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04-07-1975 - Regular Meeting - MinutesMINUTES OF THE ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF CITY COUNCIL CITY OF WEST COVINA, CALIFORNIA APRIL 7, 1975. The adjourned regular meeting of the.City Council called to order • at 4:34 P.M. in the City Manager's Conference Room at City Hall by Mayor Ken Chappell. Pni i rai i Present: Absent: Mayor Chappell; Councilmen: Browne, Miller, Tice Chester Shearer Others Present: George Aiassa, City Manager Lela Preston, City .Clerk Fire Chief Wetherbee Leonard Eliot, Controller Bat. Chief Harold Schwartz Chuck Bahn - Firemen's Assoc; Mark Landsbaum - Staff Reporter, S.G.V.D.T. PRESENTATION BY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT RE POSSIBILITY OF A CITY -COUNTY MERGER OF FIRE DEPARTMENTS. Batt. Chief Raymond Brunston: Gentlemen, we are here this evening County Fire District at your request to answer any questions that.you may have regard- ing the services of the Consolidat- ed Fire Protection District of Los Angeles County. The County Fire District serves 36 cities, has an assessed value of approximately five billion dollars; accounts for about two-thirds of the County Fire Departments; the other one-third being the forestry and fire warden. Anytime we appear in a city as we are here this evening, we appear as your guests and we are here at your pleasure strictly to answer questions, to sell nothing. We provide fire protection to cities and the unincorporated areas of the county and the mountainous brush areas of the county. It is my understanding that the general idea of this meeting is for you to gain information as to how a sur- vey is made by the Consolidated Fire District for an independent city and what processes are used for annexing to the District. Do I understand the nature of the meeting? Mayor Chappell: Yes, the nature of the meeting is to provide us with material to see if we are interested in pursuing further or continuing,on with whato we are doing now. And also' we are interested in the process of how.you go about making this study. Batts Chief Brunston: It has been our experience that the most important aspect of a city analyzing its fire protection needs and the ways of fulfilling those needs is an economic.comparison in _•general. You have one very hard fact and that is the -economics of it and on the other hand you have a very emotional aspect and that is called "local control". It is my position and the Department's position that local control does not suffer at the handsof the County Fire Department. We believe in -cities and local political repre- sentation of people. I live in a city and the people with me live in cities and we like to be represented at the local level. The citizens CITY COUNCIL Page Two CONSOLIDATED FIRE DISTRICT PRESENTATION 4/7/75 needthat kind of representation. Whether or not you buy your service f_om the County Fire District, Sears & Roebuck, or anybody else who provides fire service., including yourself, really is almost immaterial as it relates to local control.. It is very very material as it relates to the economics. I ran off just before I left tonight, what the district tax rate would have generated in your city for this • year and based on your assessed value it comes out just almost exactly one and one—fourth million dollars. Now I do not know what the cost of your city fire protection is therefore I cannot make a comparison, but I thought it would be interesting for you to have what the district tax levy would have been for this year. Our Department in the last 6 months has done a lot of studying in terms of mutual aid and automatic aid. Those studies have caused us to look at cities such as West Covina, Covina and Azusa and try and imagine how they would fit in to the response patterns and complement the Consolidated Fire District and how the District could complement the fire equipment within these cities. The major conclusion from the comparisons is always that the fire service in the L. A. metropolitan area is.interdependent, whether you admit it or not.- You maybe an independent city and may want to spend two, three or twenty times more than you would if you were in the District, and I..don't know what you do spend, but regard— less of what you do you are dependent upon your neighbors for fire protection, especially during the fall months of the year when the winds are strong from the north, or if you have a fire in one of your major structures within the city. That is the reality of the situation. Fire service is interdependent. You get out on the freeway and you go through five cities and in three of those cities you can get a paramedic on the freeway to help you and in two you can't. You don't know when you are in the three cities or in the. two cities. And that is another reason.on the side of interdependence in emergency service in the metropolitan area. I am reasonatrly familiar with the boundaries of your city, I`do know that about 75% is contiguous with the boundariesof th.e Consolidated Fire District. That tells me that your fire service and our fire service are Ivery closely related — whether you like. it or not and whether we -like it or not, that is a fact. Your citizens walk across the boundaryline, they don't