Who we are
Founded in 1976 as a California nonprofit corporation, the Los Angeles County Fire Department Association of Chiefs (AOC) supports and develops the Department’s safety-series chief officers. The Los Angeles County Employee Relations Commission certified the Association as the sole representative of employees in Bargaining Unit 605 on October 27, 2025. The AOC negotiates and enforces its members’ wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions, represents them in employment matters, invests in their development as leaders, and carries on the traditions of the chief officer ranks.
Our mission
The Association of Chiefs exists so that the front-line chief officers of the Los Angeles County Fire Department are represented with a strength equal to the responsibility they carry. That representation rests on members who participate, stand united, and negotiate collectively on wages, hours, and working conditions, and who extend to every rank of the Department the leadership, direction, and counsel their positions require. The AOC secures for every chief officer, active and retired, a voice in the decisions that affect them and a place among peers who support one another and prepare those who will follow. Through its members it strengthens the fire service as a profession and the quality of the fire protection and life safety services the Department provides to the people of, and visitors to, Los Angeles County.
Since 1976
The Association was incorporated to provide leadership, direction, and counsel for all members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, to maintain and improve the wages, hours, and working conditions of its members, and to promote quality fire protection in the public interest. Those purposes remain the foundation of the Association’s Constitution and By-Laws.
What we do
Represent. As the sole bargaining representative for Bargaining Unit 605, the Association negotiates and enforces the wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions of every chief officer.
Protect. Members are represented in investigations, interviews, discipline, and grievances, with legal counsel when it is needed.
Develop. Legal briefings, leadership conferences, and mentorship prepare chief officers for the realities of public safety command and for the leadership they owe to every member of the Department.
Unite. Monthly meetings, annual conferences, holiday parties, sporting events, department-wide training, and the traditions that keep the command staff one team.
Membership
Active membership is open to every LACoFD chief officer in Bargaining Unit 605. Associate membership is open, on the Executive Board’s approval, to other Department employees whom no other organization represents. Members who retire in good standing may become Active-Retirees by applying within five years after retiring. Chief officers who retired earlier, as members in good standing of the Association or of the former Chief Officers Club, may apply within five years after the restated Constitution and By-Laws takes effect. The Association is governed by an Executive Board elected by the members and meets monthly.
