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Segment 1

Recording in progress.
Hold on one second.
Test, test.
And hello.
Okay.
I think we're going to get started, folks, if you could please take your seats.
All right, don't have the agenda in front of me, but.
All right, I'm going to call this special meeting to order.
It is Tuesday, February 11th, and I would like to start with the roll, please.
Okay.
Council member Kesarwani is currently absent.
Taplin? Present.
Bartlett is currently absent.
Tregub? Present.
O'Keefe? Present.
Blackaby? Here.
Lunaparra? Here.
Humbert? Present.
And Mayor Ishii? Here.
All right, thank you so much.
Well, this is a special meeting, so I'm going to pass it over to Chief Sprague.
Thank you very much.
Good evening, Mayor, Council, and residents.
The events of last month in L.A.
were heartbreaking.
Everyone in the Bay Area Fire Service wanted to be down there helping.
Most of us were not able to, and so instead we spent the last month working with many stakeholders throughout the community to prepare for tonight's presentation.
The fires in L.A.
changed the course of thousands of lives, creating acute and chronic health problems and leaving in their wake an environmental and financial disaster.
But these events were predictable, as were the fires in Paradise, Santa Rosa, Lahaina, and many others.
Not just predictable, but in many cases, these fires have occurred in similar areas before.
Fires burn along predictable and known topographical features driven by the right mix of fuel and weather conditions.
Fire is a natural and recurring part of the California landscape.
And like many forces of nature, we cannot prevent fires from burning.
Fire ran through this land on a recurring cycle every 5 to 10 years for millennia before PG&E strung transmission lines through our wildland areas and before we moved into fire-prone areas and filled it with hazardous vegetation.
We can, however, learn to live with fire by implementing well-understood, scientifically-supported defensible space and home-hardening measures through which we create a fire-adaptive community.
These steps will dramatically reduce the potential for loss of property and loss of life.
While there will continue to be an important place for fire suppression, our efforts to remove fire from the landscape through an industrialized response have failed.
And it will take an all-hands approach to transition our community to being more fire-safe.
In the photo you see here, you can see a tree that had experienced fire about every 10 years, ending around the turn of the century, at which point we systematically excluded fire from the landscape.
While the fire problem we face today is partially a result of climate change, it's also the result of this systematic exclusion of fire from the landscape for over 100 years.
This, along with our development in the fire-prone areas of the state, including the East Bay Hills, has led to a substantial increase in the available fuel that's ready to burn.
As the climate warms, it pulls more moisture from this fuel, making it tinder-dry and increasing its ignition potential.
As the rainy season compresses, we have tinder-dry fuel conditions, which are easily ignitable, that now overlap with high-wind events during the winter and spring months that were previously not an ignition risk.
Because we are not going to engage in a managed retreat of the hills, we're faced with a binary decision to adapt or not.
When we built in the East Bay Hills, we were under the misguided understanding that we could control nature.
Clearly, we cannot.
We need to adapt or continue to suffer similar consequences.
Maintaining the status quo will continue to result in similar outcomes.
All these fires and many more took advantage of key vulnerabilities in the communities that enabled devastating fire behavior, resulting in catastrophic loss, injury, and death.
These vulnerabilities are well-known, scientifically supported, and field-tested in communities across the West, many with similar topography, vegetation, and climate conditions to the East Bay.
Our state experiences over 8,000 wildfires a year.
Many of them occur in far less extreme conditions than what we saw in Los Angeles.
We know that fire will inevitably impact the Berkeley Hills again, as it has approximately every 20 years in some form or fashion, with the last major event occurring in 1991 almost 30 years ago.
If you can conceptualize the desired end state as an equation, it might look something like this, with three major categories of work that need to occur in order for us to have the best chance of minimizing fire loss.
I want to be clear that under wind-driven fire conditions, we will not stop this type of fire, but we can substantially reduce the potential loss the community is likely to face.
The first category of actions in this equation that need to occur ahead of a fire, ahead of fire weather, have to do with disrupting fuel pathways that lead to the city and implementing defensible space and home hardening on and around our homes.
This also includes a component of ensuring the fire department is properly staffed and deployed.
Next category occurs when fire weather is forecast.
Under this part of the equation, we need to study the weather, work with our partners at the National Weather Service, and issue fire weather warnings.
In Berkeley, we call these extreme fire weather warnings, and they signify the worst of the worst in terms of fire weather.
Under these conditions, we ask residents to leave the hills early, because we know that our infrastructure will not support a massive evacuation.
And finally, when fire weather is forecast, there's strategic up-staffing of our department and within the region.
The final phase of this equation happens when an ignition occurs.
The first component is early detection.
Early detection drives early alerting to the community, so the community has the most time possible to evacuate.
Early detection also triggers a large and overwhelming fire department response, not just from Berkeley, but from the surrounding region and the state.
All of this gives us the best chance of minimizing fire loss.
So, to summarize what we're going to get into tonight, how to move forward at a high level, we want to focus our efforts on 2 strategic key areas, Antarctic Hill and the area east of Grizzly Peak.
In these areas, we want to remove Adopt Zone 0, which is essentially a removal of all combustible material within 5 feet of structures.
And we want to implement home hardening measures to align older building stock with the modern building code.
And finally, there's an item from Council to also refer to us to bring forward parking restrictions that will be part of the Safe Passages Program, also in these areas.
I'm going to hand it over to retired Rwanda Raga, Rwanda Fire Chief Dave Winokur to talk more about the why behind all these proposals.
Chief.
Thank you.
On the value of the relative value of risk reduction measures, as the chief alluded to, this isn't a matter of wildfire prevention.
Wildfire is inevitable.
In fact, beneficial to the landscape.
It's a discussion about the various value of the mitigations that.
It's a discussion about the variability of structure.
Is that better? Okay, next slide please.
So, we ran a modeling exercise where we took the weather conditions that are associated with the Diablo wind event, looking for the 97th percentile of high wind, low relative humidity, wind events that occur after a drying period.
We also looked at the conditions associated with the weather desiccated low live fuel moistures, which are the conditions that we saw in 1923 and 1991 in these very same hills.
We ran a series of ignition lines out in the open space to the north and northeast of the community, and then looked for the path of least resistance, the minimum travel time from modeling perspective.
We also looked at the conditions associated with the heat of the fire into the community.
As well, as the associated ember wash, so fire spreads to the ground component of fire, which is the linear ignition of 1 piece of rotation by another, but also by 3 dimensional ember cast whereby sparks fire brands embers are carried aloft by the convective heat of the fire and then blown forward by the dominant winds.
We also looked at the conditions associated with the heat of the fire in the picture you see, as the shaded areas entering the community, and that be where a fire pathway terminates moves off the vegetative landscape into the built environment and has the potential when it encounters vulnerabilities, a lack of defensible space, a lack of home hardening that sets conditions for that wildfire to transition to a vegetative from a vegetative fire to a structure fire.
We also looked at the potential for a direct spread of fire from 1 home to another.
And what's so important to understand about that transition of a vegetative fire to an urban conflagration is that the defensible space and home hardening mitigations that we know are extraordinarily effective from preventing a wildfire are wholly inadequate for preventing a structure to structure fire.
So, the approach that we are recommending to avoid large scale structure loss is to harden very strategically, harden and defensible space in place at those points of entry that can initiate the structure fire.
And now there's true that embers will fly over these areas deep into the community, but that's what the fire department is able to pick up.
If all of the firefighting resources are not consumed with preventing the transition in those areas that have the greatest exposure.
Furthermore, ember decay is log normal, meaning distance becomes shielding and the distance of the target of the structure from the source, the thing that's producing vegetation matters because the number of embers that are being transported drop off rapidly.
And 1 ember poses a risk, but it's a very low risk.
So imagine trying to light a house on fire with a book of matches.
If you stood 5 feet from the house and you flick them at the house, it would take some time.
And so the goal here is to reduce the number of embers and reduce the vulnerabilities of those embers can exploit.
Next slide please and this was described in 2008 as part of Jack cones, we disaster sequence and stage 5 and stage 6 of this sequence or the point at which so many homes are burning that the firefighting resources are overwhelmed to become ineffective or put more simply.
There is more fire than firefighters at the critical points and I mentioned this particular study, because this was done in 2008.
this is not cutting edge.
This is not particularly new, but is new to all of us now, because of the recent fire losses.