really care where they are as long as when they need help somebody helps them. So the fire service is inter —related. The eoonomic facts involved you must determine for yourself. If you show interest and have any desire of obtaining service from the Consolidated Fire District for your citizens the first move you would make would be to send a Resolution of Intent to the Board of Supervisors of L. A. — they are the governing body of the Fire District. The District serves approximately two million people. The conditions 'underwhich you would annex to the District in general have been the same since Signal Hill came into the District in 1957. The independent cities that have annexed to the District in the last 15 years are: Signal Hill, Glendora, Maywood, Bell, Huntington Park and we•have a scheduled target date of May 1 for the City of South Gate. And the City of Whittier, Claremontand Lynwood are presently very seriously considering annexing to .the District. I believe it would be fair • in most cases to say that the city administration has looked at it from a straight hard line of economics. Almost every city emotionally would like to own their own, but again they cannot divorce themselves from interdependence. They can make their streets as wide or narrow as.they want to; build what kind of buildings they. want — local controlis still there — fire engines have wheels and can go 20 miles down the road, most of them are painted red and do — 2 — CITY COUNCIL Page Three CONSOLIDATED FIRE DISTRICT PRESENTATION 4/7/75 the same job whAn they get there and the citizensreally don't know the difference. After the Resolution of Intent comes an agreement specifying the conditions of annexation to the District. That is a legal agreement between you gentlemen -'the City Council of West Covina and the Board of Supervisors_.act_ing as the governing body of the Consolidated Fire District.. .The.areement • specifies the blanketing in or absorption of your fire�9090-artment personnel, it specifies deeding your fire stations to .the`Consoli- dated District with a reversionary clause that says if the District ceases to use any particular fire station or the city withdraws from the District that property or fire station reverts to the city. The agreement calls for maintenance of the station in good condition by. the District. The agreement calls for the apparatus in service within the city to be appraised, a specific amount articulated within the agreement and a paragraph that says if the city withdraws you may either take that specified amount articulated in the agreement or you may take fire apparatus of comparable make, size, model and age. The agreement tries to provide for the ins and outs, There is a time requirement. In the past the Board of Supervisors has utilized -the Health and Safety Code -and required that a city be in the District for. ten years. I think we all understand that in a period of ten years you may build one fire station or'change the alignment of stations so it really is not too long of a.,,time. With the City of South Gate we have provided an exception to that policy, which rather than an exception I am sure will become a general rule, that being that.the city must annex for a period of five years. To put it very plainly if you are in five years and satisfied I don't think it is any different than being in ten years... .The only thing ten years seemed to do was scare people. The provision for South Gate states that after five years by a 4/5ths vote of the governing body of the City or the District the City.may be forced to withdraw from the District. Which means if for some reason during the second five years that city became an economic burden on the District the Board by a 4/5ths vote could have that city withdraw from the District and require you to start your own fire department again. Probably the best current example of what could become an economic burden would be a Community Redevelopment.Agency where the funds from the various taxing agencies are drained into the Redevelopment Agency. It is becoming a moderate problem for us. That would be one small example. I think I have fairly well capsulized what we provide, how a city,gets into the District and some of the conditions, that I am sure have raised questions in your minds. Ass't. Chief Fry: I would like to clarify one thing. County Fire Department He did mention we are.here at the request of you gentlemen but before we can go any further on this matter we have to have specific official direction from the Board of Supervisors. So the normal procedure, if you are interested in an annexation proposal, you would direct a •letter to the Board of Supervisors requesting that the Consolidated Fire District submit a proposal for.'f.ire services for the City of West. Covina and then ifthe Board so acts they would direct us to initiate this study and that would be our authority. • Councilman Browne: economic costs answering some may be interested in without parties and at great cost - I Before such action is taken by eitherbodies, have you in the past had surface studies relative to the of the pertinent questions that we delving in depth on the part of both am sure .basically we would want to - 3 - CITY COUNCIL Page Four CONSOLIDATED FIRE DISTRICT