The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the allocation of state grant funds to various county departments to strengthen their ability to prepare for, respond to and mitigate negative outcomes of potential Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS).

In 2019, many California utilities providers began to officially implement PSPS. When PSPS are implemented, providers proactively turn off power in high fire risk areas in order to reduce the chance of wildfires due to power lines during dangerous weather conditions such as high winds, extreme heat and low humidity.

During the last major red flag warning in October 2019, nearly 4,900 L.A. County households were impacted.

On Jan. 21, the board instructed the chief executive officer, led by the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), to develop a spending plan in collaboration with various county departments to create a framework which could ensure that these funds are allocated equitably to prepare for, respond to and mitigate negative outcomes of a PSPS event.

“This funding is critically important to support our residents who are directly impacted by power safety shutoffs,” said Barger in a statement. “Today’s effort is especially beneficial for vulnerable populations, including those with disabilities, those with access and functional needs, older adults and medically-dependent individuals. With our residents’ safety at the forefront of our minds, we are committed to allocating timely resources for our communities.”

Departments had the opportunity to submit projects related to the impact of PSPS to the OEM for funding consideration.

The common theme of many of the projects submitted by the various departments which were approved for additional funds was that the outages impact their ability to provide critical public services.

Five of the seven approved projects were for facility modifications to support backup power.

Those five departments include the Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC); Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD); Department of Public Health (DPH); Department of Public Works (DPW); and Workforce Development, Aging and Community Services (WDACS).

The final two approved projects are to supply mobile generators to the Internal Services Department (ISD) and Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RRCC).

ISD provides generators to community centers that serve as cooling center locations during Extreme Heat Warnings, Red Flag Warnings and PSPS events, but they encountered multiple instances when they lacked the generators to support all the impacted communities.

The RRCC proposal seeks to address perhaps the most unique issue among those approved by the board.

RRCC officials expressed their concern about the potential impacts of PSPS outages on upcoming elections and therefore requested generators and power packs to support election operations in the event of an outage. After the election, the supplies would be used by ISD to support community and senior centers, as well as cooling sites.

the full motion by 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger and 3rd District Supervisor Sheila Kuehl is available here.

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