Council to revisit county takeover of MBFD
The City Council will revisit the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s proposal to provide fire services locally, a move that would eliminate the Manhattan Beach Fire Department. The council moved on Tuesday night to bring the matter back at its next meeting.
Mayor Nancy Hersman, who temporarily shelved the matter last month with the intention of convening a town hall-style study session to examine the proposal in detail, noted that a few key factors had changed in the interim. The Redondo Beach City Council, which had been considering contracting the county for fire service, voted against proceeding in that direction; the fact that Hermosa Beach had already contracted out to the county and Redondo was moving in that direction figured into the city’s consideration of engaging LA County.
“That was part of our reason for looking at it, way back,” Hersman said. The Manhattan Beach Firefighters Association submitted a letter to the council Tuesday signaling its interest in the city “taking the next step,” which would entail spending $18,000 to commission a more detailed feasibility study from the county.
“So that is where we are now,” Hersman said. “It’s a little bit different than when we put it on there earlier.”
Councilperson Richard Montgomery said the MBFA letter made examining the so-called “Phase 2” of the LA County study more appealing.
“The game changer for me was the letter from the firefighters union saying we support looking at Phase 2,” he said.
The letter said MBFA supports the continuation of the study “in the interest of evaluating all available information to provide the City of Manhattan Beach with the best possible emergency services.” But the letter also noted the MBFA “does not have a position with regards to merging with Los Angeles Fire Department.”
The letter was sent at the request of Councilperson Steve Napolitano, who’d met with MBFA members and came to understand there’s been a shift in the membership’s willingness to consider the LA County merger. Napolitano said he thought it was a good idea to make a decision to either have a town hall or just put the issue to rest.
“We’ve already seen the heartburn and the angst among some members of the community to even consider the idea of going to county,” Napolitano said. “Which, I understand, the word takeover sounds pretty hostile. It would be a contract.”
“The idea here, which I think is a good one, is should we come back in two weeks so we can decide if we want to go forward with a town hall?” Napolitano said. “Because to me, if we are going to engage the community in a way that invites everyone down here with the expectation that we will discuss and decide whether to go to Phase 2. Do we even want to go there if there’s not a compelling reason to, and we’ve seen no compelling support in the community to do this?”
Napolitano said that with Hermosa having already contracted with the county and Redondo considering doing so, “it would have been irresponsible for us not to even look at it.”
Resident Kristy Jones suggested the council was being less than transparent, both in the fact that the feasibility study was not easily found on the city’s website and because its contract negotiations with firefighters seemed to indicate a lack of desire to maintain its own fire department. Jones, who volunteers as an Emergency Medical Technician at another fire department and works as a CERT volunteer with MBFD, said that MBFA is working without a contract and that the firefighters’ offer — a “status quo” offer that included no raise in salary or benefits — had been rejected by the city.
“With respect, if I were them, I would not want to work under this City Council, either,” Jones said.
The firefighters’ contract situation is in contrast to the city’s other labor groups, including the Police Officers Association, which recently agreed to a three-year contract with 2 percent increases in salaries each year.
Jones, in an interview, said that part of the reason for the increasing support among firefighters in a county merger was what was being communicated to them by the rejection of their offer. She said some of the younger firefighters are attracted to the growth opportunities that would come with being in a larger department, but others are just worn out with the ongoing uncertainty in Manhattan Beach.
“I can understand, from a personal point of view, after going without a contact for so long,” Jones said. “I don’t blame them going, ‘You know what, this is not worth fighting over anymore’ and throwing in the towel…It’s a damn shame, for our community, that some of these guys would rather go to the county just because of how the City Council has been treating them. Why would the City Council reject a zero percent increase in salaries and benefits? Not even a [Consumer Price Index] increase. ”
Jones also argued that any cost saving achieved by contracting LA County for fire service would come with a reduced level of service, specifically in the reduction of paramedic services. The county model, she said, would mean that some emergency calls would receive only EMT service, whereas currently, all MBFD responses include at least three paramedics.
“I am an EMT, and I know my limitations,” she said, noting that EMTs are not allowed to provide any medications other than oxygen and are even constrained, relative to paramedics, in how they are able to provide defibrillation in cases of cardiac arrest. “The quality of care provided is really my number one concern, because it’s a huge dropoff from eight paramedics to three paramedics on duty — the quality of care and the level of training.”
“That’s something to think about,” Jones said. “Yes, there are cost savings. But at the end of the day, when you or your family member has an emergency, all costs are out the window. All you want is to make sure you have the best of the best-doing everything they can to save you or your family member’s life…If Manhattan Beach can’t afford its own fire department, what are we doing wrong? If a city like Compton can keep a department going themselves, how can a city like Manhattan Beach not afford our own fire department? It’s kind of baffling to me.”
Councilperson Suzanne Hadley said the cost savings is not enough to even consider contracting out fire services, and that residents have made it clear they prefer their own fire department.
“I am against bringing it back,” she said. “I don’t want to go to county…I care about what [MBFA] thinks, and I love our firefighters, and yes I care about what they want. But what I really care most about is our residents who pay for it, and call 911.”
Hadley suggested exploring what she called the “Goldilocks Option,” which would be to combine El Segundo, Redondo Beach, and Hermosa Beach fire services.
“If we are too small, and to me, the county is too big, I really like a South Bay Fire Department,” she said.
The council will revisit the issue on Nov. 5.