Emergency services: disaster preparedness.

Assembly Member Caloza frames emergency preparedness as a cross-sector undertaking, directing the Office of Emergency Services to convene biennial tabletop exercises and to coordinate annual community disaster preparedness training in vulnerable regions through California Volunteers and CERT programs. The measure would anchor these activities in existing disaster-planning frameworks while expanding interagency and community engagement across government, private sector, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

The tabletop exercises would be mandated every two years, bringing together key personnel and agencies with emergency management responsibilities to discuss and evaluate preparedness plans under simulated catastrophic disaster scenarios. Scenarios would be based on preexisting, state-developed plans linked to FEMA guidance, including plans addressing major flood and earthquake events regarded as high-risk. Each exercise must pursue at least four of a broad set of objectives, such as engaging communities in developing response strategies, providing clear and timely information, maintaining a unified operations structure, ensuring supply-chain resilience, safeguarding health and safety, coordinating transportation and evacuation needs, and supporting recovery and fatality management. Ongoing reporting would require a summary of each exercise to specified legislative committees by early February of 2028 and every two years thereafter, with costs offset to the greatest extent possible using federal preparedness grant funding.

In parallel, the measure would require annual community disaster preparedness training in vulnerable regions, coordinated with CERT programs and California Volunteers. Regions would be identified using FEMA’s National Risk Index and a local vulnerability index or similar tools. Training activities would emphasize resilience-building, include use of green spaces for drills when feasible, and promote inclusive engagement of community members, including individuals with disabilities and those from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Each training event would test community emergency notification systems, with priority given to communities that have faced challenges with alerts or evacuations, including those observed during recent wildfires.

Implementation would position OES and California Volunteers as the principal coordinating bodies, with participation obligations for state, local, tribal, and private-sector entities without creating new state appropriations within the measure itself. Federal preparedness grant funding would be pursued to offset participation costs wherever possible, and reporting and oversight would occur through existing legislative fiscal mechanisms. The proposal anchors its activities to established disaster plans and federal risk assessment tools, and it foregrounds cross-sector coordination, data-informed region targeting, and inclusive, accessible engagement as guiding principles for both exercises and training programs.