Thousand Oaks to Study Fire District Pullout : Safety: The City Council approves a $10,000 contract with a consultant to determine if taxpayers are getting their money’s worth from the county.

Spending thousands now in the hopes of saving millions later, the Thousand Oaks City Council on Wednesday agreed to hire a consultant to study the feasibility of withdrawing from the County Fire Department.

For a $10,000 fee, consultant Robert Braitman will evaluate just how much money city taxpayers pour into the Ventura County Fire Protection District--and will calculate the dollar value of the services they receive in return.

Councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Jaime Zukowski objected to the consultant’s contract, arguing that the price was too high and the hiring process was flawed.

“I have some concerns because it seems very unusual to isolate one consultant without taking competitive bids, and $10,000 is a considerable sum,” Zukowski said.

But Councilman Frank Schillo, who negotiated the contract with the Ventura-based consulting firm Braitman & Associates, insisted he did not have time to solicit bids from other consultants. The city must move quickly if it plans to split from the county fire district and form an independent department by the start of the next fiscal year, he said.

Braitman, the consultant hired Wednesday, has served as director of the Local Agency Formation Commission and has experience analyzing fire department budgets for the county.

“It’s going to take a Herculean effort to understand the Fire Department budget and we need information as soon as possible,” Schillo said. “Bob Braitman is most capable of doing the job.”

Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilman Alex Fiore also backed the study, which significantly advances Thousand Oaks’ long-running threat to withdraw from the county fire district.

Based on crude calculations, Schillo has estimated that Thousand Oaks may overpay by as much as $5 million a year for services from the county fire district, which covers the unincorporated territory plus every city except Ventura and Oxnard.

The study will seek to verify that figure, which county fire officials say does not match their analysis showing that Thousand Oaks residents get their fair share of services.

At a meeting last month, top county fire officials presented statistics indicating that Thousand Oaks contributes about 25% of the district’s annual budget and accounts for one-quarter of the emergency service calls.

“We’re confident they’ll find the service is adequate” for the money spent, said county Deputy Chief Bob Holaway. County fire chiefs have promised to cooperate with the consultant, who will also work closely with the city’s Finance Department.

But Zeanah argued forcefully that the city could save $10,000 by conducting a similar evaluation in-house, with staff members combing the Fire Department budget themselves.

“We just throw money away on these consulting studies left and right as if we have money to burn,” she said.

Zeanah also expressed concern that the consultant would bypass a citizens task force, which began studying the feasibility of a city-run fire department last month. Although he will report to the committee, Braitman will not involve citizens in his research.

One member of that task force, Firefighter Gary Preston, contended that the citizens group might be able to study the issue more objectively, since the committee includes people both for and against an independent department.

“I think the consultant is going to come back with something that looks attractive to Councilman Schillo and the city,” said Preston, a Thousand Oaks resident who works for the city of El Segundo. “I wish he could be objective, but I don’t feel he’s going to be.”