State to Take Over Control of Beaches From L.A. County

Ending an increasingly testy dispute with Los Angeles County over who will pay for lifeguard and maintenance services along much of the Santa Monica Bay, state authorities said Friday they will end a 40-year arrangement and assume beach operations beginning next week.

In a letter to the County Board of Supervisors, Douglas P. Wheeler, secretary of the Resources Agency of California, said the state will assume lifeguard and maintenance operations at Malibu, Manhattan, Dan Blocker, Point Dume, Redondo, Royal Palms, Las Tunas and Topanga beaches on May 3.

“This action is being taken to ensure that there is no lapse in public safety or maintenance on the beaches,” Wheeler stated. “It is necessitated by the county’s abrupt disruption of the 40-year-long working relationship between the (state Department of Parks and Recreation) and the county. The state will deliver the highest level of public safety and service in a cost-effective manner.”

The beaches are state-owned but have been operated by the county since 1956 under an agreement that was scheduled to expire in 2012. Terms of the agreement provided that the beaches were to be operated at no cost to the state.

But facing a possible $1-billion budget deficit next fiscal year, county officials had been demanding that the state help foot part of the ongoing operations costs and had voted to discontinue services May 2. Running the eight state-owned beaches cost the county about $4.3 million a year.

The state, in turn, also pleaded poverty and argued that agreeing to the county’s demands would set a bad precedent. It offered instead to hand title of the beaches to the county, but the county balked at the proposal.

As a result, county lifeguards--a much-vaunted group because of their fictional exploits on such television shows as “Baywatch”--will cease patrolling some of the most glamorous Southern California beaches and will be replaced by state lifeguards.

County officials were not immediately sure what effect the change will have on staffing levels at the Department of Beaches and Harbors, which assigns maintenance crews, or at the county Fire Department, which oversees lifeguard services.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose jurisdiction includes some of the northern county beaches, said he would have preferred to see the state and county come to some agreement, but he argued that the county’s demands were legitimate.

“I am not willing to totally underwrite the operation and maintenance of state beaches. It’s the county teetering on the brink of financial ruin, not the state,” he said. “The bad news is that county personnel, who we think are the best at what they do, won’t be providing the services.”

Even as negotiations continued in recent weeks, California officials established a Santa Monica Bay District, headquartered in a makeshift Manhattan Beach office. Dan Priest of the state Parks and Recreation Department said the state wants a smooth transition from county to state control.

The state hopes to have about 80 seasonal lifeguards in place by May and more than 100 by midsummer. The state already has purchased lifeguard trucks, beach cleaners, paddleboards and other equipment.

Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the county Department of Beaches and Harbors, said Friday he is sorry to see the county’s historical role end.

“It’s a real surprise,” he said. “It’s regretful. That’s all I can say.”