Lane Lees and his lawsuit against the Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District have been labeled many things, but he isn't letting that sway him from his mission - to change the way things run at the fire district and reinstate his employment there as a paramedic.
Lees has lived on the Coastside since 1972 and after working here as a firefighter for 10 years his livelihood was abruptly ended when he was wrongfully terminated by the fire district, court documents allege.
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But Lees and other firefighters with grievances against the district disagree. In fact, Firefighter/Paramedic Brent Smith (who settled a lawsuit against the district more than a year ago for mistreatment by a supervisor) wrote a letter to the board asking that they reinstate the investigation to look into charges that he says aren't addressed in Lees' lawsuit.
"My lawsuit has nothing to do with the actual events," Lees said. In the lawsuit, he alleges that the district terminated him in retaliation for allegations and complaints he made as the union shop steward. "The full reason for my lawsuit is because I was retaliated against by the fire district.
"Whether these are true or false allegations, my lawsuit is still independent," he said. "They're still obligated to investigate all these complaints."
Lees and Smith say the board is only hiding the truth by stopping the investigation - essentially, they say it's a cop-out to blame it on the lawsuit. The lawsuit merely raises the issues that Lees complained about. They claim the board is trying to cover up the new complaints and allegations that he made in the internal investigation.
"I certainly don't want to hide anything. I want everything in the open," President Tim Moran said. However, Moran was caught in a minor cover up less than three weeks ago.
A confidential memo that requested a more complete investigation from the investigator, Renee Mayne, was mailed to Moran on May 17 and he continuously failed to report updates on that matter. That was until Point Montara Fire Protection District President Bruce MacKimmie brought it up at a June 16 joint meeting between the two districts.
When MacKimmie asked about the letter, Moran denied receiving it, but retracted minutes later after Lees called him a liar in front of the board. Moran has since claimed that he didn't bring up the letter because he understood it as a confidential communication. But that still begs the question: Why not at least say that the letter was received?
"It's a shame what's going on," MacKimmie said later in a phone interview. "It sure doesn't look like they aren't without any guilt. If you're trying to hide something, you're guilty of something."
Lees summarized, "They're total reactionary. They only react to a crisis."
Smith added, "What's really ironic about this whole thing is that the people who are telling the truth are the ones that the board attacks, but the people lying to them are the ones they admire and support."
Lees takes issue with Director Dave Eufusia's claims that his lawsuit forced the decision on the board. "Dave personally knew of the pending lawsuit months and months ago and he knew of my many attempts to try to solve this administratively," he said. "They're trying to keep all these things from coming out."
Nonetheless, Eufusia and Moran say that a lot of the information in Lees' lawsuit is related to the work being done in the investigation. Smith's letter asks the board to reinstate the investigation to look into specific charges of "mismanagement, misuse of public funds, possible perjury, and filing of false information by the district in a state investigation."
Smith says the board panicked when it saw the new allegations that Lees submitted in testimony during the investigation. "They were looking for any excuse to stop this. Their way to get out of that is Lane Lees' lawsuit and that's total nonsense," Smith said. "It's really come down to a battle of egos. They know that they're wrong. The (board) is directly responsible because they refuse to make their managers accountable. They're willing to risk the department, people's jobs, the safety of this community and that's what upsets me most."
Lees said, "There's no accountability. Nobody oversees the board and the board isn't going to do anything about it. The first thing out of their mouth is a lie every time."
Moran maintains the board's credibility. "When it's all said and done, we're going to be in the clear when it's over."
Lees broke his ankle and tore a ligament while working as a firefighter in Moss Beach in 2000. Two subsequent surgeries left him on extended times of leave during 2002 and 2003, and his doctor released him to come back to work as a paramedic once he healed. Lees claims that Fire Chief James Asche never talked to him and after he asked to return as a paramedic, Asche wrote him a letter saying there was no longer a place for him in the department. He was retired out of the district at that time and hasn't returned since.
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