County Fire Chief Assails 2 Panelists for ‘Cheap Shots’

Los Angeles County’s fire chief took sharp exception Monday to two fire commissioners who criticized the Fire Department’s management, characterizing their charges as “half-truths, rumor, innuendo and cheap shots.”

Chief John W. Englund suggested that Fire Commission Chairman Fred Kline and Commissioner John T. Stevens want to turn the seven-member county Fire Commission into a policy-making body that controls the department. The panel’s role is now strictly advisory.

Informed of Englund’s statement, Kline said, “I’m not interested in running a policy commission.”

In a report to the Board of Supervisors, the chief wrote that he finds “extremely offensive” a Kline-Stevens call for replacement of the present Fire Department management team with “professionally trained managers.”

“To suggest that the entire management team be replaced is an ill-founded attempt to discredit a group of some of the nation’s finest fire service managers,” Englund said.

Replying to a letter from Kline and Stevens to the supervisors, Englund described as a “cheap attempt to discredit” him a Kline-Stevens claim that a special car is assigned to Station 58, near his home, to drive his wife “back and forth to meetings and functions.”

The car in question is a reserve sedan used for Fire Department business, he said.

His wife has been driven in the car to his office or to a function when he believed that her attendance was important and his activity schedule did not permit him to drive her himself, Englund said.

Another charge alleged that “financial mismanagement” is becoming “very apparent” in the department, with money moved back and forth in accounts to cover operating expenses. They called for an independent fiscal audit.

“I strongly disagree with their comments,” said Englund, noting that the two fire commissioners did not provide specifics. “To me, it is obvious that (they) . . . have a total lack of knowledge or understanding of the budget and fiscal matters or processes or this department and the county.”

Independent Audit

Englund said he finds an independent audit “acceptable” if it is based on a concern by the county chief administrative office, auditor-controller and Board of Supervisors to validate the system.

He denied another charge that the Fire Department officials have made an “obvious attempt” to bypass the Fire Commission by changing meeting dates and times and sending documents late.

According to Englund, the opposite is true, and the Fire Department “has gone out of its way” to keep commissioners informed, even though that is not required because the Fire Commission is only advisory.

Englund noted that some commissioners, including Kline, had indicated their intentions to turn the Fire Commission into a regulating body.

“This desire on the part of some commissioners to enhance their role may have been one of the reasons behind the letter being sent,” he said.

“It is also my opinion that this letter is made up of half-truths, rumor, innuendo and cheap shots,” the chief said.

Englund termed as “totally inaccurate” the charge that there is “obvious overstaffing” of uniformed people at Fire Department headquarters, while a number of fire stations are “being worked short.” He said a 1985 management audit supports his opinion that the department’s administrative functions are understaffed.