P.V. Estates May Scrap Fire Department, Contract With County

The tiny Palos Verdes Estates Fire Department, which for 30 years has protected its five-square-mile hamlet at the tip of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, may shut down before year’s end if a plan to turn firefighting duties over to the county is approved by the City Council.

City officials have expressed interest in the proposal, which according to the county could save the city about $200,000 a year, mostly by reducing the existing 20-person department to about 15.

The proposal, which could be acted upon by the City Council in September, is also widely supported by the city’s firefighters, who would be given jobs throughout the Los Angeles County system.

Proponents say that because there are five county fire stations within about a five-mile radius of the city, the county can provide far more manpower than the city during emergencies, and can provide better response time to some neighborhoods.

“This is definitely a plus for the city,� said Barbara Fondrick, a spokeswoman for the Forester and Fire Warden, the county’s fire department.

“Our fire stations surround the city and we can provide them with resources and manpower almost instantly.�

Under the proposal, the existing city fire station on Palos Verdes Drive West would be manned by about 15 firefighters. The city would lease its station to the county for $1 a year.

In addition, two nearby county fire stations--one in Rolling Hills and one in Rancho Palos Verdes--would begin to regularly serve Palos Verdes Estates while other nearby county stations would be available for emergencies.

Only a few city firefighters would be retained in the city to help county firefighters learn the area, county officials said. The rest of the city’s firefighters would move to other county fire stations.

“The guys are 100% for it and feel very strongly about going (to the county),� said Paul Tippin, an engineer-paramedic who has been with the department more than five years. “They are on pins and needles waiting for a decision. Some of them are ready to burst.�

Palos Verdes Estates Deputy Fire Chief Monty Cookus said morale in the department has been low in recent years, resulting in a high turnover rate among younger firefighters.

“Firefighters these days are looking for a career, but in a small town like this it’s hard to get a promotion,� Cookus said. “They don’t change chiefs here too often, and a lot of guys realize the county will give them opportunities.�

The City Council is expected to set a date for a public hearing on the matter in a few weeks, according to William Fawell, assistant city manager.

However, Fawell said, “we don’t feel we have a gun to our head to decide quickly, and we want to give the public plenty of opportunity to take a look at this matter.

“If everything went smoothly, though, the county could have its system in place here before the end of the year.�

Mayor Jim Kinney said the City Council wants to ensure that there are no hidden costs or adverse effects in switching to county services.

Kinney said that while he was “very pleased� with the information supplied to the city by the county, he is awaiting a city staff report due by the end of August before he takes a stand on the issue.

Fawell agreed, noting that the county’s contract is on a year-to-year basis, “and we’re trying to get a handle to see what kind of cost increases they’ve passed on to other member cities over the years. When we get some of that information, we’ll be able to make a better choice.�

According to the county study of the proposed transfer, Palos Verdes Estates, which spent $1,285,475 on fire protection last year, would have paid the county only $1,056,015 for fire protection during the same period.

Fawell said the proposal is attractive to city officials because the county “has considerable resources to throw at an incident--far more than we would have alone. The cost savings is just icing on the cake.�

However, he said, the city and county still face negotiations over several points in the proposed contract, including the transfer of sick pay benefits for fire personnel.

If the City Council approves the plan, Palos Verdes Estates will become the last Peninsula community to join the county Consolidated Fire Protection District, and the first city in the county to drop its Fire Department and switch to county services since Azusa did so in 1983.

Azusa Mayor Eugene Moses praised the county’s fire services in his city, noting that since the community switched over “we have had far less complaint from residents, and hundreds of calls about how great the county is.�

County officials said nine communities have eliminated their own fire departments and contracted with the county over the past 30 years, mostly because the county can provide more personnel and a broader range of services--including arson investigation, fire prevention programs and sophisticated new equipment--than a small city.

Cookus, the deputy fire chief, said that although some of the city’s firefighters would be demoted in rank, county salaries would equal or better the salaries paid by the city.

“It’s going to be kind of tough to be demoted from deputy chief to a captain, and I have to admit I’ve got mixed feelings about that,� said Cookus, whose salary will remain about the same.

“But the general feeling from everybody in the department is that they are ready to go to the county,� he said.

However, Cookus said some older firefighters are concerned that they could lose pension benefits or sick pay days that they have built up over several years. Like the city, the county allows its firefighters to accumulate unused sick pay for use during long illnesses or for reimbursement upon retirement, county officials said. Questions have arisen over whether city firefighters will be allowed to transfer all their sick pay days to the county system.

Cookus, who joined the department in 1958, a few years after the city switched from a volunteer crew to paid firefighters, said he has accumulated more than 200 days of sick leave.

“If I get a long sickness while I’m with the county, are they going to dock my pay or am I going to keep my sick days? That’s the question in the mind of most of the firefighters who have been here 12 or 15 years or more,� Cookus said.

Aside from those concerns, firefighters believe the switch will improve firefighting services in the city, said firefighter Tippin, who is also president of the Palos Verdes Estates Firefighter Assn., the department’s bargaining unit.

He said the firefighters have argued for several years that the city should join the county firefighting system.

“It’s not just that people will make the same or better wages, but career growth and avenues of expansion are just unlimited with the county,� Tippin said.

“Our guys will be able to get into whole new fields we don’t have, like arson investigation and administration,� he said. “Here, there aren’t a whole lot of calls and guys tend to stagnate a little bit.�

Moreover, Tippin said, the county would provide shorter response time to the Montemalaga neighborhood and some southern areas of the city, which are closer to county fire stations than to the department’s station on the city’s northern edge.

“In our business, time is of the essence,� Tippin said. “Our response times are good right now, but the quicker you can get to a heart attack or a burning building, well, that’s why we’re here.