iHeartPodcasts presents a Town Hall with California Governor Gavin Newsom

Published Jan 20, 2025, 7:05 AM

iHeartPodcasts presents a Town Hall with California Governor Gavin Newsom

iHeart Podcast presents a town hall with California Governor Gavin Newsom. Up, first, we have Vincent, Beverly and Vincent in Pasadena. Vincent and Beverly are married. Vincent is their son. They lost their family home of forty one years in the Eton fire. Governor, this is Vincent, Beverly and Vincent.

Hey, guys, hello, forty one years huh.

One years and same spot. Kids grew up there. We modeled the house, fixed it up. We fixed it up, made a home out of it. We didn't have to move and centrally located, so everything was there, all my family history, everything.

And and and a community that's unlike any other in the region. Huh. I mean, remarkable diversity, generational wealth being created, opportunities beautiful tell us. I mean when you know, for those that don't fully appreciate Alta Dina and maybe more familiar with some of these coastal communities, maybe can help if you would, I'd appreciate it, and I think people listening would appreciate. Just describe the community and the people, the vibrancy.

The attraction is that it's a wooded area and the forest is right there, lots of wildlife, parks. The community made up of people who have been in Altadena for generations.

Tight community.

Everybody knows everybody on the block. Everybody comes to each other's rescue. My neighbors helped me build fences, and I helped them paint their homes and do that kind of thing. And we've seen the senior citizens leave and their children come in, be seen young people come in. And Alta Dina was had the reputation of being kind of like a little secret. People didn't know how nice it was up in Altadena. And young folks are starting to come in and buy some of the homes when the older people leave or go into nursing homes or leave to go with their families when they can't support themselves anymore by themselves. But it was always a welcoming community and always a surprise to.

People when they came up.

Parks were nice, just almost a perfect kind of situation.

It was crime free. What with your door, Go walk your dog out, locking your door, come back, everything would be in place. Speak to everybody along the way and it was our perfect day. You know, we love We weren't going anywhere.

Wow, did you guys, did you have insurance on the property.

Yes, yes, we haven't assurance. That is not an issue. Our issue now is finding somewhere to live. People are gouging us. They want to give us properties that they would normally rent from anywhere from three to five thousand dollars a month. They want to charge us eight thousand dollars and it's unfurnished. It's at the top of most people's budget. So you got a home, and then you got to still come out of pocket to get a washing machine and dryer, a bed. All that that's part is disturbing me more than anything. Right now that I am out of a home of forty one years. None of my personal belongings, you know, antiques that have been passed down, some of them, and some antiques that we purchased after all these years, they're gone. We don't have basic things, and people don't seem to cure to allow us to try to make homes for the next two years while we're waiting to rebuild.

It is grief and and mine on your behalf. It is unconscionable to see this kind of price gouging and to see the greed of people taking advantage of you and others similarly in your position. We immediately after this this disaster, we did. I signed an executive order on price gouging. It's now about enforcing it. And so I cannot impress upon you. Let me. I want to know who to forgive my language, Who the hell these people are that are doubling rents. I want their names, their address. I'm coming after them. The Attorney General needs to come after them. It is against the law to do that. If they were advertising a rent before this tragedy, they cannot charge these absorbent and prices. They cannot, and so we need to we need to hold them accountable. And these laws mean nothing unless we enforce and so I'm sorry that you're facing that, and I know others as well, and we've got we've got to hold these people accountable.

Also, they're trying to force us into a twenty four month leaf instead of a one year.

Yeah, yeah, no, thank you for that example. Let me look into that as well. Were doing tenant protections. There's a lot of people that are moving into rentals with family members, but then they're in a rental and the rental says, well, you can only have two people, and now there's five, and so potentially people are going to get evicted. So I just did an executive order yesterday on that, prohibiting that so people have the ability, if they've been impacted by the fires, to be with others in that rental environment. The price gouging. I extended the price gouging beyond the emergency declaration, and the Attorney General just did a big announcement potentially needing some warrant power to have more force to go after these people taking advantage. So thank you for that one versus two year example. Can I ask you this, have you been offered any unsolicited offers to buy your home?

Absolutely?

My bone two or three days after this potastrophe, the Bone was bringing off the whole people just calling, are you interested? Get tech still buy your property?

You know as that Cody.

I was at the first Ame Lena Kennedy and others community leaders in your backyard five days ago, and this came up with with faith leaders and community leaders, and we immediately did an executive order that now is illegal as well. They cannot unsolicit you with low ball offers. My biggest fear right now in Altadena is the community is not able to come back because in a time of trial and stress, people may feel hopeless and may give in to the temptation to sell their properties at below market value. We cannot let that happen. And so these predatory practices, these people that are calling you, texting, that's something else. Please please let us know. I want to go. I mean, this is another area where we have to go after these people speculators taking advantage of this tragedy.