PRESENTATION 4/7/75 know what the dollar cost would be based on assessed evaluation; how you go about assuming the capital investments that we have — the transfer of it; —it was stated it could revert back at like cost and like equipment, however we have an inflationary situation on our hands right now and today's value would be far different in five or ten years from now. Another is the integration of personnel. We • have some pretty long tenured people. I would want to see them pro— tected. When they are absorbed into your body I understand they have to go through rigid physical examinations and in the City of Huntington Park I know there were two or three that were just absolutely retired on the spot with possibly five to. eight years more to go on the Huntington Park Department. These things are very pertinent matters; it is not only the economics but also the welfare of the city. Will we get like. protection at equal cost? It relates into the management personnel also — how they are absorbed, etc. I think all of these questions should be answered before we as a body pass a resolution asking for a complete study. Batt. Chief Brunston: I think we got the Resolution of Intent and the study a bit mixed up here because everything you just asked would be answered. The study we are talking about is not a complicated thing. It answers just exactly what you just asked and that. is what it is for — it is something for you to consider so you have something in writing rather than what we are doing this evening — verbally discussing the subject in generalities. Councilman Tice: I am interested in one factor — some of the specific elements that go into this study. Ass't. Chief Fry: As stated it is not a complicated thing but it does require time and effort to put a package together, and we have to compile it by securing data from your. city. We have to have your fire department budget before we -can make any cost estimates and cost projections. We have to make an estimate of your fire protection configuration coverage now,'the location of your stations, the type of buildings you have and what would be the best use of these with what we have available. These points that you mentioned are very significant and they do make up the major parts of the study. The blanketing of personnel,the rank distribu— tion, and what we are saying is we don't have the resources, the personnel to make.up.this type of package for you without the authority of the Board of Supervisors directing us to do it. It is time consuming and we hope that you would be serious about this before we embark on.it, that you would be seriously considering annexing to the Fire District and we would not be preparing a big study for you to use to compare with something and you are not really interested in annexing. Councilman Tice: Of course you are aware that we have been looking into a tri=city fire operation. Ass't Chief Fry: Yes. These questions of financing the amount of revenue that would be . generated by the District tax rate in your city — with your City Manager and your fire department budget he could provide some of these basic estimates for you relating to comparable costs. And the comparison of blanketing in personnel — we have set a pretty general pattern in annexing these other cities, we assure you that the personnel will be treated fairly. It is our policy, however, that we won't bring in officers or promoted positions into the Department to the extent they would exceed those officers or promoted positions that would be required to maintain fire protection 4 — CITY COUNCIL CONSOLIDATED FIRE.DISTRICT PRESENTATION Page Five 4/7/75 :7 • within the city once annexed. In other words if we were to keep only three stations in the city we would keep.only the number of captains necessary to maintain those three stations. Most of the Chiefs of the smaller communities, depending on the type of fires we would be fighting, in South Gate for example the Chief is coming over as a Batt. Chief, and their Assistant Chief is coming in as a captain. Councilman Tice: year period? In your projected cost projections do you have anything.in there as an inflationary factor for the next five Ass't. Chief Fry: The only thing we can do is make an estimate based on the information we have and this is very, difficult to do. We don't know what will happen with the Fair Labor. Standards Act — if this is implemented.next year this may mean as much as 5o on our tax rate. We don't know what the total impact of inflation will be on our tax rate next year. It is very difficult to project an estimated tax rate for next year; we do know if the Fair Labor Standards Act is implemented this could run as much as 5o on our tox rate. This is being reviewed now by the Supreme Court and the optimistic thinking is that there Will be a decision out by early summer. Councilman Browne: What is your current charge back to a city? Batt. Chief Brunston: .7587o per hundred for this year. That is the Consolidated Fire Protec— tion District tax rate and that covers everything. Forestry and fire warden is about one-third of the Department and is a general fund function of the County of L.A. and is a legally separate organization, budgeted separately, the District and the Fire Warden are however