WESTMINSTER : Pact With County Fire Authority Blocked Until Suit Heard

City officials said Friday that a court order preventing them from transferring fire services to the Orange County Fire Authority will cost the city an estimated $130,000 a month and throw the city’s budget into disarray.

The city was to disband its Fire Department today, but a federal judge blocked the city Thursday from signing a contract with the Fire Authority until a lawsuit by former Westminster fire officials can be heard.

In approving the 1995-96 budget this week, City Council members had counted on saving about $1.8 million annually by entering into a $5.9-million annual contract with the Fire Authority.

“We’re facing an immense problem with this budget situation,” City Manager Bill Smith said. “We’ll have to look at shifting money around . . . and that could include layoffs.”

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Paez issued a temporary restraining order against the city Thursday, which will stay in effect until the outcome of a civil rights lawsuit against the city. A hearing is set for July 18.

Four former firefighters have filed suit against the city for firing them last year amid allegations of payroll fraud uncovered in an audit by the KPMG Peat Marwick accounting firm.

The firefighters, who were also top officials in the Westminster Firefighters Assn., have denied wrongdoing, saying the city discriminated against them and tried the weaken the union by firing its leaders.

City officials have denied the allegations.

“There was no conspiracy, and the employees were terminated lawfully,” Smith said.

The former firefighters, who include union president Paul Gilbrook and director and spokesman Michael Garrison, are asking to be reinstated to jobs with the Fire Authority once the agreement with the city is signed, said their attorney, Alan C. Davis.

Under the proposed Fire Authority contract, Westminster’s 74 firefighters are to be hired by the authority, though the fire chief and three assistant chiefs are expected to be demoted. The allegations that the former firefighters collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in an overtime-pay scheme have proven “terribly damaging” to their reputations and careers, Davis said. Only one ex-employee, former acting Fire Chief Don Herr, has found work, as an entry-level firefighter in Redondo Beach, Davis said.