Well, here's one example.

Or these scammers are coming in and touching base with people and ask them. But they want to rebuilt. And if you give us a depositive, will purchase your supplies because supplies it.

Will be in demand.

And once you decide to build, if you don't have those plies set aside, build the materials and stuff that it's going to be along the way. So give us some money now, will pursase them for you now, and then then you never hear from those guys.

Again.

Thank you for highlighting that for people listening, uh to not fall prey to that and these scanners and fraudsters. Well, what so, we've we've got a lot of work to do together to have your back and your your neighbors and the community, and to get you back and uh and and to keep you uh in the mind frame you are right now that I mean you you don't want to move, You want to rebuild.

Right, this is this is our forever home. So yeah, we want to.

But here are some things when talking to people that are concerned about the infrastructure for Altadena markets the library burnt down, banks burnt down, the post office burnt down, you know, senior citizens centers and all that burned down. Is that going to come back? Is that recovery going to be accelerated? For Altadena? The building permits nightmare going to be modified so that we can get to start building sooner.

So let me specifically answer that. And being up being in your backyard nine in the last twelve days and going up and down the commercial Court or seeing that destruction firsthand, I'm mindful of everything you just said. Let me be specific though, as it relates to permits, we are waving sequel, We wave the Coastal Act. We have a forcing function in the executive order. I have done eleven executive orders since the fires to require local government to create the conditions where local government is responsible for getting permits within thirty days and making sure that we break through all of the bureaucratic red tape. So the state has already done that, and we are driving locals to do that as well. Number Two, the Biden administration, President Biden and I say President Biden, Joe Biden. President Joe Biden himself approved a major dis master declaration within thirty six hours. It's unprecedented in the history of disasters in this country. What does that mean. It allows for individual assistance, which is critical, but it also, through this technical thing called ceeded G grants, allows for all of the parks, playgrounds, community centers, and everything you just described to get rebuilt with federal support and federal money. We're getting reimbursed at seventy five percent for that one hundred percent for other things. So there's going to be a little bit of a local match forgive the technical point there, but we've already we just got that, and we got it just in time before tomorrow Monday, and we're making sure that those dollars not only are secure, but they're being activated. And then we've got the Small Business Administration that's out there trying to provide that extra support. And then there's gaps. We've got all these community foundations. And then there's a huge effort La Rises effort, which is going to be this the community led effort, which is going to lead a vibrant, energetic rebuilding process that is community led, not top down. It's not going to be the state dictating. It's going to be you telling us what you need. And we're going to remove every damn barrier that we humanly possibly can between the city, state, region, and federal partners.

So well, there need to be community leaders established in order to tap into this effort.

Yeah, we're in fact where the reason I was with Lena and others and with the church leaders, we're really starting to already connect to the UH, to the community UH and in a very granular way. And in today Sunday we're announcing UH this our co chairs and I because at any hour it's going to go out. I want to be careful. I think you're going to appreciate the folks that are going to be leading this effort for the state because they're deeply committed to your community. And Altadena is on my mind with this larger rebuilt I assure you Alta Dina is deeply on my mind.

So there's concerned that you know, they may try to turn the Altadena into an apartment area and the no homeschool away, but they'll be building back with apartment buildings. Except like our park. We've had the developers try to get our park park before, and you know, you know the part of the park burned, just the building there. But you know, hopefully there's no changing of our zona. We try to keep it a residential home area, single home area.

We've got to do everything in our power. You have my firm commitment. Then when I say community led, you decide in that respect. I do not want to see speculators come in. I don't want to see displacement. We don't want to see reckless up zoning that destroys the character and the unique vibrancy of your community. And we all want to see parks and open space devoured in that respect. So absolutely, that's the commitment.

Do you have any idea when they might be able to start, you know, excavating some of that clean up, Steff.

We haven't even been able to get back to our home site.