operated a's a single..operational agency to the benefit of the citizens in the District and the benefit of the citizens of the County of L.A. In general you pay a general fund tax which you are now paying. Mayor Chappell: You have taken in a number of cities and I am sure they had all levels of proficiency, response time, and things of that nature — then you throw them all in a hat and bring them to a level and then down to a level — what level do you use in that instance? Batt. Chief Brunston: The easiest way to state is to say to a dwelling fire we respond with a minimum of two engine companies of twelve men and a Batt..Chief and a paramedic squad.. That is the minimum. Now because of our manning configuration it usually works out to three engines, a paramedic squad and a chief. Our engine companies are manned by three and four men. In a commercial area we send.a minimum of three engines, a ladder truck, a squad, and a Batt. Chief, for a total of eighteen men. That is our general stand— ard of response to structural fires in the basin area south of the San Gabriel mountains. The insurance industrials gauges what you should be able to respond or what your total response.capabi.lity should be based on the required fire flow in your city. For instance, if you have a required fire flow of 5,000 gallons a minute then in general your city should have five engine companies and either one or two ladder trucks depending on the nature of the buildings in the city, The Consolidated Fire District does not have the problem of considering fire flow because of :its size. The District is required to have about 90 engine companies and I believe — 5 — CITY.COUNCIL Page Six CONSOLIDATED FIRE DISTRICT PRESENTATION 4/7/75 0 • we have 89 in service. So we meet the engine company requirement almost 100%. The requirement that concerns us the most is the average distance from the station to where the fire might occur. In general the best average to keep in mind for the metropolitan area where you have buildings of the same nature as you have in your city, is a mile and a half. You can stretch that to two miles in the residential areas. If you get past three miles you will be p.ena.lized by a reduction of two protection classes. If your city is a Class 4 pro- tection class and a station is not within three miles of the area then it will go back to a 6. So from one and a half to 3 miles you have some leeway, past three you will be penalized. Councilman Tice: Have you noticed any changes up or down in the fire classifications in the cities you have taken over? Batt. Chief Brunston: Nobody has gone back. Three cities have improved. Signal Hill, Glendora and Maywood have improved. They are all 4 now', they were 5. The Consolidated Fire District in the basin area is nearly all 4. Those areas with superior water supplies now have the capability of being a 3. Huntington Park was a 3 when annexed and they are still 3. Probably within the next twelve months I expect two or three other areas to become Protection Class 3. We have a problem with the insurance service offices in that they have a great deal of rate book revisions to make before those things are publicized and also confirmations to make,in San Francisco on ratings. So we don't even know yet when this would be confirmed. It.is potentially based on the grading schedules that exist now. You could have a Class 3 providing your Water is superior. The District is a Class 2 fire department, it is very close to a Class 3. If we dropped twelve points we would be a 3.. We are right there at the breaking point. Councilman Browne: You maintain all of the hydrants and the payment of the water bills, etc.? Batt. Chief Brunston: Presently for the private water companies we do that. We have indivi- dual contracts with each water purveyor. Our policy at this time is we do not pay hydrant rental to public water systems. We are in court presently with the Los ----, a water district which is a municipal type water district out along the Ventura Freeway in Malibu. We don't know if we will win or lose. Our position is that fire departments should not pay hydrant rental. We take that position because the boundaries covered.by a superior water system receive the benefit of lower insurance costs. The benefits of that system do not extend beyond its boundary therefore paying hydrant rental, either average or higher than average, is illogical. It is a double taxation. Loney comes out of the citizens' pocket into the i;;Srt-me department and then into the water district when it should go right out of the citizen's pocket into. the water company to provide the benefits he gets from that water company. Our fire engines have wheels, we can run them down the freeway twenty miles in twenty to twenty-five minutes so the tax basis of the District is very logically.spread at the same rate. You can't say that about water systems. We do pay water companies. Mayor Chappell: In talking with a supervisor recently he was saying that the county perhaps is going to have to cut. back on stations rumor or is this fact? I think the county will have back probably about the same .that every fire protection agency within the county of L.A. and personnel. Is this a Batt. Chief Brunston: to cut distance and CITY COUNCIL Page