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Resident urges broader wildfire outreach, warns renaming CWPP advisory body risks reduced transparency
Summary
During public comment, resident Jay Crutcher urged the city to preserve broad community engagement for its Community Wildfire Protection Plan implementation and expressed concern that renaming the advisory committee to an 'agency working group' had excluded stakeholders and reduced public notice.
At the June 24 meeting of the Agoura Hills City Council, resident Jay Crutcher used the public comment period to urge the city to maintain wide community engagement as it implements the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).
Crutcher said wildfire is a public-safety issue that depends on information and awareness and cautioned that a name change from a CWPP advisory committee to an "agency working group" could produce unintended negative effects by limiting transparency and public participation. He said the group that had been assembled met without public notice and that agencies who should have participated—such as the local water district, in his view—were not present.
He read guidance from the approved CWPP (chapter 8) urging inclusive, repeated engagement and warned that transformative change requires time and a variety of outreach methods. He recommended using HOAs, schools, nonprofits and faith institutions as ambassadors in outreach to build trust and equitable participation.
Council did not take action on the comment during the meeting; the remarks were entered into the record as public testimony.