This is front of mind what was previously often seen as a more isolated rural community problem, something we had excluded to engineering from the built environment.
Next slide please.
And so what this shows is the impact of fire transitioning from vegetation to structure.
So, on the left, the shaded area on the top right shows that point of transition where fire has moved off the landscape from vegetative fire and has transitioned into a number of vulnerable homes.
And as those homes begin to burn on the top right, moving from top right or top left to right and left to right again, you see the growth of the fire as it is spread now, not by vegetation, but by structures where each structure is igniting adjacent structures that are within 50 feet and is contributing embers that could ignite subsequent downwind structures that are not prepared to receive fire.
And as we see very quickly, what began as a small vegetation fire transitioning to a small number of homes can very quickly grow to be urban conflagration, at which point the evacuation and firefighting challenges will be enormous to say the least.
And it is but for the presence of the vulnerabilities at that point of transition that all this subsequent loss was not avoided.
If the homes are hardened at the point of transition, all of that energy is expended and is not able to gain a foothold where it self replicates.
Next slide please.
And the challenge here is that in the graph on the right, the line represents mitigations as you carry out mitigations, and there'll be a linear increase in the number of mitigations present on the landscape.
But you don't see any risk reduction benefit until a critical mass of those mitigations have been achieved both on the individual parcel, because a home that is mostly mitigated is not mitigated because fire is opportunistic and it will exploit the vulnerabilities.
And unlike water, if you have a small hole in your roof, and it is raining, you have a leak, not a flood.
If you have a small amount of fire in the wall of your building, your house is going to burn to the ground and in burning the ground, it will threaten the adjacent homes, right? Your asset is your neighbor's peril.
So there is a critical break over point where enough mitigations have been carried out with the right at 100% per home and enough homes within a certain geographic area that we start to see network effects.
And this is the number needed to treat or NNT.
And so the bars of the graph represent community risk.
And as that mitigation line climbs, you have to get to that critical mass of mitigations before you see the benefit.
So to quote IBHS in the wildfire risk reduction space, something is not better than nothing.
You would be better off not to undertake a mitigation program unless that mitigation program was going to include all of the critical elements to include zone zero.
Which in some ways is the most difficult, but is also the most efficacious because it protects the home from both ground component and embers that could fly over any ground based treatments.
Next slide please.
So, on the left here, we see a representation of what happens when fire enters a community where mitigations that be shown in green in the image there where mitigated parcels are spread out.
And those those homes are generally resistive to vegetative fire into embers, but they are not resistive to adjacent structure fires and fire will find those pathways that run through them and make it in to the bulk of the community.
And on the right, we see representation of what happens when we cluster those treatments at those points of entry, and we achieve herd immunity where there's enough density of mitigations at the critical point that fire cannot make that transition.
And this is really a discussion of constrained optimization.
If we have a finite amount of resources, resources, being time staff capacity, money communities will to act.
We are far better off to cluster those treatments to the points where they'll have the greatest benefit and will achieve network effects.
Next slide.
Please.
So, that's the discussion of the underlying fire science.
The 2nd is the related discussion, which is certainly front of mind to many residents of the area to include myself, which is access and availability of insurance.
So, this is some work we did with Milliman and CoreLogic in the town of Paradise to value the presence or absence of mitigations at scale.
The report on the left was done using Moraga and Orinda as a case study.
I highly recommend reading it for those who don't.
The key takeaway is until at least 30% of the homes in a given area have adopted all of the mitigations.
There is no value for the work and the value of that work climbs until about 85% have carried out the mitigations and then it tapers off.
So, the last 15% are free riders.
The study on the right was done in Paradise and there next slide.
Please.
We looked at the average annual loss, which is the calculation used by actuaries and cap modelers to determine rate setting for insurance premiums.
We looked at the baseline average annual loss per million in total insured value for Paradise suffice it to say the areas that are shown in red that that's very bad.
It'll be very hard to get insurance.
If you were in one of the areas where the is above $5000 per million in and then the right was 43,000 acres of buffered treatment areas that were recommended around the community in conjunction with defensible space and home hardening.
Now, in the case of Paradise, because the town is largely being rebuilt from scratch, they are able to apply the more restrictive codes that have been in place since 2008 and by ordinance, they have adopted defensible space that matches the IBHS wildfire prepared home standard.
That includes zone 0, inclusive of wooden fence.
So there are no wooden fences, no vegetation within 5 feet.
So they are rebuilding to the gold standard of what right should look like.
And we ran a modeling exercise of what if that work within the community was coupled with 43,000 acres of treatments around the community to be clear.
This was a study.
There is no future in which paradise carries out 43,000 acres of treatment at about $5000 an acre treatment costs and a 5 year return interval.
But it was an interesting study about what would happen if we buffer the community, and it was prepared to receive fire.
Next slide please.
And the results were very encouraging that combination of buffers and defensible space and home hardening resulted in up to a 65% reduction in in some of the areas that had the greatest risk before.
And you can see both as a percentage and then as a dollar figure, the average annual loss that curve was bent very sharply.
But the takeaway, and I want to emphasize this as clearly as I possibly can.
Of the risk reduction opportunities that were available, only 25% of those were achieved by the buffers around the community.
75% of the possible risk reduction lay from creating defensible space and home hardening within the community, meaning that all of that work, which would be tremendously expensive to be tied up in litigation for years and would require a recurring maintenance in perpetuity.
That only contributed 25% of the possible risk reduction risk reduction.
The vast majority of the benefits were to be gained through defensible space and a home hardening within the community.
Next slide please.
So, I'd like to very briefly take you through our approach to this problem over the last few years.
Including what we've learned about what's been work that we can better explain what's not working with our approach.
And I promise this is the last few numbers.
We're going to throw at you.
This slide summarizes an hour long presentation that we gave on what we're currently doing, but here.
We share the mic button there.
Sorry.
Yeah, no worries.
So, since the passage of FF, we've removed nearly 7000 cubic yards of combustible vegetation.
As of this morning, we've distributed home hardening mesh to 60 households with an additional 60 scheduled for the next week.
We're in the process of modifying 110 acres that serve as evacuation routes and strategic fuel breaks in 2025.
we will begin leveraging a million dollar Cal fire grant to provide vegetation assistance to residents who need it.
Our inspection program has resulted in 21,000 individual inspections that have resulted in 11,000 violations, 9,000 of which have been corrected by homeowners.
The inspection program has been effective at education and initiating fuel reduction, but trying to move almost 9,000 homeowners towards the substantial modifications that are necessary will take too long.
Our inspectors also rarely see all 4 sides of the structure moving forward.
The number of parcels we inspect would go down and we will spend more time per inspection.
This means fewer, but higher quality inspections at the critical locations within the community.
So, what are we proposing tonight initiative called ember and before I dive in, I want to acknowledge that it's easy to feel overwhelmed that this is an insurmountable problem that there's too much effort.
Too much emotional capital, too much money to address all these issues.
It's easy to feel that power line should be undergrounded completely or the park district should clear cut vegetation before we move to take substantial action, but I believe it's worth us moving forward because what we're going to present is what we have direct control over.
And as the chief mentioned, we can gain a substantial amount of risk reduction by doing this work, regardless of what happens outside of our borders.
So, while those efforts I mentioned should be pursued.
They're out of our direct control, and even if power lines are underground and vegetation is completely managed in the park to our satisfaction fires will still occur.
We're in a fire dependent landscape fires existed before power lines and before the park district and before humans, and they'll exist long after.
So, let's prove you what's being proposed tonight.
There's 3 slides here that summarize all the proposals.
The 1st, series of proposals has to do with amendments to the fire code and specifically creating a buffer zone, which we're calling zone for right now that encompasses the Eastern quarter mile of the city from grizzly peak to Wildcat Canyon.
It's in this buffer zone and on both of these areas shown in the map highlighted on red that we want to take meaningful steps and focus our work because we believe that will give us the highest return on our investment.
Within these 2 areas, we're proposing to adopt zone 0, which is an elimination of all combustible materials around 5 feet of every structure on the property.
This includes vegetation, wooden mulch.
And perpendicular fences that connect to homes.
We know this action when coupled with basic home hardening measures has the most dramatic impact to the probability that a structure will survive a fire.
Finally, we often focus on what the cost is of a disaster in LA.
The estimates are in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
We're proposing to couple on to work on some research and bring it back to council that would flip that on his head and look at what's the value of what we potentially can save by doing these mitigations.
