TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Robert D. Espinosa, Fire Chief
SUBJECT:Title
Report on the Potential Impacts of Fire and Medical Services in Manhattan Beach If Hermosa Beach Contracts Fire Services with Los Angeles County Fire Department (Fire Chief Espinosa).
DISCUSS AND PROVIDE DIRECTION
Line
_________________________________________________________
Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends City Council provide direction concerning the impacts to fire services in Manhattan Beach if the City of Hermosa Beach contracts fire and medical services with the County of Los Angeles.
Body
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
There are no fiscal implications with this action.
BACKGROUND:
In March 2014, then City Manager John Jalili approved a shared-cost study with Hermosa Beach to analyze information and provide findings and recommendations for emergency responses in a joint operational area. This study was originally scheduled to be presented in January 2016 at which time, the City Council requested a comprehensive study session on fire services. Staff attempted to schedule this study session several times but due to calendaring conflicts, the presentation has been delayed.
At the July 19, 2016 Manhattan Beach City Council meeting, staff was directed to provide a report on the impacts to fire services in Manhattan Beach if the City of Hermosa Beach contracts fire and medical services with the County of Los Angeles. The following presentation provides information on the significant interdependence of service delivery between the two cities as well as the potential impacts of Hermosa Beach contracting their services to the County of Los Angeles.
As background, the Cities of Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach have been very interdependent on each other to provide fire and medical aid services for many years.
Since 2010, Manhattan Beach has relied upon Hermosa Beach almost daily for back up coverage through automatic aid for medical aid calls when our paramedic rescue ambulance or other resources were not available. Additionally, Manhattan Beach Fire Department alone does not have the resources to provide an effective firefighting force, but relies on agreements with our South Bay partners. On structure fires, our response model calls for four fire engines. Hermosa Beach is usually “our third” fire engine on working fires. It should also be noted that Hermosa Beach shares a common dispatch center with Manhattan Beach as well as an automatic aid agreement. By contrast, other firefighting resources from the South Bay communities are delayed in arriving on scene in Manhattan Beach because of disparate dispatch centers or lack of automatic aid agreements.
At the direction of the Hermosa Beach City Council, Hermosa Beach staff provided recommendations to solve long standing concerns on the effectiveness of the Hermosa Beach Fire Department. On January 9, 2016 Hermosa Beach Interim Fire Chief Pete Bonano presented the Hermosa Beach City Council an issue paper titled Fire Services Delivery. In his report Chief Bonano provides four options for the Hermosa Beach City Council to consider to continue effective fire services to the community; 1) continue to develop and implement the recommendations of the joint services study between Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach and evaluate a shared Administrative Consolidation, 2) contract fire services to a neighboring agency, 3) create internal administrative positions, including three Hermosa Beach Battalion Chiefs positions, 4) maintain status quo, a model that the Interim Hermosa Beach Fire Chief indicated is not sustainable. The Hermosa Beach City Council directed their staff to pursue Option #1, discussions with Manhattan Beach and research option #2, contract services with adjacent fire agencies.
At the March 26, 2016 Hermosa Beach City Council meeting Fire Chief Bonano presented a Delivery of Fire Services report. Hermosa Beach staff provided a cost analysis of contracting services and a cost for increasing the number of positions in the Hermosa Beach Fire Department. The Hermosa Beach City Council directed Hermosa Beach staff to create a citizens advisory committee to assist the City of Hermosa Beach in the delivering of the message on whether to rebuild the Hermosa Beach Fire Department or contract with Los Angeles County.
As a result, Hermosa Beach has requested a Los Angeles County survey for fire services. At the time of the writing of this staff report the survey report had not been made public. Hermosa Beach officials expect the Los Angeles County Supervisors to approve the report and make available to the public in 4-6 weeks.
DISCUSSION:
If Hermosa Beach contracts with Los Angeles County for fire services it could affect our ability to provide effective levels of firefighting and emergency medical resources in the manner we do today, impacting response times, emergency dispatch operations, timely access to adequate resources for our community, and the continuity services in the South Bay.
In addition to an automatic aid agreement, the two cities have agreements for equipment and apparatus sharing, personnel sharing, and dispatch services. These long standing agreements exist to ensure our communities receive timely and professional services. For example, the information below describes exchange of automatic aid services between 2010 and 2015:
• Number of Emergencies- Hermosa Beach responded to 2,838 emergency incidents in Manhattan Beach, while Manhattan Beach responded to 1,795 incidents in Hermosa Beach.
• Number of fire resources or vehicles- Manhattan Beach requested fire units through automatic aid from Hermosa Beach 3,252 times. Manhattan Beach reciprocated 2,637 times.
• Number of times resources were needed- Hermosa Beach unit(s) arrived at emergency scenes in Manhattan Beach 1,694 times while a Manhattan Beach unit(s) arrived in Hermosa Beach 1,407 times. (This, the number of times an automatic aid unit actually arrived on scene of an emergency, reflects the greatest statistical demonstration of need and interdependence in the current service delivery model).
IMPACTS/POLICY CONSIDERATIONS/NEXT STEPS:
There will be challenges to the services the City of Manhattan Beach has become accustomed to with Hermosa Beach if the County is contracted to provide fire services, including:
• Los Angeles County and Manhattan Beach have different dispatch centers, thus eliminating the existing advantage of automatic aid from a shared dispatch facility.
• Manhattan Beach can transport patients with our ambulances while Los Angeles County has private ambulance contracts. This can delay transport of patients, if private ambulances are not available and delays our paramedic resources from returning to service after a medical call without transport reimbursement.
• When the Los Angeles County fire units are unavailable, it is unclear the demand this will place on Manhattan Beach to backfill service calls in Hermosa.
To review and address these and other concerns, the staff recommends we immediately explore the following:
1. Potential service models in which the two cities can maintain the status quo for fire and medical related service, or a version thereof. For example, we could implement a joint BLS ambulance program, develop common response goals and performance measures and research a shared command and training model.
2. Service models that could improve services through practical cooperative agreements. These could include dropping response borders and dispatching closest units to all emergency responses or determine what, if any services Manhattan Beach can contract to Hermosa Beach.
3. New substitute and/or augmented partnerships to maintain service levels to our community and begin a dialog with those service providers in the event Hermosa Beach contracts fire and medical services to Los Angeles County. This includes agreements with El Segundo, asking Los Angeles County to expand their traditional automatic aid agreements, or contract our BLS ambulance service to Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Staff is also working on finding a date to hold a larger and comprehensive discussion/study session with the City Council regarding fire services. Staff is currently looking at the fall for this larger study session.
Attachment:
1. Hermosa LA County Impacts PowerPoint Presentation