County Lifeguards, Fire Services Merged : Budget: Action allows use of funds from Fire Protection District. But supervisors intend to keep seeking money from cities and the state for a portion of safety costs.

Moving to preserve regional control of services at area beaches, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Thursday to merge its lifeguard operations with the county Fire Department.

The action will allow the lifeguards to tap into a steady source of funds provided through the Fire Protection District, which levies tax assessments on communities served by county firefighters.

Maintenance services would remain under the jurisdiction of the county’s Department of Beaches and Harbors. Funding for these services, however, is less certain because the department is faced with budget cuts for the coming year.

Thursday’s actions were hailed by beach supporters and civic leaders, who had warned that a recommendation to disband the county lifeguard system would jeopardize public safety and harm Southern California’s multibillion-dollar tourism and recreation industry.

“It’s a giant step forward for the citizens of Los Angeles county and people who use the beaches,” said Jim Boulgarides, secretary of the Los Angeles County Lifeguards Assn.

The cash-strapped county had threatened to relinquish lifeguard and maintenance services at beaches it does not own unless the state and beach cities such as Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Hermosa Beach contributed more to beach-related services.

Lifeguard and maintenance services cost the county about $20 million annually, less than half of which is recouped through parking and concession revenues. The county had been seeking an additional $5 million from the state and cities in exchange for continuing its services.

But Supervisor Deane Dana, who drafted Thursday’s proposals, warned that it would be a mistake for the county to dissolve a regional responsibility it has worked decades to build.

“Public safety at the beaches is at jeopardy if we cannot maintain our current level of lifeguarding, as well as beach maintenance,” he said in a motion introducing the proposals. “The 60 to 70 million people a year that come to our beaches cannot and should not be subjected to unsafe conditions.”

The board’s action did little to resolve the issue of who is responsible for paying for beach services and in what share. Of the 19 beaches the county services, only areas of Malibu, Palos Verdes, Marina del Rey and the unincorporated portion of Santa Catalina Island fall within the Fire Protection District.

The board signaled its intent to continue pressing the state and beach cities to pay a portion of the costs for lifeguards at the remaining beaches and to considerably increase their contributions toward the upkeep of those beaches.

The county will try to get cities to provide a portion of their Proposition 172 public safety funds to help pay for services, among other options.

The county had already given notice to the state that it would end lifeguard and maintenance services at seven state beaches by July 1, and has sent similar notices that it will sever services April 1 at city-owned beaches in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Avalon and Hermosa Beach. The board voted Thursday to leave those notices intact while it negotiates additional funding.

Supervisor Ed Edelman, who cast the lone dissenting vote Thursday, had argued that the county should be more aggressive in securing cooperation from the state and cities and contended that in shifting lifeguard operations to the Fire Department, it lost its most effective bargaining chip.

Jeff Druyun, a legislative analyst with the city of Los Angeles, said after Thursday’s hearing that the city will consider resuming its own lifeguard operations.

“What we will do is review what the county’s costs are and how that changes by moving the lifeguards to another jurisdiction,” Druyun said. “But we would also figure what the costs are of starting up our own operation again--and determine which is least costly.”

Maintenance workers meanwhile expressed concern that their role in maintaining first-class beaches has been slighted and worried that the transfer of lifeguards to the Fire Department makes them more vulnerable to budget cuts. County maintenance crews remove more than 8 million pounds of trash annually from beaches and construct more than seven miles of sand berms during an average winter to prevent damage from high surfs and tides.

“We feel a little shortchanged,” Melvin Knowles, a 30-year beach maintenance worker, said after the hearing. “We wanted to see the lifeguards and maintenance crews stay together because we come in contact with them so much every day. I believe we might get the cities to pay up a little more, but the state can be very stubborn. If we have to depend on them for our jobs it looks a little slim.”