
so I will unmuddle myself, hopefully.
01:43:27.529 --> 01:43:31.062
Anyway, here's the background is basically
01:43:31.062 --> 01:43:36.062
it requires our division in consultation with CAL FIRE
01:43:36.270 --> 01:43:41.270
to make available a list of independent evaluators
01:43:41.310 --> 01:43:42.910
with experience in assessing
01:43:42.910 --> 01:43:45.470
the safe operation of electrical infrastructure
01:43:45.470 --> 01:43:48.200
with a March 1st, 2021 deadline.
01:43:48.200 --> 01:43:51.790
I'll get to the timing on this in a later slide.
01:43:51.790 --> 01:43:54.850
But basically just to clarify then,
01:43:54.850 --> 01:43:58.740
once that list is made available,
01:43:58.740 --> 01:44:03.560
the electrical corporations are required to engage
01:44:03.560 --> 01:44:06.110
one of those independent evaluators from that list.
01:44:07.570 --> 01:44:09.010
The reason I wanted to clarify
01:44:09.010 --> 01:44:10.690
that they're different independent evaluators,
01:44:10.690 --> 01:44:12.080
when you're reading through it,
01:44:12.080 --> 01:44:13.800
there's one independent evaluator
01:44:13.800 --> 01:44:16.080
that works on the POU stuff in 8387,
01:44:16.080 --> 01:44:18.340
there's one, a separate independent evaluator
01:44:18.340 --> 01:44:21.290
that is the one that works
01:44:21.290 --> 01:44:24.220
for the Wildfire Safety Division as our contractor.
01:44:24.220 --> 01:44:28.320
So that's just something if people see various ones
01:44:28.320 --> 01:44:31.193
in there, just to keep that clear.
01:44:32.850 --> 01:44:36.900
So what we did is we looked through the key task
01:44:36.900 --> 01:44:40.880
in the legislation that the expectations
01:44:40.880 --> 01:44:44.100
in the legislation of the independent evaluator
01:44:44.100 --> 01:44:46.920
that would be the subject of this list
01:44:46.920 --> 01:44:49.200
and the task that they need to perform
01:44:50.460 --> 01:44:52.870
while doing that evaluation of the compliance
01:44:52.870 --> 01:44:56.020
of the electrical corporations,
01:44:56.020 --> 01:44:57.300
very simple, I'll go through this,
01:44:57.300 --> 01:45:00.700
task one, we wanted to make sure it was clearly pointed out
01:45:00.700 --> 01:45:04.410
that the expectation is there, an independent evaluator,
01:45:04.410 --> 01:45:08.020
they would be consulting openly, freely
01:45:08.020 --> 01:45:10.663
with Wildfire Safety Division staff,
01:45:12.120 --> 01:45:15.740
we'd not be someone who would speak through the utility
01:45:15.740 --> 01:45:18.290
or only be allowed to talk to us
01:45:18.290 --> 01:45:19.900
in the presence of the utility.
01:45:19.900 --> 01:45:21.910
We have to have that open communication.
01:45:21.910 --> 01:45:24.780
So we wanted to make sure that was very clear.
01:45:24.780 --> 01:45:26.540
Obviously, task two is performing
01:45:26.540 --> 01:45:28.240
the compliance assurance auditing,
01:45:28.240 --> 01:45:29.933
including the field inspections,
01:45:30.830 --> 01:45:33.493
basically to be the eyes and ears in the field.
01:45:34.620 --> 01:45:37.870
And they also have to provide a report.
01:45:37.870 --> 01:45:41.760
So basically what we'd be getting is a compliance report
01:45:41.760 --> 01:45:45.410
from the utilities saying how they did over the last year.
01:45:45.410 --> 01:45:48.010
We'd get a separate report from the independent evaluator.
01:45:48.010 --> 01:45:50.420
It would give us a little bit of a check and bAllences,
01:45:50.420 --> 01:45:53.510
and ultimately my staff would be in the field as well,
01:45:53.510 --> 01:45:56.500
adding a third set of eyes to make sure
01:45:56.500 --> 01:45:59.960
that not only this person was operating independently,
01:45:59.960 --> 01:46:02.080
but also to cover any white spaces
01:46:02.080 --> 01:46:05.083
that were missed by other people out there.
01:46:06.120 --> 01:46:10.900
So task four is a report in deficiencies.
01:46:10.900 --> 01:46:13.440
So we'd basically have an audit report
01:46:13.440 --> 01:46:16.910
saying here are where the utilities were not compliant
01:46:16.910 --> 01:46:19.670
with a portion of their plans,
01:46:19.670 --> 01:46:22.860
and we would give them timelines
01:46:22.860 --> 01:46:24.200
when we want them corrected.
01:46:24.200 --> 01:46:26.290
So the independent evaluator is expected
01:46:26.290 --> 01:46:28.560
to help us track that.
01:46:28.560 --> 01:46:31.360
We're working on a whole tracking system,
01:46:31.360 --> 01:46:34.610
database basically, to make sure that we follow up
01:46:34.610 --> 01:46:38.530
on all of these, and then ultimately, one of the last tasks
01:46:38.530 --> 01:46:41.090
would be the independent evaluator is required
01:46:41.090 --> 01:46:46.090
to report on the resolutions of those deficiencies.
01:46:48.478 --> 01:46:52.710
So basically in order to be able to do that,
01:46:53.570 --> 01:46:57.090
we set up a list of areas,
01:46:57.090 --> 01:47:01.440
and this is actually from the WMP requirements,
01:47:01.440 --> 01:47:03.193
the basic 10 categories,
01:47:04.100 --> 01:47:05.940
that if they're gonna do a good job on this,
01:47:05.940 --> 01:47:09.223
they're gonna have to have abilities in these areas.
