On the evening of June 24, Mayor Lester Friedman held the first ‘Les is More’ event since coming into office in April. Friedman’s guest at the City Hall Municipal Gallery was Beverly Hills Fire Chief Greg Barton, who spoke to community members about the Fire Department’s plans for the unhoused and the new nurse practitioner program. Barton also addressed general concerns about fire safety for community members.
Friedman began by expressing appreciation for the work of the city’s firefighters before Barton shared the success of the fire department’s latest recruitment drive. “The new assistant chiefs, training officer and fire marshal just started about a month ago. They are outstanding people,” he noted.
Barton said the hiring of a dedicated fire marshal was a conscious decision, as it was important for the community to have a consistent, recognizable, and go-to fire person in this role. Previously, the fire department would rotate different firefighters through the marshal position.
The fire department now oversees the city’s Human Services Division, which provides wraparound services to help unhoused individuals through various programs, as well as social safety net resources to elderly and low-income residents. For example, the Division offers long-term housing through an agreement that has permanently housed around 18 people so far, as well as mental health assistance, job assistance and social programs for those in transitional housing. Outreach teams also work to get unhoused individuals off the streets and obtain IDs, Social Security numbers and transportation to families in other cities. “The goal is to offer help to anyone who needs it,” Barton said.
“It’s cost effective, but more than that, it’s efficient,” Mayor Friedman said of the measures.
Barton also updated residents about the nurse practitioner program, which is funded by the City Council. He first informed attendees of the issues the program seeks to overcome. “We were finding some people were calling 911 a lot and becoming ‘super users.’ So, how do we address that?”
The program has both a reactive and proactive component. Reactively, nurse practitioners are dispatched to respond to medical calls where possible instead of sending patients to the ER, such as providing stitches at home. This will accordingly reduce ambulance trips and ER wait times.
The proactive side of the program aims to mitigate the effects of the ‘super users.’ According to Barton, these are individuals who repeatedly call 911 for non-emergency situations.
“Paramedics visited one person alone 18 times last year, who didn’t need emergency medical help,” Barton shared. “This takes the paramedics who are there for life-critical services out of service to respond to somebody who really just needed a little bit of guidance in the medical system instead.”
Under the new initiative, nurses would proactively communicate with super users and administer general medical advice ahead of time, in hopes of reducing their reliance on 911 calls. “We’ve helped numerous people with this. The biggest part is it frees up the ER to provide service to critical calls instead,” Barton added.
On another topic, Ted Green, who oversees Government Affairs at the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, asked the fire chief about his expectations for wildfires over the summer and the role the Beverly Hills Fire Department will play in fighting wildfires not only in Beverly Hills but also in surrounding communities and hillsides, too.
Barton responded that forecasts show below-average fire behavior in the area over the next three months. He also shared some of the specific measures being taken in Beverly Hills such as utilizing detailed microclimate data from the city’s local weather station, which has been based in Franklin Canyon since 1999. Having this localized weather station allows the fire department to closely monitor fire danger and conditions specific to Beverly Hills. “We think the best way to prevent a wildfire from coming through Beverly Hills is to be proactive and be very strong on prevention. So that’s why we’re doing that right now,” Barton said.
Barton was also asked about the Fire Department’s plans to address concerns about fire safety in older multifamily buildings in Beverly Hills. He shared that the fire department inspects multifamily dwellings regularly to address any fire safety concerns and relies on residents to report any issues they notice as well. Additionally, the fire department plans to open a full-time rescue station to help maintain their fast three-minute response times as the city grows.
With Fourth of July celebrations on the horizon, Barton reassured residents that the Fire Department would remain vigilant through the hiring of extra patrols to uphold the city’s no-fireworks rule. “If you hear anything, please call us and let us know but be aware a lot of it will be echoing up from the Canyons. Very few fireworks will come from the city of Beverly Hills,” Barton said.
Friedman also shared details about the AskBH service, which has been introduced in the city. The initiative offers members of the community an opportunity to write questions or raise concerns that will be addressed within 24 hours and can be accessed by visiting https://beverlyhills.org/1232/askBH.
