By Richard Rainey
The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Jefferson Parish's Third District Volunteer Fire Department inflated the number of firefighters responding to alarms in a possible attempt to lower property insurance premiums in River Ridge and west Metairie, the parish attorney's office said.

Despite the phony numbers, the insurance rating remained the same. But parish attorneys recommended firing the author of any false reports and any supervisor aware of the fabrications. Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson said he also informed the district attorney's office should there be a criminal inquiry.

Although the memo does not name the person who wrote the bogus fire reports, Parish Council members and Tim Whitmer, top aide to Parish President Aaron Broussard, identified him as Eric Kramer.

"It is my understanding that the department has put him on leave until further notice," Whitmer said.

Attempts to reach Kramer were unsuccessful. Third District spokesman Jody Sanderson said Tuesday that the department had not seen the parish memo or its report and would not comment.

The Third District Volunteer Fire Department is under contract with parish government as a nonprofit corporation to protect River Ridge and the Metairie Delta area. The area has a Class 3 fire protection rating on a 1-to-10 scale, with 1 the best. Metairie and Old Jefferson, which are protected by the public East Bank Consolidated Fire Department, have a Class 1 rating.

Suspicion about the Third District's fire reports arose in September, when a representative of the Property Insurance Association of Louisiana arrived at the department's headquarters as part of a routine audit that occurs every three to five years.

During these reviews, departments submit records on how they respond to fires. If they show more firefighters responding to a scene, then they can qualify for a better rating. A better rating equals lower insurance premiums for local property owners and could improve the department's standing with the parish when the contract comes up for renewal.

When the insurance association's field representative, Kenny Weber, approached the Third District last year, department attorneys Ralph Alexis and Michael Fitzpatrick asked him to postpone his audit, according to the parish attorney's memo on the investigation. They had discovered that the electronic incident reports listed more firefighters responding to alarms than the hand-written reports at the scenes.

Weber refused to wait, according to the memo. Instead, he examined both written and electronic versions and relied on the lower numbers. Weber would not comment Monday.

"Even though it appears that manpower response reports were falsified, the Third District's . . . rating was not compromised," the parish attorney's memo says.

In September, the Broussard administration asked the Third District's board of directors to investigate. After months of waiting for the results, the Parish Council decided in February to put the parish attorney's office on the task.

"Eventually the Third District was very responsive and gave us what we needed," Wilkinson said.

He said he will meet with department attorneys Alexis and Fitzpatrick this week to discuss how to proceed. Alexis did not return a call for comment.

Many members of the Third District volunteer force are also paid employees of the East Bank Consolidated department, East Bank department spokesman George Rigamer said.

If their names appear on Third District incident reports while they were on scheduled duty with the East Bank department, they could find themselves being investigated for payroll fraud, said Councilman Elton Lagasse, whose district encompasses River Ridge.

"That's a possibility, and I guess the D.A. will just have to make that decision," he said.

Copyright 2008 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company