Cities, County Discuss Joint Fire Services : Government: Ventura and Oxnard are considering the cost-cutting step, which could lead to shared training and crews.

Fire officials from Oxnard, the city of Ventura and Ventura County have begun negotiations to merge some of their equipment, training and services to save money in the face of recession-driven budget cuts.

Officials said Thursday that consolidation could save the departments millions of dollars on items ranging from hook-and-ladder trucks to hazardous materials teams.

Although Ventura officials have been negotiating only with Oxnard, Oxnard has also been discussing merger possibilities with Ventura County fire officials.

The goal in all the negotiations is to cut costs and improve service without layoffs--slowly and carefully, Oxnard City Manager Vernon G. Hazen said.

Officials from Ventura and Oxnard met Wednesday to begin hammering out ideas for sharing services, such as combining the cities’ hook-and-ladder companies, training classes and emergency response centers.

County Fire Chief George Lund said he and Hazen then met to discuss possibilities such as merging the county and Oxnard fire departments, providing fire service to Oxnard by contract or contracting with Oxnard to serve areas such as El Rio and Port Hueneme, which are now covered by the county.

“The fiscal times are just requiring all the agencies to really get creative here and see what possibilities there are to cut costs and not drastically reduce services,” Lund said. “We are very proactive, to try to come up with as many contingencies as possible.”

“So that people don’t get all upset . . . we’re just brainstorming,” Hazen said of the sessions with Ventura’s department. “We’re involving personnel in both departments, and we just need to pursue these ideas and gather information and see which can work and which can’t.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” Ventura Fire Chief Vern Hamilton said. “What has to happen now is there has to be some analysis. . . . It is not all pie in the sky. There is going to be some downsides. We have to weigh the downside against the upside for implementation.”

In fact, Hamilton said, “there is probably more of a possibility of layoffs if we don’t consolidate.”

Next year, the Ventura Fire Department faces budget cuts of $400,000 to $700,000, Hamilton said.

Ventura County’s department plans to offer the Board of Supervisors two budget proposals, with cuts of $500,000 or $1 million, Lund said.

And Oxnard’s Fire Department, awaiting state budget cuts, has not estimated its possible budget cuts, Fire Chief Richard Smith said.

Smith said Ventura and Oxnard have discussed merging their hook-and-ladder crews--each consisting of one truck and two firefighters--into a one-truck crew with four firefighters. The truck then would be better staffed, and the city could save about $50,000 a year by eliminating the other truck, he said.

They have also discussed saving money by sharing equipment for their hazardous materials teams, Smith said.

“I think the economic realities of today dictate we explore whatever we can to cross jurisdictional boundaries,” Smith said.

The cities have also begun preliminary discussions about merging police operations, which could include setting up a common emergency dispatch center, crime lab and training classes, Hazen said.

A lot of money could be saved if such mergers work as well as the joint Ventura-Oxnard project to widen the Ventura Freeway bridge over the Santa Clara River, Hazen said.

Ventura City Manager John Baker said, “If there’s harder times coming, we may have to do things differently. There’s nothing lost by at least talking about it.”

But he said the governments should proceed cautiously.

“You don’t ram it down people’s throats, because they’ll throw up,” Baker said. “And the idea will get thrown up with them.”

Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.