Because we think that'll help us stay motivated and remember that a relatively small investment now can avoid a massive cost in the future.
The 2nd set of proposals has to do with the built environment.
We know that while we can reduce risk of wildfire spreading on the ground by managing vegetation and removing flammable materials around homes, embers remain a significant challenge.
To truly protect the home, it must be hardened to resist both fire and embers, meaning it's built or retrofitted with materials that can withstand these exposures.
Through GIS modeling, we know that only 50 homes were built after 2008 in the fire zone.
2008 is when the state adopted a more restrictive fire code that required hardening of structures against wildfire.
Thus, we have thousands of existing homes that require hardening.
Many of these homes, many of these home hardening modifications are relatively inexpensive and simple, even DIY, and they return a significant cost.
And they benefit us with a significant reduction in risk.
This set of proposals would charge the planning and fire departments to research and come back as part of the annual tri-annual code adoption process this winter with a set of proposals for the community and for council to consider that would improve the ember resistance of Berkeley's fire zones.
We know that some of these modifications, for instance, replacing woodshake roofs, can be expensive.
So, in addition to that staff work on the code amendments, we'll come back with proposals on creating incentives and otherwise funding to help residents implement these important mitigations.
One local example is in San Rafael, where they provided up to a $7,500 credit per household that was going to replace their woodshake roof.
And in over the course of several years, they've replaced almost all the remaining woodshake roofs in their fire zone.
The final set of proposals focuses on our assumption, which we believe will be soon validated by the release of the evacuation response time study that this type of fire will overtake the pace with which residents can evacuate the hills.
The result of this is predictable.
In fact, we've seen it play out over and over again across the West.
People will be injured and killed as they're attempting to evacuate ahead of a fire that's moving at a football field a second.
Part of our response should be to move people out of fire zones, especially those who are vulnerable and need more time to leave when the worst fire weather is forecast.
But before an ignition occurs.
The other key components that are recommended in this section are for council to affirm the staffing recommendations that directly result.
Directly relate to our ability to be properly staffed and deployed to respond to these types of events.
Many of these staffing recommendations are already underway and are budget neutral.
There are several that are unfunded and we can consider those when the budget allows.
Finally, we know that our transportation infrastructure in the hills is not adequate, and we believe that it's necessary to look at stepping up enforcement of existing.
Red curbs and considering new parking restrictions that would be implemented at minimum.
During periods of extreme fire weather.
Together, all these proposals bring forward the best practice science supported measures that we're aware of.
To the community and to counsel for consideration tonight.
We feel we can no longer be held back by a concern that there's not adequate community support.
Or appetite for this work, we cannot let Los Angeles be just another disaster.
We have an opportunity to learn from their experience and take meaningful action to reduce the risk before the next fire ignites in these.
So, there are 2 interlocking pieces of protecting structures from the effects of wildfire and as we go through this, I'd like to lead with a quote from the Institute for business and home safety or which is a nonprofit research firm that has done much of the experimentation.
You'll hear us say this again.
That something is not better than nothing.
Ignition zone 0 and home hardening need to both be adopted fully.
If they are to be worth the effort at all.
This experiment shows a home after 10 minutes of exposure.
The half of the home on the left is made with exterior materials that were widely used before the 2008 changes to the building code.
That addressed home hardening.
The left hand side also has combustible material within 5 feet.
In this case, would mulch in some plants.
On the right is a home built to the new code with 5 feet of noncombustible space.
These 2 pieces work together home hardening is especially effective against embers.
But without 5 feet of space between a home and anything that can burn the direct flame exposure to a building will overcome the resistant materials.
A similar experiment conducted by Cal fire on just defensible space has similar results on the left a home without defensible space again, flammable ground cover and plants.
On the right, nothing within 5 feet of the home.
One addition to this experiment is the wooden fence within 5 feet.
On the left, you've got a wooden fence all the way to the structure.
And on the right.
The section of fences replaced with a noncombustible section where it's within 5 feet of the home.
The lesson here that wouldn't fence becomes an extension of the home, creating a wider target for fire and then wicking that fire like a fuse towards the structure.
This structure succumbs to fire and then becomes the next origin point for embers that will be blown downwind to create additional lost.
One of the unique features of Los Angeles is the volume of video evidence supporting all of the experimentation analysis and survey work that has been done around these initiatives.
This camera operator was documenting the loss of a structure when he turned around and notice the spot fire starting in the vegetation next to the home behind him.
This spot fire will eventually grow, alighting the well-watered plants around it and consume the home.
This is how fires destroy neighborhoods in a conflagration.
Not a wall of flame moving through, but one house at a time through spot fires lit by embers.
The operator pans down the street and notices another spot fire down the block.
On their way out, they notice an additional home.
This time lost due to a spot fire that started well to the right of the structure that was then drawn left to the home by way of the vegetation and wooden fence that is attached to the home.
We included this image, which is from the 2019 Kincade fire in Sonoma County to demonstrate how intentional landscaping, in this case, a retaining wall, prevents the spread of ground fire to the structure and the near home landscaping.
It also redirects heat and embers away from the home.
Here's an example of a home in Berkeley within the proposed fire zone that has similar features.
There are still some areas for improvement, but this is a great example of a property that has incorporated much of the best practice into the landscape design, providing protection from vegetation and from embers.
Here are a couple of classic examples from the proposed fire zone 4.
The home on the left is likely using vegetation to provide privacy.

Segment 2

I'd like to introduce you to the 2 homes on the left and the 2 homes on the right.
The 2 homes on the left are located from the busy street below and the one on the right is meticulously maintained.
You can still see the green green waste been in the yard.
Both of these would require significant work under the new code in both of these photos.
All of the vegetation within 5 feet of the home would need to be removed and vegetation outside of 5 feet would need to be brought into compliance with best practices.
And once ignited without fire department intervention, they will ignite surrounding homes regardless of their neighbor's construction or vegetation.
I'd like to reiterate that we've secured funding to provide 300 residents with services to accomplish this and related vegetation work through a Cal Fire grant.
This program will be available starting this summer and would be available to residents who qualify for financial and for medical reasons.
Home hardening against embers, especially when coupled with zone 0, has been shown to significantly increase structure survival rates and would be necessary for a parcel to achieve full protection from direct flame, radiant heat, and embers.
There are many inexpensive and effective home hardening measures that can be undertaken, including installing gutter guards, vent screens, removing combustibles from on top and underneath decks, and replacing gates and fences that connect the homes within 5 feet with noncombustible material.
As I mentioned before, we're currently running a program providing those gutter guards and ember-resistant screens to all properties in the new zone, and we're expanding to other areas as we have capacity.
However, we do need to identify and secure financial incentive or support programs to realistically implement this critical puzzle piece if it is to be meaningfully implemented.
This is from Los Angeles, and it's why homes burn.
These embers are blown from other burning structures and vegetation.
When any one of these lands is something that can burn or penetrate spaces in a home, they ignite.
Once a home is ignited, it can ignite surrounding homes through both embers and heat at a scale that no fire department can match.
This is what we saw in Los Angeles, Lahaina, Boulder.
As a result, legacy approaches which were focused on external fuel breaks fall short of our goal of fire adaptation at community scale.
In no small part because we failed to recognize that the most abundant and driest fuel in our hills that requires intervention is, in fact, the homes themselves.
Quite simply, to protect homes from fire loss, we must harden the home and give it the space for a fighting chance.
Our current fire code inspections and enforcement fall short of scientifically supported mitigations included in the California Department of Insurance Safer from Wildfires framework.
This results in the fire department telling residents they've done what is required, and their insurer telling them that they have not.
This often contributes to increased premiums and non-renewals.
Berkeley is reported to have $5.3 billion in assets within the Fair Plan, the largest of any community in Northern California, which is industry's indication to us that current conditions equate to a very high risk of wildfire loss.
We're going to return to this topic to address what we need to do as a community rather than individuals, but I'd like to bring in our director of the Office of Emergency Services, Sarah Lana, to talk about a key piece of our evacuation strategy that has been reinforced again this time in Los Angeles.
Good evening.
We as a department understand that we have to change our approach to wildfire, and this includes our approach to evacuation.
For many years, the instruction has been to have a go-bag ready, wait for your evacuation order, and then pack up and leave.
But we've seen in fires throughout California that that approach does not work for urban conflagrations.
