siVE Bill aims to increase dog owners’ access to homeowners insurance

By ANNIKA BAHNSEN NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

If you are a pet owner looking for homeowners insurance, you know that sometimes your breed of dog might deny you access to coverage. Many residents have had to choose between keeping their dogs or owning a home, something that Assemblyman Gregg Hart is trying to eliminate.

The existing law allows insurance companies to regulate insurance coverage to specific people and, in this case, allows for the insurers to cancel or deny coverage if the owner has a “dangerous” dog breed.

Typically, these breeds are bigger and more stereotypically aggressive, such as pitbulls, great danes, german shepherds and others.

The bill that Assemblyman Hart is trying to implement would prohibit an “insurer from refusing to issue, canceling, refusing to renew, or increasing the premium for a policy of residential property insurance on the sole basis that the applicant or insured owns or harbors a dog that is a specific breed or mixture of breeds.”

There is an exception to the bill that states that the insurer can still refuse coverage “if the dog is known to be or has been declared potentially dangerous or vicious.” This determination would be decided by the Santa Barbara Animal Shelter.

In an exclusive interview, Assemblyman Hart told the News-Press that his motivation for this bill is that he recognized a “disconnect between perspective and data” when it came to the discrimination of dog breeds.

Additionally, Assemblyman Hart asserted that “the idea that we discriminate isn’t fair. This bill would protect dog owners and the dogs as well.”

If this bill becomes law, it

Gregg Hart

EMS contract not renewed by Board of Supervisors

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The county of Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors has made the decision not to extend the county’s current ambulance contract and directed staff to explore a non-exclusive multiprovider permit model. The board’s decision was based on their desire to improve the already existing EMS system through reinvestment in the community by providing more ambulances for 911 response, dedicated inter-facility transport ambulances, community paramedicine and community and financial oversight at no additional cost to the community.

The Santa Barbara County Fire Department has been providing service for community needs for almost 100 years and ambulance transport for nearly 50 years. Seventy-five percent of the 911 calls it receives in the county are for medical emergencies. The department currently provides paramedic ambulance transport services for UCSB, Vandenberg Village (Lompoc Valley), New Cuyama and the Highway 166 corridor. With the new system, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department plans to seamlessly provide services to an already existing EMS program.

American Medical Response has been providing EMS transport services to Santa Barbara County communities for several decades. The County Fire Department plans to continue partnering with AMR to provide services.

The Santa Barbara County Fire Department has been providing Advanced Life Support services to the community since 1974. The department has over 90 practicing paramedics. Firefighter paramedics are staffed at all sixteen fire stations and all fire department ambulances.

The new system is expected to take effect in March 2024. email: kzehnder@newspress.com