{"id":10411,"date":"2012-12-05T17:26:03","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T01:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=10411"},"modified":"2026-01-05T17:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:31:12","slug":"garden-valley-fire-chief-bill-dekker-under-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2012\/12\/05\/garden-valley-fire-chief-bill-dekker-under-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Garden Valley Fire Chief Bill Dekker Under Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image Detail:<\/div>\n
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Fire Chief Bill Dekker (credit: gardenvalleyfire.org)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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CBS13 has learned that Garden Valley Fire Chief Bill Dekker is under investigation by the El Dorado County District Attorney\u2019s Office.\u00a0 CBS13 has obtained copies of the questionable credit card billings, which include $3,400 in charges to something called Willingness to Change \u2013 a drug and alcohol treatment center<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 according to the website.<\/p>\n

In an interview with CBS13, District Attorney Vern Pierson told On The Money he has opened a criminal investigation focusing on the fire chief\u2019s purchases on the fire department\u2019s credit card.<\/p>\n

The billings came from Bill Dekker, on the Garden Valley Fire Department\u2019s credit card.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like that in my 17 years as county auditor,\u201d said Joe Harn, El Dorado County\u2019s fiscal watchdog.<\/p>\n

Harn has been scrutinizing the Garden Valley Fire Protection District\u2019s spending and credit card purchases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why it would be the burden of the taxpayers in Garden Valley to pick up this $3,400 charge for alcohol and or drug counseling,\u201d Harn told CBS 13.<\/p>\n

CBS13 tried reaching the Garden Valley fire chief in person \u2013 and found the station door wide open \u2013 and no one appeared to be on duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello, anybody home?\u201d the reporter asked out loud.<\/p>\n

Chief Dekker did not respond to phone calls at the fire station \u2013 or at his home in Greenwood. The Garden Valley Fire District Board was also silent on the matter.<\/p>\n

CBS13 wanted to know why the board chose a chief with a checkered past \u2013 that includes a drunken driving arrest while Dekker was on duty as a fire chief in Nevada. Dekker \u201cadmitted drinking and hitting (a) victim with fire truck while driving\u201d, according to the arrest report from the Lyon County Sheriff\u2019s Office, as documented in Case #96-0361.<\/p>\n

Dekker was charged with driving under the influence, paid a $750 fine and completed a DUI workshop, according to court documents from Case #96-20021. Court records also show Dekker pled no contest to disorderly conduct charges in Arizona, resulting in his resignation as fire chief there, according to newspaper reports.<\/p>\n

CBS13 found other questionable purchases on Chief Dekker\u2019s Garden Valley Fire District credit card, including an $85 charge at a Good Feet store in Santa Barbara and a $34 charge at a Payless Shoe store in Placerville.<\/p>\n

The El Dorado County auditor calls those purchases very unusual. Chief Dekker isn\u2019t talking about any of his charges \u2013 but Garden Valley residents are beginning to wonder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s wrong,\u201d said Melvin Howard, a Garden Valley resident.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it needs to be looked into a little bit to say the least,\u201d said Lew Price, another Garden Valley resident.<\/p>\n

The county auditor has already refused to issue $131,000 in other payments to the Garden Valley Fire Department \u2013 citing a breach of contract. As for the credit card purchases, Joe Harn says he has no control over that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a significant financial management problem at Garden Valley Fire,\u201d Harn told CBS13.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe opened a criminal investigation to look into this further,\u201d District Attorney Pierson told CBS13.<\/p>\n

See CBS Video:\u00a0http:\/\/sacramento.cbslocal.com\/2012\/03\/13\/on-the-money-garden-valley-fire-chief-under-investigation\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Fire Chief Bill Dekker (credit: gardenvalleyfire.org)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image Detail: Fire Chief Bill Dekker (credit: gardenvalleyfire.org) CBS13 has learned that Garden Valley Fire Chief Bill Dekker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic.jpg",500,300,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic.jpg",500,300,false],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic.jpg",500,300,false],"large":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic.jpg",500,300,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic.jpg",500,300,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic.jpg",500,300,false],"darknews-slider-full":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic.jpg",500,300,false],"darknews-featured":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic.jpg",500,300,false],"darknews-medium":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic.jpg",500,300,false],"darknews-medium-square":["http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bill_Dekker_Pic-350x300.jpg",350,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"Crime<\/a>","tag_info":"Crime","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10411"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10413,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10411\/revisions\/10413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}