County Charging Cities for Beach Costs : Budgets: The Department of Beaches and Harbors wants more money from beach cities in return for lifeguard and maintenance services. Some cities are balking.

In a move that has stirred anger and shock in local city halls, Los Angeles County officials have begun relieving their budget woes by demanding bigger contributions from coastal cities for lifeguard service and beach maintenance.

The county Department of Beaches and Harbors has previously sought to recoup some of its costs for watching over and cleaning up the 31 miles of public beaches from San Pedro to the Ventura County line.

But in the latest round of contract negotiations with local cities--as the department braces for a $2.8-million budget shortfall next fiscal year--county officials are upping the ante by requiring cities that have never paid directly for the beach services to share in their cost.

Already, the county’s new stance has prompted Palos Verdes Estates to end its lifeguard service along its tiny stretch of beach at Malaga Cove, although lifeguards say they will still respond to emergencies there. The new crackdown on costs has also forced financially strapped Rancho Palos Verdes to drastically cut lifeguard service at Abalone Cove.

At the same time, tough negotiations are under way both in Torrance, which currently has no contract and has so far refused to pay anything to the county, and in Hermosa Beach, where the county has historically covered all the costs for lifeguard and cleanup services. And next year, county officials will renegotiate contracts with officials in Redondo Beach, Santa Monica and the city of Avalon on Catalina Island.

County officials said their requests are not coming out of the blue. The county has been gradually requiring cities to contribute more for beach operations over the years, said Penny Van Bogaert, director of management services for county beaches.

During the last round of negotiations in 1987, for instance, Hermosa Beach agreed to a mutual indemnity agreement that relieved the county for liability for many beach accidents. Such limited liability has become standard language for beaches along the coast. The city also agreed to take over maintenance of the city pier, maintain the seaside boardwalk known as The Strand and take responsibility for any major repairs required at city bathrooms.

Complicating the current talks is the patchwork of boundaries, deeds and titles that divide up the sand.

Hermosa Beach was deeded its beach by the Hermosa Beach Land & Water Co. in 1901. It and Los Angeles-owned Venice Beach are the only beaches in the county completely owned by a municipality. Manhattan Beach’s shoreline is state owned, and beach maintenance at El Segundo is paid for by Chevron USA, which operates an adjacent refinery. Others, such as Torrance Beach and Redondo Beach, are jointly owned by the state, city and private property owners.

The county department does recover some costs through existing contracts with the state, seven beach cities and Chevron. But county officials said a budget crunch has forced the department to seek a first-time contract covering the city-owned portion of Torrance Beach and more remunerative deals with other cities.

Amid the negotiations over dollar and cents, officials of the county and local cities are also debating the core question of who should be responsible for maintaining beaches, which everyone agrees are both a blessing and curse. On one hand, beaches provide prestige and high property values to local municipalities. At the same time, however, they also create headaches by increasing police costs and tying up traffic, particularly during the summer when a crush of tourists and locals head for the sea.

“The county has always been aware that the beach, although it’s in Hermosa Beach, is used by the whole county and state of California,” said Quentin Thelen, a former Hermosa Beach councilman who owns the beachfront Mermaid Restaurant.

“Hermosa Beach shouldn’t have to clean up for and save all those people. We can’t afford to maintain that beach,” Thelen said. “The money isn’t there.”

But county officials say cities cannot legally claim the beaches and then refuse to pay the costs associated with them.

“The cities all say the beaches are strictly regional,” said Van Bogaert, one of the county’s negotiators. “They act as though their residents don’t step foot on them.”

In contrast, she said, state officials have maintained during negotiations with the county that “It’s primarily the local residents that use the beaches.”

Van Bogaert said the county is taking a middle view on who is responsible for the beaches. In acknowledgment that the beaches do have a regional reach, county officials are seeking only a portion of the costs from cities.

The county’s current goal is to seek roughly 64% of its costs from the cities--matching the current agreement in Santa Monica. The 64% figure does not represent any approximation of local beach use, county officials say, but is what the department considers a reasonable split of the costs.

In Palos Verdes Estates, City Manager James Hendrickson refused to meet with county negotiators or even consider paying the county for lifeguard service in his city.

