Council Drops Hermosa Fire Department Consolidation Plan

The City Council decided Tuesday night not to pursue consolidation of fire department services with Hermosa Beach because of major hurdles and a lack of prospects for cost savings.

The council members voted unanimously to abandon the idea, which had been proposed by Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin and Hermosa Beach Mayor Michael DiVirgilio as a way to save costs in the midst of the recession. A final report was scheduled to be released this summer.

"The main thing is, do we think there are any savings in this for us?" Councilman Pat Aust, a former fire chief, said after a preliminary presentation by Fire Chief Daniel Madrigal.

 "If there is no way to save any money to make it worthwhile, then I wouldn't bother pursuing it further," Councilman Steven Diels said.

However, the City Council did leave open the option of contracting certain fire services with Hermosa Beach to save money. Redondo and Hermosa officials said they are  interested in bringing Manhattan Beach into the conversation to discuss a potential beach cities fire department. 

Madrigal said that one of the biggest concerns over the possible merger was that Hermosa Beach firefighters have the right to transport patients to the hospital, but Redondo Beach's don't. Another matter of contention is that  Redondo Beach operates an in-house 911 call center, whereas Hermosa Beach uses a private agency to handle emergency calls.

A gap in employee compensations between the two cities is another big issue, Madrigal said.

"Typically, two cities are not set up to consolidate. They operate so differently," the chief said. "It has become very, very challenging as we've dived into this deeper."

Although there might be ways to resolve those issues, they will be expensive, City Manager Bill Workman said.

Workman also said that the Redondo Beach Fire Department, which has an annual budget of $16 million, has eliminated three positions in the last 12 months and there's no more room to trim personnel expenses.

Studies on consolidating Redondo and Hermosa fire services have been done several times in the past. In the most recent plan, proposed two years ago, the Hermosa Beach firefighters union opposed and stopped a merger.