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Senate committee approves bill to add county wildfire links to state resource website; departmental cost difference noted
Summary
Senate Bill 15 would require the wildfire information and resource center website to include direct links to county-level emergency updates. The committee approved the bill unanimously for Committee of the Whole but heard a departmental difference on implementation cost ($0 fiscal note vs. a department estimate of $52,600 and 0.5 FTE).
DENVER — On Feb. 19, the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee unanimously approved Senate Bill 15 for placement on the Committee of the Whole. The bill, introduced by Senator Marchman, requires the wildfire information and resource center (managed by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control) to include direct hyperlinks to county-level emergency updates, evacuation notices and wildfire status pages.
Senator Marchman described the bill as "a high impact, low cost solution that strengthens the emergency preparedness without creating unnecessary bureaucracy," saying the bill is intended to aggregate county-level links so residents have a single place to find localized wildfire information.
Supporters from county governments and industry groups told the committee that centralized links would make it easier for residents to find timely, local alerts. Jesse Zamora of the Colorado Association of Realtors said the measure would help homeowners "prepare, plan and evacuate in a wildfire emergency" and cited past Colorado fires when residents suffered major losses, noting the Marshall Fire, the Black Forest Fire and the East Troublesome Fire as examples of events with substantial home loss.
Thomas Davidson, reading testimony for Commissioner Leslie Dahlkemper and for CCAT (Counties and Commissioners Acting Together), told the committee some smaller counties may use social media pages for emergency updates and asked the committee to "factor this in." He described Jefferson County’s use of website banners and an alert box on the sheriff’s office page as examples of county approaches to consolidating information.
Departmental difference
Committee members questioned a fiscal discrepancy: the fiscal note attached to the bill listed zero cost, while the Department of Public Safety suggested an implementation cost of $52,600 and 0.5 FTE to upgrade and manage website features. John Armstrong of Compass staff said he believed the bill requires only posting county hyperlinks, which he assessed as a minimal, absorbable workload; Department staff had characterized a larger website upgrade as the source of their cost estimate. Senator Marchman said sponsors could add clarifying language that would require the department to implement the bill using existing appropriations and resources to avoid unintended scope creep.
Action
The committee unanimously moved Senate Bill 15 to the Committee of the Whole and placed it on the consent calendar.
