TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Michael Lang, Fire Chief
Sarah Michael, Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Consideration of a Resolution Approving a Portal-to-Portal Compensation for the City of Manhattan Beach to Continue Portal-to-Portal Reimbursements from the California Office of Emergency Management (Fire Chief Lang).
ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 24-0070
Body
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RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Resolution No. 24-0070 for Portal-to-Portal Compensation for the City in order to continue to receive full reimbursements for all suppression personnel on a portal-to-portal basis for all mutual aid deployments throughout California.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Unless the City adopts a resolution requiring the California Office of Emergency Management (Cal OES) to reimburse the City for travel time to and from mutual aid incidents, the state will only pay for actual work time on-scene at the emergency. Most employee classifications are reimbursable currently; however, the Deputy Chief position needs to be added to receive portal-to-portal reimbursement. There are no other fiscal implications associated with the recommended action.
BACKGROUND:
Prior to March 31, 2015, Cal OES reimbursed the City for portal-to-portal travel to and from wildland fires and other emergencies when requested through the state master mutual aid agreement. The City is in Area G of the Los Angeles County Operational Area. When requested by the region or state, the Manhattan Beach Fire Department typically responds with one four-person fire engine and a Deputy Chief/Division Chief with other South Bay fire departments for mutual aid to large brush fires. These assignments are usually 3-14 days long and the reimbursement clock does not start until after the 12th hour.
Local agencies that do not have an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), Governing Body Resolution (GBR) or equivalent, indicating that the City must be compensated for all costs, including travel to and from the site, would not be reimbursed for travel time to and from the emergency incident location.
In June 2015, City Council approved a resolution confirming payment of portal-to-portal for fire department employees for providing local government fire and emergency assistance to the State of California and Federal Agencies. The resolution was sent to Cal OES and portal-to-portal was approved for the fire employee titles listed in the resolution at the time. The list of employees approved for portal-to-portal were Fire Chief, Battalion Chief, Captain/Lieutenant/Company Officer, Engineer/Apparatus Operator, and Firefighter/Firefighter-Paramedic. In November 2022, the Battalion Chief title was retitled to Division Chief. Because of the retitling, a new resolution was needed from City Council to include Division Chief as receiving portal-to-portal payment along with all the other titles previously listed. In October 2023, City Council approved that resolution that updated the title from Battalion Chief to Division Chief. This resolution was sent to Cal OES and portal-to-portal was approved for the titles listed in the resolution.
DISCUSSION:
In February 2024, City Council approved a Deputy Chief position. Because of the added position, a new resolution needs to be approved by City Council to include the Deputy Chief position as receiving portal-to-portal payment along with the other titles previously listed in the October 2023 resolution.
In previous Cal-OES agreements, it was stated that if the duration of the response exceeds 12 hours, reimbursement for personnel and emergency apparatus shall cover the entire time of commitment. The current agreement states, if the duration of the response exceeds 12 hours and local agencies do not have an existing MOU/MOA/GBR or equivalent, reimbursement for personnel and emergency apparatus shall cover only hours worked at the deployed site.
In order to ensure the City receives full reimbursement for mutual aid deployments, staff recommends that the City Council adopt Resolution No. 24-0070 Portal-to-Portal Compensation for the City of Manhattan Beach to maintain the portal-to-portal rate on mutual aid deployments throughout California.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
After analysis, staff determined that public outreach was not required for this issue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The City has reviewed the proposed activity for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has determined that the activity is not a “Project” as defined under Section 15378 of the State CEQA Guidelines; therefore, pursuant to Section 15060(c)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines the activity is not subject to CEQA. Thus, no environmental review is necessary.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has reviewed this report.
ATTACHMENT:
1. Resolution No. 24-0070