Fearing Lawsuits Because of Birthday Suits, City Shuns a Gift

Sidney Reade continues to receive requests for the Carmel Fire Belles’ calendar. Although it’s more than five weeks into the new year, she still sold two calendars last week.

The calendar, produced as a fundraiser, is a parody of a nudie calendar, featuring 12 middle-aged women in the buff, private parts carefully covered by firefighting equipment. The youngest model is 51, the oldest 84.

The calendar has grabbed the attention of people worldwide but drawn the ire of Carmel officials, who say it could leave the city vulnerable to sexual-harassment lawsuits.

“The sad part is that the city won’t take the money,” Reade said. Calendar sales have netted $40,000 so far.

Reade, 52, is the September Fire Belle. Featured in silhouette, she’s holding an ax and is naked except for a fire helmet.

She also happens to be a real fire chief, not in Carmel but for the neighboring Carmel Valley Fire Protection District.

The tale of the racy calendar begins more than a year ago, when Patty Ross attended a City Council meeting that focused on Carmel’s financial hardships. Ross and her friend Mary Pankonin later decided they wanted to find a way to help the city.

A few weeks after the meeting, the women saw the 2003 movie comedy “Calendar Girls,” in which middle-aged women pose nude for a calendar to raise money for medical research. The movie has sparked imitations worldwide.

The two decided to mimic the concept and pitched the idea of raising money to help pay for a $400,000 seismic retrofit of the Carmel Fire Department’s station to Mayor Sue McCloud.

“In January [2004] I said, ‘This is a good idea,’ ” McCloud said. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what’s happening in the California cities [financially].”

City officials and the women agreed on a series of photo shoots at Monterey Peninsula landmarks, but the Fire Belles later decided to take some shots at the fire station.

City officials quickly soured on the idea after learning of the change.

Rich Guillen, city administrator, said he’s just trying to protect the city’s interests. The retrofit will happen with or without the calendar proceeds, he added.

Carmel City Atty. Donald Freeman shares Guillen’s sentiment.

“We’re a public building,” Freeman said. “Suppose there would have been a fire. Suppose a group of school kids were coming by that day. I don’t know what would have happened.”

If somebody sued Carmel for sexual harassment after city officials ignored their legal advisors, “we would look very foolish defending ourselves in our court case,” McCloud said.

Although not all of the pictures were taken at the fire station, Freeman said that under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, accepting the money could make the city liable for a sexual-harassment lawsuit. He says the city has already received numerous complaints from city workers.

“In today’s world, I have found in my position, people seek a lawyer to make a buck on whatever they can,” Freeman said. “Sexual harassment sticks with an agency for a long period of time.”

McCloud said that the city sought a second legal opinion and that an outside firm also advised the city not to accept the money.

McCloud believes the city has seen an unfair share of negative exposure from the calendar. The Fire Belles have granted media interview requests from as far away as Germany.

Paula Weber, the December Fire Belle and most senior of the models at 84, recently flew to New York to appear on a local television talk show.

“It’s all been done in good faith. Gosh! It’s for the good of the community,” said Weber. “It’s such a blow.”

No matter the outcome, the Fire Belles say the experience has developed an unbreakable bond.

“The negative brought us together,” Ross said. “I feel like I’m going to have 11 good friends for the rest of my life.”

What will happen with the money is unclear. The Fire Belles created a nonprofit organization, the Friends of the Carmel Firehouse, to hold the money after the city rejected it. The belles say giving the money to another charity would be inappropriate because the calendar was created to help the Fire Department.