Tom Steyer Blames Polluters for the Palisades and Eaton Fires

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Speaker 1: And very happy Friday to you. At twelve oh seven in the West, It's the Giant at Phillips Show Live from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mister Randy Wang's downstairs.

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Speaker 2: John, do we have a gem for you? And this comes to us Kurtie. See we are our friend Daniel Guts who is watching today's La City council meeting and noticed something interesting when Amelda Padilla, you know this, Amelda.

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Speaker 3: Padilla, neighborhood kids, the down ass kids don't.

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Speaker 2: Like it, decided that she had something to say during a presentation honoring a local high school.

00:00:33
Speaker 1: Council member Rodriguez. You've got a member on the queue, councilmember of Padilla.

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Speaker 3: Of course, I'm on the queue for this one.

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Speaker 4: Ghost Spartans Well Toula the Youth War Here, I am council member and mother Podia.

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Speaker 1: Do you not know your own name?

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Speaker 5: Whoa Tauta the Youth War Here, I am council member and mother Podilla. I'm right next to miss Rodriguez, so I'm your neighbors.

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Speaker 1: Okay, this is not the first time she's done this. Wasn't she honoring a guy at one of the hearings whose name was Elton Ferry. But because she was thinking of Elton Ferry, she said, Elton John.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I think I have the clip right here. Wow, it's a good thing.

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Speaker 5: I have this folder, the famous the epic also kind of a community leader, Elton John, Elton, Elton John, Alton Ferry.

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Speaker 1: Gee, if the guy's name was Fairy and she accidentally called him Elton John, I wonder.

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Speaker 3: Why broken windy theories.

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Speaker 2: And of course Emelda Bedilla famously when she first joined the city council couldn't remember the pledge of allegiance? Shall we rise, Johnny all rise.

00:01:51
Speaker 3: Mister President.

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Speaker 1: Today's Tuesday. It's time for the flag salut. Wonderful Uh? If everyone could please rise for the flag salute? Councilwoman Padilla, would you please lead us in the flag salute?

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Speaker 3: Ready begin?

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Speaker 6: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the Republic, which just stands one nation under God, indivisible with justice and justice for all.

00:02:21
Speaker 1: Great. Thank you.

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Speaker 2: She gets paid two hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year, and she has the iq of a box of rocks.

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Speaker 3: Street pavements that are cooler.

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Speaker 1: I don't think it would be this bad if Balki from Perfect Strangers was put on the city council.

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Speaker 6: Those who are protesting want to get louder, they want to get more violent.

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Speaker 1: Every time she opens her mouth, it's like watching a drunk man drive down an icy road.

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Speaker 3: Of course, I'm on the queue for this one.

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Speaker 4: Ghost spartans well to Allah.

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Speaker 3: The youth were here.

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Speaker 5: I am council member of the Padia, and right next to is Rodriguez, So I'm your neighbors.

00:03:06
Speaker 1: This woman is a graduate from UC Berkeley and has a master's degree.

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Speaker 3: The neighborhood kids, the down ass kids, don't like it.

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Speaker 2: And she's one of the least crazy members on the city council.

00:03:20
Speaker 1: I think my master's degree just got devalued in the last four minutes. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number one? Eight hundred two two two five two two two. Well, it was Tom Steyer, the candidate for governor who is now the top performing Democrat in the race, who put out a tweet just before showtime today about the fires in Los Angeles that was totally outrageous. Listen to this tweet. It dropped at eleven fifty two am Pacific. So eight minutes before showtime, he said, quote, the people of Altadena and Pacific Palisades paid a climate tax last year. They lost their homes. They didn't do the polluting, yet they paid the price. That is wrong. Polluters need to pay end quote. I just about threw my phone out the window when I saw that. Okay, let's review some history here for a second, because I know it's easy to blame those fires on climate change and let everyone off the hook. Who actually was responsible But we know hasn't been proven in a court of law yet. But we know, based on their own behavior and based on their own actions, that it is highly likely that Southern California Edison started the fire in Altadena. Correct.

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Speaker 2: That is what they have admitted in regulatory filings. And even though they won't say they did it, they offered out a fund to pay out the fire victims if they promised not to sue so Cal Edison.

