The Honolulu City Council on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a bill that would require the city to keep lifeguards on the beach from sunrise to sunset, a policy that Council members and ocean services personnel said is long overdue.
Currently lifeguards are on duty from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
More than a dozen city lifeguards spoke in favor of the proposal, saying it would make nearshore waters safer for swimmers and beachgoers and boost morale for ocean safety personnel.
North Shore lifeguard Jason Bitzer said a majority of the rescues he makes occur before or
after the time he’s scheduled to work.
If there is no lifeguard on duty, ocean safety is left to the public to handle. Just as city officials wouldn’t expect the public to investigate crimes or put out fires, they shouldn’t expect beachgoers to conduct rescues in dangerous waters, Bitzer said.
“As my kids grow older, I really want professionals there,” Bitzer said. “I know I can depend on Ocean Safety to do the job right.”
City Ocean Safety Chief John Titchen said he’s completed a draft plan that would gradually ramp up lifeguard operations over the next five years.
The plan involves adding eight rescue watercraft, or jet skis, over four years and hiring at least 15 new recruits annually, he said. That would add between $2 million to
$3 million annually to what’s now a $15 million annual ocean safety budget, he said.
Bill 39 calls for Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration to “establish a program that provides for extended lifeguard services that shall encompass all daylight hours, from dawn to dusk.”
Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who introduced the bill, said both the police and fire departments have grown during her seven years on the Council, but not the Ocean Safety Division despite an increasing number of drowning deaths.
Meanwhile, she said, the administration is moving forward with a $770 million redevelopment plan for the Blais-
dell complex when something as critical as lifeguard service has not seen any expansion.
Pine’s bill does not set a timeline for meeting the goal. But she pointed out that she pushed through a resolution three years ago calling for extended lifeguard hours and has seen little action on the directive on the part of the administration.
Ralph Goto, an adviser to the U.S. Lifeguards Association and the city’s one-time ocean services director, said city leaders have discussed the idea of full daytime coverage for years. “It’s much needed, it’s been needed for years and we have an opportunity this year to make this happen.”
With the number of annual arrivals on Oahu are approaching 10 million annually, Goto said, “the city has an opportunity to provide an example for the rest of the nation in terms of lifeguard coverage. We have the best lifeguards in the world.”
The city earlier this year began a pilot program extending lifeguard service at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve to all daylight hours and that has worked well, said Tanner Haytin, an Ocean Services lieutenant there.
“I can testify first-hand that this works,” Haytin said. There has been only one “major incident” since then, while employee absenteeism and injuries have dropped, he said. “The overall morale and performance of our lifeguards is up.”
With four-day, 10-hour shifts instead of five-day, 8-hour shifts, “we have more time to recuperate on our days off which gives us an edge to do a better job.”
Emergency Services Director Jim Howe said the administration supports the bill in principle. But what’s being asked would require “a big extension from the current level of services. We need to do this in a well-thought-out and reasonable manner. We want to expand in a really thoughtful way.”
The matter now goes back to the Council’s Public Safety and Welfare Committee for more fine-tuning.
