Supervisors approve acquisition of helicopters for sheriff's fleet

RIVERSIDE - The Board of Supervisors today approved Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff's request to purchase two helicopters for public safety operations, but declined to entertain a proposal that the choppers come equipped to double as first-strike fire suppression aircraft.

On a 4-0 vote, the board authorized the sheriff's department to move forward with acquiring two Airbus Astar AS350 helicopters, with one replacing a rotorcraft destroyed in a mishap at Hemet-Ryan Airport in August and the other taking the place of a Vietnam-era Bell OH-58 that's overdue for retirement.

The county will go to the bank to finance the acquisitions, the total cost of which comes to $11.5 million. County officials said insurance proceeds from the crashed helicopter will cover nearly $2 million, but the balance will have to be paid off using General Fund appropriations.

During a budget hearing in September, when the subject of replacing the two choppers was first addressed, Supervisor Kevin Jeffries broached the idea of broadening the sheriff's helicopters' operational capabilities to include firefighting. In documents submitted to the board, Sniff and his executive staff repudiated the concept, citing concerns about dividing the department from its main responsibility -- law enforcement.

''Although the modification of (sheriff's) helicopters for 'direct' firefighting efforts is possible with added equipment, costs and crew certification, their contribution to that effort would be minimal and would take away from their primary purpose as a tool and resource to policing operations across Riverside County that effectively combat crime and safeguard our frontline officers,'' Sniff wrote in a memo to the board.

Sniff said he and Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins ''both concur'' that the fire agency should be entirely focused on fire suppression, while the sheriff's office should remain dedicated exclusively to law enforcement, with periodic search-and-rescue functions.

Jeffries questioned the ''single purpose'' mission advocated by the sheriff.

''We lose a lot of homes during wildfires,'' he said. ''There are times when there are wildfires across the state and our resources are stripped and stretched thin. We're the fourth-largest county in the state, and we don't have a local resource to ... drop a single bucket of water on a fire? It seems reasonable to have a backup plan when things get really ugly. It seems reasonable to ask the sheriff's office to have a chopper outfitted to drop water to save homes.''

Supervisor John Benoit subscribed to the sheriff's viewpoint, citing his experience as a one-time California Highway Patrol commander and years as a private pilot.

''We want to mix assets where we can, but there are critical issues in aviation,'' Benoit said. ''We long debated in the CHP equipping helicopters with hoists, but there were weight and balance considerations. Every ounce counts.''

Benoit expressed doubt that the 100 gallons of water that might be hauled by the Airbus helicopters would be worth it.

''That's a small load when you're going to all the trouble and additional expense of putting it in there,'' the supervisor said.

Though the federal and state governments' use of water-dropping helicopters did come up during the supervisors' debate, there was no mention of the neighboring Arizona Department of Public Safety's decades-long utilization of helicopters to perform dual law enforcement and immediate fire suppression missions.

The DPS' helicopter crews are trained to, within minutes, rig their patrol choppers -- about the size of Riverside County sheriff's rotorcraft -- with ''Bambi Buckets'' that carry upwards of 100 gallons of water for targeted drops on wildland and structure fires. The choppers can draw water from ponds, pools -- even horse troughs -- to combat fires.

In his memo, the sheriff dismissed the Bambi Buckets as of ''minimal use in firefighting.''

''Our current single-engine helicopters are not designed as firefighting helicopters, and our pilots are certainly not trained to fight fires,'' he said.

The sheriff and Supervisor John Tavaglione both expressed concern that if the county had firefighting aircraft, there was a strong likelihood the state could ''seize control'' of them for its own emergencies. When Jeffries asked Undersheriff Bill DiYorio for an example of that occurring anywhere in the state, at any time, he couldn't provide one.

''I'm very disappointed we're continuing to have this silo mentality in our approach to public safety,'' Jeffries said. ''The sheriff's objections to why we can't do this or that -- it's a cultural thing. I can't win this battle from the dais. There has to be a cultural change in the administration. We need to think outside our comfort zone.''

The two helicopters will be purchased directly from Airbus. Once they're in service next year, the sheriff's department will have a total five helicopters and one airplane for public safety operations.