By Michele Ellson
The Contra Costa Times
ALAMEDA, Calif. — City officials say they’ve curbed Fire Chief David Kapler’s practice of using the city’s gas pumps to fuel his personal vehicles and that they are making changes to avoid a similar situation in the future.
Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant said Kapler still will be allowed to fill up his Honda Ridgeline truck, which the city specially outfitted with a radio, lights and sirens for his official use in lieu of a city-owned vehicle.
“The chief will only be using city gasoline for the truck, and he and I will be discussing the appropriate action and reimbursement of any other fuel used these past months,” Gallant wrote in an e-mail response to a media inquiry.
Kapler came under fire this week after pictures surfaced showing him fueling a blue BMW coupe at a city fire station. Kapler said his employment agreement with the city permitted him to use the station’s pumps to fuel his personal vehicles, but critics claimed that doing so violated city and firehouse rules.
Gallant said her predecessor, Debra Kurita, gave Kapler a verbal commitment allowing him to use the city’s pumps to gas up the Honda Ridgeline truck the city outfitted for his official use. She attributed Kapler’s more liberal interpretation of the verbal agreement as a miscommunication. Kurita could not be reached for comment.
"(It) was a miscommunication between the two, probably due to the brevity of it and the rush to get an offer letter finalized. It was obviously missed in the offer letter,” Gallant said.
Kapler’s written 2007 employment agreement shows a $195,702 base salary and a $250 a month car allowance, but there is no mention of gas use.
Gallant said Kurita ended the city’s past practice of allowing employees to use city vehicles for personal business more than two years ago.
Kapler is apparently the only management employee in the city with the right to fuel his personal vehicle at the city’s expense, though Gallant said she may seek to renegotiate his employment deal.
Gallant said city leaders are already working to produce a standard compensation plan for all of Alameda’s top managers that more clearly and equitably spells out compensation and benefits. She said she has initiated a citywide audit of fuel use that will include the city’s fire stations, which should be completed in about a week.
She also hopes to replace the paper logs used to document fuel use at fire stations with an automated system.
Firefighters said this week they have seen Kapler use the department’s gas to fuel up a blue BMW coupe on several occasions, including Saturday, when they filmed him. They said Kapler signed the station’s fuel log with his initials and his radio identifier, writing that he used 11 gallons of gas, which they also documented with a photograph.
“It definitely didn’t look like he was going on official business,” said one of the witnesses, who said they saw a female companion in the car with Kapler on Saturday.
One firefighter said Kapler previously had been seen filling his truck but Saturday marked the first time they had seen him fill up another vehicle at Station 1, which sits at the corner of Park Street and Encinal Avenue. An AM/PM gas station is on the opposite corner.
Another witness said Kapler was seen filling up personal vehicles four or five times since he became Alameda’s fire chief in October 2007, including filling the BMW at Fire Station 4 on Bay Farm Island as late as 11:30 p.m.
“It didn’t seem like anything before. We knew he could fill his personal vehicle for business,” one witness said. “But when he started bringing in (the BMW), people started to question it.”
Firefighters asked not to be identified because they fear that coming forward could jeopardize their employment. Kapler said Tuesday that his employment contract allows him to use the city’s gasoline because he uses his personal vehicle for city business.
“I have two vehicles, and I use either,” Kapler said. “I’m always on duty, so whatever vehicle I’m in, I’m available to respond.”
But Mayor Beverly Johnson, who on Tuesday saw photos of Kapler filling up the BMW, said the claims caused her “a high level of concern.”
“People should not be filling personal vehicles at city facilities. There would be no reason for someone to be filling a personal vehicle at a city facility,” she said. “Despite the odd vehicle arrangement he has, the vehicle I saw is not the vehicle referred to in his letter.”
Domenick Weaver, president of Alameda’s firefighters union, said that if anyone else in the department was caught using the department’s fuel for a personal vehicle while they were off duty, it would “probably be a terminable offense.”
“I am absolutely shocked and disappointed by what I’ve been shown,” he said. “I have never seen or heard of anyone using the city fuel for their own activities. These photos show the head of the fire department out of uniform, fueling a non-city vehicle with city fuel while he is off duty and on a Saturday afternoon.
“This certainly warrants an investigation to ensure that the community is not being taken advantage of, as well as appropriate discipline by the city manager,” Weaver added.
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