The activists, civil rights advocates, consumer advocates, faith leaders, community organizations, and Eaton and Palisades fire survivors who stood behind Joy Chen in Altadena on Friday said they represent many different missions but one message for Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Don’t make backroom deals. Choose democracy over corporate special interests.
Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network (EFSN) gathered the representatives at the Collaboratory in Altadena to launch DearNewsom.org, calling for a public commitment from the governor that he will not make closed-door legislative changes that would not protect wildfire survivors, but the perpetrators of California’s deadly fires.
“Right now, even before the legislature reconvenes, Governor Newsom is reportedly negotiating another utility bailout behind closed doors,” Chen said, adding that during the last two days of the legislative session in 2025, Newsom and legislative leaders “gutted SB 254, stripping out a bill intended to protect consumers and replacing it with a 231-page bill protecting California’s three electric monopolies.”
- Also see: Rebuilding happening in Altadena & Palisades, but many survivors remain on sidelines, in limbo
State Sen. Sasha Renee Perez, D-Pasadena, decried Newsom’s legislative move involving Senate Bill 254, which she called “a last-minute gut-and-amend last September, which undermined an open legislative process, deprived the public of the opportunity to provide meaning full input, and left fire survivors without the protections they deserved and instead prioritized the interests of companies that evidence shows caused the fire. We must not be put in that position again.”
The bill, signed into law by Newsom in September, sought reductions in utility costs, and aimed to beef up the state’s wildfire fund, which is paid for by the big three utility companies’ shareholders and customers. Part of a large package of energy policies negotiated last year, it also sought regulations on the three investor-owned utilities.
While it garnered backing from environmental groups, some wildfire survivors said it needed to go further, saying it bolstered utilities and their investors at the expense of struggling homeowners and residents.
At the time, Newsom said: “After months of hard work with the Legislature, we have agreed to historic reforms that will save money on your electric bills, stabilize gas supply, and slash toxic air pollution — all while fast-tracking California’s transition to a clean, green job-creating economy.”
Attorney Shimica Gaskins, founder of president and CEO of End Child Poverty California, said with wildfires becoming more frequent and catastrophic, the decisions made in California will affect how disaster survivors are treated for years to come.
“Just weeks ago, Gov. Newsom celebrated his final budget in office, one that invested in Californians, yet behind the scenes it appears he’s working to protect the very utility companies responsible for catastrophic wildfires that have destroyed homes, businesses, and lives across our state,” Gaskins said. “Instead of standing with survivors, he is considering backroom deals, a deal that would limit, as you heard, the wildfires victims’ ability to recover, a deal that would protect utility profits, a deal that would continue to raise rates on us as consumers.”
Gaskins, her husband and their two children loved the eight years they got in their Ganesha Avenue home before the Eaton fire burned it to the ground.
Her losses, Gaskins said, not only includes the structure she called home, but also her neighborhood and irreplaceable family heirlooms.
“I lost my deep sense of security. I lost neighbors I loved and the village that helped me raise my children,” she added. “Every day since the fire, my family has fought to rebuild while carrying the emotional and financial weight of this disaster.”
“All we are asking for is that corporations responsible for these fires pay for the harm they cause, not for California to change the rules after the fact and take away survivors’ legal rights to a full recovery.”
The survivors at the event also sought to discredit Wildfire Victims First, a group Chen said has spent months mailing Californians and running ads on TV and on socials claiming to speak for wildfire survivors but are funded by California’s three for-profit electric monopolies.
“We are the real wildfire survivors,” Chen said. “18 months after the Eaton fire, two out of three of us remained displaced. Retirement savings are drained, credit cards are masked. More than 50% of us are approaching the loss of temporary housing with nowhere else to go.”
Nathan Click, of Wildfire Victims First, said the group launched following the independent California Earthquake Authority report which highlighted how payouts to financial middlemen, such as trial attorneys, hedge funds, and insurance companies, are often paid out before wildfire victims receive a single dollar for rebuilding.
