The City of Alameda is investigating why its former city manager told Alameda Fire Chief David Kapler he could fuel his private vehicle at the city's gas pumps and why she approved a contract giving him lifetime medical benefits without City Council permission.

While Acting City Manager Ann Marie Gallant confirmed that former City Manager Debra Kurita had made a verbal agreement with Kapler that allowed him to use city gas in his personal vehicle, questions were raised about the practice as well as the vagueness of the contractual agreement governing it.

Kapler was placed on administrative leave last Thursday. The Fire Department's Operations Chief,  Mike Fisher, is filling in until further notice.

"Essentially now it is a human resources/city manager/personnel matter," said Gallant late last week. "We are going through that process to make sure both the City and the chief are protected and to make sure we follow the rules very carefully in terms of getting to the bottom of this issue."

While most city department heads are at-will employees, meaning they can be terminated at any time, fire chiefs (as well as police chiefs) are governed by the State of California Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act, which outlines procedures and polices governing their employment. First enacted in the mid-1970s to protect rank and file public safety workers, the Act was amended in 1998 to govern chiefs and, according to Gallant, the law has remained largely untested.

"The language of the law is extremely vague," said Gallant. "For example, it indicates an ability for a chief to administratively appeal any decision with respect to his employment." But, says Gallant, because most chiefs report to city managers, and because the law is specifically designed to protect chiefs from falling victim to changing political tides in cities (i.e. elected officials), there is nobody to whom Kapler might appeal a decision regarding his employment.

"It's very difficult to understand how the legislation is supposed to work," said Gallant. "The attorneys are going to be sharpening their pencils."

In addition to the verbal gas pump agreement between Kapler and Kurita (who resigned as city manger in February 2009), Gallant said there is also a written agreement granting Kapler life-time medical benefits after three years of employment, which could leave Kapler eligible for lifetime medical benefits as of Oct. 1.

Department head employee contracts are supposed to be approved by the City Council, which Kurita did not do, according to Alameda Mayor Beverly Johnson.

"It seems to have been a deliberate attempt to circumvent the charter authority of the council," said Johnson.

"Other staff and department head level people are so embarrassed," said Johnson, "They want people to know, 'Don't think that we all think like that or would do anything like that – please don't think we're all like that.'" 

Kurita, who has been an Assistant City Manger in the City of San Bernardino since September 2009, did not respond to requests for comment. 

Neither the mayor nor the city manager could predict when there might be a resolution.

"I don't want people to think this is the norm here in Alameda, and I don't want people to think this didn't have some basis in some documents," said Gallant. "We're going get to the bottom of the contract responsibilities as well as the state law requirements, and it's just not as black and white as everyone would like it to be."