Fire board reverses earlier decision By MATT KAPKO Half Moon Bay Review February 09, 2005 Abandoning previous rationale, the Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District Board of Directors has decided to reopen an investigation of management practices. The board halted the investigation in June 2004, soon after it began, when the district's general legal counsel said it would overlap with issues relating to former firefighter Lane Lees' lawsuit against the district. That reasoning no longer exists now that the district has multiple lawyers offering contradictory advice. The legal counsel representing Chief Jim Asche and the district in Lees' lawsuit has argued that complaints of mismanagement aren't related and shouldn't be considered in Lees' complaint, the labor union wrote in a letter to the board. After that revelation, labor leaders began pressing the board to reopen the investigation and quickly convinced the board to change its earlier position. The board unanimously voted to revive the investigation at its Feb. 3 meeting. Much has transpired since it was halted last June and labor leaders want to see a response to more recent problems. The union's battle with management came to a boiling point when firefighters issued a vote of "no confidence" against Asche in late September. Because the board has taken no action against the chief, the union says it is becoming increasingly "disillusioned." "The firefighters feel that you as a board have failed to show any reasonable reason for stopping the investigation as you did," the union wrote in a letter to the board. Although the board is now reversing its approach, labor is still skeptical. "When we agreed back in whatever it was, the beginning of last year, we got the same speech from the board," Union Shop Steward John Riddell told the board. Despite the board's formal commitment, some directors' support for the investigation is still wavering. "Personally, I'm still dead set against it," President Jerry Donovan said after the meeting. "You're damned if you do and damned if you don't," he said. His responsibility to taxpayers, labor and management are sometimes at odds with each other, he explained. "Believe me, we want to clear this up and end it as quickly as anybody," he said. Director Dave Eufusia is taking a somewhat different approach. "I absolutely feel that changes need to be made," he said a few days after the meeting. "I'm hoping this management audit will identify causes and solutions." The board agreed to quickly support and implement whatever suggestions come out of the investigation and to establish a timeline for the report's completion. Home