| | Published March 12th, 2014
| Supervisor Criticizes MOFD Board
| | By Nick Marnell | | |
A prosaic Feb. 25 Board of Supervisors meeting was jolted when chair Karen Mitchoff lashed out at the Moraga-Orinda Fire District board of directors.
One of the frequently mentioned public complaints uncovered by fire consultant Fitch and Associates was that the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District needed a change in its governance model; the Board of Supervisors acts as the ConFire board of directors. "When I hear comments like that, I take them to mean that we're not doing a good job," said Mitchoff. "And I resent that." She then brought up the MOFD board. "That is a perfect example of a special district with a poor governance structure," she said.
Mitchoff later explained her remarks.
"I was specifically referring to the MOFD board members who gave Nowicki the money that he got," she said. "You shouldn't make more money in retirement than you did the day before you retired." In 2008 the MOFD board approved an amendment to fire chief Peter Nowicki's employment contract that allowed the chief to sell back various accrued benefits and count the dollar amount toward his pension.
"Those were well-intentioned board members who did not know what questions to ask and consequently made a poor decision," said Mitchoff. She blamed the MOFD board's action as one of the main reasons for the failure of Measure Q, the 2012 ConFire parcel tax initiative. "It was because of the poor public perception of public employee pensions," she said.
"Any reference to Nowicki is accurate," said MOFD board president John Wyro who, along with Fred Weil, sat on the board both then and now. "We learned something from it. But that was five years ago, and right now we have other things that we are trying to work out." The district is in labor negotiations with its firefighters; the board declared an impasse in January and on March 7 announced that it accepted the union's offer to enter into mediation.
Rather than spend time speculating over changes in the district's governance structure, Supervisor Candace Andersen also chose to keep the focus on current events. "We need to take care of the business in front of us before we go into that sideways discussion," she said.
MOFD fire chief Stephen Healy attempted to put things in perspective. "I don't consider the Board of Supervisors to be any better or worse than our board," he said, "or vice versa."
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA