CUPA Forum News

Thanks Gary Cantwell, Yuba County EH CUPA, for serving as the CUPA Forum 2025/26 Chair. You continued to lead us into and through a very successful 2026 In-Person Annual Conference. You also visited over 60 CUPAs/PAs as a part of your goal of excellence in the CalCUPA Programs. Thanks for your guidance and leadership.

Thanks Dennis Karidis, Sacramento County EMD CUPA, for serving as the CUPA Forum 2024/25 Chair. You continued to lead us into and through a very successful 2025 In-Person Annual Conference. You also led the way on a variety of enforcement program issues. Thanks for your guidance and leadership.

View our latest legislative bills being reviewed and the CFB positions.

Alvin Lal congratulates Nick with this beautiful plaque for serving on the CUPA Forum Board (CFB) from 2016-2025. Nick, you have contributed greatly and we appreciate your leadership and guidance for the benefit of all of the CUPA Programs.

The CalCUPA Learning Management System (LMS) is your gateway to over 75 expert-led courses in Hazardous Materials and Leadership Programs. With more than 850 professionals already enrolled and over 2,000 course completions and counting, this is the training tool everyone's using.

If you're not taking advantage of it, you're falling behind.

Thanks Alvin Lal, Stanislaus County DER, for serving as the CUPA Forum 2023/24 Chair. You led us into and through a very successful 2024 In-Person Annual Conference. You also led the way on growing/evolving CalCUPA's Learning Management System (LMS) to where we have over 50 Haz Mat and Leadership Online Courses...with more being added weekly.

Thank you Royce Long, CUPA Program Manager from Los Angeles City Fire Dept, for serving as the CUPA Forum Chair 2022-2023. You led us into and through a very successful 2023 In-Person Annual Conference. You were also at the helm for the rollout of CalCUPA's new Learning Management System (LMS).

We care about your privacy. As such, we have implemented a new password policy to protect your data. As part of this process, you will be required to reset your password. Here's how the process works.

1. Sign in to your account at calcupa.org
2. You are presented with a change password screen that has some info to tell you what to do. You are required to enter your current password once and your new 8 characters minimum password twice (making sure to meet the requirements of Upper, Number and Special Character requirements).
3. Once you do this, you are logged in directly with your new password and it is now more secure on our website with encryption technology.

If you have any questions or have any issues, please email us at webmaster@calcupa.org and registration@calcupa.org .

Updated 2022-11-23 to alert members to the fact that the Appendices/Reference Documents are all now available directly on our calcupa.org website at https://calcupa.org/fire-info/index.html...check out these MANY (68 PDFs) to help you plan for the next disaster

CalCUPA posted (on June 23, 2022) the final documents from the Disaster Symposium II that was held in San Diego on May 26-27, 2022. As jurisdictions experience wildfire (and other) disasters, it is important to review this vital information to assist with the response and recovery. Some of the key documents include:
- the Disaster Emergency Assistance Plan in both Word and PDF formats
- Appendix A: Disaster Response Process
- Appendix B: Resource Request Overview
- Appendix C: Resource Request Process Under ESF-8
- Appendix D: Resource Request Process for Fire UPA Resources
- Appendix E: MAA Example Region I and VI
- DISASTER TIPS AND ACTION ITEMS
- All PowerPoints and Handouts from the workshop

Thank you Marjorie Terrell from San Mateo for serving as the CUPA Forum Chair 2021-2022

Thank you Danielle Stefani from Livermore Pleasanton Fire Department for 25 years of contributions to the Unified Program

Project description: The CUPA Forum has been posting profiles of selected CUPA agencies on our website for the past two years. These profiles provide an in depth look at CUPA agencies, their differences, unique challenges, demographics and accomplishments. There are six profiles currently posted (https://calcupa.org/cupa-profiles/index.html) and now the board has undertaken an aggressive project to have all of the CUPAs profiled and the articles posted before the Forum's 25th anniversary in January of 2023. That means we need to get 75 articles written in the next 24 months. The Board has contracted with Bill Lent (hazmatmrbill@gmail.com), a founding board member, to write these articles.

Who: With your help every CUPA in the state will be profiled in the next two years.

When: The Board will determine the schedule and will notify each CUPA. You will be notified by the CUPA Forum at least six weeks prior to your agencys scheduled date, if you need to reschedule just let Bill know. This project is starting immediately with the first interview in early October 2020 followed by at least three interviews each month until the project is completed.

What: Each CUPA Manager will need to select the person to be interviewed (usually the CUPA Manager or Director) and provide several times that they will be available along with their contact information. You will also need to provide your agency logo and two staff photos of staff or whatever you want presented with the article. Most CUPAs provide a group photo. Instructions on how to upload these documents are provided below.

Where: All interviews will be conducted via Zoom.

How: Once a time and date are confirmed, Bill Lent will conduct an interview with you via Zoom. The interviews typically take about an hour and cover your agency staffing and history, facility inventory, unique challenges and innovative programs. This is the opportunity to showcase your agency and let everyone know that in addition to protecting the community one inspection at a time, CUPAs also assist with wildfire hazard assessment and cleanup, contact tracing during a pandemic, emergency response and much more.

Why: Because the work that local CUPA staff do is critical to community safety and environmental health and we want folks to know.

Here's the process for a CUPA Manager to upload your logo and photos to the CUPA website:
1.Login to the CUPA website
2.Click on Members/Manager Dashboard - https://calcupa.org/manager-dashboard/index.html
3.To add your Logo and Photos, click on the Dropbox icon and click the to add your logo (select Logo folder) and 2 department photos (select the Photos folder). The file type will probably be jpg, but it might be png or gif. Name them with your County Name-logo or photo so they are easy to find in the next step. Its best if the image size is around 265x265 pixels so that it will size correctly on the page. For the Description of the image, put County Name and CUPA Profile. Leave Keywords blank. Save.
4.To add your CUPA profile, click on the CUPA Profiles icon and click on the sign to add your CUPA profile. Fill out the fields data. For Description enter the placeholder To be entered by Bill Lent. Bill will be interviewing you to gather this information. Enter your department website link in the Direct URL. For Logo URL, find the file that you uploaded to the Logo Folder and select it. The same for the 2 photos you uploaded. Use a google map link to enter your office location. Click Add Profile.
5.The website will send an email to Bill Lent, Sheryl Baldwin and Tim Snellings when the profile is saved.

For questions, please contact Bill Lent at hazmatmrbill@gmail.com

A Big Thank you of grateful Appreciation to Eric Scott of Glenn County for your time and efforts in leading the California CUPA Forum Board as Chair for July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Check out our updated Award Winners that were recognized at the 2020 conference.