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Speaker 1: Okay, why in the world would you do that unless you started the fire and aren't There also videos of the ignition point that point to Southern California Edison equipment.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it was called a zombie tower, a transmission tower that was supposed to be deactivated. That was needed to be torn down about thirty years ago. That was just sitting there that reactivated when a live wire hit it, which started the sparking, which looks like started the Eton fire.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so that's Altadina. Let's move to Pacific Palisades here for a second, because there was an actual arrest that was made in regard to that fire where you had a looty tunes uber drive who had Trump derangement syndrome and who apparently was really upset that he couldn't get laid, who was arrested in connection with the start of that fire.

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Speaker 2: Correct, Yes, that guy was arrested. That guy has been charged, but because of everything that has come out since, that case might not go all the way.

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Speaker 1: Okay. So he started the original fire and then the fire reignited when the wind started. On January the first, the fire that he started was being fought by LAFD. LAFD told their political leadership that the fire was not fully extinguished. However, the fire had spread to state land and Gavining Company told the city to stay off their lawn. The city said, if we stay off your lawn, then the fire will not be fully extinguished. The city didn't want to fight with a state, so they backed down and they just left it the way it was, which is how it could reignite when the wind started. Correct, that's what happened. And then when the Pacific Palisades Fire was raging, there was no water in the fire hydrants, there was no water in the reservoir, and that's not the fault of climate change. We also cut the budget of the LAFD so that the fire chief before the fire started, said that if there was a tragic event, they would not be able to adequately respond to it because they didn't have the mechanics, they didn't have the equipment, they didn't have the personnel, and everything that the fire chief said and that Tracy Park said in that meeting in front of the Fireboard the Fire Commission turned out to be true. None of that was climate change. Yet, now that we are months and months and months separated from the start of those fires, Tom Steyer is trying to rewrite history and make it seem like those fires are the fault of Chevron. In what sane world does anyone believe that?

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Speaker 2: Well, the one person who definitely believes that, who is right on the same page as Styre with this is Scott Wiener, who authored that bill that's going through the legislature that would allow us the average citizen to sue Chevron for the fire they didn't start.

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Speaker 1: It's just unbelievable. And this guy is the leading Democrat to be governor in California. He doesn't have a clue as to what happened, but he has very strong opinions about what should be done about it. This is nuts and the fact that there is anyone out there in this state who's buying into this nonsense is beyond my ability to comprehend.

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Speaker 2: Well, I will say this, every single reply on this tweet from Tom Steyer does not agree with his viewpoints.

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Speaker 1: But the polls are the polls, and if the election were today, I would say he's a coin flip away from advancing to the November ballot because he and Bianco were tied for number two.

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Speaker 7: Right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't really explain that one except for the average California voter.

00:09:47
Speaker 6: No, I don't know enough to give you any good information, but the luck finding someone who does.

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Speaker 1: But I am telling you this is why this needs to be litigated in court. This is why the victims of the fire. It's so important for the victims of the fire to hold the city of Los Angeles responsible, to hold Southern California Edison responsible, and in terms of criminal trials, for that uber driver to be held responsible. Because when you have a trial and you have to present evidence and you have to ask witnesses questions, you just can't go in and demagogue people like this. The judge will throw it out. Imagine if in the court hearing and Southern California Edison's on trial for the fire in Altadena and they go, you know what, we think we should pay the victims zero even though it was our equipment that started the fire. We're going to take the position of the newly elected governor of the state of California and say that it's not our fault. It's climate change that's responsible for all of these homes burning down, and not equipment that we knew that was faulty that should have been taken down a long time ago. Because what happens is you let them all off the hook. You let Southern California Edison off the hook, you let that nutty uber driver off the hook, You let the city of Los Angeles off the hook. The City of Los Angeles, who, by the way, doctored up the after action fire report to make it look like they didn't like they weren't as bad as they actually were. And you know who else they let off the hook is the insurance companies. Because if you say that there is a bad actor that was responsible for these fires, if your state farm, if you're the Fair Plan, if you are farmers, if you're travelers, why would you pay out on any of these claims if there's a response sible party, I wouldn't want to pay out on those claims, would you. Well even look at what so Cal Edison did recently, they're suing La County because they say, well, yes, our equipment may have started the fire, but you forget you failed to do emergency notifications, which is why a whole bunch of people weren't able to evacuate in time and they died. And this is where, and we talk about strange bedfellows in politics, this is where you look at the insurance companies and you think, Okay, these are great, big right wing companies because they're all about profits and capitalism and golf memberships at the fanciest golf clubs and high end scotch and cigars and everything you think about when you think about corporate boardrooms at insurance companies, But in reality, they're in bed with the Greta Thunbergs of the world. Because if the Greta Thunberg world you takes, then what they can charge you for premiums shoots through the roof. Because the world's going to end in ten years, and if the world's going to end in ten years, then we know there's going to be a lot of storms in between. Well, and that's one of the things that Ricardo Laura is rarely comfortable.