Seven CONSOLIDATED FIRE PROTECTION PRESENTATION 4/7/75 10 • outside has to cut back based on Fair Labor Standards or any new laws that take place in bargaining on the Ayers—Millias—Brown Act. or any other benefits that fire fighters receive that increases the economic burden of fire protection.. All it is going to do is say you are more independe.nt than you ever were. Councilman Tice: You foresee a day of reckoning — then, so to speak? Batt. Chief Brunston: There is no doubt in my mind and the one thing that concerns me and has con— cerned many and the Chief has voiced his opinion loud and strong and that is for the fire service to work together and pull together and we cannot afford boundary lines. They hamper our operation, it is ridiculous. You gentlemen have a station a half mile from one of ours, that is.illogical. You have another one probably a mile .and.a quarter — again .illogical. What we don't need are fire fighters that don't get enough experience and we have to keep training them and We have a bigger standby force than we need. What we do need are well spaced stations with active fire fighters that get adequate experience, adequate training and are doing a good job when called upon with well manned companies.' It could be coordinated as far over an area as possible so if you needed one engine company or fifteen you get them, and you get a uniformed system os command dispatched from a uniform dispatch center and the chain of command works. mutual aid is about a 60% patch for the 100% job. I am now speaking from the standpoint of fire protection viewpoint. Councilman Browne:You do use the mutual aid system, do you not?. Batt. Chief Brunston* We do have a mutual aid system with every city in the county that says if itu,t on that is or is you have a s likely to be beyond your control you may call upon us, we will respond with assistance if available, which it usually is, and in return we will absolutely depend on you when we have serious.situations and we are not a bit bashful about calling. Councilman Browne: Of course if we had mutual aid agree— ments with surrounding 'cities it would be up to them if we decided to go with the county if they wanted to go to the county, and I think totally up to them if they Wanted to continue that mutual aid agreement. Batt. Chief Brunston: Our policy agreement dated from June of last year is that we will write agree— ments with almost any o.ne that can reciprocate.. If you can't reciprocate — and I am not saying you have to have eighty fire engines but that you have to have the ability to respond your equipment outside of your city to assist..us and we will do the same. The Chief is under Board order to do. that. Bob Lampson County Division Chief regardless of the Board order Councilman Browne: Yes, but past that point if you have existing agreements with cities around you we will honor those agreements of last June.— we have -done that. Irregardless if they want them honored or not? Ass't. Chief Fry: No, all we are saying is that we will honor any agreements you have that will reciprocate. We.offered one city this and they turned us down. We will not force any one to do anything. 7 — CITY COUNCIL Page Eight CONSOLIDATED FIRE PROTECTION PRESENTATION 4/7/75 Councilman Miller: Does the city itself have the say as to what extent or where the fire stations would be cut or added to the new area or is this up to the Board of Supervisors to determine at this point? Batt. Chief. Brunston: I would say it is 50/50. Ass't. Chief Fry: That is a good answer and if you annex to the District you can make that election. We want to work as closely with the city as possible and meet the needs of the city as much as we possibly can. We assign an Assistant Chief to this area, who is for all practical purposes your Fire.Chief. He reports to the city manager, attends the staff meetings,.makes himself available for Council meetings and to all practical purposes is your Fire Chief. Our goal is to meet this need of representative.service, to be responsive to the local needs of the City.of West Covina. Now if there is a fire protection problem in the city and you see it we certainly want to work with. -you on that. Maybe you are going to bring a big industrial complex in and you need advice on water systems and fire protection planning, this. is a part of our regular on —going service that we have in o.ur Department. The con— figurations and locations of the stations, once you, are annexed, our firm policy is that we'would not change without first of all having approval from a recognized fire protection grading agency that this will not unreasonably affect the fire protection coverage or insurance problems of the city. That is one of our stipulations. The second part we have to have the city's sanction along the way somewhere, at least that they are aware and knowledgeable and become a part of this and they have an option to sanction. Batt. Chief Brunston: That is in the agreement — we have a standard paragraph that says realignment or relocations or closures would be through joint agreement of the District and the City. and the fire pro— tection grading agency that has jurisdiction. Now that is reasonable compliance with fire protection standards. Ass't. Chief Fry: This agreement is