Office of Emergency Services: state matching funds: water system infrastructure improvements.

Existing law establishes, within the office of the Governor, the Office of Emergency Services (OES) , under the direction of the Director of Emergency Services. Existing law charges the OES with coordinating various emergency activities within the state. The California Emergency Services Act, contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature, requires the OES to enter into a joint powers agreement pursuant to the Joint Exercise of Powers Act with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to develop and administer a comprehensive wildfire mitigation program relating to structure hardening and retrofitting and prescribed fuel modification activities. Existing law authorizes the joint powers authority to establish financial assistance limits and matching funding or other recipient contribution requirements for the program, as provided. This bill would, contingent on funding being appropriated pursuant to a bond act, as specified, establish the Rural Water Infrastructure for Community Wildfire Protection Program within the OES for the distribution of state matching funds to communities within the Wildland Urban Interface in designated high fire hazard severity zones or very high fire hazard severity zones to improve water system infrastructure, as prescribed. The bill would require the OES to work in coordination with the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, and other state entities as the office determines to be appropriate, to achieve the purposes of the program. The bill would require the office to develop criteria and a scoring methodology to prioritize the distribution of state matching funds provided under the program to rural communities based upon specified criteria.