{"id":407456,"date":"2010-03-09T11:28:41","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T16:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f76\/special-report-proposed-fire-department-reductions-40563\/"},"modified":"2010-03-09T11:28:41","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T16:28:41","slug":"special-report-on-proposed-fire-department-reductions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/407456","title":{"rendered":"Special report on proposed fire department reductions"},"content":{"rendered":"
= SPECIAL REPORT ON PROPOSED FIRE DEPARTMENT REDUCTIONS =
\n<\/font><\/b>March 8, 2010
\n<\/font>Dear Friend:<\/p>\n

It has come to my attention that there has been some misunderstanding
\nabout certain proposed reductions in the Fire Department as part of the
\nCity\u0092s efforts to close the $212 million budget shortfall. <\/p>\n

We received messages from community members in Porter Ranch, Granada
\nHills and West Hills voicing concern about a proposal from the L.A. Fire
\nDepartment to reduce the BLS (Basic Life Support) ambulance to 12 hours a day at Fire Stations #8 in Porter Ranch, Station #18 in Granada Hills, and
\nStation #106 on Roscoe Blvd. in West Hills (which is in District 3 but
\nserves part of our area).<\/p>\n

I sincerely understand this concern. As an LAPD Reserve Officers, I
\nserve as a first responder myself, and the last thing that I would
\nsupport is a cut that would affect emergency services.<\/p>\n

However, it has been incorrectly stated that this was my proposal. This
\nproposal was made by the Fire Department, and was brought forward to the
\nPolice and Fire Efficiencies Working Group as one of the means to meet
\nthe goal set for budget reductions in the Fire Department.<\/p>\n

When the Fire Department presented this package of proposed reductions,
\nFire Chief Millage Peaks stated that he did not want to do this, but
\nthat it was the \u0093easiest to suggest.\u0094 I served as the moderator of
\nthe Police and Fire Efficiencies Working Group and the group forwarded
\nthis proposal as part of several options. The City Administrative
\nOfficer then created a report recommending that proposal to the City
\nCouncil. It was not my proposal. In fact, the Fire Chief has full
\nauthority over Fire Department deployment and could do this now without our approval.<\/p>\n

The Chief’s proposal states that Fire Stations #8, #18 and #106 will
\nlose the BLS (Basic Life Support) ambulance for 12 hours a day at a time
\nduring which there are the lowest number of calls.<\/p>\n

Station #8 gets only 2.2 calls a day in total, and less than one call
\nper day during the affected time frame. Station #18 gets 3.8 calls per
\nday and 1.4 calls during the affected time frame. Station #106 gets 2
\ncalls per day and less than one call during the affected time frame.<\/p>\n

The engine and the ALS (Advanced Life Support) ambulances from Station
\n#96 in Chatsworth, Station #70 in Northridge, and Station #87 in Granada
\nHills will continue to cover the Porter Ranch and Granada Hills area as
\nthey have. The West Hills area will continue to be covered by Station
\n#28 in Porter Ranch and #105 in Woodland Hills.<\/p>\n

Finally, there has been some concern raised in the community about the
\nFire Department wanting to retain the Battalion Chiefs\u0092 Staff
\nAssistants whose functions include driving them to fire calls, and a
\nfeeling that they should be cut before reducing ambulance services.<\/p>\n

The Fire Department and the Firefighters Union (UFLAC) both have fought
\nvigorously against taking away the Staff Assistants. The City Council
\nwill consider the issue of whether we should eliminate service of 10
\nambulances for 12 hours a day in very low-use areas, or eliminate the
\nfull-time Staff Assistants serving Battalion Chiefs.<\/p>\n

I anticipate that eventually both will be gone, at least temporarily.
\nBut I am interested in hearing the community\u0092s point of view in the
\ndebate at this time. <\/p>\n

I hope this clarifies my position, and I look forward to hearing your
\nthoughts. <\/p>\n

\nSincerely, <\/p>\n

\nGREIG SMITH
\nCouncilman, Twelfth District <\/div>\n

<\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

= SPECIAL REPORT ON PROPOSED FIRE DEPARTMENT REDUCTIONS = March 8, 2010 Dear Friend: It has come to my attention that there has been some misunderstanding about certain proposed reductions in the Fire Department as part of the City\u0092s efforts to close the $212 million budget shortfall. We received messages from community members in Porter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4296,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}