Yet, so I'm sorry about that. So here's here's where we are, and here's the latest over ninety percent over ninety percent of all the homes that have been impacted by the Eating Fire in your backyard have gone through this what they call din's process, which is damaged assessment process. We have already set up three debris removal sites around the Eating Fire. The us EPA is going in boots on the ground doing the actual physical removal of hazardous materials tomorrow Monday, and that includes batteries and propane tanks, ammunition, whatever may be there. They're not touching personal property, they're just doing all of that. That will all be complete within sixty days. But as each property, the first day there's properties done, they'll put up on the website. You can go to CA dot gov slash LA fires, ca dot gov slash la fires. The minute they finish a property for the hazmat it makes it eligible now for to breed removal for the rest of it, which you can do yourself as a homeowner. If you have insurance. Insurance covers it and you want to do it yourself and hire someone, you have the right to do that, or you can sign a right to entry where the Army Corps of Engineers we just announced the Army Corps will be doing the master debris removal. They can come in and do it. If your insurance doesn't cover all of the debris removal that will be done by FEMA, they'll pick up the difference and the costs. And we want to get the properties prepared, not the foundations. We'll keep the foundations and then we'll get those properties prepared for what you want to do with them as it relates to the rebuild, etc. Again waiving all the Seker rules and all the process etc. So that can happen in real time as well. So that's where we are. Within sixty days, all of the hasmats done and debris removal will begin in real time as Phase two is entered into and we hope to get the debris done, all of it for both the Eating Fire and Palisades. I want to say in nine months, but with grace and humility, based on the scale and scope, probably nine to twelve month months for all the debris removed.

Oh okay, so you think rebuilding actually won't take place for.

About a year.

Uh yeah, I want to get it done. We're going to do back to heaven and Earth. Heaven and Earth to do everything in our power to to to bring that uh into the months, uh, but not a year, so that we can we can start and look, as I said, if you're first in on the hasmat, for example, if your property on Tuesday is ready and the has mats cleared, which will happen, they'll be properties next Tuesday, We'll have hazmat Thursday, Friday, Saturday, more properties and that's now you're working on the secondary debris removal. Your property on the front line can can start much sooner. I'm talking about all the properties on the back. But if you're the last in line, uh, it may be that that full year, but we're going to do everything to try to make that quicker.

Okay, that's that's that's it.

I could spend the next three years with you, guys. I appreciate you.

Oh, i appreciate you to your great governance.

And I'm sorry for all you're going through.

Yeah, we love you, Love you guys.

Up next, we have Natalie from Pacific Palisades. Natalie lost both her home and her business. Natalie, meet Governor Newsom.

Are you there? Natalie?

Hi, Governor Newsom, how are you doing today?

Question is how are you doing?

Not the greatest, just being totally honest.

She lost your home, and your business.

I lost both. Yes, it's been very devastating.

And what has it been navigating some of the support that's out there? Have you been to the disaster recovery center of you?

I have, and there's been some that have been absolutely amazing, and I'm so grateful for them. The reason I even have makeup right now is because there was a place on Montana and Santa Monica that was just fantastic and free people warning these outfits, So that was really kind. Unfortunately, some of the other disaster relief has been not the greatest, But for the people that are helping and the companies that are helping, I will never forget who they are.

I love that. What is is if FEMA assistants SBA assistance for you, has it been navigating that?

I'll be quite Franks, not pretty easy. They're kind of making this as hard as possible for me. I'm not loving it at the moment because they're making me just jump through like hoops of fire for being honest. Essentially, like I did have some Renter's insurance on my home right, very small amount that doesn't even cover some of like literally it's like nothing, basically, and because I was honest with them about that. I'm now getting pushed back on the wait list. So far they're denying my claim. I have to resubmit it and I have to give them all all kinds of information now, and that's just unfortunate because, like I was honest.

And that's specific to the FEMA process. Yeah, and SBA, have you engaged those guys.

It's been SBA was very difficult.

There was a lot of issues with the website, like my email wouldn't verify for five days and then I realized it was just another anyway, it was very difficult technolog like the links weren't working, and yeah, so I would hope going forward that they could get it together a little more as far as like their tech side and.

Not doing what they're doing to me.

Basically, I appreciate, and we'll we'll follow up specifically and see what we can do to help navigate that with you directly, and and we you know, we've been blowing them up. And the whole idea is to make this virtual as seamless as possible, but also supplement that in person and try to bring everybody under one roof at these disaster recovery centers, all the federal agencies, state agencies, local and then nonprofits as well to fill those gaps.

I appreciate that because unfortunately, and I can't get too into this because I will be entering legal stuff. My insurance is not active on my business right now. So getting these loans and getting these things in order is a huge deal for me.

Have nothing.

I've lost over six hundred thousand with my business.

Wow, which a lifetime to achieve.

So you know what am I supposed to do with no equipment and nothing.

Well, we've got to do a weekend to get you back on your feed. And the fact you're even engaging in this conversation is remarkable. So it shows your unbelievable resilience. And I'm sorry as well. We're very mindful of what's going on with price gouging. It was one of the first acts we took now twelve days ago with the emergency proclamation. UH and it's question now of forcing it. Renting motels, hotels, they cannot they cannot exceed ten percent above what they were previously advertising before the fires, as it relates to those rates, And so I.

