San Clemente Responds to Conflict-of-Interest Report

Responding to a county grand jury report about conflict-of-interest cases in the Fire Department, the San Clemente City Council on Wednesday voted to send a formal letter to the jury outlining steps the city has taken to correct the problems.

In a letter to grand jury Administrator Mary Hennessey, Mayor Joseph Anderson said the city did not realize it was required to respond formally within 90 days of the report, which was issued on June 30, 1991. He apologized for the late response.

“I believe the Fire Department is responding well to the issues identified in the grand jury investigation,” Anderson wrote in a June 26 letter. “The final report correctly identified a number of decisions that demonstrated poor judgment. However, the analysis also correctly concludes that no malice or intent of criminal activity was demonstrated by city employees.”

The investigation leading to the report began in late 1989, when a former fire inspector complained about two moonlighting department administrators, who were installing emergency sprinkler systems for out-of-town businesses. As part of their official duties, the two employees inspected sprinkler services in San Clemente, including those installed by their employers and competitors, the report found.

The grand jury also criticized then-Fire Chief Thomas F. Dailey for not doing anything about the conflict. Dailey resigned in 1990, although he denied his decision was related to the grand jury investigation. The two department administrators have ceased their moonlighting.

In response to the report, the department now requires employees to submit requests for outside jobs to the fire chief, who will review them for any possible conflicts. The city is also in the process of reviewing its conflict-of-interest and ethics codes. The grand jury had recommended that the city adopt a conflict-of-interest and ethics code and have it signed by all employees in the Fire Department.

“We have what we need in place,” City Manager Michael W. Parness said. “What we’re working on now goes well beyond that.”

The new codes are expected to be complete next week, he said.

The city did, however, criticize the “inordinate amount of time” it took the grand jury to issue its report after the district attorney’s office concluded that no crimes had been committed.

“The reputation of the Fire Department and the character of good people was injured, in my opinion, unreasonably, due to the grand jury’s failure to respond in a timely manner to public allegations of wrongdoing,” Anderson wrote.