Crisis Blunts Criticism of Fire Chief

Just a few weeks ago, Ventura County Fire Chief George Lund was at the center of a political firestorm.

While a county audit criticized the department for wasting money on too many fire engines, a Thousand Oaks leader touted a plan to cut ties with the county by forming an independent city fire district.

But as fires ravaged Ventura County on Wednesday, the political winds appeared to be shifting in Lund’s favor.

While Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo said he still believes the city should form its own fire department, two of his colleagues said the city would be remiss to cut ties with the county in light of the devastating blazes.

“This disaster just points out once more that we need to work as a region,” Thousand Oaks Mayor Elois Zeanah said.

Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski added, “The County Fire Department has served us very well.”

One county supervisor, meanwhile, said perhaps the Fire Department needs more engines, not less.

“This is a good opportunity to evaluate our equipment,” Supervisor Vicky Howard said.

County fire union members responded by saying, “We told you so.”

“We warned them about this,” said Ken Maffei, president of the Ventura County Professional Firefighters’ Assn. “The ones who have been the greatest critics over the past six months are going to have some second thoughts about the things they have said.”

Lund said he hopes the blazes illustrate to the county and the state that cutting his department’s budget could have grave ramifications.

“This will serve as a reminder that this type of thing happens to us frequently enough that we need to have staffing levels as good as we can,” Lund said. “This incident is beyond anyone’s fiscal ability to deal with. Our resources were overextended before we ever started asking for help.”

In July, the 450-employee department was forced to slice spending by about $4 million after supervisors declined to increase its budget from $43 million to nearly $46 million.

That move forced Lund to lay off 29 civilian workers--including a hand crew that helped fight brush fires--and close the Ventura Avenue station near Ventura.

But the cuts could have been much worse. Earlier in the year, state legislators considered a proposal to cut funding to county fire departments by about 40%--which would have meant a $20-million reduction for Ventura County.

To offset the proposed cut, officials recommended charging property owners who receive county fire services an average of $110 per year for services. The district includes more than 400,000 people in the cities of Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo, Ojai, Port Hueneme and the unincorporated areas of the county.

However, Lund’s tax request was greeted with a barrage of protests from residents. County officials said nearly 41,000 property owners filed forms saying they opposed the fire fee. Only 3,800 said they would be in favor of paying the fee.

Along with the protests came requests for the county supervisors to scrutinize the way the Fire Department spends its money. As a result, the board asked county Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon in July to audit the Fire Department.

The audit, which was released last month, concluded that the department was spending too much money on overtime, was lax with sick leave and was top-heavy with managers.

The audit also found that although 64% of the department’s calls were for medical emergencies, all the equipment maintained by the department was primarily designed for fire-related incidents.

Mahon recommended that the county consider replacing some of its 46 firetrucks with smaller vehicles.

However, on Wednesday almost all the county’s trucks were in use to fight the fires, Lund said.

“We just have to remind them that this is our primary mission,” Lund said. “No matter how many medical calls we respond to, this is the reason why we are here. We will commit more resources to fighting these fires than all the money we spent last year on medical calls.”

Mahon also suggested that the department consider scaling back some of its smaller stations in the remote areas, such as at Lake Sherwood and near Malibu. Ironically, the Lake Sherwood station was a key in keeping the Thousand Oaks brush fire from destroying homes in Hidden Valley.

“I think there were some good observations in the audit,” said Jere Robings, the president of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers. “But we have seen that we need to maintain the staffing at some of these remote fire stations.”

Maffei added, “If Mr. Mahon doesn’t sit up and take notice, he is very foolish.”

But Mahon said he stood by his report.

“I see nothing whatsoever in this fire that would cause us to change our positions,” he said.

Supervisors Howard and Maggie Kildee said the board will take into consideration the events of this week when deciding how to make the County Fire Department more efficient.

“I always keep an open mind,” Howard said.

Kildee said: “I think we will be looking at how to make the Fire Department the most effective it can be, given the resources that we have.”

Thousand Oaks Councilman Schillo, meanwhile, said the fires have not swayed his resolve in pushing for an independent city fire department. At Schillo’s urging, the council voted unanimously in May to evaluate the feasibility of withdrawing from the county district.

Schillo said he believes the move could save the city up to $6 million annually.

“Even if we had our own fire department here, we would be asking for mutual aid from Ventura County and Los Angeles County,” he said. “We would have the same professionals involved.”

But Mayor Zeanah said she was skeptical of Schillo’s plan.

“We have to pool our resources to maintain that very expensive equipment to fight raging fires that spread from one jurisdiction to another,” Zeanah said. “The county firefighters have just done an outstanding job.”