LB Fire Chief Alan Patalano Announces Retirement; Exiting Chief Had Publicly Expressed Unease With Mayor-Mgt. "Proportional Budget Reductions" (re 4 Person vs. 3 Person Engine/Truck Staffing) Last Year

(March 21, 2012, updated 3:47 p.m.) -- Long Beach Fire Chief Alan Patalano -- who last year publicly expressed unease with City Management/Mayor directed "proportional budget reductions" (that led to proposed reductions from four persons to three persons on fire trucks and engines) -- has announced his retirement.

The fire staffing reductions from four to three persons didn't take place (see below)...but Chief Patalano's retirement clears the way for the City Manager to name a new Fire Chief, who under a new MOU with the LB Firefighters Ass'n has the authority to alter the current "deployment model" (minimum four sworn fire suppression personnel) in "case of emergency circumstance, including but not limited to a regional disaster, catastrophe, or declaration of fiscal emergency." (In July 2009, the Council declared a "fiscal emergency" by simply reciting a series of "whereas" statements regarding declines in taxes and Sacramento budget revisions.

In a release today (Mar. 21), city management says:

Long Beach Fire Department (LBFD) Chief Alan Patalano announced his retirement earlier today, after 22 years of service to the City of Long Beach. Chief Patalano, a 27-year veteran of the fire service, was appointed Long Beach Fire Chief in May 2010. He is the 16th Chief in the LBFD’s 115-year history. Prior to assuming the Long Beach Fire Department’s top post, Chief Patalano served in multiple positions on the Fire Department’s Command Staff, including: Deputy Chief of Support Services, Deputy Chief of Operations, and Deputy Chief of Fire Prevention.

"I am extremely proud to have served as Chief of the Long Beach Fire Department," says Chief Patalano. "The women and men who wear the Long Beach Fire Department uniform are truly the best in their class."

During his career, Chief Patalano was involved in multiple initiatives, including the development and implementation of the Basic Life Support (BLS) Transportation Program, a program that has been successful in providing emergency medical services to Long Beach residents in times of need. Chief Patalano successfully and effectively managed the department through two years of difficult budget reductions, implementing the necessary reductions while continuing to manage fire resources on a daily basis to provide the highest level of service possible to the Long Beach community. He also led the reinstatement of the Joint Fire and Police Arson Investigation Task Force, which has led to the arrest of several arsonists in Long Beach.

City Manager Patrick West says, "Chief Patalano will be greatly missed, and I'm incredibly appreciative of his service to the City and this community."

As Chief Patalano transitions to retirement, he looks forward to spending more time with family and friends. The City’s process to select a new Fire Chief will begin shortly, and consider both external and internal candidates.

The announcement comes one day after an item came to the City Council last night, agendized by Councilmembers Gerrie Schipske, Rae Gabelich and Steve Neal that asked City Management to "Disclose Response Rates of the Fire Department Since Cuts in Services Were Enacted." The agenda item stated:

Over the past several budget cycles, the Mayor and City Manager have recommended to the City Council that reductions in fire services be enacted. These cuts included "rolling brownouts" -- taking an engine out of service at a different station each day - or lightforce duty at some stations.

Additionally, daily staffing has been at an all time low level as shown in the follow data:

2007 - 133 firefighters
2008 - 137 firefighters
2009 - 137 firefighters
2010 - 133 firefighters
2011 - 122 firefighters
2012 - 117 firefighters

When the City Council asked if response times would be impacted by the cuts, we were assured that response times would remain high.

Subsequently, firefighters report that as a result of these cuts, response time has been slowed in some instances where staff and equipment must travel across the city due to an engine out of service at another station.

The City Council needs to evaluate actual response time information to determine whether or not the cuts to the fire department have been detrimental to the public safety of our residents.

During colloquy on last night's Council item, City Manager Pat West said that Long Beach had [paraphrase] none of the issues that had afflicted the Los Angeles Fire Department [which had led L.A. officials to believe its response times were better than they actually were]. LBFD brass stated at least night's Council meeting that they would provide the detailed information requested by Councilwoman Schipske.

As reported last year by LBReport.com, Chief Patalano was asked at an Aug. 4, 2011 community meeting organized by Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske if he personally would support reducing Firefighter staffing in Long Beach from 4 to 3 persons on up to 9 Fire Engines [as proposed Aug. 2 by Mayor Bob Foster and City Manager Pat West in their FY12 City Hall budget proposal] if he were not subject to budget constraints ["proportional reductions"]. Chief Patalano told a crowd at the public meeting that he would not do so and cited multiple reasons why.

The staffing reduction was ultimately not implemented for FY12 when LB City Hall and the LB Firefighters Ass'n reached agreement on a new contract -- which specifies four person staffing BUT allows the Fire Chief discretion on staffing if the City has declared a "fiscal emergency."

In an Oct. 26, 2011 article, LBReport.com quoted the actual MOU text (to which a majority of rank and file Firefighters agreed):

Each Fire Engine and each Fire Truck shall be staffed by a minimum of four sworn fire suppression personnel. In case of emergency circumstance, including but not limited to a regional disaster, catastrophe, or declaration of fiscal emergency, the Fire Chief shall have the discretion to alter the deployment model during the duration of the crisis.

As LBReport.com pointed out, the City Council declared a "fiscal emergency" on July 21, 2009 by simply reciting a series of "whereas" statements that included "declines in property and other taxes" and Sacramento budget revisions that could reduce City Hall's expected revenues by double-digit millions. .

Below is a transcript of now-exiting Fire Chief's Patalano August 2011 exchange at Councilwoman Schipske's community meeting in which he was asked about four person versus three person fire staffing:

Q: If you weren't up against budget constraints, would you personally ever consider going to a 3 man unit? Chief Patalano: No. We have been here before. For anybody that's been watching budgets in this city, watching the Fire Department do this, it would be really hypocritical for me to stand up here and go 'down't worry; three is the way to go. because I have stood before Council, I have stood before a lot of the people in this room, and advocated the importance of a four person Engine Company. I firmly believe in a four person Engine Company. What I don't have is the budget to support fifteen 4 person Engine companies.

[Questioner follows up, Chief responds]...We're a large metropolitan area. We have a high call volume. So when we're running calls, the tasks that we have to do. that are already there, that are already finite, and a four person crew can do that, or it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody, a four person crew can do something faster than a three person crew.

Now is that for every single call and the answer is no, not for every single call. Can you operate on some calls with three? Absolutely you can. But for your most critical calls, it's better to have more people there. You can get more done faster.

There are some reports, I think the Firefighters Association supplied you with some information that talked about the National Institute of Science and Technology, also the NFPA [Nat'l Fire Protection Ass'n] standards and the report done by a consultant that we had come in and look into fire protection, that the four person staffing is more effective.