Think we're asking now like of like proof of things like it's kind of wild. I'm you know, like I'm out of a job right now, but like I'm gonna hopefully get that back soon. And they're what they're asking me to like move in with I'm just and I understand as a landlord, like you want to make sure you have security on things. But it's when I started renting like five months ago. What they're asking now is completely insane.

Yeah, now that's it's it's that's going to be. I mean, we're going to navigate that challenge and and and be much more muscular in terms of holding these folks accountable. The Attorney General reinforced that I had I extended the price gouging as well, so we've got a longer runway, and it's goods and services, it's obviously rentals and and it's now just driving accountability, also driving accountability to your point on FEMA and small business, as you know, FEMA has that that that modest just getting you started debit card which you know barely pays for gas.

So much for taking the time with me today, and I just appreciate it.

I appreciate it. Thanks so much, and I'm so sorry everything you're going through, Natalie.

This is an iHeartRadio California town Hall with Governor Newsom. Next, we have Jim in Altadena, his home of twenty four years burned down. Jim, you're on with our governor.

Good morning, Governor.

How are you, Jim? How are you? How are you doing? How are you?

I'm I'm encouraged.

Everywhere I go I see so many smiling faces. You have no idea how people you're talking too?

Lost a house.

Everybody is giving. Everybody is giving. And went out to sand I needed to get some toys from my cats. And there were two lines. There was a line that was like three quarters a mile long and there was a real short line. I'm like, what's the difference between the lines? I said, oh, this line on the left, the three quarters of a mile. That's people making donations and bringing water and bringing dips and bringing food and bringing clothes. And they waited an hour maybe more to get in. And then when I got there, the number of volunteers was just overwhelming. People had a little tape on that said volunteer on it and there were maybe one to two to one, you know, people to volunteers. There were just so many people that are folding clothes and laying things out and writing numbers on. So maybe I'm still in shock. I had a front house with an inlaw house, and I rented out another rental property around the corner, so I lost three houses total.

Wow, Jim, how long have you lived in the in the area?

March would be twenty four years? WHOA, I moved down from northern California. I lived in born in Palo Alto, grew up in Los Altos in Sunny Vale, and then moved down here to get into the film industry way back.

Can you can? I ask you to do a favor. It's so, I spent a lot of time in Altadena. In the last thing, you know, nine out of the last twelve days built out in the community. Describe the community. It is a special place. It's so unique, it's so really it's a it's a It's one of the most vibrant and diverse communities in our country.

Oh, it really is, it really is.

I've got Latino neighbors on both sides of me, Asian family two houses up, Filipino family, African American families, white families, you know, all living together, and they're just the best neighbors ever. And it's it's a it's a very artistic community. There's a lot of artists that were drawn to it. The reason I moved there is I like vintage things. I lost a jukebox in the fire. I lost you know a lot of collectible stuff. And my house was built in forty seven. It's a nineteen forty.

Seven branch style. Yeah.

And the houses across the street it was there was an art tech Thomas Jane, who you know, built all these houses and they were known as James Village and we've been trying for years to get a historical designation to it. It never happened. But they were you know, the ones through the storybook roofs and the keyhole entrances and it's just adorable. So there's there's a lot of like, there's visual aesthetic up there.

You know, you're up there.

You've got the Deodora trees, you got Christmas Tree Lane, You've got you know, such a visual aesthetic.

You know.

I like to tell people, hey, we're up above the bad air, and any bad air that we do get blows east into Duarte.

Yeah. Wow.

But just everybody there, it's just it's a lot of pride, a lot of sense of community in Altadena, and a lot of families that I know that have been living there since the seventies, or people I know that moved away. They grew up there, they moved away. The neighbor across the street from me, she was raised in the house. She bought it, She and her husband bought it from their parents, raised their kids there, you know, then even had their grandkids there for a little bit. You know, their their house is gone. And my heart just breaks for especially for them.

You know.

I know I have my own trials, but somebody like that, that's your whole life. I mean, it's it's you know, it's a special kind of people up there.

No and and uh i'm I'm it's indelible. And having met so many members of the community, and and it requires a unique approach in the recovery and the assistance. Uh, we've got it, and we're deeply mindful. We've got to customize uh that and it's got to be community led, and we've got to get the community back. And that's my biggest fear about your neighborhood is that it doesn't look like the neighborhood you left that.

Okay, And that was one of That was one of the questions. I came up with some questions to ask you, and that was one of mine. Is maintaining the aesthetic, you know, and I use for an example, Santa Barbara one hundred years ago, so much as Santa Barbara burned and then you know, and I don't know who made the decision, but we're going to build back Spanish style. Yeah, and so span you know, Santa Barbara now has that beautiful Spanish aesthetic to all the buildings and community buildings and libraries and houses and everything. It's got, you know, it's really got that aesthetic to it, you know. And so I don't know, do we have any control over that? Do we not have a control?

