The Moraga-Orinda Fire District board of directors named Battalion Chief Jerry Lee as the interim fire chief effective Sept. 20, the day of Fire Chief Stephen Healy's departure. The board also agreed to retain an executive search firm to assist in the recruitment of the new chief.
Consistent with the district's hard-driving push to improve its financial picture, MOFD appointed an interim chief who has procured $2.9 million in grant funding since his promotion to battalion chief in 2012. Lee secured a $1.1 million FEMA Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant in 2013, which covered the salaries and benefits of four firefighters for two years, and he recently obtained a federal grant to cover the purchase of four power gurneys for district ambulances.