O.C. Fire Union’s Funding Idea Denied

A November showdown between Orange County firefighters and sheriff’s deputies over the sharing of sales tax proceeds became likelier Tuesday after the Board of Supervisors rejected a last-minute request to negotiate a compromise.

The county can’t afford to divert any money for firefighting that already is committed to law enforcement, supervisors said.

As a result, the Assn. of Orange County Professional Firefighters is expected to turn in enough voter signatures as early as today to qualify a measure for the November ballot that would force supervisors to share a portion of state sales taxes for firefighting.

The half-cent sales tax, passed by California voters in 1993 as Proposition 172, was earmarked for law enforcement and firefighting.

For the last 10 years, however, Orange County supervisors have allocated 80% of the money to the Sheriff’s Department, with the rest to the district attorney’s office. The tax has generated about $1 billion for Orange County, with the county currently receiving about $200 million a year.

The firefighters’ union, supported by the Orange County Fire Authority, has consistently asked for a share of the revenue. The union last week offered to hold off submitting signatures for the ballot measure if supervisors agreed Tuesday to open formal negotiations on a new split.

The union board will meet today and decide how to proceed, union Vice President Dan Young said. Union leaders so far have indicated they want to go ahead with the fall initiative, “and once we cross that line, there’s no going back,” Young said.

The union says it has more than the 67,000 signatures necessary to force a ballot measure.

Chris Lowe, a Placentia councilman and chairman of the Fire Authority, said current funding -- including general city revenue and a portion of property taxes -- wouldn’t be enough to pay for fire and paramedic services in coming years.

“Our financial picture has become extremely compromised,” said Lowe, one of three city representatives who signed the initiative. Any new revenue would replace outdated equipment and add firefighters, he said.

Several supervisors rejected that notion Tuesday, saying giving more money to firefighters would deprive other county services. If the refusal triggered a fall showdown between unions representing deputies and firefighters, so be it, they said.

“Caving in to the threat of a [political battle between public safety unions] isn’t very good public policy,” said Supervisor Chris Norby. “It’s a dangerous precedent.”

The firefighters’ initiative would devastate funding for his department, Sheriff Michael S. Carona told supervisors. It calls for diverting increases in Proposition 172 proceeds until firefighters receive 10% of the total annual take.

In real terms, that would mean losing $25 million a year, enough to cover the costs of 250 deputies, Carona said.

Firefighters deserve some sales tax money, he said -- as long as any money from the Sheriff’s Department was reimbursed with other county funds.

“Should fire have been considered? The answer is yes,” Carona said. “But this is an over-exaggeration of what they believe they need.... The way it’s heading right now is we’re setting up a gauntlet between sheriff’s and fire, and that’s not acceptable.”

Should the county be forced to transfer money to firefighters, the loss would be shared among all services performed by the county’s 18,000 employees, Norby said. There are about 750 firefighters working for the authority, which provides fire and paramedic services to the county and 21 cities.

Should the issue go before voters, “I think 18,000 employees can make a case to voters that any raid on our money is wrong,” Norby said.

The loss would affect the county as a whole, whereas the Fire Authority covers only a portion of the county, he added. Fullerton, for example, might see cuts in health and social services provided by the county, but it would not benefit from money for the Fire Authority because it is not a member.

Board Chairman Tom Wilson suggested the county consider giving firefighters a portion of Proposition 172 money beginning in three years and accumulating gradually over the next seven years until they were receiving 5% of the total proceeds. No other supervisor supported that approach Tuesday.

The campaigns generated by a ballot initiative would probably cost the two sides $1 million each and produce a close but divisive result, Wilson said.

The union says more than 80% of recently polled voters support directing more sales-tax money to firefighters. Proposition 172 was approved by voters within days of the devastating Laguna Beach fire and on the same day Malibu was scorched in a wildfire in 1994, and supporters campaigned that firefighters deserved more money.

“I question whether they really need the money,” Supervisor Charles V. Smith, the board chairman, said Tuesday. He also protested discussing the idea in public, saying it was tantamount to negotiating in public with the firefighters union.

The question of divvying money between law enforcement and firefighters is best left to voters, Supervisor Jim Silva said.

“Then the taxpayers would have a voice,” he said.