You know?

Is that a county level is at a state level. And then you know, luckily I have state farm. I wasn't dropped, and I did an insurance review recently. Well and and but my concern is people that are under insured and don't have the money, and you know it it's more costly to build a house with a unique house than a cookie cutter house, and then a character house did a cost even more than that, And you know, do people want to do it? They just want to say I want to get my house back, and I know it could be a long process. So you know, that was one of my concerns.

For sure, I appreciate it. So as we were quite literally battling the fires, we were also battling bureaucracy and starting to organize a framework for rebuilding and doing it from the bottom up, not the top down, and making sure it's a community lead process, community lead process. It's not the state, it's not the federal government mandating and dictating. And so what we're doing is clearing all of the bureaucratic brush from the rebuilding frame so that their state is not in the way and we're moving fast. So that's that includes the debris removal, where we did an executive order to get the HASMAT teams out there early and by the way, in your community, has the the damage assessments are almost done, which is great. They've got that done in record time, and the HASMAT teams will be out there starting to remove all the battery all batteries and and you know pro paying tanks, et cetera. And concurrently then the debris removal begin and you can opt in, as you know, if you have insurance. You can decide for yourself if you want to do your own debris removal, or you can do a right of entry where the Army Corps and their contractors could come in and do that. But concurrently, we'll be in this planning process. UH and the states trying to focus now on how we leverage supplies, how we leverage materials to keep prices and check, how we leverage workforce. Working with a community college and our state labor agencies, we're looking at regionalizing that workforce even out of state because we're mindful of the pressures across the spectrum. Hey, thank you for checking in, and more importantly, thank you for your spirit. Brother, thank you.

For being Oh yeah, it's not just my spirit, it's everybody's spirits. I'm sure you've seen it walking around and I'm sure people take their time to cry, and like I said, I'll probably do my crying when everything settles down. But the things that brought tears to my eye are just the joy of people and the helping people, and you know, people overhearing. I was at breakfast and they're like, oh, we got your breakfast, don't worry, and just everybody wanted to help me. You know, I'm sure you've had this discussion many times, and you know, in the disaster, why can't.

We stay like this?

Yeah, you know I love that.

Well, thank you for everything you're doing, and thank you for the updates.

I appreciate you. Thank you so much. I'm so sorry for everything you're struggling with going through.

Keep it up, brother, Thank you and your team for everything you're doing.

Thank you.

We have Julia up next in Hollywood. She worked in Palisades Village, which didn't burn down, but she currently can't work at the location because it's shut down. This is an iHeartRadio California town hall with Governor Newsom. Julia.

You're on him, mister Newson.

How are you, Julia? How are you?

I'm okay. I'm a little stressed out. I did lose my job. Yeah, and unemployment is only paying me two hundred dollars a week, whereas at the restaurant I worked out, I made twelve hundred dollars a week.

Twelve hundred a week. Yeah, we'll take a look at that. And I say that not just take a look at that. I just did a supplement with edd and the the Unemployment insurance to just quickly get an additional twenty million dollars directly into the region to supplement further. That's a perfect example that gap between where you were and where you need to be.

Yeah, I also saw that as many as thirty five thousand jobs can be lost permanently because of the Los Angeles fires. For many workers like me living paycheck to paycheck, already struggling to pay bills, missing out on even a week's worth of work can be severely detrimental. Are you planning to introduce legislation to help disaster victims with debt relief such as temporary interest charge freezes, to forgiveness programs, or disaster related unemployment compensation.

I appreciate the question, so let me tell you what we did yesterday, and forgive me for jumping around, but I just want to give you the totality of what we're doing in real time that are direct responses to your question and then broader. We have pushed back all state taxes till October fifteenth. We push back property taxes till April twenty two, twenty six, and people can apply for a four year deferral on interest and penalties related to property taxes. We're doing the same for sales and use tax for small business. We're extending those time periods. We are doing a two and a half billion dollar state supplemental to provide relief and flexibility to fill in the gaps along the lines of which you expressed. I talked about that twenty million just very quickly under the EDD through the unemployment insurance. We're working with the California Foundation and the Latino Community Foundation to provide millions and millions. We're going to raise hundreds of millions and philanthropic grants to fill gaps as well, all in an effort to provide support. We've got the price gouging rules as it relates to evictions as well. We're addressing that issue. We're trying to make sure that the rents and the costs for services and goods are capped and we just have to enforce that. And we're trying to get the SBA to move quickly on helping these businesses, these small businesses back on their feet as well.

Thank you.

I appreciate. I'm sorry what you're going through. I started the restaurant businesses. Uh, that's that's that's how I that's my my that's how I got out of college open my first restaurant. And I appreciate everything you do in that space and in the service industry and in the impact this is this has had on that industry in this region.

