Dodd, others, to hold insurance-and wildfire-related hearing

NAPA – Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, will join leaders of the Assembly and Senate insurance committees on Oct. 30 in Napa to examine whether homeowners insurance coverage has been sufficient to allow those affected by recent wildfires to rebuild, his office announced.

“Destructive wildfires have ravaged California and the North Bay, revealing insurance-related issues that directly and negatively affect many survivors,” said Dodd, whose district suffered historic losses in the October 2017 wildfires. “With the frequency of such events likely to continue due to climate change, we must identify the problems and find solutions that allow our communities to be rebuilt.”

Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee, and Assembly member Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee, will convene the hearing at Napa Valley College. It will include testimony from insurance experts, consumer advocates and local officials, as well as a researcher from California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, according to the announcement.

Members of the public will be invited to offer comments after the witnesses testify, it says.

“The recent wildfires throughout California have raised some important questions about the adequacy of insurance coverage,” Glazer said. “Are homeowners getting enough insurance coverage to allow them to get their lives back together? Are there public policy roadblocks that limit the responsiveness in the rebuilding process by local governments and insurance companies? Do ‘replacement’ cost policies provide enough coverage to rebuild when the labor and materials markets gyrate wildly after big disasters?”

Assembly member Daly said: “This hearing will be a good opportunity for us to hear from some of the communities that suffered losses in last year’s fires. Learning from their experience is invaluable as we work to find ways to better help California homeowners prepare for major wildfires.”

The hearing comes at an important time, said Assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters.

“We’re aggressively enacting fire prevention measures, but we can’t legislate how nature behaves. Adjusting to climate change also means adjusting the ways our people can restore their lives to some normalcy when disasters occur,” said Aguiar-Curry, who represents parts of Napa. “This hearing is a critical opportunity for our legislature to hear from wildfire survivors and recovery experts on how to adjust public policy to protect our constituents, their homes and businesses.”

The event is planned for 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Oct. 30, at Napa Valley College, McPherson Building, 2277 Napa-Vallejo Highway, Napa.

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