And as we all know, Berkeley's hills are full of narrow, winding roads that we call spaghetti streets that also have 30,000 people in them.
These roadways will not support a quick evacuation.
Our evacuation challenge is not new, and it is not unique.
This slide shows two pictures that look almost identical.
The top picture is from last month in the Palisades fire in Los Angeles.
Cars are backed up in traffic, and people are abandoning them.
If you can make it out in the back car, there's somebody pulling out a walker for someone to have to use to evacuate on foot.
The bottom picture is ours.
It's from the 1991 Oakland-Berkeley Hills fire.
Cars are backed up, and people are running out.
If you can make it out, the woman in the white shirt is not wearing shoes.
In both of these pictures, the only thing that is moving fast is the fire.
We know that our roadways and the hills will not support large groups of people trying to move out at the same time.
This is not acceptable, but not much has changed about our roadway network since 1991, other than that we have more people who will need to use these streets to evacuate.
We have found an opportunity here.
We cannot tell you where and when a fire will start.
But we can tell you when Berkeley will have the weather associated with so many of these urban conflagrations.
As the chiefs have talked about, winds push a fire and its embers, and low humidity helps things ignite when those embers land.
This chart shows wind getting stronger as you move to the right, and humidity getting lower as you move down.
Now we don't have every fire on this chart, but if we did, it would nearly all be in that bottom right corner.
That includes the Oakland-Berkeley Hills fire, the Camp Fire in Paradise, the fires in Maui, and the fires in Los Angeles.
They all spread under these conditions.
These conditions are predictable, and when the forecast predicts them in Berkeley, we call it extreme fire weather.
During extreme fire weather, we advise that people who live in the hills leave early before a fire starts because of those pictures that I just showed you.
Now, we introduced the extreme fire weather idea in 2018, and the good news here is also that these conditions are very rare.
We've only had to proclaim extreme fire weather twice since that time, once in 2020 and last fall in 2024.
So right now, our office is working with the Weather Service to look at Berkeley's fire weather as well as the weather that's associated with these recent urban conflagrations like Maui, like Los Angeles, so that we can identify and adopt the most conservative triggers that still capture those weather conditions that were igniting these major wildfires in the past 10 years.
We really want to use this to reduce the number of advisories that we have to issue.
Chief Arnold? Thanks.
So this sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but I'd like to spend a couple minutes talking about how, if we do this as a community, it's not only possible but much more effective.
Let's circle back to these earlier images.
This is the proposed fire zone 4, and again, the top image is showing the risk of multiple homes igniting if one is burning, and the lower image shows how that fire could spread through the hills.
Together, they're showing why we need to focus our resources right there.
This is the quote-unquote miracle house from Lahaina.
It's over 100 years old, built long before the building code included fire-resistant features for homes built in fire-dependent landscapes.
Its survival has been credited as being everything from lucky to divine.
On the left is a chart from a post-incident analysis of the campfire that consumed Paradise.
The chart is showing why a home burned.
The three factors that stand out are defensible space, a combustible roof, and vents that allow embers.
The owners of this Lahaina home had bought it two years before the fire, and it needed substantial work.
The first two things that they did were replace the roof with a metal one and remove vegetation around the base of the home, replacing it with stone and other noncombustible materials.
This home passively contributed to the firefight.
The homeowners' efforts were additive and not a liability.
And I'd engage you in a thought experiment.
If you were a firefighter, is this a house that you could protect? Would your efforts be bolstered by the house itself? Would the area around the home lend itself to your fight, or would it make the fight harder? Surrounded by fire, can you provide protection not only for the home in front of you, but for those behind it? You are looking for the property where your actions are not only meaningful, but will create the stop for the entire neighborhood.
It's too bad that everything west of this house was the ocean.
But what is far more interesting is what had happened one mile north of that red roof house in Lahaina.
There's clearly a path of fire moving through the community like water.
And there's one spot where that fire eddies like a rock in a flowing river.
The yellow circle is Kahoma Village in Lahaina.
The community was constructed in 2017 using modern codes that considered wildfire exposure.
Only five structures in the community were destroyed.
Just as important is the role that the neighborhood played in slowing the fire to the communities in the north.
In order to reach the northern part of Lahaina, the fire had to find an alternate pathway, begging the question of what would the outcome have been if there had been a contiguous stretch of resilient homes from the water to the east.
This community was at its widest point about a quarter of a mile wide, about the average distance between Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Wildcat Canyon Road.
This is not a one-time success story.
In Batanya, Chile, outside Valparaiso, a fire ran up the canyon towards this community.
Chile does not have the firefighting response of California.
There was no one to defend this community when the fire arrived.
However, this community knew the risks and was built using the standards that are missing for much of our older housing stock.
Because the structures are so close together, the community created a defensible space buffer that treated the entire community as one structure.
This community fought this fire and won years before the fire ever got there.
So ending this evening's presentation with a review on the screen of the EMBR initiatives and a reminder that the proposals outlined today represent the most effective steps that we know of that we can take to reduce risk of catastrophic loss during the inevitable future wildfire.
Implementing defensible space measures, particularly Zone 0 and home hardening, will require real change.
Changes that will cost money and will alter familiar landscapes.
Change is hard.
However, change is occurring without our permission.
And the reality is that doing nothing is an option that has predictable outcomes.
History has shown us through the devastating fires of 1923 and 1991 that our region is highly vulnerable to fast-moving urban configurations.
Wildfire is not a distant threat.
It's a certainty.
And I submit that our response should be proactive rather than reactive.
This approach is not only rooted in science, but also aligns with the California Department of Insurance, all major insurers who have already integrated these wildfire resilience measures into their risk modeling and insurance eligibility criteria.
Furthermore, Governor Newsom's recent executive order directs the State Board of Forestry to publish draft regulations of a Zone 0 law for all high hazard zones in the state.
So that would be all of the Berkeley Hills by March of 2025 with final adoption into law by the end of the year.
And I don't think I could say this better.
The governor's quote from his press conference was, we are living in a new reality of extremes.
Believe the science in your own damn eyes.
Mother Nature is changing the way we live and we must continue adapting.
So we can either take the steps tonight to discuss moving forward in a controlled and strategic way, or we can wait for wildfire to force these changes upon us.
Thank you for your time tonight and looking forward to questions and discussion with the community.
Thank you all so much for the presentation.
We're going to take public comment, but I'd like to start with Vice Mayor Wengraff.
If you could, former Vice Mayor Wengraff, I should say, if you could come and give your comment first, please.
And if there are other folks who have public comment, you can also start moving this direction as well.
Good afternoon, everybody.
It's very nice to see you from this side of the dais.
As the former council person representing the very high fire.
Area of the city, and there's a founding member of the East Bay wildfire coalition.
And there's a 50 year Hills resident.
I'm here this afternoon to speak in support of the amber initiative package.
And I just want to say.
It's very gratifying for me to see my.
Colleagues listening to all of this and taking it all seriously, as, you know, I spent many years.
Working to sort of bring this kind of thing to fruition, and I really appreciate.
Your your interest and hopefully your support.
So, our planet is warming.
We all know that an extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, creating conditions conducive to wildfire.
This is all occurring rapidly.
I just want to just can someone give her a minute.
If she wants additional time, since we only have 1 minute per.
Thank you.
You've got a minute.
I'll hurry up.
This is all occurring very rapidly and our job is to adapt quickly.
As best we can by implementing scientifically proven best practices now to protect the lives of our residents and their properties and to make our city more resilient.
The climate conditions, like drought and low, low humidity, high velocity winds are out of our control.
But by focusing our efforts and resources on things that we can control.
Like, requiring defensible space and hardening against ember ignition, we're taking steps that will provide us with a fighting chance in the face of this new reality.
Knowing what we know.
You as leaders must take action to try to mitigate the potential destruction.
Is this proposal perfect? No.
Is there more to do? Absolutely.
But let's not make the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Let's move forward this afternoon and take this 1st of many steps towards keeping our city safer from wildfire.
And 1 more point individualism is deeply rooted in the psyche of Americans.
And Berkeleys are no exception.
This initiative will only be effective if it is adopted and implemented on a community wide basis.
And that's why you all, everyone must do their part.
We will need your leadership and help to make this happen.
Our team over here.
Are on the cutting edge of best practices for combating catastrophic wildfire.
They are applying science, analyzing fire behavior and utilizing technology.
