Fire Authority’s PR Plan Is Criticized

A proposal by the Orange County Fire Authority to spend $350,000 for public relations work is being criticized as unnecessary self-promotion by an official of the firefighters’ association and a state assemblyman.

“The fire authority already has sent out cards to people who have used emergency services, and we have a 97% approval rating,” said International Assn. of Firefighters President Joe Kerr. “Why do they want to spend more money now when it can be used for other things, like our drowning prevention program?”

Assemblyman Ken Maddox (R-Garden Grove), who has pushed legislation to streamline the agency’s power structure and redistribute the annual budget among the 22 cities served by the agency, questioned the authority’s fiscal responsibility for such a large tab on promotion.

Maddox’s bill has been amended to deal only with funding and will not be reintroduced on the Assembly floor until January.

The authority is expected to vote on the $350,000 contract with the public relations firm Waters & Faubel at its meeting tonight. The Lake Forest firm also represents the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of south Orange County cities opposed to the proposed El Toro Airport.

Hiring a firm “instrumental in fighting the county’s efforts” to create an airport is a concern to Maddox, the assemblyman wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to authority Chairman Shawn Boyd.

Stanton, a city in Maddox’s district, is struggling financially, he noted. “If the OCFA is awash in so much money that an expensive public relations campaign seems reasonable, then perhaps the amount charged to cities like Stanton is too high. . . . I expect they would not mind a reduction in their service rates.”

Boyd defended the board’s plan for public relations, saying it would promote a greater understanding of the authority and its work.

The card survey reached a portion of the 100,000 emergency calls the authority handles each year, Boyd said. The authority serves more than 1.2 million residents.

Union president Kerr hinted that Waters & Faubel’s selection was political payback, or thanks for its work against the airport by some anti-airport City Council members on the fire authority board--a charge denied by the authority’s spokesman, Battalion Chief Scott Brown, and Boyd, a pro-airport Seal Beach City Council member.

The authority received eight applications from public relations firms for the contract, and four were interviewed before a committee that included two pro-airport council members and one from an anti-airport city, Boyd said.

“I can’t say I have no problem with this,” Boyd said. “But the deck was stacked squarely against the anti-airport people and the result is that Waters & Faubel still was selected.”

The contract calls for the firm to develop and implement a public information and community outreach program, Roger Faubel said. “They have designated $120,000, or $10,000 a month, for brochures, public service announcements, some video work and have it translated into foreign languages.”

Faubel rejected the accusation that their firm was selected for reasons other than its qualifications.