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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The contributions went to organizations that provide assistance for at-risk or underserved communities and local first responders.
The Dillon Beach Emergency Response Team, Northshore Fire Protection District, Friends of Guerneville School and People Services Inc. are among last year’s recipients.
Additionally, to help alleviate some of the financial strain for customers who lost their jobs or were otherwise hard hit financially by the coronavirus pandemic, the company forgave a portion of past-due water bill balances for those who fell behind because of the pandemic.
The contributions and bill assistance are part of the utility’s philanthropic giving program and do not affect customers’ water bills.
“With so much financial hardship in our community last year, we wanted to focus our giving on organizations that could best support our customers and neighbors,” said District Manager Evan Markey. “California Water Service is thoroughly committed to delivering quality, service, and value to our communities, and it is a privilege to be able to give back every year in this way.”
Cal Water serves about 3,600 people through 1,900 service connections in Lucerne and parts of Duncans Mills, Guerneville, Dillon Beach, Noel Heights and Santa Rosa. The utility has provided water service in the area since 2000.
Additional information may be obtained online at www.calwater.com.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The actions announced today will bring relief to residents in rural America who have housing loans through USDA.
“USDA recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an almost unprecedented housing affordability crisis in the United States. That’s why USDA is taking this important action today to extend relief to the hundreds-of-thousands of individuals and families holding USDA Single Family Housing loans,” USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Justin Maxson said. “While today’s actions are an important step for them, we need to do more. The Biden Administration is working closely with Congress to pass the American Rescue Plan to take more robust and aggressive actions to bring additional relief to American families and individuals impacted by the pandemic.”
A recent Census Bureau survey showed that 8.2 million homeowners are currently behind on mortgage payments, and of that 8.2 million, 3 million homeowners behind on payments were Black or Hispanic.
This effort underscores a commitment by USDA to bring relief and assistance to farmers, families and communities across the country who are in financial distress due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In January, USDA took action to bring relief to more than 12,000 distressed borrowers of USDA farm loans by temporarily suspending past-due debt collections, foreclosures, non-judicial foreclosures, debt offsets or wage garnishments, and more.
Learn more at the following link: USDA Temporarily Suspends Debt Collections, Foreclosures and Other Activities on Farm Loans for Several Thousand Distressed Borrowers Due to Coronavirus.
Visit www.rd.usda.gov/coronavirus for additional information on USDA’s Rural Development COVID-19 relief efforts, application deadline extensions and more.
USDA Rural Development will keep our customers, partners and stakeholders continuously updated as additional actions are taken to bring relief and development to rural America.
Homeowners and renters can also visit www.consumerfinance.gov/housing for up-to-date information on their relief options, protections, and key deadlines from USDA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Consumers rarely know their risk scores let alone how to improve them, even though these scores are a critical factor insurance companies consider when deciding how much to charge for insurance and for which properties they will write or renew coverage.
In community meetings and town halls that Commissioner Lara held across California before the pandemic and in his virtual investigatory wildfire hearing last October, consumers described taking action to protect their homes – often at the cost of thousands of dollars out of pocket – while still seeing their insurance dropped or their premiums increased based on wildfire risk scores that few homeowners even know exist.
The new rules would require insurance companies to provide a consumer with their property’s wildfire risk score, which must recognize a consumer’s mitigation actions that could improve their rating, such as creating defensible space and fire-hardening, and allow time for the consumer to reduce their score.
The new regulations will incentivize mitigation and help consumers make better-informed decisions when they buy, sell, or build a home.
“I have consistently heard from consumers that many insurance companies keep them in the dark about their property’s risk profile, leading people to spend thousands of dollars cutting down trees or hardening their homes without truly knowing how it will affect their insurance,” said Commissioner Lara. “Giving consumers their wildfire risk scores and the ability to lower them will incentivize the home-hardening and community mitigation efforts already underway to better prepare us for future wildfires.”
“We can’t control the drought or the wildfire conditions that decreased insurers’ appetite for insuring homes in California wildland urban interface regions. We can control the use of the risk scoring tool that killed their appetite completely in many regions and has been a major trigger of California’s current home insurance affordability and availability crisis,” said Amy Bach, policyholder advocate and Executive Director of United Policyholders. “We applaud Commissioner Lara and his team for empowering consumers in order to restore competition in brush regions. Through today’s and previously announced actions, he is taking the multi-level collaborative approach UP has been urging that includes standardizing and incentivizing wildfire risk reduction through insurance rewards and recognizing that risk modeling tools can harm consumers when their use is not regulated.”
The commissioner’s action builds on his Feb. 8 announcement of a wildfire resilience partnership with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to establish fire-hardening measures for insurance companies.
The partnership and this proposed regulation will lead to more incentives for homeowners and communities to bring down wildfire risk.
Commissioner Lara has held in-person and virtual meetings on wildfire issues in 36 counties attended by more than 10,000 people since taking office in 2019.
