Fire chief says he improperly signed training documents By MATT KAPKO Half Moon Bay Review February 09, 2005 Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District Chief Jim Asche admitted late last month he has signed state fire certificates without verifying their authenticity. At a Jan. 27 grievance hearing for one of his employees, Asche told the district's board of directors that he's "signed off a couple of Firefighter 2 applications for certification improperly." Asche admitted to inconsistencies, adding that he should have scrutinized the documents more thoroughly. "Unfortunately, in my trust in my employees, when somebody brings me something and goes, 'chief, I've completed the training, would you sign the document?' I trusted my employee and I signed it. Simple as that," Asche told the board. "From this point on, however, you know, they will all go back and be thoroughly verified because obviously that trust has come back to bite me," he said. Asche admitted to improperly signing the state documents, which, if falsified can be considered perjury, during Capt. Steve Cardosi's grievance hearing before the board. Cardosi claimed discrimination and unethical behavior by chief officers in his pursuit of the state certificate. Cardosi told the board he faced significant delays in getting his Firefighter 2 certificate approved by Asche and Training Chief Paul Cole. He perceived discrimination in the process because, while he'd completed the required training, numerous colleagues had the same certificate signed off without doing the work, he told the board. While some firefighters had their certificates signed in haste, he was consistently thwarted by superiors every time he brought up the issue, he said. "When I brought that up to Chief Asche he told me, 'Do you know how many things land on my desk every day that I have to sign and put my name on?' I said, 'Nope.' And he goes, 'I can't read them all,'" Cardosi said. "There is a severe problem regarding a lack of consistency and ethics when it comes to the treatment of district employees, especially in regards to training. I want to be part of the solution and not really remain part of the problem by being silent and ignoring my own feelings," said Cardosi, who first came to the district in 1998. "From my experience there has been nothing but hardship stemming from favoritism and inconsistency and discriminatory treatment since I've been here," he said. "I think employees of the district are no longer willing to put up with it and that's why the morale is low." As the chief responsible for all employees' training, Cole shouldered some of the blame too. "Any and all inconsistencies in any training program ... they're mine. I'm the training chief. I mean, I'm responsible for it," Cole told the board. "(Cardosi) brings up a compelling history of how he felt he was treated differently and it was never intentional to treat him differently." Asche said he was committed to change. "I trust my employees and I respect them. When they bring me something I expect that they're brining me something that they've checked out. Have I learned from this? Obviously. All certification requests from this point forward will go through the training department to verify that all that's been done," he said. "It may slow the process down a little bit, but, in fact, you know, I've learned my lesson on that. I've been burned, burned by my own employees." Change can not come soon enough for Cardosi, who's been pursuing the certificate since 1999. "We're public servants. We shouldn't have to aspire to be honest," Cardosi said. "We should be honest and if we're not honest we shouldn't be doing this." Director Dave Eufusia sees a pattern in a department plagued by allegations of mismanagement. "I believe there's a lot of inconsistencies and some of it I consider unprofessional in the way it was dealt with," he said, adding that he's previously said these problems would continue if not addressed. He blames the administration for the lapses in communication and inconsistencies. "Trust is like a double-edged sword in this thing," Board President Jerry Donovan said later. John Boggs is the lawyer who settled a lawsuit against the district in 2003 and is currently representing former firefighter Lane Lees in his lawsuit against the district. He said he sees a clear pattern that points to further losses for the district's taxpayers. "The whole issue of treating people differently ... has been the cause of the majority of their problems over there," Boggs said. "This is not just a one-time thing - this is a pattern in practice," he said. In the end, the board disagreed with Cardosi's allegations of discrimination and unethical behavior, but did grant some of his demands for resolving the grievance. The district says it has developed a policy to ensure the proper processing of certifications and plans to conduct an independent investigation to verify the accuracy of certificates already acquired. The board agreed to reimburse Cardosi for some of the costs associated with his Firefighter 2 certificate. Cardosi's name has become familiar worldwide - and not because he is a Coastside firefighter. He recently rose to prominence as the jury foreman in the Scott Peterson double-murder trial. Home