I have watched them close up now for several years.
We're not going to find anybody better.
They are committed and passionate.
And they know what they're talking about.
Let's give them the support they need to make our city safer.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So, I apologize I didn't get to set expectations beforehand.
So thank you so much for bearing with me because we have so many speakers.
You will each have 1 minute to speak.
But as I modeled earlier, if you have someone who's willing to give you their minute, then you can do that as well.
But we have many speakers to get through and we actually have a whole nother council meeting after this.
So just want to be sensitive to folks time.
Thank you so much.
Hi, my name is Greg Murphy.
I currently serve as vice chair of the disaster fire and safety commission.
However, I'm here as a resident of Berkeley speaking only on my behalf tonight.
My home is actually built on the ashes of the 1923 fire, and it was built at the time to be somewhat fire resistant, stucco walls, metatronium tile roofs.
But fire science has changed, technology has changed, and our knowledge of building practices have changed.
So recently, I've spent quite a bit of time and effort to further harden the home by installing screens on gutters, vents, and starting to now look at implementing a full zone 0 response, even though I'm not in the proposed zone 4.
So, I'm here to strongly recommend that all of us do what we can to support this initiative and that the residents are going to be affected need to know that if they don't do it now, they're going to do it later.
And it's going to be a lot more painful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello.
So, I didn't know about the 1 minute.
My name is Todd darling and I represent the district 3 on the disaster and fire safety commission.
I'm here speaking on my own behalf.
I support chief space call for his own 0 regulations.
Hopefully they can be implemented swiftly, but gently to help people with logistic challenges.
I would also recommend that the entire city take a hard look at these regulations because.
Berkeley is more similar to Los Angeles than dissimilar.
We both are below mountain range.
We have similar winds Diablo and the Santa Ana winds.
We both have high tension power lines from utility companies crossing the region to the city.
Here are local context.
The fires in Los Angeles were spread by 100 mile an hour winds here in our local context.
Those embers in Los Angeles were blown 2 miles here.
That's the distance between the grizzly peak fire station and say the gate.
So, once it goes on, do you want to finish your sentence? Could I so what we've learned from Los Angeles is essentially this climate change has outrun our existing human systems and we need to recalibrate ourselves.
And I think everyone needs to take the zone 0 seriously throughout the city and to be implemented in the areas where the chief recommends.
Thank you.
Thank you.
She's going to give me her minute.
So, I'm Henry to narrow president of the Berkeley fire safe council and a member of the East Bay Alliance of fire safe councils.
The Berkeley fire safe council wholeheartedly supports the fire department's proposed program.
In fact, we just submitted longer term recommendations that go further and upgraded vegetation inspection and enforcement program that eventually includes a zone 0 requirement.
For all the high severity fire zones.
The systematic removal of all eucalyptus and other hazardous trees from Berkeley using a significant portion of the original measure.
The restoration of needed areas with fire resistant native shrubs, trees and grasses, which we have volunteered to fund and implement.
The wholesale adoption of home hardening via a significant property tax credit that will drive wide scale adoption.
This will have to be funded by a bond measure or outside sources.
We estimate currently 25 to 50Million dollars to harden the 80% of homes in the high severity area and a 5 year strategic plan that defines specific objectives and expenditures for each of the major categories.
We also made recommendations to the leaders of UC Berkeley, Berkeley lab, and the East Bay Park district to 1st, clean up the understory of their eucalyptus groves and then begin to systematically remove the trees, replacing them with native species.
This is recommended by the Sierra Club, the California native plant society professor emeritus of forestry of UC Berkeley.
The former general manager of the East Bay regional park district and all of the fire safe councils in the East Bay.
Only Berkeley lab is currently doing this.
Finally, in a meeting with Mayor Ishii last Friday, she had an idea of partnering with the city and the fire safe council to actually do the defensible space work for our low income, elderly and handicapped residents.
10 seconds using both lessons anyway, using both public and private funding and drawing on our model of engaging UC Berkeley's 50 student service organizations to do some of the work.
I'm here today to say to the mayor we accept.
Thank you and I appreciate you.
I am a stickler for time, so I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Can you hear me? Hi, my name is Michael downs.
I live at 664 Woodmont Avenue, right in the center of the buffer zone.
These are my personal observations on what was presented today.
1st, I did not hear about any alternate solutions.
I wonder if there could be some consideration for a 200 foot wide fire break extending east of wildcat Canyon road, or simply some more flexible solutions and language that don't result in increased fire hazard ratings and insurance denials.
2nd, the cost burden is put on the homeowners in that the proposal shifts financial responsibilities and liabilities to homeowners without cost appropriate incentives.
Insurance risks I wonder what insurance experts not consultants would say about how this new zone for rating might affect fire insurance policies available to homeowners.
Property values.
I imagine reducing your ability could lower home values affecting.
Thank you.
You can finish your sentence.
Well, just affecting.
The revenue that the city and the county receives.
Thank you.
The revenue that the city and the county receives.
Hello, my name's Dan Lieberman.
I live not in this zone, but in another fire zone.
And I'm I'm concerned, you know, everyone's reacting to the La fire.
And, you know, I, there was no proactive, you know, burning of brush that near the city or keeping that all cut have, you know, a huge amount of equipment was sitting in the, in the yard that was not serviceable.
So, response to compare that to here where I believe we've learned a lot of lessons from the 1991 fire.
We've learned a lot of lessons from the fire.
We've learned a lot of lessons from the fire.
We've learned a lot of lessons from the fire where now has lines that shut off automatically so that sparks don't hit where we have drones that make sure that there are not branches over power lines.
I'm concerned that the.
I'm concerned that the.
To make it fire safe to today's standards.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And can I have folks silence their cell phones? I know we've had a lot of phones go off today.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Jim Hansen.
My background is a landscape architect.
Conservation advocate just a quick couple quick points.
My only thought in looking at this is to encourage a little bit of flexibility.
It takes a while for people to make a big jump, but doing it in stages, I did note that 1 of the board of forestry's expert panels suggested that at 1 point.
To some occasional plants, less than 16 inches actually gave the dimensions within that 5 foot area, let's say, surrounded by rocks would be something that would encourage people to move towards it.
In addition, they thought that having pots with plants in them would work and I've seen my time's running out.
So I'm going to say.
That also, I think we need some help from Sacramento to provide some of the funding towards this.
A lot of this has gone to the vegetation work that.
So, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Doug kidder.
My wife and I started 1 of the 1st firewise where the 1st firewise community in Berkeley and.
What's interesting to me is seeing the tone change.
That there's a sense now that wasn't there when we started this, this 1st firewise community.
This is important.
And we have to do it together and we have a team of experts here who have been looking at this and are making a recommendation and I don't know about you, but I'm compelled by it.
It looks like a good idea.
We're already we've been hardening our house.
We have a zone 0 mostly got a couple of plants that still have to go.
My wife really likes them.
She's agreed.
Now they got to go.
So, it's not an easy process.
Okay.
And it's going to cost money, but we kind of have this collective choice here.
About whether or not we're going to do something, and if we're not going to do something, we're taking an enormous risk.
So.
Thank you, thank you.
Hello.
I have a written statement since I only have a minute.
My name is Cheryl drink water of a local architect and resident of Berkeley.
I'm also the president of Diablo fire safe council, which serves Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
I assist many property owners in the East Bay as a home hardening specialist.
I also work with the Berkeley fire department to support their programs.
Many of the actions we take to protect our homes are about the regular maintenance.
We perform to keep our property and investment in sound condition is our responsibility to do the work.
And some people will need help zones is a critical component of defensible space, which is already in the fire code.
I commend the city of Berkeley for stepping up at this crucial time.
Citizens are listening after the LA fires.
It is time to act.
There is evidence that the Berkeley fire department, as you've seen in the presentation is committed to supporting residents with the launch of multiple programs over the last 2 years, including a resident assistance program.
We know that wildfires are inevitable.
It is a well documented.
It is well documented.
We can expect to experience a major wildfire.
I just need 30 seconds that we can expect to experience a major wildfire in our high risk areas at least once in the time we own a home.
Memories may be on the short side, but wildfire will impact our densely populated area and existing older homes surrounded by trees, shrubs and grasses.
We have let many of the fuels get out of control on our properties.
If we are to live with fire, we must take action.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Ruth Aaron Krantz and I'm speaking for myself.
