O.C. Ballot Riles Fire Union

Orange County supervisors Tuesday put four measures on the Nov. 8 ballot, letting voters decide whether firefighters will receive more of the county’s public safety money.

Orange County Fire Authority union officials, who sponsored one initiative, criticized the move to add three similar measures to the ballot, all written by Board Chairman Bill Campbell.

“This is a smokescreen,” said Joe Kerr, president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn. “Campbell knows it, and the voters know it, and they’re very smart people. They will see through this.”

Campbell said he proposed the three new measures to give voters “an option, to give them a choice.”

“Leaving only one measure on the ballot, the firefighters’, was a bad choice,” said Campbell, whose colleagues unanimously approved his proposal.

At issue is how the county should divide revenue from Proposition 172, a 1993 state ballot measure that established a half-cent-on-the-dollar sales-tax increase to provide more money for public safety agencies. Orange County will receive about $264 million this fiscal year as a result of the proposition.

Firefighters qualified an initiative that will be designated Measure D. It doesn’t call for a tax increase, but would change the current formula so that half of any increase above the 2004 allotment would go to the Fire Authority. The authority’s share of the money would be capped at 10% of total Proposition 172 funds.

Under one of Campbell’s ballot measures, voters would continue giving supervisors authority to allocate the funds as they see fit. In the second, the county would set aside $10 million annually as part of a new Homeland Security initiative to buy new fire equipment, including a helicopter. The third alternative denies firefighters any allocation, and gives 5% of the county’s share to the Probation Department to monitor criminals on probation.

The board’s action signals the beginning of an expensive political battle among unions representing firefighters and sheriff’s deputies and the district attorney’s office.

Firefighters said they planned to raise at least $750,000 toward the campaign, roughly $1,000 for each firefighter.

They contend that voters supported Proposition 172 largely because the 1993 election occurred in the wake of the Laguna Beach and Malibu fires, and they believed firefighters would receive additional funds, Kerr said. But supervisors allocated 80% of Proposition 172 funds to the Sheriff’s Department and 20% to the district attorney’s office.

Sheriff Michael S. Carona said his department’s portion of the initiative has remained flat for the last four years. If the firefighters’ initiative passes, it could mean cutbacks to the Sheriff’s Department budget, Carona said.

The Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs hired former state Sen. John Lewis to run its campaign. Lewis has managed the successful campaigns of Campbell and Supervisor Chris Norby, in addition to city council races.