"California has reached a tipping point," Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) said during a news conference Wednesday. "In the last nine years, we've had the eight largest fires in the history of California — we shouldn't have this problem."
A Ventura County legislator has introduced a package of six bills to help reduce the wildfire risk to homes in California.
Democratic State Assemblyman Steve Bennett's effort includes six bills.
Assemblymember Steve Bennett, D-Ventura, said the Trump administration is following the historic pattern of autocracies by relying on violence to enforce silence and complicity. He compared ICE agents to Hitler's brownshirts.
"Now we have the equivalent here with the unprofessional, untrained ICE agents and the way they're treating immigrants and American citizens here," he said.
Assembly Bill 506, introduced by Assemblymember Steve Bennett of Ventura County, voids contracts with non-refundable deposits or those that don't disclose the pet's origin or medical history. It also requires sellers to refund buyers within 30 days if the contract is voided.
"We're trying to make it clear that nonrefundable deposits are illegal, and then we're also requiring that all the appropriate information come with the animal from the other state when the animal is actually delivered," Bennett said.
It's been more than seven years since fire hydrants in southern Ventura County rapidly ran dry as the Thomas fire exploded — something Assemblymember Steve Bennett hoped he would never see repeated.
But in November, firefighters again found themselves short on water as the Mountain fire roared through the foothills of Camarillo.
"I've been working on this idea ever since the Mountain Fire. We had the same thing happen that happened during the Thomas Fire. When you don't have backup power, you can't fill the tanks, and when the tanks run dry, you're not able to fill those back up," said Democratic Assemblyman Steve Bennett of Ventura.
He introduced legislation which would address the concern specifically in Ventura County, but could also serve as a model to do it statewide.
Assemblymember Steve Bennett, D-Ventura, proposed legislation last week to require local districts to better prepare and protect water supplies for wildfires.
The bill, introduced on Thursday, calls for Ventura County water districts in high fire risk areas to top off tanks during fire weather, provide reliable backup power for pumps and make sure areas around those tanks and pumps are hardened against flames.
AB560, a bill sponsored by state Assemblyman Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) would require the parties to any proposed settlement agreement in an adjudication to submit their proposal to the state Water Resources Control Board before the judge makes a ruling.
Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura), who introduced the bill, said it was intended to address a significant loophole in California’s groundwater law. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, passed in 2014, created local agencies tasked with developing plans for curbing overpumping in many areas of the state, but left counties in charge of issuing permits for new wells.
Mike Barber is board president of the Garden Acres Mutual Water Company serving the unincorporated community of Nyeland Acres next to the 101 Freeway. He is probably better known, however, as the person who rescued a huge Santa Claus statue slated for demolition in Carpinteria, moving it to its new home on water district property near Oxnard in 2003. He’s also the founder of the Santa to the Sea Half Marathon.
On Friday, May 17, Barber’s tiny utility serving around half the homes in Nyeland Acres hosted a news conference detailing how $17.6 million in state funding will be spent on several projects across Ventura County, while also honoring the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) grant funding recipients.