I live a block below grizzly peak and our neighborhood recently was certified as a fire wise group.
I'm also speaking for myself.
I live a block below grizzly peak and our neighborhood recently was certified as a fire wise group.
There are now 13 nationally certified fire wise groups in Berkeley and up and many of them are along the ridge line in in zone 4 or near zone 4 and we need regulation and enforcement to help us protect our homes and neighborhoods.
My name is Ruth Aaron Krantz and I'm a fire risk manager at UC Berkeley and I live on summit road right outside what would be designated as zone 4.
I'm really excited to see such a smart science informed plan.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That's also something to consider.
So I commend you and I hope that folks who came up with this plan will communicate with UC Berkeley facilities management and the fire risk medication because their approach is not as sophisticated and not as science driven and that would be great.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I yield my time to Isabel Gaston.
Good afternoon.
Mayor Ishii.
My name is Isabel and I live on Wildcat Canyon with Steve, my husband.
I would like to read to you an email I sent to my local fire wise group today, Berkeley Woods.
Did you get the COVID vaccine when it was first available? We followed Fauci's advice, right? His scientific and professional judgment.

Segment 3

Segment 4

There needs to be work on the notification system.
Secondly, you need to really identify evacuation routes.
I know that the fire department thinks you can't identify them in advance, but you can designate certain routes for evacuation.
Secondly, putting red, doing the red stripe on the streets is great, but some of those streets are so narrow, they ought to be designated one way.
So you can clear up the problem of traffic going in two directions on them.
And then the eucalyptus trees, declare them a public nuisance, because they are.
That will give you more authority to remove them and get them removed at property owners or public expense.
It hasn't been done, we've been dealing with this for so many years, and nothing has happened on the eucalyptus front.
Thank you.
Okay, we have one more.
Speaker is Liz.
Hi, there has been an issue raised in our neighborhood to change the median space to a park and to use $150,000 to assess that.
You can pull the microphone closer to you.
Yeah, there you go.
And there was a letter sent to the City Council saying that our neighborhood, the $250,000, I'm sorry, I just want to make sure, is this relevant to the special meeting content? I'm sorry, I'm not sure if that's relevant to the special meeting content, but I'm not sure if that's relevant to the general meeting content.
Well, it's relevant to how funds are being used and whether the funds should be used to assess a.
We have a general meeting after this special meeting and you're welcome to give your public comment there during non agenda My staff is also here if you'd like to speak with them, but I'd like to move on to council comments if that's okay, since it's not relevant to this topic.
All right, well, I would like to move on to council comments and I'd like to start with council member back to be if that's okay.
Thank you, mayor.
And thank you to the fire department for being here tonight for all the work you put into this presentation and all of the public engagement that led us to this point, I know it's been an enormous amount of work, but we can see the result and the result is a solid plan that I think we will all support and the community is supporting.
And I just want to thank all of the neighbors and district 6 neighbors and district and council member district.
So many of people who've come out tonight to express their support their feedback on the plan and also constructive criticism because again, as former council member mentioned, this is a great plan and a solid plan, but no plan is perfect.
And so it's, it's only improves as we test it and refine it from hearing feedback from the community.
So I just wanted to thank people for for sharing that.
I'm absolutely in support of of all the recommendations that have been made here.
I also wanted to highlight the safe passages program that we also are bringing as part of this, because as much of the plan tonight has been talked about is preparation in terms of home hardening and zone 0 kind of fuel reduction.
Also, anticipating the needs around evacuation, egress and ingress is equally important.
And so I just urge my colleagues to also support that as well.
Tonight I just also want to say, I'm committed to sort of seeing this through with you all this is the most important part of the package.
It's the part that's going to require the most sacrifice and the most work, I think, on behalf of our neighbors, but it's not the only thing and I know we all recognize that.
I agree that financing is absolutely critical, making it easier for homeowners to do the work and removing the barriers that will inhibit that is really critical.
So, 1 of my goals over the next few months, working with the team is figuring out ways that we can make that piece easier.
We carrots and sticks to do this work and financing, I think, is an important part of that evacuation planning.
As we mentioned is important.
I know we're waiting on the results of the evacuation study.
I know we won't be surprised by what that study says, but just being thoughtful and prepared and communicating back to our neighbors.
What the evacuation plan is, in addition to pre evacuation, I think is really important echoing what we've heard working with our partners at the park district working with our partners at UC Berkeley, Berkeley lab.
Thanks to the great work that fire safe council and all of our fire wise communities are doing.
There's a real opportunity to again partner here and we're stronger.
I think when we work together than when we work independently.
1 of the things I've been really gratified by the last couple of months has already been the closer coordination between the department and all these neighborhood organizations as has been said before.
There are 13 firewise communities.
Most of them are in or near zone.
4.
These are neighbors who've already said and stepped up and said, hey, we want to self organize ourselves to do the home hardening and fuel reduction work.
And we have a real opportunity to use that grassroots engagement in combination with what's coming from the fire department to end up in a really good place.
And so I'm gratified to see that.
And I want to help strengthen that coordination.
Last thing, I guess, I think I'll just say what I think is so important about this work, and the chief has mentioned it in some of our previous meetings so much of this is about by and large.
This is about buying time that, you know.
The solution will not be perfect as much as we hope that we can save every home in this process.
It's unlikely that we'd be able to save every home in a massive fire situation, but we want to buy time to amass the response that we need to support the fire department and all of the partners that will be coming to our aid in a disaster like this to prevent the fire from roaring down the hill and.
And we're going to the rest of Berkeley, so I really see this as an all of the city issue, and it requires an all of the city response.
So, I just again appreciate the fire department for being here.
Appreciate the support from the neighbors in the community and hope to have the support of my colleagues as well.
Thank you.
Thank you so much council member.
Keith, thank you for those comments.
Council member.
First and foremost, I want to express my most gratitude to chief spray assistant chief Arnold and the entire Berkeley fire department for developing these really well thought out proposals and for presenting them so well tonight.
I know this is a deeply personal issue for many of you.
It has to do with our homes and our lives and the lives of our loved ones.
And I want you to know this is also very personal for me as well.
My parents who are in the 80s live on keeler very close to not quite in zone 4, but not far away and it's in the house that I grew up in so, you know, now I live down the hill on the very edge of the fire zone, but my heart and soul are really rooted in the part of fire.
That we're talking about tonight.
It doesn't have to be personal though.
I mean, I could have moved here last year, but the fact is that I'm in this job and it's a job to take very seriously and that means I have a moral imperative to use my best judgment and my strongest advocacy to keep our community safe.
That's what we're all here to do primarily.
So, I know this is a lot to ask.
I wouldn't be asking if I didn't think it was in the best interest of our community and because it's for our community.
It has to be done by all of us by our as a community.
So, collective action and caring for one another is where Berkeley shines.
It's one of the values that makes this such a wonderful place to live.
I must not forget that.
So, I think it's obvious.
I am supporting these proposals wholeheartedly.
I hope my colleagues do as well and I can promise you it will not be easy, but it is necessary.
And I'll say that we're fortunate to have one of the most sophisticated well equipped and well prepared fire departments in California.
I cannot back that up with data, but I'm certain that it's true.
So, now is the time to follow the science and support our experts in this critical life saving work.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Council member.
We're moving on to council member Bartlett.
And I want to thank the team for your diligent work really well reasoned well positioned proposal covers nearly every aspect of keeping us safe here and in terms of fire and the 1 that keeps coming up and this came up years ago.
You may recall when we worked on the omnibus plan back in 2017, just the expense.
You know, that's that's the key element here is just the expense accounts for black.
We mentioned as well for the financing options and I've thought a lot about this.
I think we may need to consider.
Creating a special assessment district.
To fund to fund the home hardening for everyone there, and then even conceiving possibly combining that with a city wide sort of Mellow Roos.
So, the bar, you can do infrastructure around evacuation and other fire fire safety measures for the whole city.
So I think we should look at this.
Mr.
city manager.
Yeah, that's my point.
Thank you.
Thank you council member testimony.
Yes, thank you very much.
Madam mayor and thank you to our fire chief and everyone who's here giving us this detailed presentation today.
I want to acknowledge just our, our concern for those who've been displaced and killed by the fires in L.
A.
I know many of us have friends who have been directly affected and I'm grateful that it is inspiring our community.
To continue to take this wildfire threat is urban fire threat very seriously.
