Fire Dept. May Finally Cash In on Prop. 172 : County: Supervisors say they will probably approve the request for $565,000 to relocate the dispatch center and set up a search-and-rescue team.

After waiting two years to receive its share of sales tax revenues earmarked for public safety, the Ventura County Fire Department may finally be getting its first check.

A majority of county supervisors said Thursday they will probably approve the department’s request next week for $565,000 that would be used to relocate its dispatch center and to establish an urban search-and-rescue team.

The approval would mark the end of the Fire Department’s two-year tug-of-war with county leaders for its share of Proposition 172 money, collected from a half-cent sales tax approved by California voters in 1993.

Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, a strong supporter of the Fire Department on the funding issue, said it should have received a share of the money sooner.

“I believe that when people supported the statewide proposition, one of the agencies they definitely had in mind was the fire district,” Lacey said, referring to the Southern California wildfires that were credited with getting the sales tax measure passed. “I think probably some voters are wondering why we have not [provided funding] before.”

Citing Fire Department management problems, the board last year passed over the department when it divided about $30 million in Proposition 172 revenues among four other public safety agencies--the sheriff, district attorney, public defender and probation services.

County Auditor-Controller Thomas Mahon later questioned whether the Fire Department, which is part of a special district and not a county agency, was legally entitled to receive any part of the sales tax money. The county counsel’s office later decided it was entitled to the funds.

Then during budget hearings in July, the supervisors rejected the department’s request for more than $1 million to help purchase new fire trucks and repair fire stations. The department decided it would use its reserve funds to buy nine new fire engines.

Earlier this month, Fire Chief James Sewell approached the supervisors again for money to move the department’s dispatch center into a larger facility at the Camarillo Airport and to train firefighters in special rescue techniques.

But a majority of the board, led by Supervisor Frank Schillo, voted to hold off on funding the projects. Schillo said he wanted to give the other four public safety agencies a shot at applying for $734,000 in un-allocated sales tax money.

Other agencies have decided to wait to apply for additional revenues, and Schillo said Thursday he now favors giving the Fire Department the Proposition 172 money.

But he is concerned that the department’s search-and-rescue team may duplicate the efforts of a similar program under the Sheriff’s Department.

“I still will be questioning the dollar amount they will be using,” he said.

Bob Roper, deputy chief of the county Fire Department, said fire officials have consulted with the Sheriff’s Department and concluded there would be little overlap of services.

Instead, Roper said the $150,000 the department plans to spend purchasing equipment and training 400 employees to better handle large disasters would complement the sheriff’s program, which deals with rescuing lost hikers and flood victims.

“We are looking to do urban search-and rescue--rescuing someone caught in a trench, in a collapsed building or in a situation when you need someone there immediately,” Roper said.

He said the Fire Department plans to spend the remaining $415,000 to purchase new equipment and move its Fire Communications Center.

Schillo, who is behind a movement to centralize all the county’s emergency dispatch services, said he was not pleased by the Fire Department’s plans to relocate its own facility.

But Roper said the department needs the new facility, noting that the number of emergency calls it handles has tripled since 1975.

Despite the supervisors’ expressed support for giving Proposition 172 money to the Fire Department, Ken Maffei, president of the firefighters’ union, said he remains skeptical.

“I am not optimistic that we are going to get it,” Maffei said. “The board has continually demonstrated since Proposition 172 passed that they weren’t going to give it to the Fire Department.”