Copyright 2006 San Antonio Express-News
All Rights Reserved
By LAURA JESSE
San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
Three San Antonio Fire Department officials are to have a formal hearing this month to consider an ethics complaint that at least one of them accepted gifts from a city vendor in violation of the city’s ethics code, the city’s Ethics Review Board decided Tuesday.
The ethics complaint filed in November by Jerry Cortes, a firefighter, alleges that Lt. Jim Reidy accepted airfare, a hotel room, meals and gifts from Total Fire Group, a city vendor that supplied the department with bunker gear.
The complaint also questions whether Fire Chief Robert Ojeda and Assistant Chief Carl Wedige might have accepted gifts from the vendor.
While the original complaint makes no specific allegations against Ojeda and Wedige, Board Chairman Arthur Downey said their written responses did not definitively state that they did not accept gifts from Total Fire Group.
The issue arose when Reidy testified during a union trial board hearing with the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association in July that he had accepted these gifts, according to transcripts of the hearing.
During the union’s hearing, Marty Sargent, an employee of Total Fire, implicated Ojeda and Wedige when he was questioned about giving unsolicited gifts to firefighters.
“Is it common practice for the reps to provide gratuity or small tokens to city reps?” Sargent was asked, according to transcripts of the July hearing.
“We’ve built friendships with fire departments across the country, and I can tell you that never once did Jim Reidy ask us for any kind of gratuity,” Sargent said. “He never asked us for a meal, he never asked us for a hotel room; neither has Chief Ojeda, neither has Chief Wedige.”
None of the men involved in the case wanted to comment.
The city’s Ethics Code states that a city official or employee cannot solicit, accept or agree to accept a gift or benefit from a person or company that is already doing business or is seeking to do business with the city, unless the gift is of nominal value or it is a meal worth less than $50.
The code also contains a provision for accepting advance payment or reimbursement for travel in connection with official duties as long as the payments are revealed in a travel report. Those disclosure forms have to be filed with the city clerk before the travel occurs.
“There appears to be in the complaint and the responses a statement that (Reidy) did receive travel from a city vendor,” Downey said. “However, there is no report of that travel filed with the city clerk.”
The ethics board can decide a case one of three ways, Downey said. If there is enough information in the complaint and written responses to determine there are no grounds for the complaint, it can be dismissed; or if there is enough information to show the complaint is warranted, the board can investigate it more and then decide. Or if there is not enough information in the written complaint and response, the case can be considered through a formal hearing, Downey said.
Chris Steele, president of the union, said he is for a zero tolerance approach to any kind of ethical violations.
“I’m hoping they will do a thorough investigation and take it seriously,” Steele said. “We continue to this day to have radio problems, and it gives rise to the question of whether we got the best equipment or if this company was chosen because they had the better gifts.”