Lifeguard shortages have cut LA County pool hours in half this summer

With schools out and the sun soon awakening from its June gloom slumber, parents and kids heading to their  nearest Los Angeles County swimming pool should first check the pool’s open hours — or they may be left high and dry.

The 25 seasonal county swimming pools have cut their operating hours in half due to shortages of lifeguards, the county reported.

Normally, the county pools operate six days a week in summer. But because there are not enough lifeguards to go around this year, the county is staggering operating days and hours to spread staffing at each facility.

Half of the pools will be open Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the other half will operate Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, explained Hugo Maldonado, operations manager who oversees the aquatics program for the county Department of Parks and Recreation.

“We are experiencing a significant lifeguard shortage. As a consequence, our seasonal pools will be open on a staggered schedule. Instead of six days a week, it is three days a week,” he said on Monday, June 12. The summer schedule begins the week of June 19.

Year-round pools will remain operational six days a week, including the new Greater Whittier Regional Aquatic Center and the San Fernando Regional Pool. All county pools are closed on Sundays.

On days when a summer season pool is not open, a county resident can find a year-round pool nearby, or a pool with the opposite operating schedule that’s open, he said.

The department also staffs lifeguards at three county park swim beaches. At Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, hours will be curtailed to Monday through Friday. Swim beach hours at Castaic Lake and Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale will be open seven days a week and are not impacted, he said. Splash pads are also not affected.

To check out county pool hours and programming such as classes and water polo, go to: https://parks.lacounty.gov/aquatics/.

When lifeguard numbers dropped, the department limited days of operation in order to keep enough lifeguards on duty and not shutter any pools. “We want to make sure our pools are safe for people visiting them,” Maldonado explained.

The shortage is a result of several factors.

First, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, closures of high school pools, private swim clubs, and cancellation of dive and swim teams and YMCA pool programs in 2020, 2021 and part of 2022 dried up key recruitment sources that the county used to find lifeguard applicants, Maldonado said.

“That valve was shut off for two years,” he said.

The department has begun actively recruiting lifeguards year-round, he said. The county also launched its  Lifeguard Ready Training program that recruits young people and trains them by matching them with an instructor. If they excel in swimming, they can apply for a lifeguard position, he said.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which staffs the 158 lifeguard towers along 72 miles of coastline from San Pedro to the Ventura County Line, is not coping with a lifeguard shortage, said Capt. Pono Barnes, who oversees the department’s lifeguard division.

“The ocean was still open during 2020 and 2021,” he said. “So we didn’t have that ripple effect like they (Parks and Recreation) did with county pools. In fact, we were busier than ever, so we were still certifying people (for lifeguards). We were at full tilt.”

Another factor shrinking the number of county Department of Parks and Recreation lifeguard applicants is wage inflation. An entry level lifeguard for the county department earns $19.28 an hour. “You can get a job at a fast-food place or Starbucks and make a comparable wage,” Maldonado said.

A lifeguard must be at least 16 years old and able to swim 500 yards in 10 minutes, according to the county department’s website. Applicants also must pass a test.

It takes 16 to 31 weeks to become a county pools lifeguard, and a county report called that “an especially cumbersome process for teenagers.” The Board of Supervisors passed a resolution on June 6 to “decrease the length of the hiring process” and address “recruitment, training, salary, and salary competitiveness.”

A report on how to streamline hiring and possibly raise the hourly rate will come back to the board in early September but won’t affect the 2023 season. Each year, the county provides more than 100,000 swim lessons and serves 210,000 people in recreational swimming.

The county reported that lifeguard shortages are nationwide: “From New York to Seattle, jurisdictions are reporting the impact of the lifeguard shortage to their aquatic operations,” according to the resolution.

“Being a pool lifeguard is a great summer job – especially for a young person — and we need to make sure the salaries we are offering are competitive,” said Fourth District Supervisor and Board Chair Janice Hahn in a prepared statement. “It’s also an important job, but the hiring process shouldn’t take months.”