01:47:10.570 --> 01:47:12.170
With some really good input
01:47:12.170 --> 01:47:15.520
from Safety and Enforcement Division staff,
01:47:15.520 --> 01:47:17.360
from legal office,
01:47:17.360 --> 01:47:22.360
and from contracts, as well as other advisors,
01:47:25.480 --> 01:47:27.660
we have been working on this quite a bit
01:47:27.660 --> 01:47:30.070
to figure out what the most logical way
01:47:30.070 --> 01:47:32.130
to go through this is, and realized that we did
01:47:32.130 --> 01:47:34.276
a very extensive review process
01:47:34.276 --> 01:47:38.220
on our independent evaluator,
01:47:38.220 --> 01:47:41.320
which we're calling our compliance assurance contractor,
01:47:41.320 --> 01:47:42.320
the one that would be working
01:47:42.320 --> 01:47:45.333
for the state Wildfire Safety Division directly.
01:47:46.370 --> 01:47:49.910
So we had bidder, we put an RFP out
01:47:50.780 --> 01:47:53.320
with very extensive criteria,
01:47:53.320 --> 01:47:56.250
we got very comprehensive bids back,
01:47:56.250 --> 01:47:57.710
and one of the things that was pointed out
01:47:57.710 --> 01:48:01.230
that it made a lot of sense to have those companies
01:48:01.230 --> 01:48:03.880
that had basically demonstrated they had the ability
01:48:03.880 --> 01:48:07.470
to be our contractor, if they weren't ultimately awarded,
01:48:07.470 --> 01:48:09.660
but they showed that they had the ability,
01:48:09.660 --> 01:48:11.400
they should automatically be on this list.
01:48:11.400 --> 01:48:12.233
It just made sense.
01:48:12.233 --> 01:48:14.747
So that would be one recommendation of ours we'd have.
01:48:14.747 --> 01:48:18.980
And those that didn't meet all of the technical,
01:48:18.980 --> 01:48:21.580
they fell short in one of those technical pieces
01:48:21.580 --> 01:48:25.840
on that RFP, they could submit sort of a short letter
01:48:25.840 --> 01:48:28.000
saying here's how we're addressing those gaps,
01:48:28.000 --> 01:48:30.023
and they could be on the list as well.
01:48:31.010 --> 01:48:33.410
Then for those who did not participate
01:48:33.410 --> 01:48:36.180
in that very extensive process,
01:48:36.180 --> 01:48:39.690
we would put together a shorter version
01:48:39.690 --> 01:48:43.660
where pointing to those requirements within that RFP
01:48:43.660 --> 01:48:46.000
saying instead of meeting all of the criteria,
01:48:46.000 --> 01:48:47.654
these are the ones that are necessary
01:48:47.654 --> 01:48:50.860
in order to meet these 10 criteria,
01:48:50.860 --> 01:48:54.890
and that would be a limited number of pages,
01:48:54.890 --> 01:48:59.030
very short, very sweet, you could go through that process
01:48:59.030 --> 01:49:00.560
and it would be a binary situation
01:49:00.560 --> 01:49:03.850
where it had to be pass or fail, not big grading.
01:49:03.850 --> 01:49:06.590
We're just trying to get minimum qualifications,
01:49:06.590 --> 01:49:10.330
and ultimately the IOU, the electric corporations,
01:49:10.330 --> 01:49:14.275
would have to do a bidding process with these companies
01:49:14.275 --> 01:49:17.140
to determine if these minimally qualified people
01:49:17.140 --> 01:49:19.480
can do specific work
01:49:19.480 --> 01:49:22.653
in that electric corporation's territory.
01:49:23.570 --> 01:49:25.970
But one caveat there, we wanna make sure
01:49:25.970 --> 01:49:29.620
that the scope of that contract with the IOUs
01:49:29.620 --> 01:49:32.860
is on point with what the regulation is,
01:49:32.860 --> 01:49:34.200
and if there isn't scope created
01:49:34.200 --> 01:49:36.390
because the electrical corporations
01:49:36.390 --> 01:49:39.240
are allowed to recuperate the cost
01:49:39.240 --> 01:49:41.890
of the independent evaluator through a general rate case,
01:49:41.890 --> 01:49:46.803
we wanna make sure we manage the scope of work on that.
01:49:48.750 --> 01:49:52.070
That is it.
01:49:52.070 --> 01:49:55.190
The reason that even though the requirement
01:49:55.190 --> 01:49:58.333
isn't until next year to have this list available,
01:49:59.740 --> 01:50:01.680
we sorta looked at a timeline going back,
01:50:01.680 --> 01:50:06.680
and apologies, I think I have a widescreen version of this,
01:50:07.360 --> 01:50:12.360
but we sorta ran back from the desire
01:50:16.390 --> 01:50:19.340
to have these independent evaluators as soon as possible,
01:50:19.340 --> 01:50:22.270
because some of the oversight tasks,
01:50:22.270 --> 01:50:24.440
if they're going to give us feedback
01:50:24.440 --> 01:50:26.690
on the electric corporation's compliance
01:50:27.920 --> 01:50:29.740
and help us have a counterpoint
01:50:30.804 --> 01:50:34.260
to any of the information from the utilities,
01:50:34.260 --> 01:50:36.410
we want them to be in the field as soon as possible.
01:50:36.410 --> 01:50:38.830
So we wanted to try to accelerate this,
01:50:38.830 --> 01:50:42.780
and with help from CAL FIRE in getting the basic areas
01:50:43.830 --> 01:50:46.660
set up where we're gonna look, we think we can do that.
01:50:46.660 --> 01:50:50.530
So that's why it's an accelerated timeline,
01:50:50.530 --> 01:50:53.790
and the final slide is just next steps,
01:50:53.790 --> 01:50:58.790
is post the draft of independent evaluator qualifications
01:50:59.230 --> 01:51:02.530
for a 15-day public comment period,
01:51:02.530 --> 01:51:05.150
and we're already doing several of these other steps
01:51:05.150 --> 01:51:09.293
where we're working with other PUC staff
01:51:11.470 --> 01:51:13.313
on developing the advertisement.