I know you gave a very detailed presentation.
I just wanted to ask you a few questions.
1 is around staffing.
Does your proposal include staffing and could you go over that? Yeah, absolutely.
It does.
Include the request for you all to affirm the recommendations in the standards of coverage study.
Specifically, I can detail what those are at a high level.
1 is to complete the transition of firefighters off of our ambulance to upstaff key companies from 3 to 4 people that is underway and budget neutral.
The 2nd is to increase staffing on all of the Hill fire companies during high fire danger day from 3 to 4 firefighters at a cost of about $4,000 a day.
That is not not funded, but something that is relatively rare and could be absorbed.
The and the final recommendation is to add a 2nd operational field level commander 24 7.
that's something that is necessary for day to day operations, but also for larger incidents like wildfires.
That is the 1 significant cost that is unfunded.
Okay, so in terms of process.
Are we going to look at the possibility of funding these staffing requests during the budget process? Yes, if I could take that 1 customer because 1, yeah, that's the that's the idea.
I mean.
There are a lot of competing priorities and we have a fairly significant budget deficit.
So, as we consider how to move forward with the budget and meeting those different priorities, this will be part of part of that discussion.
Okay, thank you very much.
Mr.
city manager.
And so I wanted to ask about something we read and heard about in the news out of La, which is this issue of pre positioning.
Our fire apparatus and and and staff during those high.
Fire hazard days, do we have a policy around that? Can you share your thinking on when you might do that? Yeah, absolutely.
I'll talk about the local municipal response and then chief can talk at a regional scale.
So, for fire weather, we have an internal policy that drives what what actions we take that includes up staffing.
Administratively in our office of emergency services also in the field.
So, in anticipation of an ignition, we do up staff in the city currently, and we make contact with other neighboring jurisdictions.
There's coordination at a county level and then chief you want to handle.
Yes, thank you.
Beyond the work that's done by each individual agency, the regional coordinators working through the Cal OES system apply for and receive approval to up staff, preposition, strike teams and task forces several per county.
So, in this area, that primarily Alameda county, Contra Costa county, Solano county and Marin county participate and those resources flow seamlessly within the region when there's a local fire.
There are also state resources staffed by Cal fire.
However, those are not geographically tethered and so they are more likely to be drawn away.
So the OES funding of preposition task force with state funds, but local resources are tethered to the geography and remain in place during high wind events.
And those are frequently approved during red flag events in the fall.
Okay, thank you very much for that.
So, on this fire zone for which I think you had a slide of the map of the area that you're proposing for that.
If I'm correct me if I'm wrong, so we haven't specified what sort of enforcement we will have for the home hardening in that area.
Have we.
For the home hardening that's that's a more difficult thing to enforce.
We can't retroactively enforce modifications to structures that are already built under.
They were legal when they were built and we can't retroactively enforce.
So we're really left with several options.
1 is when permits for remodels are pulled.
We can require enforcement.
We can require enforcement.
We can require enforcement.
There's a potential at time of sale, but there's complications there that we need to work through.
Okay, I'm sorry chief.
Let me just clarify when I said home hardening actually meant that the zone 0, the 5 defensive space around the homes for fires and for so in terms of enforcement, it would be adopted if you so choose it would be adopted into the fire code.
And there's a defined series of inspections, re inspections, warnings, notifications and eventually citations that would result.
Okay, so so there's already an established enforcement process if we adopt that fire zone for correct.
Okay.
And you know, this is just a practical question as as a member of this community with a neighbor, you know, I share to 2 wood fences with those neighbors.
And I'm just wondering what material because I know and you showed those those models of the rod iron fence.
Obviously, that's see through.
You can see through that type of fence.
I wonder just for the public.
Do you have at this time a recommendation of what type of material we you would recommend between 2 properties? That's not a wood fence that would provide privacy.
Yeah, I mean, there's there's a variety of metal fences that are more attractive than the ones that you see generally at home Depot, but there are a variety of non combustible metal fences or fences made from other non combustible materials that are rated by the state as such that are, you know, where you can't see through them.
So you can still have the privacy, but you have the fire protection.
Okay, well, thank you so much for all of these proposals.
I want to just voice my support for them and support for our continued work to be a resilient community.
Thank you so much.
Thank you Madam Mayor and as a council member for district 8, which was the only district in 1991 that partially burned in in that fire.
I haven't have a very heightened interest in and.
And I'm going to make some comments based upon the different sections of the amber proposal.
But 1st, I want to thank our fire department staff and especially the chiefs sitting before us.
And you've been amazing when it comes to promoting fire safety, especially in the wake of the L.
A.
fires.
And our community owes you a debt of gratitude for the work you do responding to emergencies every day, even the whole department, and for your efforts to make our community safer and more resilient in the face of disasters, which we face.
Working on this and starting really with 1, a, which is the fire code amendments working on this has been an iterative process with the fire department.
And I believe that based on some questions and answers with staff, there are already some proposed revisions that will improve the measure.
I think 1 overarching thing I want to note is that there needs to be greater clarity around performance based standards.
I think it should be clear that these will never create more stringent requirements for homeowners.
And maybe I'm getting too far into the weeds here, but I think there needs to be more information about the objective considerations that would support these judgments, allowing for purely subjective relaxations of requirements.
Raise some due process and other questions in my mind, and I'd like to see this explored more thoroughly and reworked.
Another suggestion I have is that I think we, it would be really helpful to have a chart.
Just so somebody could take a quick look and say, this applies to me, or this doesn't apply to me.
I think that's what people would like to go to 1st.
I recognize that we're trying to act with a sense of urgency and that we intend to make substantial changes in our fire code.
So, it makes sense that the 1st draft would still need some adjustment.
I'm hoping that some of those changes will be made in the future.
I recognize that we're trying to act with a sense of urgency and that we intend to make substantial changes in our fire code.
So, it makes sense that the 1st draft would still need some adjustment.
I'm hoping that subsequent versions will come with maybe a little bit more lead time and I know we're moving quickly for internal and public review ahead of another council meeting with respect to the 2nd part of ember.
And that's building code amendments.
I really do approve of staff moving forward with crafting them without having the details.
I can't really speak about particulars.
I do want to emphasize that we need to be conscientious of cost, especially for existing homeowners.
Who might be house rich, but cash poor and that's so typical in in our neighborhoods and I've seen that in the hills in particular.
House rich and cash poor typically these requirements are triggered by rebuilds or renovations, but in some cases, renovations are essentially involuntary like water damage occurs.
And roof replacements are something that needs to happen on a regular schedule.
So I'd want us to be conscientious about how and when we're opposing imposing additional costs.
Finally, on the part of the proposal, the leave early and fire department staffing.
I think that the National Weather Service and consultation makes sense, though.
I would encourage the fire department to seek backups and 2nd opinions given what may be happening with federal agencies in the coming months.
I tried to pull up the website the other day and it said that it didn't exist.
Thank you.
Trump administration with respect to fire department staffing.
Of course, we want to staff our department at the optimum level.
And I'm reflecting some of the comments made by council member.
We know that we have a city budget crunch and that any help from the federal government.
Based on what we've heard from the city manager that it will be, but that's all I have.
Thanks again for all the incredible work that you've done so far.
I'm just deeply grateful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Council member council member check up.
Thank you so much, madam mayor.
And thank you for the excellent and science informed presentation.
Thank you to the members of the community that have come here today to speak with us.
I really appreciated to the presentation that our office received from chief spank and deputies.
Chief Arnold, and I have to tell you, I spent 12 years in the federal government.
Maybe what's left of it right now as a nuclear engineer, and I can't think of anything that has scared me more than that.
The slides of fire progression that you showed when we met and again today.
I had an opportunity to spend time in paradise to try to.
Help, it's local government.
And this was 2 years after the fire that it experienced, and it was horrific.
Just how ravaged it still is.
When growing up in Southern California, as a kid.
A fire came within several 100 yards of our home.
My family's 1st home.
my whole family.
of my family.
So, all that to say, I strongly support all four phases of this plan.
And I thank my colleagues, council member, and others who have come up with the additional proposal.
Um, I, uh, still remember.
Um, yes, I will confess that I once took my car out to the hills for an event, and I was about to, um, park that was like, uh, single file parking and then someone, um, double parked, um, kind of in in the, uh, open world.
I guess they were dropping something off and then a fire engine came down the hill with lights and I'm glad I was still sitting in my car.
