May 3 Support letter AB 2416 Improving the Safer From Wildfires Program

May 3, 2024

The Honorable Assemblymember Damon Connolly 
1021 O Street, Ste. 5240 
Sacramento, CA 95814

Re: Support letter for AB 2416: Improving the Safer From Wildfires Program

Dear Assemblymember Connolly,

On behalf of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, I write to express our support for AB 2416, which will incentivize insurers to provide coverage for homes and businesses in California by requiring the Department of Insurance to periodically review and update the Safer from Wildfire regulations to include additional building hardening measures for property-level and communitywide mitigations.

Effective home and community hardening measures help contain the spread of wildfires, reduce property damage, save lives, and by extension, reduce claims liability for insurers. The state has spent billions in recent years to reduce California’s risk of wildfire, in addition to meaningful mitigations that so many private property owners have invested in to reduce their risk during a catastrophic wildfire.

In Marin County, we have also invested significant local tax dollars to vegetation management and home hardening – all with a communitywide lens since we know a regional approach is the only effective way to build wildfire resiliency. Marin residents passed a 10- year parcel tax measure in 2020, which raises $20 million annually, to create the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority (MWPA). In its first three years, MWPA has made significant progress in reducing wildfire risk with proactive, proven wildfire prevention, including:

• Distributing $840,000 in homeowner grants for defensible space and home hardening
• Completed fuel reduction on 1,700 acres, including 46 miles of roads. Approved an additional 6,300 acres of fuel reduction for the coming year. 

While it is unquestionable that the state must tackle homeowner insurance reform on a large scale to solve the crisis so many homeowners in California are experiencing – we wholly support legislation like AB 2416 which aims to take important, incremental steps possible now, while policymakers continue the important work of broad, system-wide solutions.

AB 2416 bolsters by incentivizing effective wildfire prevention measures to enhance community resilience; and aims to improve insurance coverage. For these reasons, we support AB 2461 and appreciate your attention to this critically important issue in our state.

Sincerely,

Dennis Rodoni, President
Marin County Board of Supervisors 

Cc: Marin County Board of Supervisors
Senator Mike McGuire