Oxnard Police, Fire Merger Plan Is Scaled Back : Government: City officials will recommend consolidating some administrative duties. But the most controversial element, involving cross-training, is dropped.

Bombarded by protests over a proposal to merge police and fire services, Oxnard officials now say they will not pursue the most controversial element of a plan that would have had police officers fighting fires and firefighters fighting crime.

Police Chief Harold Hurtt is recommending that the City Council consolidate the administrative duties of the police and fire departments. In addition, he recommends that firefighters be trained to take police reports and that code enforcement and safety inspection responsibilities be merged.

The limited consolidation is expected to save the city nearly $185,000 a year. Council members are scheduled to consider the matter Tuesday.

“I think that from the reaction from the community and the employees association that full cross-training can’t be achieved for now,” Hurtt said. “But I think there are some different levels where we can still combine services and still be able to benefit the public.”

The decision to drop the cross-training component of the merger proposal is largely the result of an aggressive campaign aimed at killing the idea altogether, Hurtt said.

Since late November, firefighters have gone door-to-door and logged thousands of telephone calls aimed at whipping up opposition to the consolidation effort.

By last week, they had persuaded nearly 2,000 residents to phone City Hall and send cards and letters in opposition to the proposal. Only four phone calls, and no letters, were received in support of the idea.

Firefighters and their supporters oppose the merger of the two departments even at an administrative level.

“We have reached thousands of people and we have not found one person yet that’s in favor of it,” said Bill Gallaher, president of the firefighters association.

As initially proposed, cross-trained public safety officers would respond to all police calls, fires and medical emergencies.

Most fire stations would have been staffed with a single, cross-trained officer who would drive equipment to a fire or emergency scene and be met by other officers in patrol cars.

The proposal sprang from a City Council decision in June to consolidate police and fire services into a single public safety department. That move was part of an overall city reorganization aimed at saving $584,000 a year by eliminating city departments.

Hurtt visited Kalamazoo, Mich., and Sunnyvale, Calif., to study how those cities have successfully merged police and fire services.

He told 13 police recruits, due to join the Oxnard Police Department later this year, that they could possibly be required to train as firefighters when they concluded 22 weeks of training at the police academy.

And he drew up a chart that showed about 50 firefighters and nearly 80 police officers cross-trained by the year 2000.

“This is a dynamic process and it changes day to day,” Hurtt said. “The bottom line is we are not going to do anything to jeopardize the lives of our residents or our employees.”

Supporters of the proposal argue that the merger could save the city up to $250,000 a year, put more officers on the street and improve the efficiency of police and fire operations.

But opponents counter that the merger would probably not save money and that it would end up jeopardizing public safety by throwing ill-prepared officers into situations for which they were not properly trained.

To drive home the point, members of the Oxnard City Fire Fighters Assn. have participated in a campaign to generate support for their position.

They hired a San Diego firm to telephone residents and urge them to write or phone city leaders. They produced an information packet, two inches thick, and handed it out to council members. They produced and mailed out slick brochures urging residents to oppose the merger.

“There is nothing in this world more important to me than the personal safety of the people I love--my wife, my daughter and others,” read a letter bearing Gallaher’s signature. “We must let the City Council members know that the people of Oxnard believe their safety is not something to gamble with. That’s where we need your help.”

Gallaher and others say they oppose the merger at any level, noting a failed attempt in 1986 to consolidate the administrative duties of the two departments into a single Public Safety Department.

That department was disbanded two years later, following complaints from police officers and firefighters that service levels were being compromised.

“We tried that before,” said Mayor Manuel Lopez, the only councilman on record opposing the merger. “It didn’t work then, and I don’t know why it would work now.”

While saying they would never do anything to jeopardize police and fire services, other council members say they want an opportunity to learn more about the merger proposal before making a decision. But regardless, some say they are not inclined to embark on a full cross-training program of existing police officers and firefighters.

“We are not looking to make police officers out of firefighters or firefighters out of police officers,” Councilman Andres Herrera said. “We have no intention whatsoever of reducing the level of either fire or police services.”

Added Councilman Tom Holden: “We have not given direction to staff to do anything but bring us alternatives to providing public safety. We haven’t been given any plan or procedure that should warrant any concern at this point.”