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From:
Lila Hayes
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Subject: OFRG weekly update
Meeting
Reminder
James Shepard
McGraw-Hill Construction
720 Carnegie Dr Ste. 130
San Bernardino, Ca 92408
T - (909)
890-4288
F - (909) 890-1736
C- (909) 499-8584
There will be no meeting on May 8 due to Mother's
day. We will resume our meetings on May 22 with Frank Williams of the BIA
who will be talking about working with Contractors.
---
Index
1. New Features to the OFRG
Website
2. OFRG Planning for
the end
3. OFRG's Next Newsletter
4. SB2 update by United
Policyholders
5. SB477 Update
In The News
1. Under Fire, San Diego Mayor Quits, April 26, 2005, (LA Times)
2. Closed captioning found lacking during
wildfires, Feb 24, 2005, (San Diego Union
Tribune)
3. In National Competition,
SignOnSanDiego.com Wins First Place for Coverage of October 2003 Wildfires,
Nov. 22, 2004 (San Diego Union Tribune)
4. Growing danger, April 16,
2005, (Riverside Press-Enterprise)
5. Report calls for limits in
forest-area growth, April 18, 2005, The
Press-Enterprise
6. Firefighters are 'in sync', April 25,
2005, (Riverside Press-Enterprise)
On The Net
1. disasterprepared.net which seems to be an
ex-adjuster who has written this website and an accompanying book with some
interesting information.
---
1.
New Features to the OFRG
Website
---
In order to make locating information on our
website a bit easier, I've added a search engine to our site. It is a free
service so when you hit "search this site" you will get a couple of advertising
links at the top, but in my opinion they are easy to spot and not a distraction
to finding the needed information. The search bar is located near the
top of each page on our website.
I have also added a Guest Book where people can
leave a short message. You'll find it in the "About Us"
section.
---
2.
OFRG Planning for the end
---
It’s hard to believe that it has been almost
a year since we received our funding, but it’s true! In July it will be a year
since we became an official organization with Community Partners and our funding
will come to an end. I will continue to do the website and email updates on my
own but we will no longer be able to have printed and mailed newsletters or
postcards since they cost several hundred dollars each to produce.
At that point we will also be making changes
to our meeting schedule. We will probably only meet
once a month and we’re thinking of stopping the informational seminars and
having only a monthly social get together until the second anniversary when we
will stop meeting all together.
One idea we had was to do sort of a “progressive dinner” thing
where each month we visit 2 or 3 (or maybe even 4) newly rebuilt houses on a
block or other small area which would include a small walking tour while walking
between homes. Dining would be optional… we’re open to suggestions and also to
people who would like to share their new home with other survivors.
Please contact us if you’re interested in volunteering your home
for this type of activity. We’re thinking of doing one in July, August,
September and October. Date to be determined.
Lila Hayes
909-266-1459
info@oldfirerecoverygroup.org
---
3. OFRG's next newsletter
---
Our next newsletter (April 2005 issue) is currently
under production and will be sent out before the end of the month. If
you'd like a preview of the newsletter, you can go to our website and click on
"Newsletters".
---
4. SB2 Update by United
Policyholders
---
Here is an update from Amy Bach of United
Policyholders
Dear
Friends,
I am writing to update
the group on legislative issues in advance of next week’s call. Several
members of our recovery working group participated in a meeting last week with
State Senator Hollingsworth to discuss provisions of SB2. SB2 is the
bill that Jackie Speier introduced to help remedy the insurance problems
witnesses testified about at her hearing last November that were not remedied
in bills that passed in the 2004
session.
SB2 has got a number
of provisions. Two of the most significant ones are many survivors’ top
priorities – they are also the two provisions the industry opposes most
strongly. They would:
1) Mandate that
insurers provide no less than 24 months of Additional Living Expense coverage in disaster situations;
2) Allow future
claimants to avoid having to prepare a detailed personal property
inventory/proof of loss forms and present receipts if the claimant agrees to
accept a set percentage that is less than their full contents/personal
property limits. The current version of the bill would set that lesser
amount at 85% of contents/pp limits.
I am pleased to report
that the bill passed out of the Senate committee on Banking and Insurance
yesterday and is continuing to move forward to the other committees that need
to approve it before it goes to the Governor. This is only the first of
many hurdles, and there will undoubtedly be further amendments once it gets to
the Assembly. If you like the spirit
of the bill but have concerns over the details, you can still support the bill
while expressing those concerns.
I again encourage members of our group to write
support letters to the sponsor, (Senator Speier), and to Assemblymember
Vargas, chair of the Assembly committee that will consider the bill once its
passes out of the Appropriations committee.
The current version of SB2 is
explained HERE [edited].
There are two other bills (SB. 251 and SB 518) that merit support
[edited]. You can read them at www.senate.ca.gov. This session may be the last
opportunity for some years to come in which there will be enough support for
insurance reforms to counter industry opposition, so I encourage all of you to
send in support letters.
