HUNTINGTON BEACH : Fire Dept., Lifeguards Argue Against Cuts

Firefighters and lifeguards pleaded with the City Council on Tuesday not to make budget cuts that pose a threat to public safety.

The Fire Department and Marine Safety Division are scheduled to take the hardest hits as the city tries to adopt a $94.2-million general-fund budget for 1994-95. The proposed budget, expected to be adopted later this month, is about $2.5 million less than the current budget.

Mayor Linda Moulton Patterson told city administrators to examine ways to minimize cutbacks in public safety services.

Fire Capt. Frank Craig, a Huntington Beach resident, said a proposed $400,000 cut in the Fire Department’s budget means a reduced level of service.

The proposed budget for the department is $15.65 million.

“If cuts to the Fire Department must be made, let’s make them in other places, other than from the people who deliver emergency services to the front doors of the residents,” Craig said.

Officials are proposing to cut six firefighter positions and a non-safety storekeeper position, all currently vacant. A proposed department reorganization plan would eliminate paramedic vans and replace them with paramedic fire engines. Three firefighter positions would be added, and by Oct. 1, 1995, each of the city’s fire stations would be equipped with paramedic service.

Marine Safety Officer Steve Reuter, president of the Marine Safety Officers’ Assn., which represents full-time, year-round lifeguards, said his department faces about $200,000 in reductions.

“We’re getting hurt real bad,” Reuter said.

The reductions include cutting about $33,000 for lifeguards who work part-time, mostly during summer. The result would be four lifeguard towers not being staffed, Reuter said.

Training and recertification of seasonal and full-time lifeguards is also scheduled for elimination.

The proposed cuts, Reuter said, “put the public at risk. . . . The bottom line is public safety is being sacrificed.”

Beach maintenance is also slated for reductions. Beaches would be cleaned less frequently, and broken fire rings would not be replaced.

A second public hearing on the budget is scheduled Sept. 19. The council could adopt a new budget then, but it has until Sept. 30.