01:51:14.410 --> 01:51:17.320
We're also gonna be putting a website together
01:51:17.320 --> 01:51:21.510
where all of this information is on its discreet web page
01:51:21.510 --> 01:51:24.270
under the Wildfire Safety Division website,
01:51:24.270 --> 01:51:28.220
and then working with legal
01:51:28.220 --> 01:51:30.730
to find the contracts
01:51:30.730 --> 01:51:33.470
to develop the process for if we have issues
01:51:33.470 --> 01:51:34.958
with the independent evaluator,
01:51:34.958 --> 01:51:37.170
with them being independent or anything else,
01:51:37.170 --> 01:51:40.803
what are process for resolving any of those issues are,
01:51:42.500 --> 01:51:44.550
including up to delisting.
01:51:44.550 --> 01:51:46.620
So we just wanna make sure that of that's very clear
01:51:46.620 --> 01:51:48.980
in the beginning of what our expectations are
01:51:48.980 --> 01:51:50.730
in the behavior of these people.
01:51:50.730 --> 01:51:54.090
And one thing I skipped over a little bit,
01:51:54.090 --> 01:51:58.570
but one of the reasons that we like using the RFP
01:51:58.570 --> 01:52:00.570
as the foundation for the qualifications
01:52:00.570 --> 01:52:03.620
is within that document, it addressed a lot of things
01:52:03.620 --> 01:52:05.730
where we're not trying to say qualified or not,
01:52:05.730 --> 01:52:10.440
based on arbitrary issues.
01:52:10.440 --> 01:52:12.530
In that RFP it talked about
01:52:12.530 --> 01:52:16.083
being a journeyman lineman in IEBW, things of that nature,
01:52:16.920 --> 01:52:20.630
certified arborists, registered engineer.
01:52:20.630 --> 01:52:23.400
We know that if someone is a journeyman lineman,
01:52:23.400 --> 01:52:24.840
they have the experience.
01:52:24.840 --> 01:52:27.340
We don't have to make up different criteria.
01:52:27.340 --> 01:52:29.910
So by basically using that as a foundation,
01:52:29.910 --> 01:52:32.970
we know that the people are going to actually be qualified
01:52:32.970 --> 01:52:36.190
and if a third-party entity
01:52:36.190 --> 01:52:38.740
has already set up the qualifications,
01:52:38.740 --> 01:52:41.500
the training, all of that, it doesn't make sense for us
01:52:41.500 --> 01:52:44.108
to try to create something independent.
01:52:44.108 --> 01:52:48.140
That is the end of my presentation,
01:52:48.140 --> 01:52:50.763
and I'm open for any questions.
01:52:53.170 --> 01:52:54.920
So just out of curiosity,
01:52:56.000 --> 01:52:58.450
because they are supposed to be completely independent,
01:52:58.450 --> 01:53:02.300
how difficult has it been to find auditors
01:53:03.690 --> 01:53:07.780
that don't have some type of connection?
01:53:07.780 --> 01:53:12.350
What distance is set between those auditors and the IOUs
01:53:13.830 --> 01:53:16.703
with regards to during the selection process?
01:53:16.703 --> 01:53:19.070
That is actually an excellent question.
01:53:19.070 --> 01:53:24.070
Originally, before, I think Safety Enforcement Division
01:53:25.280 --> 01:53:30.280
put an RFP out with the traditional conflict of interest,
01:53:30.970 --> 01:53:35.210
very discreet, got no bidders
01:53:35.210 --> 01:53:36.840
that could come in on that bid.
01:53:36.840 --> 01:53:38.640
So we had to step back and sorta say,
01:53:38.640 --> 01:53:41.470
okay, we understand that most of the people,
01:53:41.470 --> 01:53:44.200
if you're qualified to do the work in California,
01:53:44.200 --> 01:53:46.850
you have the experience in California,
01:53:46.850 --> 01:53:48.360
you're gonna have gotten that experience
01:53:48.360 --> 01:53:50.350
working with the IOUs, in most cases.
01:53:50.350 --> 01:53:53.020
So, there had to basically be more of a situation
01:53:53.020 --> 01:53:54.670
where it was looking at firewalls,
01:53:54.670 --> 01:53:58.730
saying, okay, you're gonna have connections,
01:53:58.730 --> 01:54:00.040
you're gonna have some areas
01:54:00.040 --> 01:54:01.880
that could be potential conflicts of interest.
01:54:01.880 --> 01:54:03.960
How do we work on setting up firewalls
01:54:03.960 --> 01:54:07.370
between the crew that are independent working with us
01:54:07.370 --> 01:54:09.670
and maybe other divisions within that company
01:54:09.670 --> 01:54:11.880
or other teams within the company
01:54:11.880 --> 01:54:14.210
that have either existing
01:54:14.210 --> 01:54:15.610
or past relationships with the IOUs?
01:54:15.610 --> 01:54:19.883
So it is difficult, because it's a small world
01:54:21.760 --> 01:54:24.320
when you find the people that have the experience
01:54:24.320 --> 01:54:25.320
that got the experience
01:54:25.320 --> 01:54:27.370
working with the electrical corporations.
01:54:33.713 --> 01:54:38.060
Okay, at this point, I will turn it over to Melissa
01:54:38.060 --> 01:54:41.030
for her presentation, if there are no more comments.
01:54:41.030 --> 01:54:42.860
Thank you very much, Mr. Meyer.
01:54:42.860 --> 01:54:44.173
We really appreciate it.
01:54:47.960 --> 01:54:48.973
Miss Semcer.
01:54:53.830 --> 01:54:56.143
Any lower? (chuckles)
01:54:59.380 --> 01:55:01.340
Okay, good afternoon, I'm Melissa Semcer,
01:55:01.340 --> 01:55:05.400
the program manager here with the Wildfire Safety Division,
01:55:05.400 --> 01:55:07.730
and I'm going to be orienting you today
01:55:07.730 --> 01:55:12.260
to where we are in our Wildfire Mitigation Plan
01:55:12.260 --> 01:55:15.940
review process for the 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plans.
