Saturday, Jul. 02, 2011
By MIKE NORTH
mnorth@mercedsun-star.com
Allegations of unearned overtime, animal cruelty and a lack of supervision within Merced County's fire department were all included in the 2010-11 Merced County civil grand jury report released Friday.
After reviewing the report, a Cal Fire official said the grand jury is misinformed and the report is not entirely accurate.
Every year, a grand jury made up of 19 residents inspects local government agencies throughout the county and addresses complaints of mistreatment, misconduct or inefficiency.
Its members found "sufficient evidence to support the claims regarding inappropriate time sheet activity resulting in excess and unearned overtime pay" in Cal Fire, according to the report released Friday.
Merced County contracts with Cal Fire for firefighting services.
Michelle Allison, a law and justice committee member in the grand jury, said members are sworn to secrecy and aren't at liberty to discuss their investigations.
Because of how station shifts are set up it's impossible for no overtime to be incurred, the report said.
The overtime arose because of too few positions and too many fires, said Nancy Koerperich, Madera, Mariposa, Merced Cal Fire unit chief.
The findings in the grand jury report occurred before Koerperich started with the Merced County unit May 2.
Overtime did go over the department's budget at one point, but it has been corrected.
"It wasn't unearned," she said. "It was an operational need where they used overtime to meet it instead of trying to fill it with another position."
An anonymous complaint submitted to the grand jury claimed the department violated the county's "weapons in the workplace" policy on animal cruelty.
"The grand jury did find that a battalion chief inappropriately and without authority asked a fire engineer to bring a pellet gun to the station in order to shoot crows and dogs wandering onto the property," according to the report.
The use of any weapon, including guns, is prohibited on county property unless it's a requirement of the job, according to Section 14 of Merced County's Human Resources Rules and Regulations.
Though a battalion chief did ask a fire engineer to bring a pellet gun to shoot animals, nothing came from the request, Koerperich said.
"Nothing was shot on the property," she said. "There's not even proof that the engineer followed through with the request."
Another concern brought up in the grand jury report was a lack of supervision in the department. The grand jury recommended more management training for the department.
Though it's possible that factions of the department have had supervision problems, Koerperich was surprised by the grand jury's suggestion of more management training.
"When I read that, I was highly concerned that that was the recommendation," she said. "I can assure you, Cal Fire has an extensive supervision and management training program -- it's called CDF University."
Though Koerperich can't take issue with the report since she wasn't around during the investigation, she does think it was mostly unfounded.
She does, however, see the report as an opportunity to re-examine the department's management style and training courses.
Reporter Mike North can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or mnorth@mercedsun-star.com.
Read more: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2011/07/02/1954587/cal-fire-takes-issue-with-merced.html#ixzz1R10DxeFc
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