Firefighters, Deputies May Square Off

Orange County’s largest firefighters union vowed Thursday to promote a ballot initiative that might trigger a political showdown with sheriff’s deputies over the sharing of public safety funds.

At issue is the division of revenue in Orange County generated by Proposition 172, a half-cent sales tax increase approved statewide in 1994 to raise money for law enforcement, criminal justice and firefighting agencies.

County firefighters have complained that the Board of Supervisors has allocated 80% of the money to the Sheriff’s Department and 20% to the district attorney’s office, leaving firefighting agencies out of the equation.

The Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn. recently suggested that any increase in sales tax revenue should be shared with firefighters without touching the money that the sheriff and district attorney already receive.

On Thursday, the president of the firefighters union said the proposal had been rejected by the other agencies.

Joseph Kerr said his group now intends to put an initiative on the November ballot that would give the Fire Authority some of the more than $200 million the county receives each year from the public safety sales tax.

County officials said they can’t afford to give sales tax money to the Fire Authority, which already is funded by property tax revenue and has contracts with 22 cities it represents.

If the county gives any of the money to firefighters, officials say, it will have to cut back on funding to the sheriff or other county agencies already jeopardized because of the state’s fiscal crisis.

The initiative would pit sheriff’s deputies against firefighters for increasingly scarce revenue, an unlikely battle between traditional allies.

“Tradition ends when somebody is trying to pick your pocket,” said Robert MacLeod, general manager of the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.

The deputies union is concerned because the county might lose $62 million under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to shift $1.3 billion in property tax revenue from local government to the state.

“Hopefully, the public is not going to want to take money from an already cash-strapped public protection agency and hand it to an already well-funded fire protection,” MacLeod said.

The firefighters will probably vote to force the county to give them 50% of any increase in sales tax revenue, Kerr said.

He said he expects the deputies union to campaign against the measure, setting up a potential political battle.

“This is one issue where we’ve agreed to disagree,” Kerr said. “If they choose to come out against us, that’s entirely their call. We tried to make this as acceptable and reasonable and fair as we could. Since we never received one dollar from [the sales tax increase], it’s our backs that are against the wall.”

County Supervisor Bill Campbell said he was distressed to learn about the firefighters’ plan -- and the pending showdown with the deputies union.

“This is tragic as far as I’m concerned,” Campbell said. “They are two very fine public safety agencies that unfortunately could get into an initiative fight.... I hope it doesn’t get to that, but I’m afraid it will.”

Kerr said he is confident the union will be able to obtain the 67,000 signatures he said would be needed to get the initiative on the ballot.

He said the union would submit paperwork with the county Registrar of Voters to begin the petition effort.

“My organization is going to fund the campaign. We have a very, very good chance of getting this on the ballot in November,” Kerr said.