Uh.

But I hope you'll. I hope you'll you'll rebound and quickly and our team will fall up with you on the supplemental unemployment.

Thank you. And is there like a timeline of when I'll be able to go.

Back to work.

Yeah, it's just I mean, we're moving heaven and earth to get the damage assessment work done in the Palisades, and then get the hazardous material material, which is phase one of the debris removal done within the next sixty days, and then currently starting the larger debris removal so people can start rebuilding for properties that have been completely damaged. People can come in individually, people with insurance. Businesses that were not impacted. Once we have the repopulation plans done and safety zones established and the utilities and suppression systems back up, we're hoping to get those businesses up and moving as quickly as possible. And SBA, we're hoping to hold them. I mean, we're not hoping we will hold them accountable to doing their job as well as well as our business, state, business agencies, and local and.

Regional Do you think it's fair that some employees have been told to use paid time off to cover the miss wages.

Yeah, well, I have to look into the details of that. I mean, we've expanded paid support and we actually just expanded in January, and this is important, higher reimbursement for lower wage workers. That was a that just went in effect in January. But that's that's something we're going to have to monitor. And I appreciate you bringing that up specifically as as an example of how some businesses may not necessarily be protecting their employees as they should. So thank you for that insight.

Well, thank you for speaking to me.

Thank you. I'm sorry what you're going through.

Next is Jet from Los Angeles, a freshman at Palisades Charter High School. Sixty percent of the school burned down. Jet was evacuated and finally got word their house has power again this morning. Good and he's returning home today. Governor Newsom. This is Jet.

How you doing buddy, Hi, Governor, I'm doing good.

I can't even imagine how is how are you and the other your all your friends that you know having an impact at school? Man, that's something you'll never forget how you handle it.

Yeah, So it's been a little bit like depressing in a way because I was really looking forward to this next semester of posades. Yeah, and then like literally even the matter of twenty four hours, like it all turned upside down and a lot of my friends have already transferred schools. A lot of my friends are moving different places, and yeah, it's just kind of crazy.

What how about you? Are you? What do you? Are you able to? Have you transferred another district? What are your what's your current status?

I think we're going to ride out this year and see what happens and maybe we get back on campus this year hopefully. But yeah, we're gonna finish this year.

I think that's good. It's it's critical, and I appreciate your mindset in that respect. We it's it's cold comfort to you because it's a technical thing. But one of the first actions we took after the fire was allowing flexibility so you can transfer to another district nearby district and there were issues around class sizes and other technical state issues that we were able to wave through. But we'd love your feedback, not just today, just over the course the next days and months, if there's other things we can be doing. Things you're hearing, things you're hearing from the schools themselves, meaning from the administrators of other flexibilities and supports that we can provide. Okay, I appreciate it. So did you are you back in school now?

So our school was supposed to start on I think January fourteenth, but now we're starting on Tuesday this week online online.

Yeah, and you went through that with COVID as.

Well, right, yeah, in fifth grade, like my whole year is online as well.

Yeah. I don't imagine you're looking forward to that again.

Huh No, Yeah, I'm not really looking forward to it. That's kind of been like the worst part because obviously, like the social part of high school life is like the best part.

So of course, of course, well man, you're gonna come out stronger than you can't even imagine, more resilient than you can imagine, and the stuff you'll face in your life will pale and comparison to this. So you're going to crush it going forward.

Brother, Thank you.

I wish you all the best. And and let's stay in touch.

All right, thank you, thank you man.

Now we have Elizabeth in Malibu. She lost her home in the Palisades fire. Her business building is still standing, but it is inoperable. So Governor Newsom, this is Elizabeth.

Hi, Elizabeth, how you holding in.

I'm I'm doing okay. This has been a this has been a tough one.

Yeah.

I've been through the ninety three fire, the Woolsey fire, the earthquake, COVID and and I have to say, of all of those, this is by far the toughest, the toughest one. You know, we're kind of looking to the government to help us. We you know, so I've lost I lost my home as well. So I lost my home. I lived over near the Getty Villa and that was just decimated. And you know, that's that's a tough loss. You know, it's all the kids, baby cups, and you know, all the memories that you have. It's just it's a really it's almost you kind of don't even really comprehend that that it's happened still, you know, because we haven't really been able to get up there and all of that. But one of my the question that I wanted to ask you, is that in in September of last year, I got a letter from State Farm and they dropped my insurance and so I had to try to get other insurance, couldn't get it because of where I live, and so then I was offered California a fair plan.

Which I did.

So, you know, they dropped me.

