LIVE: Officials Discuss State Debris Removal Program for Woolsey Fire from Calabasas, CA

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The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) began as the State War Council in 1943. With an increasing emphasis on emergency management, it officially became OES in 1970. In 2004, the California Legislature merged OES and the Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning, which was responsible for providing state and federal grant funds to local communities to prevent crime and help crime victims.

In 2003, with the State increasing its focus on terrorism prevention after the attacks of 9/11, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security (OHS) was established through an Executive Order by Governor Gray Davis.

In 2009, the California Legislature merged the powers, purposes, and responsibilities of the former OES with those of OHS into the newly- created California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA).

On July 1, 2013, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s Reorganization Plan #2 eliminated Cal EMA and restored it to the Governor’s Office, renaming it the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), and merging it with the Office of Public Safety Communications.