00:13:18
Speaker 2: He actually gave to the insurance companies in his sustainable insurance strategy, allowing them to use their own private climate modeling to set rates without showing us the proof.

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Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. They don't have to show their work. If you're a sixth grade math student, you have to show your work or else you get dinged by the teacher. The red incomes out. But if you take the Greta Thunberg model of climate change and you use it to jack everyone's rates up, you don't have to show your work. They just have to take your word. For it, So it would allow the insurance companies to jack up your raids. And then it would also allow the insurance companies to say, it's not their responsibility if your home burns down, it's the responsibility of John because he drives an SUV. That's the position that they're taking, whether he knows it or not. By tweeting out the stupidity that he tweeted out earlier today, what Tom Steyer is doing is he is creating a world that the insurance companies could only dream of. Everything that they want and more would be given to them if this nut were to be elected. And you know who would take it in the teeth California homeowners, California taxpayers, and specifically, in the case of these two fires, the fire victims who have already been disrespected in every imaginable way. That's what he is advocating for. And what worries me is that Tom Steyer already has billions of dollars. He's a billionaire. He could spend whatever it takes to get himself elected. But if he then joins forces with the insurance companies, because he's going to give them all of these sweetheart deals, this may be an unstoppable force for someone, by the way, who regards himself as being consumer friendly, which is the funniest part of this old thing.

00:15:36
Speaker 2: You know, I just thought of something. If Wiener's bill passes, where you can sue polluters for wildfires that they didn't start technically because Tom Steyer made his billions by investing in big oil and pollution causes, we could sue Tom Steyer for fires.

00:15:54
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, let's just use this logic for a second. If you can sue someone that far removed from whatever the problem is, can you see your grandparents if you get cancer? You know, you passed along some really bad jeans and now I'm sick, so I'm coming after you in the retirement home, old lady. It's just bonkers, but that's what he put out earlier today. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny don't like show at gmail dot com. And Randy whenever you hear Jimmy Buffett's dulcet tones on this program. You know it's Friday, and you know the weekend is right around the corner. We don't do live shows on Saturday and Sunday, but if you want to listen, that's easy to do.

00:16:57
Speaker 2: All you gotta do is search for the John Philip Show. Wherever you get your podcasts. That could be the Apple podcast app, iHeart Spotify, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe. You could download all the episodes. You can do a Google on the YouTube. You can get our KABC app or the KSFO app. You can also get the KMJ now app because we run a best out of the fixed California hour specifically for Fresnos Saturdays at noon, so check that out on the Big Kmjay.

00:17:24
Speaker 1: But there are so many different ways.

00:17:26
Speaker 2: If you really want to pretend that Saturday and Sunday are Tuesday Wednesday.

00:17:34
Speaker 1: You can do that.

00:17:34
Speaker 2: In fact, you could pretend that Saturday and Sunday are Gavin Cecily. Can you help me out here?

00:17:39
Speaker 8: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

00:17:46
Speaker 1: I have different drops on the home computer. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. Randy, what do you say we make a couple of listeners very high.

00:18:00
Speaker 2: Well, let's do that right now. Hey, look at this everyone. The La County Fair is back May seventh through the thirty first. Don't miss the country's largest county fair and the best entertainment in southern California. Tickets are on sale at La Countyfair dot com. But right now, calling number nine at one eighty eight seven ninety five two two two, that's one triple eight seven ninety five two two two gets a pair of tickets to see War on Friday, May ninth, and of course you get admission to the fair. Tickets furnished by the La County Fair. Good luck dialing.