01:55:15.940 --> 01:55:20.170
And then from there, I'm going to offer some key areas
01:55:20.170 --> 01:55:22.280
of I would say public interest
01:55:22.280 --> 01:55:24.050
that came out during the workshops,
01:55:24.050 --> 01:55:27.190
I know there were varying levels of participation,
01:55:27.190 --> 01:55:28.930
Some of you were there the entire time,
01:55:28.930 --> 01:55:32.980
and some of you were online listening for various sessions,
01:55:32.980 --> 01:55:35.680
so to orient you to what we heard
01:55:36.940 --> 01:55:39.640
and to orient the public as well.
01:55:39.640 --> 01:55:42.840
So, where we are in the evaluation process
01:55:42.840 --> 01:55:45.110
is we are deep in our review.
01:55:45.110 --> 01:55:48.130
So it's kinda the circled black box, so to speak,
01:55:48.130 --> 01:55:50.860
in the sense that it's not really a black box,
01:55:50.860 --> 01:55:53.500
but in the sense of that we and our internal teams
01:55:53.500 --> 01:55:57.420
are in the review process as we speak.
01:55:57.420 --> 01:55:59.650
So the plans came in on February 7th.
01:55:59.650 --> 01:56:03.550
Then we had the informational workshops
01:56:03.550 --> 01:56:06.640
where the utilities presented an overview of their plans
01:56:06.640 --> 01:56:08.760
on February 18th and 19th.
01:56:08.760 --> 01:56:13.670
And then the technical workshops on February 24th and 25th.
01:56:13.670 --> 01:56:17.320
We allowed the utilities to provide updates to their plans,
01:56:17.320 --> 01:56:21.230
especially corrections, up until March 3rd.
01:56:21.230 --> 01:56:22.873
And then we during that time,
01:56:22.873 --> 01:56:25.740
have also started issuing data requests.
01:56:25.740 --> 01:56:28.390
So our evaluation team consists
01:56:28.390 --> 01:56:31.640
of a cross-functional team of subject matter experts,
01:56:31.640 --> 01:56:35.570
both from the PUC and also from CAL FIRE.
01:56:35.570 --> 01:56:40.090
And we issued a set of data requests on February 26th
01:56:40.090 --> 01:56:44.100
that focused mainly on missing pieces of information
01:56:44.100 --> 01:56:46.220
that were not contained in the plans,
01:56:46.220 --> 01:56:48.340
and that was a large number of data requests
01:56:48.340 --> 01:56:51.980
that went out to all the different electrical corporations.
01:56:51.980 --> 01:56:54.560
We've also issued a second set of data requests
01:56:54.560 --> 01:56:57.050
on March 5th and March 6th,
01:56:57.050 --> 01:56:59.200
and those were more item specific
01:56:59.200 --> 01:57:02.170
or technically specific areas.
01:57:02.170 --> 01:57:07.020
All of those data requests and also updated plans
01:57:07.020 --> 01:57:09.560
can be found on our website.
01:57:09.560 --> 01:57:12.240
So I wanna orient you to that so that you can find
01:57:12.240 --> 01:57:14.790
what's already being asked for by other parties
01:57:14.790 --> 01:57:19.790
when you think about offering your own expertise on this.
01:57:19.790 --> 01:57:24.303
So we have a website, cpuc.ca.gov/wildfiremitigationplans.
01:57:26.570 --> 01:57:30.010
And on that website, each of the utilities has a link,
01:57:30.010 --> 01:57:31.520
so if you click, for example,
01:57:31.520 --> 01:57:34.720
on Southern California Edison's WMP,
01:57:34.720 --> 01:57:37.370
it actually takes you to their website,
01:57:37.370 --> 01:57:40.320
so it's not ours, it's going directly to theirs.
01:57:40.320 --> 01:57:41.630
And on their website,
01:57:41.630 --> 01:57:44.420
you'll find their originally filed plans,
01:57:44.420 --> 01:57:46.530
and then when we've asked for data requests,
01:57:46.530 --> 01:57:48.980
we've also asked them to send redline versions
01:57:48.980 --> 01:57:51.270
so that you can see what is new
01:57:51.270 --> 01:57:53.880
as far as data that's being submitted.
01:57:53.880 --> 01:57:56.490
You can also see all of our data requests
01:57:56.490 --> 01:57:58.740
and then all of their responses.
01:57:58.740 --> 01:58:00.850
And in addition, you can see data requests
01:58:00.850 --> 01:58:03.260
from other parties that have, for example,
01:58:03.260 --> 01:58:05.397
the Utility Reform Network has submitted some,
01:58:05.397 --> 01:58:08.530
the Public Advocates Office I believe has submitted some.
01:58:08.530 --> 01:58:10.400
So that's the orienting place,
01:58:10.400 --> 01:58:13.290
we asked each of them to create those websites
01:58:13.290 --> 01:58:15.350
in order to have a roadmap
01:58:15.350 --> 01:58:18.513
for everybody to be able to find that information easily.
01:58:19.890 --> 01:58:23.120
From here, we plan to complete our review process,
01:58:23.120 --> 01:58:25.880
and then begin the writing process for resolutions,
01:58:25.880 --> 01:58:29.540
where we'll issue our guidance on whether we wish
01:58:29.540 --> 01:58:33.020
to approve or deny the Wildfire Mitigation Plans.
01:58:33.020 --> 01:58:35.320
Prior to that, we'll be taking stakeholder comments
01:58:35.320 --> 01:58:37.750
on April 7th, and then responses
01:58:37.750 --> 01:58:40.700
from the electrical corporations on April 16th,
01:58:40.700 --> 01:58:45.120
with the goal of issuing the draft resolutions on May 7th,
01:58:45.120 --> 01:58:48.500
and then the earliest Commission meeting date is June 11th.
