Film Office Merger

For those of us who have the privilege of serving Los Angeles as appointed representatives of Mayor Richard Riordan, it is our job to initiate policies to make city government function better for everyone.

That’s why I wholeheartedly agree with your editorial (“Keeping a Hometown Industry Home,” Sept. 9), joining with the mayor and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in urging the Los Angeles City Council’s approval of a merger of the city and county film permitting offices.

Location filming often crosses jurisdictional boundaries. One-stop permit shopping for the film industry would be as helpful to it as one-stop permitting would be for builders, manufacturers and other job creators in our city. Streamlining these oversight operations should be a goal of government at all levels.

It was with this goal in mind that the L.A. City Fire Department, through the mayor’s urgings and our commission’s direction, and in collaboration with the film industry, devised a new and innovative “spot check” safety program to replace the city’s filming oversight program in place for the past 60 years. We currently require a fire safety officer to be present around the clock at virtually all filming locations in the city.

Our new program will provide for periodic inspections at locations where the public is not present in meaningful numbers or where there are no open flames or pyrotechnics used. This innovative program will substantially reduce the film industry’s location costs (the industry pays for fire oversight) while still preserving public safety.

DAVID W. FLEMING

Vice President

Board of Fire Commissioners

City of Los Angeles