By Jennifer McLain
Pasadena Star-News (California)
Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Los Angeles Newspaper Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Some San Gabriel Valley cities are feeling the heat as their contracts with the Los Angeles County Fire Department have increased 8.6 percent.
Chief Michael Freeman cited raises, retirement and insurance costs as reasons for the hike.
Last year’s contract increased 4.78 percent compared with the previous year, although the average increase the past four years is
5.88 percent, Freeman said.
County fire serves 58 cities. Of that total, 47 pay for their services through property taxes. The other 11 pay out of their city’s budget, Freeman said.
But some representatives of the 11 fee-for-service cities, including El Monte and Covina, said they were not expecting such a sharp spike in costs this year.
“I think we were surprised that it was going to be so high,” said Jim Mussenden, El Monte city manager. “Our internal departments are going through their own budget decreases, and we weren’t prepared to see this big of an increase in cost.”
For 2006-07, El Monte, a city of almost 116,000, is expected to pay $9.66 million for its county fire services. That’s more than $600,000 more than last year. El Monte’s 10-year-contract with the county expires 2008.
“We are looking to reduce the cost of the contract through negotiations,” said Mussenden, adding that one possibility the city is exploring is closing one of its four fire stations.
Covina, a city of nearly 46,000, has three fire stations. The city also will consider closing one of its fire stations, Covina City Manager Paul Philips said, to compensate for the higher-than-expected increase in costs.
Freeman said county fire will work with its contract cities and hopes to avoid closing stations.
“Our fire protection is sufficient, but it is already pretty bare bones,” Freeman said. Only El Monte has approached the fire district regarding closing a station, Freeman said.
Projected costs by the fire district were lower than the actual cost, Philips said. The city only budgeted $6,371,450 - $227,550 less than the actual cost, Philips said. However, he said that figure is expected to increase even more, and Covina will likely exceed its budget by nearly $500,000.
Covina contracted with county fire in 1998 after disbanding its Fire Department in 1997 for financial reasons, said Bobbi Kemp, city spokeswoman.
Since that time, however, city officials said they immediately saw fee hikes higher than the yearly 6.5 percent increase county fire had projected.
Covina officials said one of their concerns is that they are not being treated equally compared with the 47 cities that pay for their services with property taxes. “There is a perception that Covina pays more than some of the surrounding cities,” Kemp said.
Freeman said county fire receives 16.5 cents for each property tax dollar. As property taxes increase, so does the amount of money the district receives, even if it is more than the services the department delivers.
“The fee-for-service cities would never stand to pay more money for services it doesn’t receive,” Freeman said.
Covina, which two years ago required one firefighter on each unit to be a certified paramedic at each of its stations, does not have plans to reduce that service. The City Council recently approved $160,000 for this service.
“Our complaint has never been in the quality of service that the county delivers,” Philips said. “It has just been the cost increases.”
Philips said if the rates continue to increase as they have been, it would have been just as cost effective for Covina to have maintained its own fire department.
Freeman said the county also paid an unexpectedly high fuel bill in 2005-06. Although it budgeted $1.2 million, the district paid $4.2 million. For 2006-07, the district budgeted more than $6 million, Freeman said.