Firefighting a Hot Issue

These are hectic days for Alhambra’s firefighters. It’s not just fires they’re trying to snuff out--it’s their city Fire Department itself.

The firefighters union is leading a ballot campaign to persuade voters that the city would be safer and save money by turning the department over to Los Angeles County.

The unusual drive--complete with qualifying petitions, campaign mailers and a Dec. 16 special election--has roiled local politics and carved sharp divisions in a city that has run its own Fire Department for 91 years, nearly since incorporation.

Similar takeover measures are on the ballot this fall in three other cities: West Covina, Montebello and Lynwood. Officials in Covina and El Monte already have decided to turn their fire departments over to the Los Angeles County Fire Protection District next year. Hawthorne switched this year.

The proposals to let the county take over fire protection for cities have triggered spirited debate over cost and service, the need for local control and even the motives of the campaigning firefighters, who generally stand to earn higher wages if absorbed into the county’s fire department.

The takeover trend also may spell the decline of the hometown fire department in suburban Los Angeles County. The county provides fire protection in 52 of the county’s 88 cities, and officials say it can provide the service for what it charges the cities.

“In my view, the whole San Gabriel Valley will have fire services provided by the county fire district within five to 10 years. This is the wave of the future,” said Frank Caterinicchio, a political consultant who is managing the ballot campaigns for several fire unions.

The burst of proposals fits a broader trend among municipalities to farm out their services--from street sweeping to trash pickup--in the face of tightening budgets, said Steven B. Frates, a fellow at Claremont McKenna College’s Rose Institute of State and Local Government.

Such pressures have forced new thinking on officials who would never have dreamed of giving up a service as near and dear as the local fire department.

“Ten years ago in Covina, I would have told you it would never happen,” said City Manager Francis M. Delach, referring to his City Council’s July decision to disband the local department and hire the county. “But it’s a trend you’re seeing.”

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County fire officials said they are neutral on the issue and have only prepared merger studies when asked by the cities. “We’re not out to create the largest fire department in the world,” said John Gee, planning chief for the county department. “Tomorrow, if nobody came, that would be OK.”

Foes see an unhappy revolution in the making.

“What’s next?” fretted former West Covina Councilwoman Nancy Manners. “Today the fire department, tomorrow the police? What point is there to cities?”

The upcoming elections will in part be a gauge of residents’ attachment to their fire departments. Over the years, city fire departments, which along with their emergency services host open houses and are the highlight of town parades, have become favored emblems of civic identity and small-town America. Concern about losing that tradition fed the debate in Covina, where the council was hotly divided before its 3-2 vote.

“It’s always been one of the fixtures of the community. It’s always been something the community’s been proud of,” said Delach. “So it wasn’t an easy decision.”

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In Montebello, sponsors have opened a storefront campaign office and sprinkled the city with campaign signs. Residents will vote Nov. 4, the same day as voting in Lynwood. Balloting in West Covina will take place Dec. 9.

Covina’s switch to county protection, the terms of which are spelled out in a 10-year contract, takes effect early next year. The county’s name will be added to city fire engines, and most firefighters will join the county fire department. The county’s Covina contingent will operate out of the city’s three fire stations.

“When it comes right down to it, I don’t think there’s going to be a noticeable change to the consumer, to the citizen,” Delach said.

Covina officials expect the move to save an average of $700,000 to $800,000 annually over the next six to eight years.

Under the transfers, the county is required to hire firefighters who pass the physical examination, though they can be given lower job classifications. Firefighters are able to bid for assignments to stations throughout the county system, according to seniority. Fire chiefs too are offered slots in the county department, but may have to accept a less-exalted title, such as battalion chief or fire captain. The county takes over ownership of fire engines and other equipment and leases the local fire stations.

The promise of savings has been a common campaign refrain. Supporters argue that moving to the county saves on salary expenses because each city won’t need its own fire chief and other top managers.

Costs of equipment and buildings can be spread over the entire region, meaning more savings for the cities, backers say.

“Every city that’s ever gone with the county has saved money,” said Robert D’Ausilio, an engineer and paramedic who heads the Alhambra Firefighters Assn., which is pushing that city’s ballot measure.

Since switching in 1994, Pomona has saved about $2 million a year while improving paramedic services and getting better equipment, said City Administrator Severo Esquivel.

The five-year contract included standards on how quickly firefighters should get to emergencies, and it provided for city firefighters to be absorbed into the county fire department, Esquivel said.

“From what I’m hearing, the public and the [city] council are very satisfied with the contract,” Esquivel said.

The city pays the county $12.6 million a year for fire protection.

The transfer in Hawthorne, which plans to save about $1 million a year, has been smooth, officials report.

Opponents question whether long-term savings are possible by hiring a county agency in which firefighters and commanders enjoy higher salaries and better benefits than those in most cities. Base pay for a county firefighter ranges from $3,289 to $4,542 a month, compared to $3,240 to $3,938 for a West Covina firefighter. The monthly range for an Alhambra firefighter is $2,947 to $3,581.

Those foes worry that savings would come only by cutting back service, such as stretching firefighters to cover a broader area, closing stations and slowing response time.

“Any savings will come from reduced services,” said Richard Melendez, a member of West Covina’s City Council. “We can get a paramedic unit on the scene in 4 1/2 minutes. I would like to see anyone match that.”

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But supporters of the merger measures contend that the size of the 3,200-employee county fire department means better service through more sophisticated equipment such as helicopters and dispatch computers, and a much larger pool of backup firefighters than cities can provide.

El Monte’s planned switch to the county next year will shorten from three miles to 1 1/2 miles the greatest distance between any residence and a firehouse because the county has its own stations nearby. Councilman Tony Fellow said the consolidation will mean more paramedics--plugging what some officials saw as a weak spot in the city’s emergency services.

“If two people had a heart attack at the same time, I was told, one of them might die because we didn’t have enough paramedic coverage,” said Fellow, who joined three other council members in voting for the merger.

The ballot campaigns have produced a blizzard of figures tossed up by both sides. Voters in Alhambra will have to untangle competing ballot measures. The city responded to the firefighters’ initiative by adding two questions of its own, including a proposed change to the City Charter requiring that firefighters be city employees.

That city’s campaign has already turned nasty, with each side accusing the other of playing politics with the department. That spat flared publicly last week after city leaders sat out an awards ceremony for two firefighters.

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The proposals also have left firefighters, who generally enjoy high public approval, to fend off charges that they are really after the higher pay and benefits of the county’s fire department, where jobs are highly coveted.

“It’s about who pays the most money,” said Alhambra’s fire chief, James A. Ballard, who opposes the shift. Ballard said the wave of ballot proposals reflects an effort by the county firefighters union to expand its reach.

D’Ausilio, the Alhambra firefighter, labeled such suggestions offensive. “This is about service and cost,” he said. “There’s no pot of gold at the county end of this.”

The firefighters say local officials are resisting an otherwise good idea out of parochialism and a reluctance to give up control over multimillion-dollar fire budgets.

It is just such local control that allows cities to craft hometown programs--such as a youth mentoring program run by West Covina’s Fire Department--and that gives the municipalities a reason to exist, argue those who oppose the county mergers.

“We’re supposed to hand over our fire stations to the faceless county bureaucracy?” asked Melendez, the West Covina council member. “This is completely unnecessary--and it’s unwelcome.”

But for officials in cash-strapped cities such as El Monte, shifting to the county can feel more like liberation. For them, the anticipated savings can be a balm for the loss of a cherished local institution.

“It’s nice to want to keep El Monte small-town,” said Fellow, the City Council member. “But it’s not a small town anymore.”