00:18:40
Speaker 1: So we spent some time in last segment talking about the insurance companies looking for a way to get off the hook for the fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, and Tom Steyer being an ally, albeit one that you wouldn't expect them to have. However, the insurance companies are hard at work here in California trying to figure out how to use technology to kick us all off our policies, and Randy, it looks like they are using AI two.

00:19:12
Speaker 2: If you are getting a non renewal notice, it may not have even been a human that made that decision. Gee, I wonder if for Cardo Laura allowed the insurance companies to do that as well.

00:19:22
Speaker 7: I may be criticized and drags through the mud for it and get my wig snatched, as the gay guys say.

00:19:34
Speaker 1: For more, here is David Lazarus and KTLA five.

00:19:38
Speaker 8: For millions of southern California homeowners, insurance is becoming harder to afford as rates sore.

00:19:43
Speaker 9: Some are even being told their policies are no longer being reviewed by a.

00:19:47
Speaker 10: Person, but by an algorithm ktlius David Lazarus has details.

00:19:52
Speaker 2: That's right, insurance adjusters, the robots are coming for your jobs.

00:19:57
Speaker 1: And then the rest of us.

00:19:59
Speaker 9: Well, it's not fair. It's not fair. None of it is fair. But I'm one guy. I can't do a whole lot besides pay the premium and say thank you for another year.

00:20:10
Speaker 1: State Farm talk about someone in a news story sounding totally defeated, Well, it's like you.

00:20:19
Speaker 2: You're pleasantly surprised every single year they haven't dropped you.

00:20:23
Speaker 1: They've raised my auto insurance without an accident or a ticket ninety seven percent last time, and I called them and asked them why they were doing that, and they said there was some kind of computer air and my rates had been artificially low. That sounds like a bunch of bs. Yeah, no kidding, Hit me again, please Yeah.

00:20:48
Speaker 8: Meet Santa Clarita residents Paul and Cheryl, who asked that I only use their first names for privacy reasons. Like many Southern California homeowners, they've seen their insurance rates steadily climb over the years. When they move into their current twenty nine hundred square foot house, in twenty fourteen, State Farm charged an annual premium of less than twelve hundred dollars for a policy with a four thousand dollars deductible. A decade later, that premium had jumped to more than four thousand dollars.

00:21:14
Speaker 1: Holy cow, quadrupold.

00:21:20
Speaker 8: And then came the La fires. Paul and Cheryl's premium soared to more than six thousand dollars this year, even though the couple raised their deductible to sixteen thousand dollars.

00:21:30
Speaker 2: You might as well raise your deductible as high as you can, because you're never going to be able to use that policy anyway.

00:21:35
Speaker 1: No, this is a service that purely exists to satisfy your bank. You have to assume that it is an unusable service that you pay for.

00:21:46
Speaker 8: And even though they improved fire safety by cutting back foliage and using fire safe materials, here's Paul and Cheryl doing what they have to do and they're not going to meet you halfway.

00:21:57
Speaker 9: No, no discount at all.

00:21:59
Speaker 1: No, they don't care.

00:22:00
Speaker 2: And that's something that Ricardo Laura could have put in his sustainable insurance strategy, but he didn't.

00:22:05
Speaker 1: Chill bazing is rarely comfortable you. Oh no, I think the music over at t DJ Kitty Glitters was too loud, so he didn't hear that part.

00:22:15
Speaker 8: And that he said was due in large part to his insurance broker informing them that their policy is now overseen by AI, not a human underwriter.

00:22:25
Speaker 2: They don't know me this way, there's nobody you can blame for denying you. It was the algorithm that did it.

00:22:31
Speaker 1: No, and state government, by the way, was ahead of the curve on this, because what does Gavin do when he knows he's going to come out with an unpopular decision. He gives it to an unelected board that he appoints. It's the California Public Utilities Commission, it's the parole Board. It's something that is one step removed from him, where he puts these people on there to do these things, and when they do it, he goes, don't blame me, I didn't do it. Anyone blaming me is spreading fake news.