I have edited the previous message to include
links to the bills instead of including the entire text of the bill as she had
in her original email. Sorry Amy if you wonder what happened to the
original text of your email!
I encourage people to do research about the bills
and determine for yourself if you support them or not. Even if
you have an opinion about a limited portion of the bill, please let
your State Senator know.
---
5. SB477 Update
Well, we just got back from Sacramento where SB 477
passed through the Government Organization committee with only one nay vote
(McClintock, if you're curious). It actually passed with consensus which
I've learned means that there was no discussion (or testifying done by us)
except the nay-sayer.
I wasn't in the room when he spoke, but from
what I heard, his opposition was due to the fact that he thought it would
increase OES's power beyond it's current scope. McClintock is known for
his adamant stance against bigger government and as such, he's not afraid to
vote no on things he thinks will increase the governments scope of
power or taxes. We hope to be able to show him that this is already
within OES's power and we're just trying to make sure it happens at each
disaster and not which one's they decide to pick and choose to
support.
The next step is for it to go to the appropriations
committee where we were told, full testimonials will not be needed. We'll
keep you apprised of the schedule.
---
In The News
---
1. Under Fire, San
Diego Mayor Quits [emphasis in the text of the article added so you
know why I included this one]
April 26, 2005
Dick Murphy was buffeted by a clouded reelection and federal
probes. City Council can call an election or appoint a
successor.
By Tony Perry and Richard Marosi, Times
Staff Writers
SAN DIEGO — Mayor Dick Murphy, who
won a disputed election five months ago, abruptly announced his resignation
Monday amid mounting criticism of his handling of the city's pension deficit and
threats of a recall.
Murphy read a short statement and
took no questions. "It is clear the city needs a fresh start," the 62-year-old
Republican and former Superior Court judge said at a hastily called news
conference.
Murphy had become the focus of public anger toward City Hall
over a pension deficit of nearly $2 billion and investigations by the Securities
and Exchange Commission and the U.S. attorney's office. He said he will stay in
office until July 15.
His stature as mayor, already damaged by
the city's weak response to the 2003 wildfires, was further undermined
by an election victory in November in which he was declared the winner only
after thousands of votes for a write-in challenger were declared invalid.
[more HERE] free registration may
be required
2. Closed captioning found
lacking during wildfires
By Kathryn Balint Union Tribune STAFF WRITER
February 24,
2005
In
its first such action, the Federal Communications Commission is proposing to
fine three San Diego television stations for failing to provide closed
captioning or other visual information for the hearing impaired in a timely
manner during the October 2003 wildfires.
[more HERE]
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050224/news_1n24fcc.html
3. In
National Competition, SignOnSanDiego.com Wins First Place for Coverage of
October 2003 Wildfires
SAN DIEGO - Nov. 22, 2004
- SignOnSanDiego.com garners first-place honors from the Online
News Association and University of Southern California's Annenberg School for
Communications for its coverage of San Diego's October 2003
wildfires.
[more HERE]
http://www.signonsandiego.com/media/pr/pr11222004.html
4. Growing danger
WET WINTER'S AFTERSHOCKS: A
pending torrent of fire hazards
12:40 AM PDT on Saturday, April 16,
2005
By JENNIFER BOWLES /
The Press-Enterprise
Where most see a rain-soaked Inland
region carpeted by wildflowers, Stephanie Swanstrom sees an unprecedented amount
of fuel that will soon be ripe for wildfires.
[more HERE]
http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stories/PE_News_Local_D_rain16.f389.html
5. Report calls for limits in forest-area growth
11:26
PM PDT on Monday, April 18, 2005
By BEN GOAD and JIM MILLER / The Press-Enterprise
California's wildland firefighting
costs have doubled in the past decade, in large part because development along
forest boundaries has not been reined in, a new report from the state
Legislative Analyst's Office has concluded.
Cities and counties regulate most
development and building standards, but the consequences of those decisions are
increasingly felt at the state level. The report suggests state laws --
potentially including a new tax on some homeowners -- might be necessary to
establish new standards for construction adjacent to the state's 79 million
acres of wildlands. Some question whether such legislation could succeed.
[more HERE]
http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stories/PE_News_Local_D_lao19.ef30.html
6. Firefighters are 'in sync'
'READY': A wet winter means more fuel, but agencies say
they're now working together.
11:09 PM PDT on Monday, April 25,
2005
By BEN GOAD / The Press-Enterprise
---
On The Net
---
This seems to be an ex-adjuster who has written
this website and an accompanying book with some interesting
information. I have ordered the book and will prepare a short review when
I read it. The website sounds VERY familiar... meaning we've heard so much
of it before. It's too bad that many of our experiences are so
common!!!
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