01:58:48.500 --> 01:58:50.087
So, we are in the heart of it right now
01:58:50.087 --> 01:58:53.020
and are looking forward to receiving your input as well
01:58:53.020 --> 01:58:54.220
at the end of the month.
01:58:56.380 --> 01:58:58.830
It seems like these went off-scale for some reason,
01:58:58.830 --> 01:59:02.110
the slides, so hopefully you all can see them.
01:59:02.110 --> 01:59:04.040
Are you willing to take questions
01:59:04.040 --> 01:59:05.740
on each sort of topic
01:59:05.740 --> 01:59:06.760
as we go through part?
Absolutely.
01:59:06.760 --> 01:59:10.350
Are there any questions about the submittal deadlines
01:59:10.350 --> 01:59:11.923
or the data requests?
01:59:13.540 --> 01:59:14.433
Ms. Block?
01:59:15.890 --> 01:59:18.163
This is a really basic question.
01:59:20.030 --> 01:59:21.850
In the data requests that you've submitted,
01:59:21.850 --> 01:59:24.560
is there any clear way that they've denoted
01:59:24.560 --> 01:59:28.420
which ones came from you versus other stakeholders,
01:59:28.420 --> 01:59:29.823
or do you now?
Yes.
01:59:31.030 --> 01:59:34.653
All of ours have a unique ID number that starts with WSD.
01:59:34.653 --> 01:59:36.940
WSD?
WSD, yes, yes.
01:59:36.940 --> 01:59:38.610
And I believe, depending on the website,
01:59:38.610 --> 01:59:40.680
but I believe that they have some of them
01:59:40.680 --> 01:59:41.750
separated into buckets,
01:59:41.750 --> 01:59:43.180
but it's very clear which ones are ours.
01:59:43.180 --> 01:59:45.453
Okay, thanks.
You're welcome.
01:59:47.640 --> 01:59:48.823
Any other questions?
01:59:51.900 --> 01:59:54.373
Okay, so moving along,
01:59:55.620 --> 01:59:58.923
just some takeaways from the workshops.
01:59:59.760 --> 02:00:01.160
The first set of workshops
02:00:01.160 --> 02:00:05.083
was where each of the utilities presented their plans,
02:00:05.980 --> 02:00:08.160
and what we found or what we saw
02:00:08.160 --> 02:00:10.330
is that the electrical corporations
02:00:10.330 --> 02:00:12.800
are generally progressing on their 2019 learnings.
02:00:12.800 --> 02:00:15.770
So their plans are a step forward
02:00:15.770 --> 02:00:18.880
from where they were in 2019 into 2020.
02:00:18.880 --> 02:00:22.210
The plans were much data-driven
02:00:22.210 --> 02:00:27.020
and provided a much more clear picture
02:00:27.020 --> 02:00:29.700
on what their inspections findings are,
02:00:29.700 --> 02:00:33.220
what their ignition-drivers are, what they were finding
02:00:33.220 --> 02:00:35.540
in terms of their climate predictions.
02:00:35.540 --> 02:00:38.280
All of these, of course, are a function of the guidelines
02:00:38.280 --> 02:00:40.420
that we put out in terms of asking
02:00:40.420 --> 02:00:42.270
for particular information and metrics
02:00:42.270 --> 02:00:44.510
on which to understand the situation
02:00:44.510 --> 02:00:46.560
in the world that they're living in today
02:00:46.560 --> 02:00:49.560
so that we can then evaluate each of the initiatives
02:00:49.560 --> 02:00:51.050
that they're putting forward
02:00:51.050 --> 02:00:54.750
against what is being happening on the ground,
02:00:54.750 --> 02:00:56.530
what is causing the ignitions,
02:00:56.530 --> 02:01:00.556
to see whether these initiatives are indeed appropriate
02:01:00.556 --> 02:01:03.440
to reach the goal of I would say two-fold,
02:01:03.440 --> 02:01:05.980
one reducing ignitions, that's the ultimate goal,
02:01:05.980 --> 02:01:08.970
and of course reducing the scale and scope of PSPS events,
02:01:08.970 --> 02:01:10.510
which is one tool
02:01:11.440 --> 02:01:14.023
in the wildfire mitigation toolkit for utilities.
02:01:15.180 --> 02:01:18.180
On the technical workshops on the 24th and 25th,
02:01:18.180 --> 02:01:21.570
we focused on some deep-dive areas,
02:01:21.570 --> 02:01:23.760
vegetation management and grid hardening,
02:01:23.760 --> 02:01:26.900
focusing on inspections, and then risk/spend efficiency
02:01:26.900 --> 02:01:29.290
and emerging technologies.
02:01:29.290 --> 02:01:31.780
We analyzed the key ignition drivers.
02:01:31.780 --> 02:01:33.390
The utilities focused a lot,
02:01:33.390 --> 02:01:36.450
and so did parties or interested stakeholders,
02:01:36.450 --> 02:01:39.010
on the actions that were being taken
02:01:39.010 --> 02:01:42.063
to reduce the scale and scope of PSPS events.
02:01:43.170 --> 02:01:45.950
One of the interesting questions that was asked
02:01:45.950 --> 02:01:48.620
was what do the utilities consider,
02:01:48.620 --> 02:01:51.570
if there was one thing that they really figure out,
02:01:51.570 --> 02:01:52.672
what would it be?
02:01:52.672 --> 02:01:55.510
And for the most part, it was detecting faults
02:01:55.510 --> 02:01:57.070
and stopping them as soon as possible.
02:01:57.070 --> 02:01:58.460
So there was a lot of interest
02:01:58.460 --> 02:02:02.040
in those emerging technologies that detect faults rapidly
02:02:02.040 --> 02:02:03.733
and de-energize lines rapidly.
