City Considers Separate Fire Department : Thousand Oaks: A councilman contends withdrawal from the county district could save up to $6 million annually.

The Thousand Oaks City Council, taking a first step toward possible secession from the county fire district, unanimously agreed Wednesday to evaluate the feasibility of an independent city fire department.

Councilman Frank Schillo, who has been pushing for a city-run fire service for five years, argued that Thousand Oaks could save up to $6 million annually by withdrawing from the county district.

In a dramatic presentation to the council, Schillo demonstrated that Thousand Oaks contributes 30% of the district’s overall budget, but accounts for only 16% of the firefighters’ emergency response calls.

Ventura County Fire Chief George Lund disputed those figures, estimating that almost a third of emergency responses are in Thousand Oaks. Also, the district’s crews spend much of their time on other services, including building inspections and public education, which are not broken down into per-city expenditures, he said.

But regardless of the actual percentages, Lund conceded that “obviously there’s more money coming in (from the city) than Thousand Oaks is using.”

Schillo estimated that Thousand Oaks taxpayers poured $14 million into the fire district’s coffers in 1991. In contrast, the annual budgets for the independent departments in Oxnard and Ventura each run about $7.5 million.

If Thousand Oaks could recoup the millions its citizens now send to the county for fire services, the city would easily have enough cash to establish its own fire department--and could have millions left over to pass back to taxpayers, Schillo said.

Jolted by those figures, the council voted 5 to 0 to establish a committee of citizens, public officials and fire district staff to study the possibility of splitting from the county system.

“The numbers Councilman Schillo brought forward are certainly eye-catching,” Mayor Judy Lazar said.

Thousand Oaks leaders, tired of subsidizing other communities, engineered the city’s break from the county library system in the late 1970s. Today, they point to their much-envied library as proof that the city can run services better and more efficiently than the county.

The fire department might be another example, they said Wednesday.

“We certainly ought to be able to run a fire department at the same cost as Oxnard,” Councilman Alex Fiore said.

For now, the ad-hoc committee will handle the fire department feasibility study, but later, the council may decide to bring in a consultant--at a cost of about $40,000, City Manager Grant Brimhall said.

Although Thousand Oaks officials have grumbled for years about forming an independent fire department, the county’s fire district is taking seriously the most recent threat of secession.

Top fire district officials sat through a seven-hour council meeting Tuesday to hear Schillo’s presentation, which started well after midnight. On Wednesday, they repeated their intention to work with Thousand Oaks and the ad-hoc committee--but made clear that they opposed secession.

“From our standpoint, if cities withdraw from the fire district, the county as a whole loses,” Assistant Chief Bob Roper said.

The unincorporated communities surrounding Thousand Oaks would be especially vulnerable, he said, because independent city firefighters would not automatically assist the district in battling blazes. Instead, they would respond only if called--and paid--to provide mutual aid.

The loss of $14 million in property-tax revenue would also be a major blow to the financially strapped district. But Fire Capt. Larry Brister said he understood that City Council members were just “doing their jobs, looking out for their peoples’ money and trying to get the best bang for the buck.”

And even though they voted unanimously for the secession feasibility study, council members insisted they are not set on establishing an independent fire department.

“I hope we don’t come out isolationist in our thinking,” Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said. “Sometimes things are handled better on a broader scale.”

Times staff writer Mack Reed contributed to this story.