00:23:04
Speaker 9: They don't know me. That personal touch is gone, So.

00:23:08
Speaker 2: Jake, they don't talk to the homeowner. They don't even need to spy on the house anymore. With drones. The AI makes an educated guess about statistics and says, nope, we're dropping you. And by the way, AI is not as smart as everybody thinks. There was a whole report out how all the people asking Rock for medical information are getting bad information.

00:23:32
Speaker 1: Uh oh, you included.

00:23:37
Speaker 8: So Jake from State Farm is now robo from State Farm.

00:23:41
Speaker 9: Robo State Farm.

00:23:42
Speaker 8: Right, it's a challenging situation for millions of California homeowners. Now.

00:23:46
Speaker 2: I love how every single story when it's either about the fair Plan or it's about State Farm doing action after action after action to screw over ratepayers who've given them money for years and years and years.

00:23:58
Speaker 1: And what does.

00:23:58
Speaker 2: Ricardo Laura do gives them an emergency rate increase without any hearing.

00:24:03
Speaker 1: I'm very kind of sketch. Well, at some point State Farm had to take the decision making power away from the agents or take away any influence that the agents have, because the agents ultimately are in sales and if they don't keep their customers happy, they lose out on the sale. Well, you know that they have a bias to keep that customer in the store, but AI doesn't care. So if you remove the salesperson from the decision making process, then there's no one there to advocate for the homeowner.

00:24:38
Speaker 8: It's a challenging situation for millions of California homeowners now experiencing huge spikes in annual insurance costs. State Farm, California's largest residential insurer, raised rates by an average seventeen percent last year after paying more than five billion dollars in fire related claims that foul.

00:24:57
Speaker 2: How much did they not pay out because there's still nick in diming and slowing rolling everything they can. Well, a lot of those disputes are still in court.

00:25:07
Speaker 8: That followed an average twenty percent rate hike the year before. The company, like other insurers, cut back on writing new policies in recent years. State Farm declined to discuss a specific policyholder's situation when I contacted them about Paul and Cheryl's premiums soaring by four hundred percent since twenty fourteen despite a quadrupling of their deductible. But the company said in a state.

00:25:30
Speaker 2: By the way, this is the stuff that they're allowed to do, even in the situation where they claim they can't get rate increases fast enough. They quadrupled this couple's house who have had zero claims and zero incidents and tried to fireproof their.

00:25:44
Speaker 1: Home, and this is one of these circumstances. We're going to the local news doesn't always help. We know, if there's an encampment in your neighborhood or there's a problem with a pothole in a street. If it gets bad enough and you go to the local news, in the local news embarrasses the local electeds. At some point they'll deal with it, just because they don't want to deal with the problem anymore. With the insurance companies, they just say, we can't comment on specific policies, and they don't care if they get bad press. They just ignore it and continue doing what they're doing well.

00:26:21
Speaker 2: What's supposed to happen in a state that has an entire Department of Insurance is that if you have an insurance company that is denying your client, you have an insurance company that is giving you insane rates without any justification, you're supposed to be able to call Ricardo Lara's office and they're supposed to be able to fight on your behalf. But of course Ricardo Lara is not going to do that because he's bought and paid for by the insurance industry.

00:26:46
Speaker 1: Absolutely, when we talk to homeowners who are fire victims and they go to the California Department of Insurance because they do not believe their insurance company is holding up their endo, the bargain, the story that we get most often is that they can get a call returned.

00:27:04
Speaker 8: But the company said in a statement that while it understands how frustrating higher rates can be for homeowners, increasing wildfire risk and rising repair and rebuilding costs make higher premiums unavoidable.

00:27:17
Speaker 6: It is extraordinary, but we are in an extraordinary market now in California.

00:27:23
Speaker 9: These are unprecedented times.

00:27:25
Speaker 8: Amy Bach, executive director of the advocacy group United Policyholders, said insurers typically lump homeowners together in specific areas, even if a home like Paul and Cheryls doesn't represent the same risk as nearby homes a top canyon ridges.

00:27:40
Speaker 9: That allows them to put search charger.