02:02:05.680 --> 02:02:06.990
There's definitely a focus
02:02:06.990 --> 02:02:09.460
on understanding situation awareness,
02:02:09.460 --> 02:02:12.450
upgrading the grid and the configurations of the grid
02:02:12.450 --> 02:02:15.870
in order to reduce the scale and scope of PSPS events,
02:02:15.870 --> 02:02:18.690
and the utilities had various goals
02:02:18.690 --> 02:02:23.690
for re-energizing undamaged lines after a PSPS event
02:02:24.000 --> 02:02:26.800
that ranged, depending on how you looked at them,
02:02:26.800 --> 02:02:28.530
at about a 24-hour period.
02:02:28.530 --> 02:02:31.496
It's 12 hours of daylight hours for PG&E
02:02:31.496 --> 02:02:32.470
and 24 for some others,
02:02:32.470 --> 02:02:34.980
which essentially if you take nighttime into theirs
02:02:34.980 --> 02:02:36.053
is the same thing.
02:02:37.730 --> 02:02:40.246
The utilities also faced across the board
02:02:40.246 --> 02:02:43.810
some similar challenges, for example,
02:02:43.810 --> 02:02:46.010
the ability to retain the appropriate workforce.
02:02:46.010 --> 02:02:48.440
For example, arborists and tree trimmers
02:02:48.440 --> 02:02:50.360
in order to do the vegetation management
02:02:50.360 --> 02:02:52.090
that's being required.
02:02:52.090 --> 02:02:53.800
It was also interesting to hear
02:02:53.800 --> 02:02:55.750
about the different types of vegetation
02:02:55.750 --> 02:02:59.370
and how, of course, across service territories
02:02:59.370 --> 02:03:02.010
what the utilities are facing in terms of their programs,
02:03:02.010 --> 02:03:05.650
and that helps to explain why they're focusing
02:03:05.650 --> 02:03:09.380
on different areas, for example, what the sources of concern
02:03:09.380 --> 02:03:11.080
are in terms of types of trees,
02:03:11.080 --> 02:03:13.610
or for example, Northern California having a faster
02:03:13.610 --> 02:03:17.803
grow-back rate of vegetation as presented by the utilities.
02:03:19.556 --> 02:03:21.390
And so we had a productive discussion
02:03:21.390 --> 02:03:24.060
that was quite in-depth on risk/spend efficiency
02:03:24.060 --> 02:03:28.170
and that's an area that is ripe for growth
02:03:28.170 --> 02:03:31.260
in terms of the utilities thinking that way
02:03:31.260 --> 02:03:33.490
and presenting the information in that way,
02:03:33.490 --> 02:03:36.240
and there was a lot of interest and discussion on that.
02:03:39.390 --> 02:03:40.760
Those are just some broad takeaways.
02:03:40.760 --> 02:03:42.320
I have a few others that I could get into,
02:03:42.320 --> 02:03:46.220
but there's just some broad takeaways of what was discussed,
02:03:46.220 --> 02:03:48.360
and I'm happy to go into any areas further
02:03:48.360 --> 02:03:49.653
or answer any questions.
02:03:51.700 --> 02:03:56.540
Thank you, I do wanna note and express our appreciation
02:03:56.540 --> 02:04:01.380
that you invited our board members to participate
02:04:01.380 --> 02:04:02.963
in the technical workshops.
02:04:04.130 --> 02:04:07.570
I was actually going to put them on the spot,
02:04:07.570 --> 02:04:10.290
those of who attended, do you have any comments
02:04:10.290 --> 02:04:13.370
about the workshops or any additions or questions
02:04:13.370 --> 02:04:15.563
that you want to add?
02:04:20.600 --> 02:04:23.470
It struck me how different the different utilities
02:04:23.470 --> 02:04:27.690
were approaching the risk/spend efficiency model there.
02:04:27.690 --> 02:04:32.580
It's really wide open over how you interpret the factors
02:04:32.580 --> 02:04:37.393
that they're directed to consider in their bow tie analysis.
02:04:38.700 --> 02:04:43.170
I think that that's an area that the advisory board
02:04:43.170 --> 02:04:47.200
can issue advice or to drive decisions
02:04:49.400 --> 02:04:52.440
to achieve the people of California's desire,
02:04:52.440 --> 02:04:57.440
which is of course to avoid utility initiated wildfires.
02:04:57.700 --> 02:05:00.880
But also from the public comment that we saw,
02:05:00.880 --> 02:05:04.500
I think a lot of folks were espousing
02:05:04.500 --> 02:05:09.210
that PSPS events themselves are undesirable,
02:05:09.210 --> 02:05:14.180
and the risk/spend efficiency instructions aren't clear
02:05:14.180 --> 02:05:16.110
or don't make it a priority
02:05:16.110 --> 02:05:19.550
to consider the PSPS event itself a risk,
02:05:19.550 --> 02:05:21.820
the interruption of power,
02:05:21.820 --> 02:05:24.140
the interruption to the economy,
02:05:24.140 --> 02:05:26.150
the danger to individuals,
02:05:26.150 --> 02:05:27.970
and I think that that's an area
02:05:27.970 --> 02:05:29.920
that really became clear to me
02:05:29.920 --> 02:05:31.680
through those technical workshops.
02:05:31.680 --> 02:05:33.480
So I really appreciate that you invited us
02:05:33.480 --> 02:05:38.480
and provided that opportunity to observe.
02:05:38.710 --> 02:05:41.040
I really think that that's one key area
02:05:41.040 --> 02:05:44.258
that we're gonna be able to make improvements.
02:05:44.258 --> 02:05:45.091
Forward to it.
02:05:50.040 --> 02:05:55.040
Hi, I was really impressed on the informational workshops
02:05:56.070 --> 02:05:57.840
with how much information could get packed
02:05:57.840 --> 02:06:00.700
into their 45-minute presentations.
02:06:00.700 --> 02:06:02.240
That was very cool.
