Fire district responds to Grand Jury report

Both the current and former fire board chairpersons agreed with the heart of the recommendations made in the Grand Jury's report on the Anderson Fire Protection District released last week.

The report centered on the district's handling of placing former chief Joe Piccinini on administrative leave.

Marsha Kelley agreed with all of the recommendations, but she differed on some of the Grand Jury findings, specifically that the board should have fired Piccinini, thus avoiding the resulting legal costs from accepting his resignation and sealing the investigative report.

"I truly believe we could have spent a lot more money if we just fired him," Kelley said.

Not only did arranging for Piccinini's resignation prevent legal hearings allowing for Piccinini to respond to the allegations against him, it also secured the district a release of liability from the former chief, district legal counsel Mike Fitzpatrick said.

"It saved the district thousands of dollars," Fitzpatrick said.

Grand Jury Foreperson Dale Trudeau disagreed.

"I can't see he (Piccinini) would have had any legs to stand on if he'd have been fired based on numerous allegations (that were) backed up in numerous ways," Trudeau said in a telephone interview July 1.

Fitzpatrick disagreed with other findings in the report as well and wondered why he wasn't interviewed.

"It's not really grand and its not really a jury if they don't question a key witness," Fitzpatrick said.

"Normally we don't interview attorneys," Trudeau said, adding that the committee interviewed each of the fire district boardmembers as well as fire district staff.

"I think the Grand Jury did a fair job, and there's lots for the new board to learn from this whole process," said Keith Webster, who chaired the board during the investigation of Piccinini.

Trudeau confirmed a typo in the report, clarifying that the fire board did indeed follow counsel's advice by asking for the chief's resignation.