More than 500 people attended the commissioner’s first investigatory wildfire insurance hearing in October 2020, where many consumers spoke about their frustration and confusion at being non-renewed or seeing their premiums increase despite taking action to reduce wildfire risk.
Placer County homeowner Mark Ratermann said he received a non-renewal notice from his insurance company.
“When I asked them about it, they said ‘we’re not renewing policies in your area, unless you do these fire mitigation measures,’ so that’s what I did,” he said of spending thousands of dollars and removing 16 trees in an attempt to maintain his insurance. “And yet, with almost no communication from them, a year later they declined and said we’re not going to renew.”
Fire chiefs from across California also testified about the need for insurance companies to recognize homeowner and community mitigation efforts.
“Fires are bigger, they are burning longer, they are more destructive, and they are killing more people than ever before. And that reality is highly motivating to fire agencies whose job it is to respond and extinguish those fires. But it’s also been motivating to hundreds of thousands of people who live and work in communities both large and small all over this great state of California to do more to reduce hazards and lower their risk,” said Chief Bill Tyler of the Novato Fire Protection District and president of the Marin County Fire Chiefs Association. “Our desire is for insurers to take notice and reward communities like Marin that put in the hard work, that make the commitment, and provide them with adequate, affordable coverage for homes, homeowners, neighborhoods and communities that embrace adaptive measures going forward.”
“At the end of the day, insurability is a reflection of risk, and risk relates exactly to hazards, and hazards can be modified,” said Chief Michael Schwartz of the North Tahoe Fire Protection District. “A lot of times, the fire department and emergency services can work on those things to reduce that risk.”
In addition to the wildfire risk score regulations, Commissioner Lara announced rules to strengthen his ability to protect consumers through review of insurance company rate filings. These proposed regulation changes make clear that homeowners insurance companies are required to submit the complete information they use to determine which properties to underwrite or renew. Additionally, these changes will provide insurance companies with more upfront certainty regarding what materials and information that the Commissioner requires in filed rate applications with the California Department of Insurance, eliminating delays caused by incomplete initial rate filings from insurance companies.
Commissioner Lara will hold public prenotice workshops on March 30 on the wildfire risk score regulations, and on April 6 on the complete rate filing regulations. Following input from the public, he will begin a formal regulatory process leading to adoption of new rules.
Commissioner Lara continues to explore the use of catastrophe modeling as a ratemaking tool following a meeting that he held on Dec. 10 if it can benefit market competition and increase insurance availability for consumers.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
This bill protects Californian olive growers and manufacturers from being undercut in the market by oils that benefit from using the “California” name to mislead consumers about what they are buying.
AB 535 is a reintroduction bill of last year’s AB 2074. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, bills were limited to prioritize COVID-19 and emergency-related legislation. However, Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry is determined to protect farmers and consumers.
“We demand the highest environmental, labor and consumer protection standards in the world of our farmers,” said Aguiar-Curry. “And, people worldwide recognize ‘California’ products come with that quality, based on those standards. Our state’s name should not be used as a cynical marketing ploy to give the impression you’re buying something you’re not.”
Currently, the state produces approximately 4 percent of the world’s olive oil from over 75 varieties of olives. Due to California’s well-established reputation for producing high-quality goods, the demand for Californian olive oil is increasing.
Because of this high demand, there has been branding of olive oil with the term “California” or with a Californian regional designation even when the products blend oils from other places, including Spain, North Africa, Chile and Argentina. Some of these products, per those companies, have included as little as 14 percent California olive oil in such blends.
Existing law prohibits the labeling of olive oil as “California Olive Oil” unless 100 perent of the oil is derived from olives grown in the state. However, through a loophole in current law, a bottle of olive oil may be advertised as a “California” brand or a “California” company, but the fine print will specify that the oil inside the bottle is not derived entirely from California olives.
AB 535 strengthens existing law by making it illegal to make any false representation that an olive oil is produced entirely from olives grown within California.
Similarly, the bill applies a prohibition on false representations that an olive oil was produced from olives grown in a specific region of California, unless at least 85 percent of the olive oil was produced from olives grown in that region.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture requires California Olive Oil to meet strict quality standards, such as mandatory testing and sampling. California farmers compete around the world with farmers whose states or countries demand less stringent regulatory and testing standards.
“This bill will ensure that consumers know exactly what they are buying, and it will help to support our local farmers who are producing world-class oils from olives grown here in our State. If we’re going to demand the best, we owe it to California farmers to at least support truth in the marketplace. It’s time we stop people from profiting off our name, by giving the impression consumers are getting something they’re not,” said Aguiar-Curry.
Aguiar-Curry represents the Fourth Assembly District, which includes all of Lake and Napa counties, parts of Colusa, Solano and Sonoma counties, and all of Yolo County except West Sacramento.