Claremont OKs County Fire District Study

Claremont officials will pay a consulting firm $30,000 to determine whether residents are getting their money’s worth from the Los Angeles County Consolidated Fire Protection District.

The findings, due in November, will help city officials decide whether to remain in the county district, create their own fire department or contract with firefighters from another city for fire protection.

At issue is the response time of Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics--stationed in San Dimas, Glendora and Azusa--to medical emergencies in Claremont. The response times of the various paramedic units average more than 10 minutes and have exceeded 20 minutes.

For the past 20 months, the city has asked the Fire Department to locate a paramedic squad in Claremont. County officials have said that an increase in service would be contingent on a $79,000-a-year boost in redevelopment revenue from the city. Claremont officials maintain that the city already pays too much for the poor service it receives.

Hughes, Heiss & Associates, a Pasadena-based firm hired by the City Council last week, will spend the next four months assessing the taxes paid and services received by Claremont and six comparable cities. The county has declined to compile such information in the past. The city will pay the consultant $30,000 for the service.

“We’ll be getting information that the county (officials) claimed they couldn’t put together,” Assistant City Manager Bridget Distelrath said. “I would hope the county would look very, very carefully at this information, though whether it would influence them, I don’t know.”

Distelrath, a member of the City Council subcommittee that selected the consultant, said Hughes, Heiss & Associates had the most experience in studying fire services. The consultant did a similar study earlier this year for Santa Clarita.

“They know all the players,” Distelrath said. “They understand exactly what we’re after.”

The study is the city’s second major effort this year to find a way around the impasse with the county. In January, the city contracted with Medic-1, a San Dimas-based ambulance company to provide paramedic service.

But the Fire Department refused to certify Medic-1 as a paramedic service, as required by state law. Department officials said cities in the Consolidated Fire Protection District must receive both fire protection and paramedic service or neither. The County Board of Supervisors voted last month to support that position.