SAN CLEMENTE : Grand Jury Critical of Fire Department

A long-awaited Orange County Grand Jury report has strongly criticized the city Fire Department and its former fire chief for poor judgment in allowing firemen to moonlight in jobs that carried a potential conflict of interest.

The report issued Thursday found to be “essentially true” several other allegations of poor department practices occurring before 1989 that included the painting of ex-Fire Chief Thomas Dailey’s personal boat inside the fire station. Dailey stepped down as chief during the investigation last year, although he denied his resignation was related to the grand jury probe.

Dailey also allowed Administrative Chief Gene Begnell, then a fire marshal, and another fireman to take a second job installing fire sprinklers at a San Clemente plumbing supply company. Both employees inspected sprinkler systems in the city as part of their jobs, setting up “the appearance of a conflict of interest,” the report says.

“People in such roles really need relatively close scrutiny to make sure they don’t constitute a conflict,” said grand jury Foreman Grant Baldwin, who said he is a former fireman. “The conflict-of-interest potentials here were certainly a significant part of this report.”

City Manager Michael W. Parness said he had “mixed emotions” over the report, issued about 18 months since a complaint was filed with the grand jury by a former Fire Department employee.

“I’m very pleased that their work is finally done,” he said. “It has been like a black cloud over our heads for over a year and a half now.”

Parness said that nearly all of the problems brought out by the grand jury have been addressed by current Fire Chief Jim W. Knight, who succeeded Dailey last year.

The most serious charges against the department, that defective fire sprinklers were overlooked by department inspectors, were found to be untrue by state fire marshals and district attorney investigators.

The grand jury questioned several of Dailey’s administrative decisions, saying the ex-chief’s policies led to poor morale within the department.

When several employees complained about the moonlighting at the plumbing firm by two firemen, Dailey failed to respond with a thorough investigation, the report says.

In addition, the report found the Fire Department had not thoroughly collected hazardous-material information from local businesses and had failed to adequately follow up on the enforcement of citations for fire safety violations written by the department’s fire suppression team.

The use of a fire station and an off-duty fireman to paint Dailey’s personal boat was also criticized by the grand jury.

But Dailey, who now works for the San Mateo Fire Department, said the boat was taken to the station without his knowledge when it began to rain one day. When he learned what had happened, he said he was “embarrassed by the situation.”

Dailey said he never spoke to the grand jury about the practices of his department. If he had, he said “. . . that would have helped clear up a lot of speculation.”

Parness disagreed with some of the grand jury’s conclusions but admitted that “they did identify incidents where there were bad judgment and policy.”

Baldwin said the city still needs to take steps to prevent future problems, including implementation of a formal conflict-of-interest policy for city employees.

Parness indicated that formal conflict-of-interest rules for employees are being developed and should be ready for the City Council to vote on by next month.