I was able to, um, park in someone else's driveway so that the fire engine could try to get around and they still weren't able to.
So, yes, I absolutely support that 4th phase, um, or 4th proposal as well.
Um, item 1.
D.
I had a few, um, uh, some of these are going to be questions.
Others are comments.
And for time, I'm just going to, um, go through them quickly and I will let staff decide if you wish to respond to any of it now, or when we, um, come back here with, um, the action phase of this proposal.
Uh, so 1st of all, um, around the dollars and cents issue, um, I was curious, um, you mentioned in your presentation, uh, with the leave early part of the plan.
There were some elements that were not yet funded by the city.
I would be curious to better understand what those were and how much they would cost for the Cal fire grants.
Um, I was curious how much it would be for home.
Um, I also, um, wanted to understand how much of the current funding, uh, for fire, uh, prevention and mitigation comes from the federal government.
Um, and how much of the current funding comes from the Cal fire grants, which, um, obviously we cannot expect that funding to be there.
Sadly, in the next 4 years, um, that leads me to, um, talk about opportunities to leverage what else exists, uh, for example, um, there is currently, uh, an investment tax credit of up to 30%, uh, when you, uh, put, uh, rooftop solar on, which typically happens, um, or often happens as part of a larger roof replacement project.
So how can something like that be leveraged other opportunities for other hardening to be done at the same time as other climate resiliency measures are done? Um, is there still an opportunity to explore pace financing? Um.
Um.
And then, um.
Should we look at other approaches as well? Um, in addition to this, such as, um, around the time, uh, that there is, um, a home sale in zone 3 and 4.
Uh, can we look at a concept similar to what we're going to be discussing later tonight with base? So, um, and hold some funding in escrow, um, or require, um, some of it to be held in escrow, uh, while, um, these, uh, hardening measures are being done.
Um.
And lastly, on the funding question, um, and this is, um, I, I understand from speaking to our legislators.
Um, and others in Sacramento, obviously, what happened in LA is very top of mind right now, uh, for.
The state legislature, and there's probably going to be, uh, legislation, um, that we should really, um, as we develop our advocacy agenda, we should track it.
And if there is funding available through those sources, we should absolutely support that.
And then if, uh, signed, um, if approved by the legislature and signed, uh, we should try to go for those opportunities.
Um.
I was curious, um, if staff could put together, uh, a short list of what else is out there.
I heard just from public comments tonight, um, San Rafael, Sonoma, um, have done, uh, certain, uh, things that could potentially be used, uh, as models.
Um, I have heard from, um, others, uh, in the public who have, uh, worked with Oakland, um, as, uh, my own chief of staff has, um, she was, um, previously, um, assigned to an Oakland council member.
Um, so what other partnership and collaboration opportunities can be leveraged with Oakland and UC Berkeley? Um, I was curious, um, looking at the, um, summary slides.

Segment 5

Between Establishment and Adoption of Fire Codes, Building Codes, and Leave Early and Staffing.
It would be helpful for me to see an integrated timeline for each of those phases, and how does it relate, and are there opportunities to just have a broadly understandable to the public timeline.
I think it would be helpful for us on the dais as well, speaking for me, I think it would be helpful to see almost a Gantt chart of when certain phases are supposed to kick in, as well as the transition between education and enforcement for each of these.
And then I'm also curious if some of the building code amendments could be leveraged with the next tri-annual cycle of Title 24 for energy upgrades.
Again, if there may be opportunities to leverage those, we would be able to feed multiple birds with one seed.
And in a time of scarce resources and many needs, that might be the way to get through the budgetary challenges and still adopt this.
I think those are all of my comments.
I know that we've provided additional ones to staff in writing, and I'm just going to end on something that former Council Member and Vice Mayor Susan Wengraff said at the top.
And thank you so much, Council Member Wengraff, for all of your decades of work for us to get to where we are tonight.
This won't be easy and it's not going to be perfect, but we cannot afford to have the perfect be the enemy of the good.
And so I look forward to supporting all of these efforts when it comes back before us.
And thank you so much again for all your hard work on this.
Thank you.
Those were many questions.
And so I just want to be sensitive to the fact that it's 6-18, which means technically our Council meeting was supposed to have started 18 minutes ago.
So if you could, as briefly as possible, respond to the questions.
But if there are things that could maybe be responded to later, if you're okay with a Council Member, that perhaps staff can also get back to you with some of those answers that might require maybe more graphical answers or responses.
Would that be all right? Yeah, really briefly, we're happy to take those recommendations and come back with the materials and the plans that you requested.
I think that makes a lot of sense.
In terms of the money available through the RAP Resident Assistance Program, it's $2,900 per home that qualifies.
We set that number based on a pilot we did.
We didn't have anybody that requested more than that amount of money to implement the defensible space work.
So that's what's in the grant currently.
There's also money available in Measure FF to support that program.
And we're going to be pursuing additional grants to support home hardening work as they become available following Legislature action.
I think the rest of the questions we can answer offline.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you all.
We are moving on to Council Member Lunapara.
Thank you.
I want to first thank the Fire Chief and the Fire Department staff and their colleagues for all of your hard work and diligence on this incredibly important work.
And I am really excited to support these recommendations, all 4 of them.
Thank you.
I also want to make sure that we are thinking fully about evacuation and what that means for a lot of our residents.
Many of our residents can't drive or don't have cars or don't have anywhere to evacuate to.
We need to make sure that we're coordinating with the UC, with Berkeley City College, with our faith centers, with our unhoused population and advocates, with our senior centers and our transit partners to make sure that all of our residents are able to keep themselves and their loved ones safe from a potential disaster.
As the devastating situation in LA has shown us, we cannot see the fire safety as a Hills issue.
It is citywide, a region-wide issue that we must all take seriously.
By taking these recommendations into consideration and eventual implementation, we can protect our city and make sure that our residents' homes don't become fuel.
We can protect each other.
I support these 4 proposals and I'm appreciative of these efforts and conversation.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Council Member Buckbee, yours came up again, but I just want to make sure that we hear from Council Member Kaplan as well.
I just want to make the motion.
Thank you.
Thanks to the Chiefs of the Department.
Thanks to my colleagues.
I will be supporting the proposals.
Thank you.
Yeah, I just have a few comments.
I want to make sure that it's just on the record to say that, as Mayor, I think it's really important that I support this to say that it's not just about the Hills.
As we've been having these conversations, fire impacts our entire city.
And I just want to thank you all so much for your work.
I know that an incredible amount of time and energy went into making this, and I agree that it does take a lot of courage to bring this forward.
I understand that it's not always been this way that residents have come in support of this.
So thank you all so much.
And to my Council Member colleagues as well for your work on this area.
I do think that oftentimes people aren't willing to make a change until it's too late.
And so I think it's very important that we're doing this work now.
And I want to say that in response to a comment that was made earlier, I want to make sure that the city manager knows I didn't promise that the city was going to help to organize that.
Our office is going to help to organize grassroots efforts to help support folks who aren't able to afford or to do the work themselves.
That's something that I'm really interested in supporting.
So I just want to make sure that that was clear and just say that I'm really, really proud of the work that we're all doing here.
It's really important for our city.
I'll pass it back to you, Council Member Wacoby.
Yeah, I want to make a two-part motion.
First part is to refer items 1A, 1B, and 1C back to staff to conduct additional community outreach, incorporate additional feedback, refine the proposals, and prepare final versions for Council consideration in March.
And the second part is to adopt item 1D, which is implementation of the safe passages program.
Second.
Actually, I think that all of us have spoken in support, so if it's okay, I can have us all list as ayes.
Unless, yes.
Yeah, thank you.
I just wanted to clarify on your motion, would it be inclusive of incorporating feedback that we provided on the dais? Yes, feedback from the public and from colleagues here.
Thank you.
Yep.
Okay, is there any opposition to having us all as ayes? Okay, the motion carries.
Thank you so much.
Thank you all so much for being here for your presentation.
Okay, so folks, I know that many of you are here for the meeting.
It's 623, so I just want to let you know that we're going to take about a 20 minute break because we have been sitting for a while.
So my apologies to those of you who are already here.
Motion to adjourn.
And we also need, thank you.
And we also need a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Second.
Okay, any opposition? All right, then we will all be listed as ayes.
Thank you so much.
Motion to adjourn is passed.
We are adjourned.