We Need Sustainable Funding for the Tuolumne County Office of Emergency Services (PART 1)
One of California’s worst wildfires roared through the small town of Paradise on November 8, 2018. Just a few months later, five Tuolumne County residents drove to meet with Butte County’s Office of Emergency Services to sort donations in a warehouse and attend a community meeting. I was one of the five volunteers.
After returning home later, I realized I needed to conduct some research on wildfire and disaster preparedness. I learned that Tuolumne County had an outdated Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and that our county’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) was understaffed, with less than one full-time position. Since 2021, the staff has grown to four, then down to three, where it remains. County general funds and federal and state grants cover OES’ budget, which was recently transferred from under the County Administration Office to the Board of Supervisors.
In the last five years, there has been noticeable progress in preparing our community for a disaster, though hardly enough to accomplish that mandated by the State of California to prepare, prevent, mitigate, and recover from disasters (1). Similar to other county departments, OES has experienced a 15 percent across-the-board budget reduction, plus an additional cut to total more than 40 percent. Doesn’t this contrast sharply with the Board of Supervisors’ treatment of other public safety (fire and law enforcement) budgets, which received no reductions?
According to CAL FIRE’s Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ), Tuolumne County is classified at the highest of three levels (2). Our community is at risk without an OES operating at full throttle. Fire and law enforcement agencies do not undertake tasks of the Office of Emergency Services – preparedness, mitigation, and recovery, which can continue for years, as in the case of what Paradise is experiencing.
Over the last five months, our county government has faced a rigorous reorganization with the removal and exit of high-level department administrators without a clear explanation to voters. Does the dismantling of our county government resemble what is happening at the federal level, with little if any transparency or strategic direction?
Three of our current Supervisors have pronounced they want less government. For what reasons? As President James Madison said, “If man were angels, government would not be needed.”
We need the government to serve the people of Tuolumne County. We need OES staffed with funding coming not only from grants, but as a line item in the general budget. Let us have an honest conversation about county revenues and what effects failed sales tax referendums have had on our well-being.
Take Action
1. Attend the Board of Supervisors’ next three meetings (September 9, 15, 16) which will be about the county budget. Check the agendas for these meetings four days before the meeting date to understand the agenda items.
2. Attend the Fire Safety Advisory Committee meeting. Next meeting is September 24.
- Fourth Wednesday of each month at 3:00 pm
- ANF Building, Committees and Commissions Room, 3rd Floor
- 48 Yaney Ave, Sonora, CA 95370
3. Educate yourself on how to be prepared for a flood, wildfire, or earthquake. See the Tuolumne County OES website for preparedness.
3. Join one of the following:
- Volunteer with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
- Volunteer as a county Disaster Worker.
- Volunteer with the American Red Cross
4. Register online for the Everbridge Alert Notification System used by Tuolumne County to notify residents and visitors of an emergency through texts, emails, or landlines. Just last week, those who signed up on Everbridge received a resounding alarm on our phones concerning the wildfires in the county. Do not delay. We are in wildfire season for the next three months. If you need assistance, call OES at 209-533-6395.
5. Read about the siren system we have in this county.
NOTES
1. According to CA Govt Code § 8550 (2024): The state has long recognized its responsibility to mitigate the effects of natural, manmade, or war-caused emergencies that result in conditions of disaster or in extreme peril to life, property, and the resources of the state, and generally to protect the health and safety and preserve the lives and property of the people of the state. To ensure that preparations within the state will be adequate to deal with such emergencies, it is hereby found and declared to be necessary:
(a) To confer upon the Governor and upon the chief executives and governing bodies of political subdivisions of this state (that’s us, the counties) the emergency powers provided herein; and to provide for state assistance in the organization and maintenance of the emergency programs of such political subdivisions.
(b) To provide for a state office to be known and referred to as the Office of Emergency Services, within the office of the Governor, and to prescribe the powers and duties of the director of that office.
(c) To provide for the assignment of functions to state entities (that’s us, the counties) to be performed during an emergency and for the coordination and direction of the emergency actions of those entities.
(d) To provide for the rendering of mutual aid by the state government and all its departments and agencies and by the political subdivisions of this state (that’s us, the counties) in carrying out the purposes of this chapter.
(e) To authorize the establishment of such organizations and the taking of such actions as are necessary and proper to carry out the provisions of this chapter.
2. “Fire Hazard Severity Zones,” CAL FIRE.
3. Tuolumne County Office of Emergency Services