It's early in the new year and already there are fireworks surrounding the South San Joaquin County Fire Authority (SSJCFA). As we posted earlier this week, Chief Bradley announced that Division Chief Patrick Vargas has been terminated. The news follows an extensive internal investigation regarding Vargas. According to sources, there were alleged issues involving sexual harassment and an affair by Vargas that led to his dismissal. The termination of Vargas marks the end of a controversial 32-year fire career that included being found guilty of felony wire fraud from the Tracy Fire Department.
The announcement of Patrick Vargas' termination came right before Tuesday night's city council meeting, where council was determining the committee assignments for 2022. Of all the committees, only the SSJCFA Joint Powers Authority Committee generated any comments and discussion. The entire controversy surrounding the committee was caused by Mayor Young, who made the recommendation to appoint herself and Mayor Pro Tem Veronica Vargas to the committee.
For the past 7 years, Veronica Vargas has tried to get an appointment to the fire committee. And, for the past 7 years, she was not given a spot because her husband was a Division Fire Chief for the Fire Authority, thus presenting a clear conflict of interest. To appease Veronica, council has made her an alternate on the committee. However, now that her husband Patrick has been terminated from the Fire Authority, Veronica no longer in her eyes has a conflict of interest. Many people disagree, including the Tracy Firefighters Association. Engineer Ryan Gall, on behalf of the Association, expressed these concerns.
Tracy resident Dan Evans also spoke in opposition to Vargas' appointment to the committee.
Young's decision to appoint Vargas over Council Member Davis, who worked on the JPA Committee in 2021, and who played a major role in the JPA formation, was perplexing. Below is what Mayor Young had to say in making her recommendation.
To summarize, Mayor Young recommending appointing Vargas to the JPA Committee to be nice. She wanted to be nice because Veronica is termed out and this is her last chance to serve on the committee. The Mayor chose to overlook the fact that Veronica's husband was just terminated from the Fire Authority; she chose to ignore the concerns raised by the Tracy Firefighters Association, in particular concerns about retribution for those involved with her husband's investigation; and, she chose to ignore the opposition spoken by the community.
Fortunately, Council Member Arriola was the voice of reason in stating that, regardless if there is a conflict of interest or not, the optics of Vargas' appointment to the JPA Committee did not look good. The right thing to do was to place Davis back onto the committee and assign Bedolla as the alternate. Vargas conceded to Arriola and she was ultimately removed from the committee. A bullet dodged but one that didn't need to happen in the first place!