not cast in stone that it can't be modified.., For instance, in the City of Glendora we had to relocate and close a station there recently. So we met again with the City Council and amended our agreement and they approved it and then we took it to the Board of Supervisors and they in turn approved it. We closed the station in the best interests of the City and the Dis— trict. Mayor Chappell: When you do something like that do they get a tax reduction? Batt. Chief Brunston: Just like the school system — the same way. Mayor Chappell: In our city we found that we do it more than other communities, the fact that we do fire prevention inspectiong,, have our personnel out in the city making inspections. Do you continue our standards in that area, because this is an area we feel is very • important. Ass't. Chief Fry: We have an on —going fire:prevention program which does consist of commercial occupancy inspections., industrial target hazard inspections. We try to hit the industrial target hazard inspections quarterly; the commercials are once a year. We also have =1= CITY COUNCIL Page Nine CONSOLIDATED FIRE PROTECTION PRESENTATION 4/7/75 business license inspections which are an on -going part of our pro- gram. We also respond to any special requests for inspecting a home or any special problem that someone might have. In addition to that we have special details with specialized fire prevention personnel thatprovide the prevention work for oil fume installations, liquids, hospitals, institutions, educational facilities, schools and they also work closely with the State.Fire Marshall in cleaning establishments and these kinds of facilities. If the city were to want some`t.ype of special clean-up campaign possibly with regard to problem areas we would be happy to work with you to solve any special problems. Councilman Browne:' You also work on the enforcement pro- gram to enforce the fire regulations within the city? Ass't. Chief Fry: Yes, and you have an option. You can either maintain your own code, however, we recommend that you adopt our fire prevention code, which you may already have, and then you have the arson investigation which is from the Sheriff's Department. .Councilman Tice: A question regarding the personnel. You have your own retirement system and I wonder how this compares with the State Retirement System which we have in the City now. Ass't. Chief Fry: Our county system is comparable to the State PERSCHP system. We have 20 year service, 2/ per year up to age 50 and approximately 5% per year after that. Councilman Tice: How does this affect the personnel when you take over fire departments? Ass't. Chief Fry: They will receive retirement from (both systems. Batt, Chief Brunston: Looking at it for the guy that is older the percentage is .based on total service rather than some giant leap of 5% per year. There is a cost factor applied to his total service and generally he would retire with more if he entered county service for ten years than if he stayed the other way. I don't masquerade as a retirement specialist and those are the type of questions that the guys have to hear from somebody ietimately familiar with the retire- ment system. Ass't. Chief Fry: The State reoiprob}ty law applies. Total time in both agencies is con- sidered when the final rate is con- sidered for retirement. How:'ever, the time your people have in the State System will be computed on a proportionate share for that system and the way the final rate will be determined the highest or the last 36 months of pay applies to the State System. So supposing a man came to the county and stayed one year with us, that one year with the county and the two years he had with West Covina before annexation Would be used to compute a final compensation. However he would receive two separate retirement checks, one from the county andone from the State. Mayor Chappell: We appreciate your attendance here tonight - you certainly answered our questions. We will consider this at another time and our findings • CITY COUNCIL Page Ten CONSOLIDATED FIRE PROTECTION PRESENTATION 4/7/75 will be relayed to you through our City Manager. We thank you for coming out and visiting with us. Bob Lampson May I just emphasize.one point. We County Division Chief touched on it briefly but I would like to be sure that everybody understands it. There are actually two different actions required for you to be— come part of the District. The first one is just an intent on your part to get a study from us. That does not constitute an intent to annex to the District. That is where you will get all the detailed information you are asking for. The second was cost. There is no cost to the city for that survey. I wasn't sure that point was made clear. PROCLAMATIONS Hearing no objections from Council the Mayor proclaimed "April U.D. Awareness Month." Mayor Chappell: I also received a letter from Phillip Gordon who is with the Rotary Club of West Covina asking us to proclaim Pan—American Week'- April 14, 1975. If there are no objections I would so proclaim. So moved by Councilman Browne, seconded by Councilman Tice and carried. ADJOURNMENT ATTEST: CITY CLERK Motion by Councilman Browne to adjourn this meeting at 5:25 P.M. Seconded by Councilman Tice and carried. APPROVED: MAYOR