The Butte County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 9 discussed a $1 million Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) award for the county’s Be Ready Butte wildfire education and prevention campaign and directed staff to reopen the request-for-proposals process to allow the Butte County Fire Safe Council and other local organizations to submit proposals.

Fire Chief Garrett Schollin told the board the CDBG award would expand the Be Ready Butte campaign, which the department has run since 2021 to promote defensible space and evacuation planning. “This project will involve a countywide education and outreach campaign to engage property owners to prevent the spread of fire by clearing defensible space on their property,” Schollin said.

Schollin presented metrics from earlier rounds of the campaign: targeted outreach to about 120,000 residences, “a 10% annual compliance improvement” in defensible-space inspections, 626,000 video views and more than 50 million media impressions from 2022 through 2025. He said the new grant would allow the county to hire a professional public-relations firm to expand outreach and reduce administrative load on county partners.

Several supervisors pressed for a stronger role for the local Fire Safe Council, which has long done boots-on-the-ground outreach in mountain communities. Supervisor Connolly said he favored giving more work to the council instead of hiring an outside PR firm: “I don't think we need a PR firm... we should help [the Fire Safe Council] take this grant on and expand their services.” Public works and grant-management staff said the grant was written to support marketing and that the current award would fund a contract to execute the campaign; staff also said the Fire Safe Council had not submitted a bid during the initial solicitation.

County staff advised that reopening the RFP is permissible because no contract has yet been signed. The board voted to reopen the RFP; the item will return to the board after the revised procurement process is complete. In the interim, the county emphasized the campaign is a partnership with the chapter 38A defensible-space program and existing Fire Safe Council activities.

Discussion vs. decision: The board approved moving forward with the grant-funded program and directed staff to reopen the procurement to allow local groups to compete; supervisors asked staff to consider greater Fire Safe Council involvement and to prioritize boots-on-the-ground outreach alongside digital marketing.

What's next: Staff will reopen the RFP and return with bids and a proposed contract. The Be Ready Butte program will continue to coordinate with the county’s chapter 38A defensible-space inspectors and existing Fire Safe Council efforts.