And I've been with them for thirty years, not only not only in my residence but in my business. And you know, I just I find it incomprehensible that they can do that, and I'm you know, really asking you to see what you can help us with. You know, there's about sixteen hundred policies families that they've dropped. I mean that's not a lot. I mean in the scheme of their entire organization, that's not a lot. And you know, and I and I know that Governor I mean Commissioner Laura has asked them and they agreed to make it retroactive for ninety days, which is great. But you know, they started dropping people in March, and I feel like they should be taking care of us, you know, I mean, it's such a devastating time for us, and you know that their company is worth one hundred and thirty four billion dollars and you know to you know, and for California Fair Plan, it's a million dollars less than I had on my policy with State Farm.

So it's a big hit.

So a number of things. By the way, that's sixteen hundred you know what, You were exactly right. They dropped sixteen hundred plans about seventy percent of the market in that area to the commissioner, and I appreciate your reference to what he's trying to do in the cloudback. Also, moving forward, we extended a one year moratorium on the ability to drop the plan. It's not extended for commercial and we're trying to work a legislative strategy to address the commercial anxieties in that space moving forward, so they can't do this in the middle of this disaster. The Fair Plan that you're on, it's just for those that are not familiar with it, and I'll get to your specific concern. The Fair Plan was established in nineteen sixty eight. It's not a government plan, it's not taxpayer funded plan. It's a syndicate pool made up of all of these actual insurers that are in the market, including State Farm. But to your point, it caps at three million dollars. It doesn't provide the kind of coverage you can get on these admitted market based plans, and there's some questions. We're doing the assessment. There was a back of the envelope assessment and again this is back of the envelope about three point seven billion dollars of exposure just related to the Palisades fire. And we're getting the update of the impacts on the Eton fire as it relates to the exposure to the Fair Plan and how then the Fair Plan can pay everybody out in a timely way. They do have reinsurance, So I want to re ensure you that there is a reinsurance policy that that that should that should get us to look, you're going to get You're going to get what you deserve under that plan, and we're going to do everything to make sure that happens. But the broader issue of stabilizing this insurance market, to Commissioner Lara's credit, there was a lot of progress being made this last year. You can't make this up. In Paradise, Californi. After the campfire just last week, literally ten days ago or so, one of the major insurans announced they were reinsuring people in Paradise because of some of the reforms that were being made in the state to stabilize the insurance market. That's cold comfort, I know to you, but I want you to know that we're not reacting to that insurance crisis. We for a year and a half, I did an executive order and the Commissioner's been driving reforms that were finally making a difference in stabilizing the market and getting people back providing that coverage. But what you've exampled is accountability for a major insurer that just exited the market. And they may be smiling behind the scenes from a dollars and cents perspective, but it makes a lot of sense to me for you to ask someone like me and the Insurance Commission what the hell we can do to get them to face a little accountability on the impact they've just had on this community.

I mean, I think from you know, March, you know, I think March is when they started dropping everybody, and it's just I mean, it's just so you know, there's no good faith there, there's no there's no you know, they're not they're not standing behind them. And again they're worth one hundred and thirty four billion dollars. And you know that that's off their twenty twenty three report. And they I believe they say, because I just actually had it pulled up weight of course, my phone just went out one sec. They said, we are financially strong one hundred and thirty four point eight billion dollars. And it just you know, to me when you know, you know, California Fair Plan, even with FEMA, it's not enough to build a home. You know, building out here is one thousand dollars a square foot, as you know, and that's low. And I mean, I'm an interior designer. I build all day long. I work with clients every single day, and you know that's low. So you know you're looking at a twenty three hundred square foot that's two million three that's I mean, nobody has that money from their insurance policies.

And so what are we going to you know, what are we going to do? How are we going to.

Build back the beautiful Pacific Palisades, which is one of the most I grew up in Connecticut and New Canaan, Connecticut. It's gorgeous little town and the Palisades is just like that you know, right close to the beach and so and the community is so tight and so strong, and I know we will build back, but you know, I just it's it's just really I hope that you guys can help us, because it's such a tough space for us to be in.

Absolutely, and I'm deeply mindful in the rebuild. And you may have seen we are suspending the Coastal Act and sequel. We're driving permitting reform and doing everything to move having and earth to make sure that when we rebuild some of the burdens and costs and delays all that is removed, as well as looking at some larger master pulled contracts to lower construction costs and supply chain issues including workforce which is going to be scarce as well, so that we don't see those costs skyrocket. And then address, as you say, the gaps between insurance and that reality on rebuilding. And that's where this massive philanthropic effort is going to take shape. We've already raised tens of millions of dollars, We're about to announce significantly more in the next few hours in fact, and then we're going to be asking the federal government to get back some of California tax pair of money, including yours as a donor state California, and a massive supplemental in Congress, so we can fill those gaps and we can address that concern you just highlighted.

