Fuels project may land South Lake Tahoe in court; forces changes in fire department
By Kathryn Reed
MEYERS – South Lake Tahoe has someone new heading up fuels reduction projects – and it wasn’t by choice.
Marty Scheuerman is now the division chief in charge of that aspect of the fire department, with Division Chief Ray Zachau being relieved of that responsibility.
The billing quagmire surrounding the Lake Christopher fuels reduction project that could be settled in court led to the change.
Dave Mercer and Ray Zachau at the Lake Christopher project in April. Photo/LTN file
“It’s not necessarily a decision made exclusively by South Lake Tahoe,” Police-Fire Chief Brian Uhler told Lake Tahoe News.
He added, “The change in assignment was necessary to move things forward.”
Uhler and Scheuerman were attending their first MAC — Multi-Agency Coordinating Committee – on Thursday. The half-day session at Lake Valley Fire Department was about all things fire.
This group of mostly fire chiefs from the basin as well as state and federal land owners came together shortly before the 2007 Angora Fire, but solidified their roles after that destructive wildfire.
Working collectively is a key component of what MAC is about. That is why others influenced what transpired within South Lake Tahoe Fire Department.
(Zachau did not return a phone call.)
Andrew List, executive director of Nevada Fire Safe Council, told the more than two-dozen people at the meeting that contracts are between NFSC and the contractor. Jurisdictions have no authority to authorize expenditures.
“We think he may have a legal issue with the city of South Lake Tahoe,” List said of contractor Dave Mercer.
Mercer cleared the area via helicopter in the spring when everything was so wet. The timber was soaked, weighing more than anticipated. It was so heavy the contractor had to get a larger helicopter to do the work.
All of this led to additional costs to the tune of $170,000 in order to complete the fuels reduction project.
“The problem with this is its 75 percent over and the bid was already 15 percent higher than the low bidder,” List said. It was also a do-not-exceed contract.
Instead of Mercer going back to the nonprofit Fire Safe Council to explain the situation and ask for a change order, he received a verbal OK from Zachau to go forward.
List told the fire management contingency in the room that this should “serve as a warning” to them to follow procedures.
Because potential litigation is involved with Mercer wanting to be paid Uhler would not comment further.
Zachau, though, in a July 21 Lake Tahoe News story expressed concerned the NFSC is moving beyond what he sees as its charter to act as a financial agent for the fire districts into more of a technical role managing the projects.
“They’ve hijacked the process,” Zachau told Lake Tahoe News for that story.
Now people from out of the area and out of state no less, are making decisions on how to spend my tax dollars. Sounds like TRPA to me. This is not a gov. by the people or for the people.
A Government Employee spending $170,000 that was not approved should be fired. That type of behavior would never be tolerated in the private sector.
In addition I appreciate a watch dog no manner who it is keeping an eye on how our tax dollars are spent and or wasted. Time for our government to do more and spend less would you not agree with that Lou ?
It sounds like Zachau is the one who should pay the $170,000, and be fired and or the contractor should have to eat it because it was a do not exceed contract. Also, when the contractor found out the wood was too wet, why didn’t they wait until things dried out?
My environmental engineer friends all questioned why they even used a helicopter for this project! They picked up logs from a short distance away & deposited them behind my house in the snow dump field – driving everyone crazy with noise & airborne dust. They could have saved lots of MONEY and been more environmentally sensitive by trucking the logs out & repairing the disturbed area when done. Did not make sense to us!
Or cut the logs into smaller pieces that the smaller copter could handle.
From the facts as stated in the article, the Contract had a do not exceed clause that required any changes be in writing. However, the contractor advised that a change was necessary to do the job, and that change was orally approved by an authorized person. In Cal law, if someone approves an oral modification and then it is fully performed in reliance on that oral agreement, that is just as valid as a writing. Just an FYI.
Someone needs to be held accountable. Hand the fire department to Lake Valley.
If this was a not to exceed (NTE) contract and there is no written change order, the contractor is responsible for completing the work within the formally agreed to contract. Independent of what he was told, the contract committed him to do the work for the price he agreed to. If he didn’t get it in writing then shame on him as a poor businessman.
Yes ,bears needs big cheese OKs to crap in woods or be ticketed for polluting.
Court and more court seem to take time and wastes so much cash, but then again it’s Lake TAHOE.
See you in court,remember that anything you say can be used against you,you have the right to remain damn silent just wait for better air to enter the basin pay the bailer when you leave and we will give you the go AHEAD!
The contractor should have known better than to proceed without a written change order and Zachau shouldn’t have assured him that it would be paid for. And why would Lake Valley want anything to do with this poorly run department. Disband all of them and put it out to bid. It probably will not be much cheaper but could be more efficiently run. Start from scratch, clean house,get rid of the under producers.
BS on Mercer for not realizing the wood was wet. He knew well in advance what time of year they were doing the job and it was green wood anyway in a wetlands and he is a professional logger out of squaw valley, he knows better. They, nvfsc, should have given the job to Cook or K & K as we live here and knew exactly what it was going to take to do the job. Mercer changed the original contract verbage anyway. If they would have done it like it was planned originally it would have never gone over the budget. He brought in only 2 guys to do all the hand work when we were supposed to do it with a much larger crew and only taken the original week of helicopter work as planned. Mercer got greedy.
Warnings do no good. Zachau should be fired and his manager held accountable for hiring this man. The public should also demand his resignation as well. No wonder our gov’t is broke. I’d even go as far as opening an inquiry to see if Zachau was given some type of kickback by Mercer to move forward. Why else would he not consult his superiors???
Judi; the environmental folks were the reason a helicopter was required as they would allow no vehicles in there due to the sensitive nature of the area. It was either a helicopter or all done by hand. If it was done the way it was intended the helicopter would have only been there a week as everything would have been prepped ahead of time.
Hold It ???? A VERBAL OK FROM CHIEF ZACHAU.Fess up Chief !!!
Why is this just coming to light folks? Wasn’t this was a multi-million dollar project, with lots of areas to be worked on? Why are you just now wondering how the money was spent? A little slow on the uptake?
Lake Valley would run it-RIGHT! Eliminate the city.