00:27:42
Speaker 2: There's a big difference between a home on a ridge and a home that's in a cul de sac that has no fire danger.

00:27:48
Speaker 1: But you see, if you have someone who's a local who works for the insurance company, and you can make that argument to them, Look, this is in an area that's relatively low and in terms of fire risk, I'm not in a canyon. The guy can go, oh, okay and then fix the problem. But if it's AI, you don't have the ability to make that argument and to physically show them that.

00:28:14
Speaker 9: Allows them to put search charges on the rate that are driving it up in that way.

00:28:18
Speaker 8: Bock advice shopping around for better deals, bundling home and all.

00:28:21
Speaker 2: Wait, how do you shop around for better deals when it's either state farm or the fair plan.

00:28:27
Speaker 1: No, what you do is you hang on to whatever plan it is that you have and hope to God that they don't kick you off.

00:28:33
Speaker 8: Bundling home and auto coverage and boosting deductibles to lower.

00:28:37
Speaker 2: I don't like that either, Okay, So the way I save money is to give the money the company that's already screwing me over more of my money.

00:28:47
Speaker 8: And boosting deductibles to lower premiums, although Paul and Sheryff show that that doesn't always work. For many people, especially seniors living on fixed incomes, higher insurance costs mean having to make hard choices, As Paul said, he told his state farm agent after their premium top six thousand dollars.

00:29:05
Speaker 9: I got five grandkids, I said, I wanted to take him to Disney World. I said, after I got your policy. You know, the premium had the pain and I said, I told three of them they can't go. I can only take two.

00:29:20
Speaker 1: Well, you can take all four of them the Gator World.

00:29:23
Speaker 8: He was kidding, but only sort of. David Lazarus KATLA five News.

00:29:29
Speaker 1: There you go.

00:29:30
Speaker 2: If you're wondering why your insurance company's dropping you, it's because the robot told them to.

00:29:36
Speaker 1: Come it up. Next, we'll give you an update on illegal dumping in the city of Dumpy eight hundred two two two five two two two. He is a telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. Let's go to Ala, Napa Al Welcome.

00:29:55
Speaker 11: Hi, Hi John, Good morning, Good afternoon. Rather h this is quickly about seven about State Farm. I've been a friend of my State Farm agents here in Napa for forty years, and I asked him when we had a big fires. I asked him again, when I had somebody run in my car. How is it determined if if State Farm decides to get rid of you, do you have say because you're the local, you know the fire zones here? He said no, and State Farm be it auto or be it car or rather house. It all goes back to the State Farm office in Wilmington, Normal, Illinois, and all they do is look at the probability on the AI charts. They locals had nothing to do with it anymore. That happened about two years ago, three years ago.

00:30:38
Speaker 1: Now that's so he's totally cut out of the process.

00:30:43
Speaker 11: All he does is take money and write paperwork. I'm afraid.

00:30:46
Speaker 8: Yeah.

00:30:48
Speaker 1: Well, if you're in sales and you can't provide good service for your customers, how do you keep your customers? Whether they know it or not, what State Farm is doing is cutting him off at the knees.

00:31:00
Speaker 11: And that's the same thing. I understand that one of the other I can't remember what the name of it is, but two other insurance companies do the same thing. That were the first of them to just start offloading everybody's houses out here. Uh. And it's it's stupid, but that's what it is now. I got a friend who at the church, who is a young guy who's in all of the AI insurance UH programming managements called I can't give the name of the A plug, but it's the newest thing for it that all the insurance companies can have their insurance policy systems automatically upgraded and written by that both commercial, industrial as well as residential and health now. And he said it's the going thing to try to reintegrate it with the very very local conditions because he also lives right here in Napa, not far from the from the county line like I do. We are we're both about four miles from downtown Napa to towntown, so we are just within a half mile. When a big fire stopped four years ago, the Tubs fire that left over the hills and came up Sonoma. So he was insurance too, so he's pauseitive of getting the new system there so that the insurance companies can have better access to better block by block localized history, not just probability, but actual history of what happens when the winds and what happens when. So they're trying to work out to make it better. But I'm not sure a state. He hasn't had any contact with state farm insurance yet. He had contact with several smaller insurance groups, but not state farms, and of course not mister Laura. Still kiss me start on Laura anyway.