02:06:02.240 --> 02:06:04.890
And then the technical workshops
02:06:04.890 --> 02:06:07.330
I felt like there was really only so much detail
02:06:07.330 --> 02:06:09.440
they could get into in that sort of setting,
02:06:09.440 --> 02:06:13.370
so I felt like it came across more questions than answers
02:06:13.370 --> 02:06:17.010
in the technical workshops, but they were very helpful.
02:06:17.010 --> 02:06:18.350
Thanks for inviting us and having us.
02:06:18.350 --> 02:06:19.500
It was really helpful.
02:06:20.388 --> 02:06:21.490
Thank you for participating on a panel.
02:06:21.490 --> 02:06:22.490
We appreciated that.
02:06:29.280 --> 02:06:34.280
Alexandra, Dr. Syphard was observing and engaging,
02:06:36.510 --> 02:06:39.920
so we didn't see her there, but you were very much involved.
02:06:39.920 --> 02:06:41.423
Do you have any comments?
02:06:45.210 --> 02:06:47.500
I agree with what Jessica said,
02:06:47.500 --> 02:06:51.810
is that I got a lot more out of the informational workshops
02:06:51.810 --> 02:06:54.250
I think because they were actually
02:06:54.250 --> 02:06:55.940
formally presenting something
02:06:55.940 --> 02:06:57.390
which they had already prepared
02:06:57.390 --> 02:07:00.333
and so they did pack a lot of information in.
02:07:02.030 --> 02:07:04.810
You know, honestly, I was somewhat impressed
02:07:04.810 --> 02:07:05.870
at the whole thing.
02:07:05.870 --> 02:07:09.420
I felt like, at least on the surface,
02:07:09.420 --> 02:07:12.120
everybody appeared to be really earnestly working
02:07:12.120 --> 02:07:16.380
toward trying to make improvements in their plans,
02:07:16.380 --> 02:07:19.723
but it's a lot of information to digest as well.
02:07:20.779 --> 02:07:22.029
It is.
Yeah, thanks.
02:07:25.600 --> 02:07:29.950
And in our mission statement and I mentioned earlier,
02:07:29.950 --> 02:07:32.520
so this is a good opportunity to show an example
02:07:32.520 --> 02:07:35.560
where the members of our board
02:07:35.560 --> 02:07:40.560
are available to the Wildfire Safety Division at the PUC
02:07:40.960 --> 02:07:45.960
as well as to the publicly-owned utilities
02:07:46.150 --> 02:07:51.150
in a consultative manner as well to share our expertise
02:07:51.850 --> 02:07:54.253
to the extent it's useful for you.
02:07:59.880 --> 02:08:01.033
Anything else?
02:08:05.880 --> 02:08:08.240
I guess I had another slide, I'm sorry.
02:08:08.240 --> 02:08:11.240
We went into this, and I can't actually read it,
02:08:11.240 --> 02:08:12.528
so it's a little challenging.
02:08:12.528 --> 02:08:15.317
(laughing)
02:08:15.317 --> 02:08:17.264
(speaking with microphone off)
02:08:17.264 --> 02:08:18.714
I'm not sure what's happened.
02:08:20.350 --> 02:08:22.540
And we already covered this to some degree,
02:08:22.540 --> 02:08:25.120
but just in fairness of actually
02:08:25.120 --> 02:08:28.670
having all my slides covered, they're key initiatives
02:08:28.670 --> 02:08:30.920
and of course these did vary across the utilities,
02:08:30.920 --> 02:08:32.410
depending on their service territories,
02:08:32.410 --> 02:08:34.597
were definitely grid design and system hardening,
02:08:34.597 --> 02:08:37.030
veg management and the inspections,
02:08:37.030 --> 02:08:39.980
asset management and also those inspections,
02:08:39.980 --> 02:08:42.830
the grid operations and protocols, including situation,
02:08:42.830 --> 02:08:45.130
oh, I'm sorry, and situational awareness and forecasting.
02:08:45.130 --> 02:08:47.500
So that trended along with what ended up
02:08:47.500 --> 02:08:50.040
being the topics that we looked at at the workshop,
02:08:50.040 --> 02:08:52.560
but that seems to be the key initiatives
02:08:52.560 --> 02:08:53.960
as they're bubbling to the surface
02:08:53.960 --> 02:08:56.360
in the plans of where the utilities are looking.
02:09:01.140 --> 02:09:02.240
Any further questions?
02:09:05.210 --> 02:09:07.623
Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much.
02:09:08.730 --> 02:09:11.170
And thank you also for channeling
02:09:11.170 --> 02:09:13.730
this enormous amount of information
02:09:13.730 --> 02:09:17.953
and funneling it into these key initiatives.
02:09:20.768 --> 02:09:23.310
It takes a lot of effort to do that,
02:09:23.310 --> 02:09:26.840
even though it seems very simple when you see the result.
02:09:26.840 --> 02:09:30.973
So again, both Mr. Meyer and Ms. Semcer,
02:09:32.378 --> 02:09:33.440
thank you very much.
02:09:33.440 --> 02:09:38.440
And we have Caroline Thomas Jacobs in the audience as well,
02:09:38.660 --> 02:09:41.103
so thank you for all your efforts.
02:09:42.070 --> 02:09:45.000
All right, I think we've come to the end
02:09:45.000 --> 02:09:46.950
of our presentations.
02:09:46.950 --> 02:09:51.950
Does staff have anything they want to leave us with
02:09:52.260 --> 02:09:54.310
before we go to sort of...
02:09:54.310 --> 02:09:56.450
I'll take a round of final comments
02:09:56.450 --> 02:09:58.240
from the board members after staff,
02:09:58.240 --> 02:10:01.643
and then we'll have another opportunity for public comment.
02:10:03.160 --> 02:10:06.210
Just the timeline, we haven't yet posted it,
02:10:06.210 --> 02:10:08.783
but we'll get it posted as soon as possible.
