Job Status Raises Tide of Resentment Among Lifeguards

In all the years that Brian Reynolds has worn the bright red swim trunks that mark him as a Los Angeles County lifeguard, he has developed the second sense to know which swimmers are most likely to get into trouble and has honed the skills to handle emergencies.

He also has become a bargain to taxpayers because, as one of a large number of so-called recurrent lifeguards who are essentially day-to-day contract workers, he guards for lower pay than his permanent counterparts and receives no benefits. Moreover, he is available to fill in whenever Mother Nature swells the ranks of beachgoers from Malibu to San Pedro.

Although beachgoers couldn’t know it, most of those on the lifeguard rolls are not permanent county employees.

Now the currents of a changing county lifeguard system are washing over Reynolds and other recurrents. They feel they are being squeezed out of work--or relegated to duties beneath their qualifications--by recent policies that shift more hours, responsibility and training to the smaller group of permanent guards.

The changes have bred resentment within the normally close-knit county lifeguard corps, widely regarded as one of the best in the nation and made famous around the world by the “Baywatch” television series.

“Relations between the permanents and the recurrents used to be smooth, but now they are tense, strained,” said Reynolds, a trim and fit 45-year-old who usually works the Neptune Tower on the border of Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach.

Another recurrent guard put it this way:

“We used to work side by side, doing everything they did, and never had a problem. The public got excellent service, and now, all of sudden, we’re made to feel we’re not good enough.” Like most others interviewed, he asked that his name not be used for fear it might further jeopardize his dwindling work opportunities.

The changes, which include restricting recurrents’ training opportunities and removing them from rescue boats, surfaced publicly--and angrily--in a recent policy revision that resulted in overtime pay of thousands of dollars for some permanent guards while recurrent guards sat home by the phone or went on the unemployment rolls.

Recurrent guards’ complaints to county officials sparked an audit by the county auditor-controller, released last week, which criticized as excessive the 20 to 25 hours a week in overtime that some permanent guards have been working. Use of permanent guards on overtime instead of recurrent guards on straight time cost taxpayers an extra $172,668 last year, the audit found.

The county Fire Department, which oversees the lifeguards, concurred, and agreed to take steps to reduce the overtime by next month. It will use six recurrents who are aspiring to the permanent corps and give them additional training.

But the overtime issue is just one part of the picture that emerges as officials try to cope with the growing demands placed on lifeguards.

“There has been an evolution,” said county Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman, whose department took over lifeguard operations from the Department of Beaches during a county budget crisis in the mid-1990s.

“In many respects, the lifeguards are on the front line of public safety at our beaches,” Freeman said. “They are often the first respondents” in such emergencies as a beachgoer’s heart attack or a nasty collision on a bicycle path.

That requires more costly training and bigger responsibilities, officials say.

The result is a sharpening delineation between the permanent staff of 115 guards and the 540-member recurrent corps, whose members say they are increasingly shut out because of their job status, not because of their skills and experience.

The system has worked well and kept costs down, officials say, by employing a relatively small permanent staff year-round and supplementing it with recurrent guards as needed: for flooding or other emergencies, to fill in for sick or vacationing permanent guards, or whenever unseasonably warm weather or big surf draws unexpected throngs to the shore.

Most recurrents--including college students and teachers--work during summers and school vacations. But some, including Reynolds, work throughout the year, often paying for county-run training courses to keep their skills on a par with those of the permanent guards, who get their training free and while they are on the time clock.

The county operates four rescue, or Baywatch, boats, and staffs 24 fully equipped main lifeguard stations along its 31 miles of beach, plus as many as 140 one-person towers on the busiest days.

“Recurrents are the backbone of the system; we couldn’t do this without them, and that will always be the case,” said Lifeguard Capt. Steve Moseley, who is spokesman for the lifeguards division and president of the union that represents both sets of guards.

That is not to say, however, that lifeguard officials believe recurrents should be used in the same ways as the permanent guards. Moseley said experience and training vary widely among the recurrent guards, which can become a problem as the job becomes more complicated.

Some recurrent guards aspire to become part of the permanent staff, which has occasional, eagerly sought openings. But others prefer to trade higher pay and benefits for the flexibility of being able to take off work on short notice. (Permanent lifeguards earn $31.35 an hour on average, while recurrents get $23.95 on average, according to the audit.)

But that is the problem, said lifeguards Chief Randy DeGregori.

“Recurrents tell us when they want to work rather than the other way around,” DeGregori said. “It’s not in the county’s best interest to invest a lot of money, training and time in them, so therefore we invest in the permanent staff” and prefer to use them in the main stations and on rescue boats.

But some recurrents say it is shortsighted to exclude them, especially the more experienced ones who are available year-round.

“We play a huge, integral part in the whole scheme of things. . . . If the county loses many of the recurrents, people are going to feel it in the springtime, when they start going to the beaches after a winter off and get caught in riptides,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds, married and the father of two, has been guarding the beaches almost without a break since he hired on to put himself through college. He has pulled every duty and undergone all the required training and more, and has more experience than some permanent guards.

But, though he works steadily, he does not want to go on the permanent roster because he likes his freedom and doesn’t need benefits because his wife’s job provides them.

He and other recurrents who do not aspire to permanent status will not be among the six to be used in helping reduce permanent guards’ overtime starting this spring. Reynolds said the beach-going public would be better served if at least some of those other recurrents were also given more hours.

“I’m happy to be able to do this job,” Reynolds said, “and I think the county is fortunate to have guys like me they can call on. I’d like to see it stay that way.”