00:32:42
Speaker 1: All right, thank you for the call, sir, I appreciate it. Here with an update on illegal dumping in the City of Dumpy, mister Randy Wayne.

00:32:52
Speaker 8: You know this has really been an issue for the City of Dumpy.

00:32:55
Speaker 1: Excuse me.

00:32:56
Speaker 2: The City of Dumpy is going to start taking illegal dumping a lot more seriously, including using license plate reading cameras to automatically fine illegal dumpers and doubling the dumping fees to five thousand dollars. Let's see if this is going to make a difference. Here is ABC seven in the Bay from the City of Dumpy.

00:33:21
Speaker 10: Right, let's move now to some trash. Talk about the trash problem in Oakland. The city is frustrated with illegal dumping and trying out some new solutions. Oakland is doubling fines and sending out drones hoping to keep the streets clean. ABC seven eyewitness SED News reporter Tim Johnson spoke with frustrated neighbors and the city leaders trying to help Innuo Gio's name.

00:33:43
Speaker 1: I knew newel Gaia was going to be in this piece. Oh like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west in.

00:33:51
Speaker 12: Newe Gio's neighborhood, I legally dumped trash is everywhere.

00:33:55
Speaker 1: Twenty five thousand calls we received this year.

00:33:58
Speaker 2: The want wait, it's only April. They've received twenty five thousand calls for illegal dumping in less than four months.

00:34:12
Speaker 1: Totally ridiculous.

00:34:14
Speaker 12: The longtime Oakland City Council member says, while illegal dumping has always been a problem, it's now a crisis.

00:34:21
Speaker 1: But the reality is is that we need to enforce the law.

00:34:25
Speaker 12: And enforcing the law is exactly what the city council intends to do. On Tuesday, they voted unanimously if you dump anything illegally, the fine is now doubled to five thousand dollars.

00:34:37
Speaker 1: Oh boy, why didn't they do this long ago. It's a really good question.

00:34:45
Speaker 12: And for the first time, those fines will be attached to the license plates of cars caught in the act.

00:34:50
Speaker 2: Again, why haven't they done that? But that's brilliant. We already have the license plate reading cameras and now they've got the drones in the sky, so you could catch these people in the acc and you go right to the license plate of the contractor from Fremont who's dumping and dumping.

00:35:06
Speaker 1: Usually the government loves to hit us up for money, but for whatever reason, in this instance, they've been hesitant.

00:35:12
Speaker 12: And for the first time, those fines will be attached to the license plates of cars caught in the act. Ricardo Vindiola works for the city and says this is long overdue. How frustrating is it that you work very hard, you clean all this up. Tomorrow, same thing, same thing, The same people throw away this.

00:35:31
Speaker 4: They gotta be savory day, same people, And uh, you know, I have a lot of frustration.

00:35:36
Speaker 1: You hear that first, that is true.

00:35:38
Speaker 2: It is the same people doing this over and over and over again, usually contractors that don't want to go to the dump.

00:35:45
Speaker 1: I bet you it's like five to ten bad actors and if you just find them a lot, they'll stop doing it.

00:35:52
Speaker 12: You hear that frustration a lot in Oaklands.

00:35:56
Speaker 1: Whenever I walk.

00:35:57
Speaker 6: I always see trash everywhere.

00:35:59
Speaker 12: Danielle and Morale has lived in the town for fifteen years. She knows there are problems here, but it's still home for her. Illegal dumping isn't just about the trash that's scattered on city streets. It's also about taking pride and where you live.

00:36:13
Speaker 6: Whenever we're driving, we have to swerve and organize the damage or cars and seven it's.

00:36:17
Speaker 1: Like really sad.

00:36:18
Speaker 12: In addition to the new five thousand dollars fine, the city council also took the first step in approving a new pilot program. It will use AI drone technology to track illegal dumping sites in real time, restoring that lost sense of pride. Gaio says one street at a time that.

00:36:33
Speaker 9: If I catch you with the illegal dumping, we will cite you, we will arrest you, and you will have to pay a heavy fine.

00:36:42
Speaker 1: And helpfully he's usually the only one making that argument, but godspeed