02:10:10.730 --> 02:10:14.033
We found one error in the timeline, so I'll correct that.
02:10:15.240 --> 02:10:16.783
The vote today,
02:10:19.130 --> 02:10:22.340
was it for April 1st that we'll begin accepting,
02:10:22.340 --> 02:10:25.203
or we'll begin accepting on April 15th?
02:10:26.110 --> 02:10:29.290
Yes.
Okay, so I can put that date
02:10:29.290 --> 02:10:30.973
in the timeline as well.
02:10:33.910 --> 02:10:37.401
Right, Mr. Porter?
15th.
02:10:37.401 --> 02:10:38.401
Thank you.
02:10:41.240 --> 02:10:44.590
On my end, we look forward to receiving
02:10:44.590 --> 02:10:49.190
your first round comments
02:10:49.190 --> 02:10:51.440
by Wednesday of new week.
02:10:51.440 --> 02:10:53.400
You'll be hearing from me.
02:10:53.400 --> 02:10:55.150
I look forward to working with you.
02:11:01.430 --> 02:11:02.523
Anything else?
02:11:04.040 --> 02:11:07.400
We'll now turn to public comment.
02:11:07.400 --> 02:11:09.980
Is there anyone who would like to make a public comment?
02:11:09.980 --> 02:11:11.980
Please come forward and state your name.
02:11:16.890 --> 02:11:20.050
Good afternoon, Chris Parks from Public Advocates Office.
02:11:20.050 --> 02:11:23.970
I wanted to ask, earlier Chair Fellman mentioned
02:11:23.970 --> 02:11:27.280
that the members would be available
02:11:27.280 --> 02:11:30.943
to the Wildfire Safety Division and also to the utilities.
02:11:31.900 --> 02:11:33.825
Is there an opportunity for other folks
02:11:33.825 --> 02:11:38.770
to benefit from the expertise of the panel
02:11:38.770 --> 02:11:40.100
if they had specific things
02:11:40.100 --> 02:11:45.100
that they wanted to request more understanding of?
02:11:47.550 --> 02:11:50.110
We had not anticipated that request,
02:11:50.110 --> 02:11:52.320
so we'll take that under advisement.
02:11:52.320 --> 02:11:56.500
It's not something that was put into our portfolio,
02:11:56.500 --> 02:11:58.720
but if you have questions,
02:11:58.720 --> 02:12:01.210
please submit them through the staff
02:12:03.210 --> 02:12:05.610
and we'll talk about that and see what we can do.
02:12:05.610 --> 02:12:07.160
Thank you.
You're welcome.
02:12:09.640 --> 02:12:11.143
Any other public comment?
02:12:17.710 --> 02:12:19.180
Hello, hi, Henry Burton,
02:12:19.180 --> 02:12:21.290
also with the Public Advocates Office,
02:12:21.290 --> 02:12:24.120
and I was looking at your timeline earlier.
02:12:24.120 --> 02:12:27.440
As I recall, you're expecting to send draft
02:12:27.440 --> 02:12:28.780
recommendations or comments
02:12:28.780 --> 02:12:32.490
on the IOU Wildfire Mitigation Plans by the end of March
02:12:32.490 --> 02:12:36.223
and then to adopt them formally in April.
02:12:37.360 --> 02:12:39.450
What form are those gonna take?
02:12:39.450 --> 02:12:41.460
Are they gonna be...
02:12:41.460 --> 02:12:43.530
Is that gonna be a written document that you'll be adopting
02:12:43.530 --> 02:12:46.800
or just a set of verbal recommendations?
02:12:46.800 --> 02:12:48.220
A set of what kind of recommendations?
02:12:48.220 --> 02:12:49.540
Verbal recommendations.
02:12:49.540 --> 02:12:50.650
It will be written.
02:12:50.650 --> 02:12:51.483
It will be a written document.
02:12:51.483 --> 02:12:52.450
And it will be posted.
02:12:52.450 --> 02:12:54.200
And it'll be posted at that time?
02:12:55.220 --> 02:12:56.860
Would we be able to...
02:12:56.860 --> 02:12:59.270
Would members of the public be able to see it
02:12:59.270 --> 02:13:02.900
at the draft stage or only after the April 15th meeting?
02:13:02.900 --> 02:13:05.790
Under Bagley-Keene, you will see it,
02:13:05.790 --> 02:13:09.350
we are an open meeting board, so you'll see the draft,
02:13:09.350 --> 02:13:10.640
and we'll have opportunity
02:13:10.640 --> 02:13:14.750
for public written comment on that as well,
02:13:14.750 --> 02:13:19.750
and Ms. Ormond can give you our email address again,
02:13:20.640 --> 02:13:24.353
Wildfire Safety Advisory Board at cpac.ca.com.
02:13:25.999 --> 02:13:29.270
And of course, I was gonna say
02:13:29.270 --> 02:13:31.990
you could walk it over to them, but it would be better,
02:13:31.990 --> 02:13:34.980
I don't know which office you're located in,
02:13:34.980 --> 02:13:37.500
but it would be better to submit it via email
02:13:37.500 --> 02:13:39.930
and they will distribute that to the board.
02:13:39.930 --> 02:13:42.603
They're conduit for information.
02:13:43.970 --> 02:13:44.953
Thank you.
02:13:48.100 --> 02:13:49.683
Any other public comment?
02:13:51.490 --> 02:13:55.023
Seeing none, is there a motion for adjournment?
02:13:56.460 --> 02:13:57.460
Ralph hasn't moved today.
02:13:57.460 --> 02:13:59.693
I will put out a motion for adjournment.
02:14:01.660 --> 02:14:03.073
Second?
Second.
02:14:03.920 --> 02:14:05.374
All in favor?
02:14:05.374 --> 02:14:06.374
Aye.
02:14:07.410 --> 02:14:08.465
The meeting is adjourned.
02:14:08.465 --> 02:14:11.215
(gavel pounding)