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Demand for MOFD Director Baitx’ Recusal Due to Conflict of Interest PETITION (June 2021)
Demand for MOFD Director Baitx’ Recusal Due to Conflict of Interest PETITION (June 2021)
Director Baitx:
The undersigned members of the MOFD community request that you recuse yourself from the firefighter employment contract negotiations due to the significant appearance of a conflict of interest1 as per MOFD’s governing documents; a board member “shall be disqualified to vote on a matter by reason of actual or apparent conflict of interest.”2
● You are an active member of the same countywide firefighters union as the MOFD firefighters3.
● As an MOFD Board Member and active union firefighter in Contra Costa County, you will be conflicted negotiating against your own personal union president on behalf of the Moraga and Orinda Citizens!
● As an East Contra Costa County union firefighter, your employer4 will use the MOFD contract results to benchmark its negotiations for its next union contract, of which you will likely be a direct financial beneficiary.
● The firefighters’ unions outside money provided 90% of the funding for your election campaign5 in 2018, as well as, for your fellow board members, Steve Danziger and Michael Donner.
● Your recent placement on the agenda of an item for MOFD to study giving up local control by merging with ConFire, as recommended by the ConFire union president, has proven to be vociferously and unambiguously rejected by hundreds of citizens of Moraga and Orinda and the respective Town and City Councils. Your union brethren would directly benefit from an MOFD merger with ConFire, while the citizens served by MOFD would not.
● As a result of the above, the communities you have been elected to serve as an MOFD Director no longer trust you, have lost faith that you have their best interest at heart and believe that you place as a priority outside interests above Moraga and Orinda citizens.
Any serious-minded person understands this to be a glaring conflict of interest and we implore you to do the right thing. We demand that you recuse yourself immediately from all MOFD union contract negotiations!
Respectfully, Concerned Residents of the Moraga-Orinda Fire District
1 California Government code, Section 1090 et seq. relative to conflicts of interest and Section 1.4.1 of MOFD’s Resolution No. 11-03, dated January 19, 2011 which affirms MOFD’s adherence to the California code. 2 Ibid Section 4.7 “To avoid actual bias or the appearance of possible improprieties, the public official is prohibited from participating in…decision[s]” where he or she has “a disqualifying conflict of interest in a governmental decision if it is foreseeable that the decision will have a financial impact on his or her personal finances or other financial interests.” 3 Professional Firefighters of Contra Costa County / Local 1230 of the International Association of Firefighters. 4 East Contra Costa Fire Protection District. 5 California Form 460 for Greg Baitx MOFD 2018
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