Panel Urges Hawthorne to Keep Its Police, Fire Services

A Hawthorne citizens’ panel has recommended against contracting with the county for police and fire services, saying new taxes and cutbacks in city expenditures could cover the costs of hiring additional officers and firefighters.

The 10-member panel, formed after the defeat of a property tax measure to raise money for police, presented its report to council members Monday night. The group’s recommendations came as the council began hearings on its proposed 1991-92 budget, which includes $28.1 million in general fund expenditures. The council, which appointed the panel but is not obligated to act on its recommendations, expects to discuss the report at its July 8 meeting.

“I think somebody needed to remind the city this is 1991, and you need to (review) some of the things you are doing . . . to find you could be much more efficient,” said panelist Zarifa Stricklin, assistant vice president of Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center. “I think they’ve got great managers and bright people, but I see a lot of doing what worked yesterday, but not enough of being proactive.”

The council convened the committee in December, one month after Hawthorne voters narrowly defeated Proposition D, a property tax measure that would have raised $2.5 million for the city’s Police Department. Panel members were asked to study the Police and Fire departments to satisfy critics who lobbied against the measure, saying the county could provide both services more cheaply.

The panelists spent six months reviewing documents and interviewing city department heads, employees and officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and Fire departments. Several members rode with Hawthorne police officers and firefighters to see their work firsthand.

Stricklin said that although the panel was unable to determine exact county costs of police and fire protection services, information from other cities indicates the city could save at least $4 million a year by disbanding its own Fire and Police departments and contracting with the county. In fiscal 1990-91, the city spent $10.7 million on police services and $5.6 million on fire services.

However, those savings would be more than offset by the city’s obligation to pay off the retirement benefits packages and accumulated vacation and sick leave of its fire and police employees, which together would cost about $7.5 million, according to the panel’s report.

In addition, the city still has a fiscal obligation to the South Bay Regional Radio Communications Center, the 911 program that dispatches firefighters and police to emergencies in Hawthorne and other South Bay cities, the report noted. Under the five-year contract signed by the city last year, Hawthorne would be required to continue paying $2 million a year for the next four years, even if the council decided to contract with the county for police and fire services.

Those costs, as well as indications that the county’s response times are as much as 3 1/2 minutes slower than those of the city’s own Police and Fire departments, convinced panelists that the city should retain its own firefighters and police officers.

But Martha Bails, president of Hawthorne Against Taxes, said she doubts the panel seriously considered the benefits of contracting with the county. “It sounds like the (Hawthorne) Police Department wrote the report,” she said.

The panel, however, outlined ways in which the city’s Fire and Police departments could become more efficient.

The report recommended that fire officials screen their emergency calls more carefully “to allow real emergencies to be dealt with.” They also need to upgrade their billing system, which now collects only 20% of the department’s outstanding bills, the report said.

The panel also recommended that the Police Department assign more civilians to routine office duties to relieve officers for patrol, and that a substation at Hawthorne Plaza be moved to Moneta Gardens, a high-density and high-crime neighborhood in the southeast corner of the city.

It also suggested that the city cut back on the number of people who are allowed to use city cars, reduce the number of managers per employees (the ratio now is one manager to every five employees) and consider raising taxes and other fees.