“I told them, ‘We’re not interested,’ ” Hendrickson said, “and they got on their high horse and said ‘We’ll pull our lifeguards out.’ I said, ‘Fine.’ ”

Although the county has never staffed a lifeguard tower in Palos Verdes Estates, its lifeguards watched the beach from the so-called “PV” tower across the Torrance boundary. Even though the contract has been canceled, county officials say that lifeguards will still respond to emergencies off Palos Verdes Estates’ waters.

One symbolic result of the standoff may come next week when lifeguards are to meet to consider changing the name of the “PV” tower to something that is not associated with the city of Palos Verdes Estates.

Hendrickson, former city manager in San Clemente, said he is not concerned about the increased liability the city may face because of the lifeguarding change. He said that recent state laws and court decisions have made it increasingly difficult for those injured at the beach to get city halls to pay their bills.

Meanwhile, Rancho Palos Verdes came to an agreement with the county earlier this year. The city agreed to pay for all lifeguarding costs at the standard rate of $28.83 an hour but said it could not afford the previous staffing levels. The new contract, totaling $35,288, eliminates all lifeguarding from Oct. 1 to April 30 and reduces staffing from two lifeguards to one during the summer.

Rancho Palos Verdes conducted a risk-management survey before cutting the service and found that the vast majority of rescues were made during the summer, said Mary Thomas, the city’s director of recreation and parks.

Capt. Gary Crum, who heads the lifeguard force from Marina del Rey to San Pedro, said he would be concerned about beach-goers’ safety if negotiations fail and lifeguard staffing is reduced anywhere in the county.

“Anything below the current level would be like playing Russian roulette,” Crum said.

In Hermosa Beach, negotiations began earlier this year when the county sent the city a letter saying its beach contract was expiring on June 30, 1992. Earlier this week, the City Council decided to set up a subcommittee of two council members to negotiate with the county.

City officials said they were surprised that the county sought to charge the city a portion of the estimated $1.1 million spent annually for lifeguards and beach cleanup. Such a request could not come at a tougher time economically for Hermosa Beach, said Acting City Manager Steve Wisniewski.

Mary Rooney, Hermosa Beach’s community services director, said the city was concerned about the county’s goal of recouping roughly 64% of its costs from the cities. Such an arrangement may make sense in Santa Monica, which contributes a quarter of its parking and concessions revenue to the county to meet the 64% figure, she said, but Hermosa Beach has no parking lot revenues to give to the county.

County officials respond that they are not seeking to balance their budget on the backs of local cities but are trying to equitably distribute costs for maintaining the beaches.

“We try to effect a reasonable level of cost-sharing,” said Stan Wisniewski, deputy director of the county beaches department. “Our final and ultimate effort is staying there and providing service. . . . We’re not asking for 100% cost recovery.”

In Torrance, City Manager LeRoy J. Jackson has refused to negotiate with county beach officials unless they agree to include in the talks city spending for police and paramedic services at the South Bay Municipal Court.

The county’s total cost for operating Torrance Beach Park this fiscal year is about $744,000. Of that, about $279,000 is devoted to the southern portion of the beach controlled by the city. The county is seeking to recover 64% of the costs, even if the city contributions are phased in over five years.

The county’s proposal will go to the City Council in the coming weeks, Jackson said, but he could not guarantee that Torrance was willing to begin making contributions to the county.

“If there is no requirement that the city must pay them,” Jackson said, “we will in all likelihood not pay.”

Guarding the South Bay’s Beaches Facing a budget crunch, Los Angeles County is demanding that coastal cities pay a bigger share of the cost of lifeguard services on city-owned beaches. Some cities say they can’t afford to pay any more, and Palos Verdes Estates has already suspended lifeguard service along its tiny stretch of beach. Here’s how much it costs annually to guard beaches in eight coastal cities. El Segundo

at Chevron USA: $24,000

Manhattan Beach: $862,000

Hermosa Beach: $550,000

Redondo Beach: $711,000

Torrance: $384,000

Palos Verdes Estates

(Malaga Cove): $14,000

Rancho Palos Verdes

(Abalone Cove): $101,000

Avalon: $393,000

Source: Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors. Figures are for fiscal 1989-90 and include only lifeguard salaries and benefits.