At the October 21 meeting, The Moraga-Orinda Fire District (MOFD) Board of Directors opted to extend interim Fire Chief Pete Nowicki's contract until November 19, the date a new Chief is hoped to be in place. Nowicki's contract was set to expire on October 31, 2009.
Board Member John Wyro said that the length of Nowicki's new contract will leave room for the interim Chief to work with the new Chief to ensure a smooth transition. "We are completing our background investigations and negotiating a compensation package," said Wyro. "If both are successfully completed we will be able to make an offer of employment." Wyro also said that an official announcement of a replacement for Nowicki will not be made until the negotiation process is complete; that announcement is expected this week.
The effort to hire a new Chief has been extensive. Working with executive recruiter Avery Associates since April, the Board eventually received 56 qualified applicants. Narrowed down to a field of six, a Stakeholder group, made up of community members, local police and fire chiefs, and MOFD employees, then added their voices and opinions during the process of whittling-down the pool to the final four candidates. The Board of Directors then spent time during the last month interviewing those candidates.
During the meeting, the Board also approved participation in a state-created program designed to offset California's borrowing of property tax dollars from MOFD. On July 29, 2009, the State of California enacted an emergency suspension of Proposition 1A, which had protected property taxes from being borrowed by the State. With the suspension, the State can now borrow eight percent of allocated property taxes from local governments and special districts. The State, however, also created a program that would allow communities and districts to recover those funds, known as Prop 1A Securitization.
With the Board's approval, MOFD will, in essence, sell their debt to California Statewide Communities Development Authority (CSCDA), a nonprofit organization. CSCDA would then sell bonds to the public to cover the cost of MOFD's debt. Bondholders would receive their payment, with interest, from the State at a later date. Sue Casey, Financial Services Manager for MOFD, said that the payments from CSCDA would coincide with the State's take of property taxes so there would be no evident decrease in funding.
Board Member John Wyro said that the length of Nowicki's new contract will leave room for the interim Chief to work with the new Chief to ensure a smooth transition. "We are completing our background investigations and negotiating a compensation package," said Wyro. "If both are successfully completed we will be able to make an offer of employment." Wyro also said that an official announcement of a replacement for Nowicki will not be made until the negotiation process is complete; that announcement is expected this week.
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA