In February 2024, a fire captain’s unit was called to bring a water tanker to a fire in a rural area. The fire captain failed to respond. When the battalion chief contacted the fire captain to discuss the lack of a response, the fire captain said that it did not seem necessary to respond because the incident would likely be cancelled, so the fire captain decided to monitor the radio instead. But, CALFire was relying on the water tanker to respond to the incident in the rural area where access to water for firefighting purposes is scarce.
The fire district sought to demote the fire captain to fire engineer. The fire captain exercised his Skelly rights in response. At his Skelly conference, the fire captain gave several reasons for his actions, which expanded over time. At the disciplinary appeal hearing before an administrative law judge, the fire captain’s expanded explanations cast doubt on his credibility, and he gave vague and repeated references to unfounded assertions. Senior Counsel Stefanie Vaudreuil convinced the ALJ that sufficient cause existed to demote the fire captain based on his failure to respond to the February 2024 call, and that demotion was appropriate.