Auditor Calls Garden Valley Fire Chief's 10-Year Contract 'Outrageous'
GARDEN VALLEY (CBS13) - El Dorado County's auditor says a fire chief's 10-year, $1 million contract is an outrage.
"No one in the public sector gets a 10-year employment contract, it's unheard of," Auditor Joe Harn said. "This guy's not Peyton Manning. It's an outrageous contract."
Garden Valley Fire Protection District Chief Bill Dekker's 10-year deal will pay him more than a million dollars and Harn says it's guaranteed with no out clause.
CBS13 tried to ask Chief Dekker about it but no one answered the door of his home Wednesday night.
Harn says the contract is like a poison pill — no one wants to stomach it. And Harn believes that's exactly why the fire district agreed to it.
"It's my opinion this contract was executed with the sole purpose of making it more difficult for the Garden Valley Fire Protection District to merge with other districts," he said.
The district's chairman of the board wouldn't go on camera but said on the phone that Harn is flat-out wrong.
Richard Smith told said the board gave Dekker a 10-year deal because it matched the nearby Georgetown fire chief's deal.
But Harn says Georgetown has a clause to kill the contract if it merges and Garden Valley has no such clause in Dekker's deal.
The 2008 grand jury found a disproportionate number of fire districts in El dorado County. And that if all nine consolidated to one, they could save more than a $1 million a year in administrative costs alone.
"We're reorganizing, we're consolidating, as is everyone in the Western world," Harn said.
