Redondo Beach is once again exploring turning its fire department over to Los Angeles County.
The City Council this week voted to continue working toward the possibility of contracting with the Los Angeles County Fire Department for fire prevention safety and paramedic services. Councilmembers Paige Kaluderovic and Scott Behrendt dissented.
The panel will revisit the topic at its May 21 meeting, giving the Redondo Beach Firefighters Association and some city commissions more time to review a report on the different options and consider how they’d be impacted by going county versus staying local.
The city first started looking at moving to County Fire in 2019, but decided against it. At that time, the city could’ve saved up to $6 million per year on fire services at the same level as RBFD or better.
Redondo then in 2022 began revisiting the idea, with residents adamant about keeping fire services local.
Now, the city is close to choosing whether to make the change.
At the Tuesday meeting, Citygate, a consulting firm that the city hired to analyze the options, presented its report on such to the council and public. The report found that the county and the city’s fire services are comparable, but it would ultimately be more expensive to join the county with less staff directly in Redondo Beach, mostly because of unfunded pension costs in the fire department budget.
Merging with L.A. County would mean that Redondo Beach residents could be served by 17 fire stations and roughly 60 firefighters within a 5-mile radius in nearby cities that also contract with the county. Those first responders would be ready to react to emergencies on what’s known as a “first-in” basis, meaning they are all connected by the same dispatch system.
Hermosa Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale and Palos Verdes Estates, meanwhile, already use L.A. County’s fire services. If Redondo does the same, the city would join those cities in forming a unified district as part of the county fire department.
There would be fewer fire personnel physically in Redondo Beach, according to the report, but other nearby county stations and Baywatch resources would also support staffing.
As part of the council’s vote, city staff will get input from firefighters and send the report to the Harbor, Public Safety, Budget and Finance and Public Works Commissions so those groups can consider the potential impacts for themselves.
County fire services would cost the city $20.3 million in this fiscal year, the report reads, and the city’s current fire department budget is $23.2 million. The price for future years would depend on unforeseen financial outlook for the city, and inflation.
Redondo Beach would initially appear to save nearly $3 million with the county in the first year of contract, per the report, but ultimately end up paying more.
The city would have to pay startup costs of $1.54 million annually for three years to transfer the fire employees to the county, convert equipment and rehabilitate the fire stations. But even after that’s paid in the first three years, a 10-year run with a county contract would cost the city nearly an extra $14 million.
The county is proposing to eliminate an engine at fire station No. 2, the report reads, which equates to about $2 million per year. But still, it adds, the county deal would end up being more expensive.
Whichever way the city goes, per the report, two of the three fire stations in town are nearly 70 years old and in need of safety upgrades.
Many residents during public comment periods at Tuesday’s meeting urged the city to keep fire services local, as well as hire a full-time fire chief. They said they felt that with the county, the city would ultimately spend more money for less service, noting first responders potentially being spread too thin and taking longer to arrive at emergency scenes.
Citygate’s report, resident Miriam Butler said Tuesday, to her show that joining the county “from day one would result in a lower level of service,” and “would cost the city more.”
On top of those who spoke in person, all but two of the 83 written public comments submitted ahead of Tuesday’s meeting were in opposition of contracting with the county.
Residents also expressed concern that there would be no turning back from a decision to go county.
The city would be “sending our equipment and personnel to a giant bureaucracy to which we could never afford to buy them back,” resident Sandra Segal said Tuesday.
Butler agreed, saying that there’s “no way out once we’ve committed.”
Kaluderovic, for her part, said she’s worried about the level of influence Redondo would have over firefighter policies in the city in a county partnership.
“To lose that local control or having to negotiate it every so often, I find it hard to give that away,” she said.
She said that she wanted to end the discussion for good on Tuesday, adding that there’s no more information the panel can learn that will make contracting with the county the best decision for the city.
Redondo Beach nonetheless will continue the conversation next month, as city staff looks at ways to fund the needed fire station improvements.
