Santa Cruz County Grand Jury
• 2020-2021
Wildfire Threat to the City of Santa Cruz Promote Policies to Prevent and Protect
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 9 findings
F1
Despite recognizing that the most important factor to reduce fire risk in the WUI area is the removal of entrenched encampments, the City has only done this in reaction to extreme emergency situations, instead of on a proactive basis.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Before the height of fire season, the City Council should agendize and recognize the fire risk from encampments and craft an ordinance to address these issues. (F1, F2)
F2
The Temporary Outdoor Living Ordinance was a significant step toward proactive management and mitigating the risks associated with entrenched encampments.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Before the height of fire season, the City Council should agendize and recognize the fire risk from encampments and craft an ordinance to address these issues. (F1, F2)
F3
The coordination between the City and the County on homeless issues is insufficient and not transparent to the public.
Related Recommendations (2)
R2
In the next three months, the City Council needs to have more transparent and formal coordination with the county on management of homeless resources. (F3)
R8
In the next six months, the City Council should produce a detailed plan and accounting of how the federal and state homeless funds are used. (F3)
F4
Accurate data, including a count of the unhoused living in Santa Cruz, is necessary to assess and manage the fire risks from encampments.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
In the next three months, the City Manager should establish a procedure for conducting regular quarterly surveys of the number and location of the City’s unhoused population to more effectively manage fire risks in WUI areas. (F4)
F5
Based on the amount of debate and public concern about fire safety of eucalyptus, the Fire Department has done insufficient outreach on this topic.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
In the next 12 months, the Santa Cruz Fire Department should educate the public on risk of fires caused by eucalyptus versus other vegetation. This would help all communities with eucalyptus trees realize the importance of vegetation management and not just in Firewise neighborhoods. (F5)
F6
There are still WUI neighborhoods without a Firewise group. Firewise groups decrease the risk of fire in WUI areas through public education about protecting property and vegetation management.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
In the next 12 months, the Santa Cruz Fire Department should work to establish a Firewise community in every WUI area of the City. (F6)
F7
The City of Santa Cruz doesn’t do enough to show that they are limited in what they can do to remove encampments along highways as this property is owned by Caltrans and under state law.
Related Recommendations (2)
R9
In the next three months, the City Manager should notify the public that Caltrans is responsible for the removal of all encampments along state highways. (F7)
R10
Continually, the City Council should engage state offices to be more involved in encampment situations. This should be with all homeless encampments on Caltrans property and not just for highway widening projects. (F7)
F8
The 10% across the board budget cuts do not match priorities of the City.
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
Before the budget cycle, the City Manager should revisit budget priorities. (F8)
F9
The holding in Martin v. City of Boise limited the City’s ability to enforce existing ordinances. TOLO was a carefully crafted attempt to manage fire risks from entrenched encampments.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
The City Council should continue efforts to revise ordinances to comply with recent case law so they will allow more effective management of encampments to reduce fire risks. (F9)
Conclusions 1
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CL1 Page 13Changing climate trends have increased fire risks in the City’s WUI areas. Together with an increase in the number of encampments, this has placed a higher demand on the City’s resources. This is happening during a time that the City's budget is shrinking due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is consensus across the City departments that homeless encampments present a significant risk of wildfires, as well as a risk to public health and safety. After a tremendous expenditure of human capital and opportunity cost, the City has more recently taken steps to organize around this problem and address it proactively. We find it important that they continue this work in a transparent manner.
Commendations 1
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CM1 Page 14C1. The Fire Department has worked creatively with City IT staff to use technology to better manage risks. C2. The Police Department conducted a count of the unhoused population of Santa Cruz, providing the first detailed, city-led reporting on the situation.
No Responses Found 1
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
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