WANTED: New CSD General Manager Return Of Missing Fire Truck

Oh where, oh where, did our fire truck go?

Posted: November 15, 2013

New CSD General Manager wanted.

      At a Special Board Meeting called by the Newberry Community Services District on Tuesday, November 12, 2013, the Board after closed session announced the "termination of the General Manager."  The CSD will be posting notices once again to fill the position.

      It was further announced that Kathleen Ridler has been hired to act as the Board's Secretary.

Missing fire truck.

      What raised eyebrows was the announcement that the Newberry Springs Volunteer Fire Department (NSVFD) is missing one of its fire trucks; and it wants it back!

      The 2011 International 4,000 gallon water tender had been placed on consignment sale with Fire Trucks Plus of Ontario, California.

      With no reported buyer over many months, the NSVFD decided to return the water tender back into service.  In sending personnel to Ontario to retrieve the truck, the vehicle was discovered missing.

      It was then learned that the truck had been previously sold and allegedly a twenty-five thousand dollar down payment had been allegedly embezzled by the company's owner(s) to keep the company financially afloat.  A police report by NSVFD has been filed.

      Where the NSVFD tanker truck is now, isn't known at this time.  It is said, but not substantiated, that the buyer is a fire department in the state of Colorado and that the vehicle may have been moved there.

      The good news is that the truck's title is still held by the Newberry Community Service District.  The bad news is that the NCSD has a $25,954.92 bank payment due on the truck on December 4, 2013, with no truck to benefit the community.  It is hoped that the truck can be returned without having gone through a chop shop.

      Fire Trucks Plus is believed to be owned by a husband-wife team who are reported to have individually filed bankruptcy under Chapter 7.

Lack of open transparency.

      This latest Newberry CSD fiasco is currently in the hands of attorneys to sort out.  The Newberry CSD Board, in again trying to maintain an arm's length separation from its CSD's induced problems, is once more paying it's Board attorney taxpayer money to resolve another problem.  This attorney, as well as the NCSD Board, refuses to reveal the amount of the legal fees costing the public for these individual special services.

Brown Act violations at nearly every meeting.

      The CSD Board meeting on November 12 was held as a Special Meeting.  Under the California Ralph Brown Act, the term "Special Meeting" has legal significance.  It is a middle-ground meeting between a Regular board meeting and an Emergency meeting.

      A "Special Meeting" is exclusively reserved for an urgent special agenda item that must be addressed by a board prior to the next General Meeting.

      During the last NCSD Board meeting, the Board was again in violation of the Brown Act by stacking the "Special Meeting" agenda with non-special, general agenda matters.
 
 

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