Citing changing times, Hermosa Beach Firefighters Association urges move to county
Hermosa Beach fire fighters respond to a blaze last year. File photo
The Hermosa Beach Firefigher’s Association became the latest group to weigh in on the debate over the future of the city’s fire department, issuing a statement Monday recommending that the city contract with Los Angeles County for future fire services delivery.
The decision ends months of department neutrality on the issue, and was described by firefighters as an extremely difficult choice motivated by more than a decade of struggle to sustain the department.
It also provides a boost to the prospects for dissolving the city’s 107-year-old independent department. The City Council will decide late this year whether to devote added funds to bolster the department, or contract with the L.A. County Fire Department.
According to the statement from Hermosa Beach Firefighters Association Local 3371, contracting with the county will provide financial sustainability, maintain and potentially increase Hermosa’s ability to aid neighboring departments, and provide safer working conditions than now exist for the overtaxed firefighters.
Aaron Marks, president of the association, said the vote among firefighters was unanimous. But Marks said the decision was anything but easy to make, and was rooted in forces that have long been affecting the department and others across the country.
“Our initial reaction is emotional. Generations of guys helped build this, and there’s a sense of giving up,” Marks said in an interview. “But this didn’t happen yesterday, or even last year. It unfortunately has been this way off and on for many years.”
If the city does choose to contract with the county, none of the firefighters would be out of a job. All would be integrated into the county system, Marks said. But most of them would probably work in another part of the county, assigned to a station closer to their home. Many members of the department now live distant from Hermosa, some as far away as Goleta or Big Bear.
According to Scott Hale, an acting assistant chief with the county department, Hermosa would retain its own fire station, and it will likely be staffed by existing county fire employees, many of whom already live in the South Bay area. An engine driver from the current roster would be retained due to local knowledge of the city’s streets, said Interim Chief Pete Bonano at a previous town hall meeting.
The possibility of contracting with the county has emerged out of ongoing staffing and facilities shortfalls. Cuts made in the aftermath of the recession reduced shift staffing from six people to five, eliminated an assistant chief position, and spread fire prevention duties, like building inspection, to staff also tasked with response duties. And the department’s aging Pier Avenue station, long out of code, closed earlier this year, forcing personnel to relocate to temporary trailers nearby.
The problems built up in a way that was difficult for those outside the department to recognize. At an April City Council meeting, then mayor pro tem Hany Fangary expressed surprise at the depth of problems faced by the department, saying he could not recall a single instance in which the council had denied an expenditure request for the department.
But while equipment needs were readily met, staffing and facilities represented far greater demands on city coffers. Al Benson, a member of the city’s Emergency Preparedness Advisory Commission and a founder of the Hermosa Beach Neighborhood Association, has followed the ups and downs of the department over the years, and said that he has seen councils get distracted from public safety issues.
“It’s not the firefighters job to come up before city council every month,” Benson said. “But without that, there’s not necessarily an adequate advocate.”
Marks acknowledged that that there had been mismanagement over the years, but said firefighters wanted to avoid “fingerpointing” for the problems. Rather, the issues are rooted in changing demands placed on fire departments that make small ones like Hermosa more difficult to sustain.
“There’s not one city council, or one city manager, or one fire chief,” Marks said. “It’s more that, a for a city the size of Hermosa, and a fire department of the kind we have, and with the added requirements and mandates, it just became very difficult for anyone to keep up.”
Changing times mean that departments that once spent most of their time fighting structure fires now overwhelmingly respond to medical emergencies. This has been matched by state laws that created a growing list of departmental requirements.
The changing demands placed on stations have long prompted discussions about eliminating the independent department. Hermosa considered the issue as far back as 1994, when it conducted a study considering the possibility of consolidating with other local fire departments like those of Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach. Several others have been conducted since, all eying possible cost savings that could come from combining departments.
But consolidation has gotten hung up on political difficulties associated with combining institutions, and those those difficulties have expanded in recent years. Changes to state law governing retirement benefits mean consolidating departments under a new joint powers authority could negatively affect the pensions of firefighters.
“All the studies come back to the same conclusion: if you could go back and redo it all, everybody probably wouldn’t create their own tiny little fire department,” Marks said. “But once they’re built, it’s difficult to go back and integrate them. And in today’s environment it’s really difficult.”