Grand Jury investigating Anderson fire district

Following a meeting with representatives of the Shasta County Grand Jury on Thursday, Aug. 6, Anderson Fire Protection District board chairman Keith Webster said he expects a grand jury report of the district to be released in 2010.

"The grand jury will continue to interview people and make a report," Webster said.

The grand jury had, he said, requested a copy of the fire district's budget.

Webster otherwise declined to say what questions the grand jury members had asked of him or what transpired during the meeting, as he said he signed a form not to divulge what was discussed.

Webster's Thursday meeting with the grand jury follows a June 25 fire district board vote to "invite the Grand Jury to look into (the district's) activities, not because of any identified irregularities but to demonstrate its openness to public scrutiny and to improve district policies and procedures if the Grand Jury makes recommendations for changes," according to a past district meeting agenda.

Meanwhile, two Anderson firefighters will have the first shot at filling the fire district's top administrative position, the district board ruled at its regular meeting Tuesday, Aug. 11.

Acting Fire Chief Andy Nichols and Battalion Chief/Fire Marshall Howard Fincher will interview with board membes for the job during a special closed session meeting set for Aug. 17.

The board voted unanimously, with Butch Schaefer absent, to wait until after the interviews to decide whether to advertise the fire chief position for candidates outside the AFPD.

"We should interview them first to determine if either are qualified," board chairman Keith Webster said, adding that if the board did not promote either to fire chief, the board would then advertise the position to outside candidates.

Promoting one of the two in-house chiefs and not filling the vacated position could save the district enough money for extra full-time fire fighters, board member Paul Bosetti said.

"We don't need three chiefs for three fire fighters," Bosetti said.

The $70,000 saved from the position could fund two full-time fire fighters and part of a third, excluding benefits, Webster said, adding it was extremely close to the district's goal of hiring three additional firefighters.

"It would get us over two, and that would be the closest we've ever been," Webster said.

The additional personnel would allow for two firefighters to go on call rather than one.

The work load from the potentially vacated position would be delegated among captains, Webster said.

"We have too much overhead. It's just like the city," Webster said, referring to the city's Assistant City Manager position that was left vacant when Dana Shigley was named as Acting City Manager.

Also during the Aug. 11 meeting, board members awarded a bid for a new water tender to Placer Fire Equipment in Sacramento for $173,413. Funding for the water tender came from a $103,000 grant from Redding Rancheria and an anticipated $70,000 payment from Regency II in lieu of the district's share of Regency II property tax payments.