The Forgotten First Responder

Open water lifeguards are sometimes called the forgotten first responders. Not because the work is unseen, but because the recognition of that work has not kept pace with the reality of what we do every shift. We perform duties identical to those of every other recognized emergency response classification in California, and we have still not been named as first responders in California statute. We carry the duty without the recognition, and without the statutory protections, benefits, and emergency planning inclusion that designation provides.

This is not a request to create a new category of worker. It is not a request to write new law. It is a request that California name what the work already is. On April 8, 2026, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature adopted Senate Resolution 54 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 56, recognizing open water lifeguards as first responders, with zero dissenting committee votes. California now has the opportunity to do the same.

We are respectfully urging the Legislature to consider a concurrent resolution formally recognizing California's open water lifeguards as first responders and emergency response providers. This is the first step. It does not change labor law. It does not create new benefits overnight. What it does do is lay the foundation for every future piece of work that follows. Statutory protections, training differentials, emergency planning inclusion, line of duty benefits, and the long list of things lifeguards are currently excluded from all begin with this acknowledgement. You cannot build the second floor of a house until the first one is standing. This is the first floor.

A concurrent resolution is not a bill. It does not create new law. It is a formal expression of the position of both chambers of the Legislature on a matter of public importance. It carries the full institutional weight of the Senate and the Assembly together, but it does not amend the code.

For lifeguards, this is the right tool. We are not asking California to invent a new category of worker. We are asking the Legislature to acknowledge what the work already is, what federal law already defines, and what every operational reality on a California beach already demonstrates. A resolution does exactly that.

Resolutions move faster than bills and face fewer procedural choke points. They are designed for moments when the Legislature wants to speak on the record without changing the code. They are also a frequent on ramp to subsequent statutory change. Once both chambers have gone on the record, the statutory amendments become much easier to introduce.

Why this matters as a first step. The resolution itself is foundational. It is the piece of paper that every future ask is built on. Training differentials, line of duty benefits, inclusion in Cal OES emergency planning, eligibility under the federal Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act, statutory updates to Government Code § 8562: every one of those conversations is easier when both chambers have already acknowledged, on the record, that California's open water lifeguards are first responders. This is the door that needs to open before anything else can walk through it.

Both chambers must adopt the resolution for it to be a concurrent resolution. A single chamber adoption (a Senate Resolution or Assembly Resolution alone) is also possible, but a concurrent resolution carries materially more weight in any subsequent legislative or administrative argument.

Once adopted, a concurrent resolution becomes part of the permanent legislative record and is routinely cited in subsequent bills, in administrative rulemaking, and in budget and bargaining unit negotiations.