Following the Earthquake Authority report, we have called on legislators to implement many of its conclusions, including reducing wildfire risk and boost prevention, expand access to affordable, comprehensive insurance and ensure victims are compensated “fast, fair, and first, not after years of litigation or after being preyed on by hedge funds.”
Wildfire Victims First includes more than 250 groups and individuals, including 100 Black Men of Long Beach, Boys & Girls Club of Los Angeles Harbor, CalAsian Chamber of Commerce, and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
The DearNewsom.org campaign is backed locally by EFSN, Beautiful Altadena; the national NAACP, including its Pasadena branch; Pasadenans Organizing Progress; Altadena Rising; My Tribe Rise; Project Passion; Altadena Earthseed CLT; SURJ Altadena; Eaton Fire Residents United; Altagether; and Day One.
National supporters include NDLON, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Extreme Weather Survivors; and Public Citizen. On the state level, groups helping the campaign include Consumer Watchdog; Courage California; End Child Poverty CA; and Essie Justice Group.
Newsom’s press office has not issued a formal response to the campaign.
Writing on her postcard, Aurora Barboza, 50, waves a hand across her face.
“I am trying not to cry,” the high school math teacher said, signing off on the card. In it, she tells Newsom she is essentially homeless, with a mortgage she still has to pay, and an SBA loan in the works to help her rebuild her house.
“I’m going to have over a million dollars in debt, and I am a single-income public school teacher who just wants to get back home,” Barboza said. “I was the type of person who was, you know, always spending within my means, never had credit card debt, paid off my car as soon as I could. You live within your means, right?”
In the 18 months since the fire, she has lived with a friend two miles away from where her home once stood on Glenrose Avenue in Altadena.
She said she has had to carry the responsibilities of work and everyday life burdened with the to-do’s, decisions, paperwork and financial pressures of rebuilding.
“Every day we go to sleep, and we’re always thinking what we need to do the next day to rebuild,” Barboza said. “We wake up and that’s the only thing we think about. We call. We check emails. We go to meetings. And I still have to go to work, take care of my Mom, who’s 77. I didn’t cause this. I didn’t ask for it. And for Edison to talk like non-economic damages, the mental strain, are an inconvenience, that’s just insulting.”
Barboza said she isn’t interested in seeing how much she could get if she accepted Edison’s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program.
On Friday, Southern California Edison announced that more than 12,000 participants representing close to 4,000 claims have sought compensation directly the program, which ends on Nov. 30.
More than 2,200 offers have been extended to more than 5,400 claimants, totaling more than $750 million. Edison has paid more than $360 million to 2,300 claimants.
In a statement Pedro J. Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International, SCE’s parent company, said the numbers reflect strong program participation.
Asked to respond to the statements from Every Fire Survivor’s Network and the DearNewsom.org coalition, spokesperson Scott Johnson said Edison understands the challenges that Altadena residents have faced since Jan. 7, 2025.
“That is why Edison proactively established the Wildlife Recovery Compensation Program, where people can submit for direct compensation without having to wait for a lengthy legal process. Our goal is to help the community recover and rebuild fairly and quickly,” he said.
The company has also opened two disaster-recovery centers, ARCH, Altadena Rebuild and Community Hub at 2680 Fair Oaks Ave., and another in the Palisades, offering information on restoring service and available programs. The company is also present at the LA County Permit One-Stop at 464 W. Woodbury Road.
For teacher Barbazo, corporations and politicians are forcing her into an impossible situation. But outside her classroom, she said she is learning still, “to demand what we deserve, to get what we what is ours and what we’ve worked for.”
Barbazo said in the exhausting early days after the fire, someone asked her why she would rebuild in a place that’s already gutted and burned.
“And I didn’t have to think. There are so many reasons,” she said. “This is my community, my commute to work is easy. My friends are here. My parents are not far. I am tied to this place and I don’t want to walk away not having tried.”