Fire Contract Offer for Westminster Reprieved : Services: County authority restores its proposal after city agrees to cover any liability from civil rights case.

Meeting in a special session Sunday, the Orange County Fire Authority Board of Directors voted to reinstate a contract proposal to provide fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Westminster for $5.9 million a year.

But the proposal, which had been withdrawn a week ago, was amended to protect the authority “from any current or future litigation,” said authority Capt. Dan Young.

Westminster Mayor Charles V. Smith said the new offer “is great news for the city, and for city employees too. This takes a lot of pressure off of us for a while.”

Smith said he hoped an agreement could be reached as soon as Friday.

The Fire Authority pulled its contract proposal July 9, after a federal judge blocked the city from accepting it until a civil rights case brought by four former firefighters could be heard. A hearing on the federal complaint is scheduled for Tuesday.

Smith said the Fire Authority’s directors voted 9 to 3 to reinstate the proposal. But before they did, Smith said, the city gave them assurances that Westminster would pay the authority’s legal fees and any judgments against it if the agency is made a defendant in the civil rights case.

Smith acknowledged that the measures were extraordinary but said, “we figure it’s cheaper to do that than to let this drag out and cost the city even more money.”

Westminster officials had planned to save about $1.8 million a year by contracting with the Fire Authority instead of providing fire protection themselves. Without the new contract, the city would operate at a $130,000-a-month deficit and would have to lay off nearly 30 city workers or contract with a private firefighting outfit, officials have said.

At a special City Council meeting today, officials are likely to declare a negotiating impasse between the city and its Fire Department.

“Once that is done,” Smith said, “then the city can go ahead and ratify the Fire Authority’s contract. If we ratify that by [today] we can conceivably sign the new contract by Friday.”

About 30 city employees last week received notices of possible layoffs, a temporary, last-ditch effort to save money if the city was forced to retain its own Fire Department for more than four months, a city official said.

Young said a majority of Westminster firefighters who testified Sunday support having the Fire Authority provide fire services for the city. All city firefighters are expected to be hired by the Fire Authority.

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Paez issued a temporary restraining order last month prohibiting Westminster from signing a contract with the Fire Authority pending the outcome of the civil rights lawsuit, which accused the city of illegally firing four firefighters last year.

The city has denied the claims.

At least 33 Westminster firefighters had asked the federal judge to lift the restraining order and allow the city to retain services from the Fire Authority, Smith said.