Okay, thank you so much, Governor. I really appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Pam has our final question in Pacific Palisades. She lost her home of twenty eight years. Pam, you're on with Governor Newsom.

Hi, Hi, Pam.

Thank you for the time today.

Governor are you holding up?

Oh well? Shout out to all of our friends and strangers of the city of Los Angeles.

Ela.

You've hugged us. Thank you, Governor Newson. We've heard discussions and the possibility to live in an RV or a tiny home or mobile on our property while we rebuild. I think, wow, what a savings and rent. We can apply those funds to a rebuild. We have a smaller property, and so of those who have smaller properties, would it be possible to have an opportunity to have a parking permit on the street? Oh yeah, or create an area, a designated area that has community services.

Where we could park.

Maybe we can pull in park in the nighttime when materials are delivered, we can move to another area of the town. I just I love the idea and I love that opportunity, and I love.

Your example, particularly with smaller units. You're right, I mean, you know, we had in mind that people could be in a larger driveway footprint as the buildings being constructed next to it, but yours is a perfect example where that may be constrained. And so absolutely, it's a great specific example that we need to work with the cities that have been impacted to see if we can accommodate. By the way, Pam, thank you for even recognizing I did one of these eleven executive orders, which are just fancy ways of just like no time to process laws. We're just making them to allow people to have ADUs to allow them to have trailers on their property as they rebuild. So we've dealt with zoning issues in that respect. But you're talking now about a public right away as it relates to the public space and the parking, and that's something we can run up the flag pole and it's a great example of something that we could push local government to accommodate. And by the way, just broadly We're working with FEMA on massive, massive investments and procurement, on providing people that don't have the means of even providing for their our own temporary facility to construct these prefab these units and get them out in operational and on these properties as quick as possible.

Sprinters with wheels, our v's with wheels. We can be there at night, move during the day when materials get deliver it anyway. I love I love this out of the box thinking so thank you, no, thank you?

And and if I may Pam, how long how long you've been living in the community.

Since nineteen ninety six, so what is that twenty nine? My mouth is bad. Yeah, while a long time. We love our neighbors. We hope to be back with all of our neighbors. And it's just unbelievable. This is it's the wild wild West by the way out there trying to secure a rental. We have crazy stories. I'm like in a reality show without cameras, but it's horrific and crazy right.

Now, just meaning how people are taking advantage of this crisis.

It's just it's a numbers uh scarce inventory, which there always was, and now you have all these extra people who need housing.

Yeah, and that's why this example you brought up is so important, because it will be critical to accommodate and uh and and to supplement that scarcity of supply. I'm sorry everything you're going through, but thank you for your spirit and thank you for for your insight. And I'm going to circle back very quickly on your specific example.

All right, thank you, thank you, thank you.

So I just want to thank everybody all these remarkable stories, remarkable people. Thank you for your resilience, thank you for your willingness to share your stories so publicly, your heartbreak. But one thing I just you know, reflecting on the conversations we just had, was thank you for maintaining your your your your spirit. Thank you for expressing your pride in your communities, uh, your love of your neighbor. Thank you for for staying optimistic and not giving in. You know, is remarkable that here's the story is just reminding us what everybody's been through, you know, with COVID and you know, just you know, a young child that you know they're back on zoom again years and years later, and the challenges everybody is faced over the course the last decade. And here we are at this remarkable moment in the history of Southern California, in our state, and and so my state of minds want to resolve, not just resilient. And I hope all of you stay strong and resolved. I know we have your back, and we're going to be back. We're not turning our backs when the cameras turn off. We're going to continue to monitor progress. We're going to hold ourselves to a higher level of accountability with humility and grace, constantly iterating, constantly addressing issues seen but also the issues that are unseen today that will present themselves a new I heard loud and clear some of the frustrations with FEMA applications, SBA disaster loans and the importance of making sure that process is more streamlined and more seamless. I want to mind everybody that wants just basic information across the spectrum of federal supports, state support, as well as local support. We've got this website CAA dot gov slash LA Fires CAA dot gov slash la Fires, which aggregates all that information can help you navigate through all of this. This California Rises Fund we've created is a great fund working with the California Fire Foundation to support no overhead in this to support critical programs for those in critical need. And then this La Rises Council we just announced is all about building back, stronger, more resilient, addressing so many of the concerns that were brought up in today's conversation. So on behalf of all of us, all forty one hundred and forty million Californians, and all of us there are still act there sixteen thousand personnel still active addressing the challenges and needs of people. I just want to thank you all of you for joining us today and again, please stay in touch and engage and go to c A dot gov slash La Fires for more information.