This website is for information purposes to notify the residents of Garden Valley, Kelsey and Greenwood of the corruption, criminal behavior and sexual deviant acts of current employees, fire board members and a former fire board chairman of the Garden Valley Fire Department. Your taxpayer dollars are funding this past and continued corruption.
The Garden Valley Fire Department is a mismanaged, crooked fire district located in El Dorado County California. It is suppose to serve the taxpayers of these communities, but the people responsible for it's management have had other hidden personal financial agendas and goals.

The emergency response area of this fire district consists of approximately 60 square miles bordered in the north by the town of Georgetown and to the south by the city of Placerville. This Fire district has 3 fire stations. The main staffed station (Station #51) is located at 4860 Marshall rd, Garden Valley Ca 95633. They have an outlying volunteer station located at 9751 Highway 193, Kelsey Ca 95667 (Station #52) and another at 3813 Highway 193, Greenwood Ca 95635 (Station #53).

This corruption began in November 2007 when Fire Chief Bill Dekker was hired by this Fire District as Fire Chief. Bill Dekker, Assistant Chief Linda Szczepanik and elected Fire Board members hid Dekker's Criminal, Sexual Deviant and Alcoholic background from the Public. Dekker's background was uncovered after his former employers were contacted in Lyon County Nevada and Pine Arizona where he had served as Fire Chief. After Dekker's hiring at Garden Valley Fire Department, he discovered he had a gay male Fire Captain working at the department and that this Captain found out about Dekker's extensive criminal and corrupt background. Fire Chief Dekker then conspired with Assistant Fire Chief Linda Szczepanik and former Fire board chairman Rick Nelson to frame and then terminate this employee by blaming him for pornography that was placed on a work computer by other current and former employees. This Fire Captain had been employed with the department for over 17 years and had an excellent work history with numerous commendations. This Fire captain was able to hire a computer forensic expert and prove that this pornography was linked to other employee working at the fire department. It wasn't until a year after this forensic information was brought forward, that they terminated the actual employee responsible for it. When the Garden Valley Fire District secretary complained about the discrimination and illegal treatment of this Fire Captain and of her being sexually harassed, she was then terminated by Dekker and the Fire Board. Dekker then immediately hired Joe Cleaver as the new Fire District Secretary. Joe Cleaver was the spouse of the current Assistant Chief named Linda Szczepanik. Dekker then lied and stated that the secretary that was let go was being terminated due to budget constraints, yet that year the Fire Department hired a new paid firefighter and had over a $300,000 surplus. 


These terminations of employees by Dekker and Nelson were discriminatory,  harassing and retaliatory. They also are considered to be hate crimes. Both of these employees took legal action over this illegal behavior by these employees and Fire Board members costing the fire district over $500,000 of taxpayer money in legal fees and settlement costs. 
Read further on this website to see the details of Fire Chief Bill Dekker's criminal, corrupt, alcoholic and sexual deviant background.

When you click on the Link 1 button, it will take you to the Arizona newspaper site called the Payson Roundup. If you look halfway down that page, just above Bill Dekker's pictures, you will see a gray colored "more stories" link. Make sure you click on that to see all of Bill Dekker's news stories. That website documents all of the corruption and problems that occurred at Pine/Strawberry Fire Department in Arizona when Bill Dekker was Fire Chief there. The corruption followed Dekker to Garden Valley Fire Department. Shown below is a mapquest map to give website visitors the exact location of where Garden Valley Fire Department is located and where this corruption is ongoing.


   This website updated May 2012

                                           INDEX
                 (click on the gray buttons just above)

Gray Page buttons 1 thru 6 will take you to additional pages of this website which documents this corruption, criminal and sexual deviant behavior. After you click on these buttons, give them a few minutes to load. There is a lot of information on these pages.

Gray Link buttons 1 thru 11 will take you to additional online websites which document the corruption of Fire Chief Bill Dekker and the Garden Valley Fire Board.

Link 1 button- Arizona Newspaper Website (Payson Roundup) - Has numerous news stories detailing Corruption of Bill Dekker while Fire Chief in Pine Arizona.

Link 2 button- 2009/2010 El Dorado County Grand Jury Report on Garden Valley Fire Department.

Link 3 button- 2008/2009 El Dorado County Grand Jury Report on Garden Valley Fire Department.

Link 4 button- 2007/2008 El Dorado County Grand Jury Report on Garden Valley Fire Department.

Link 5 button- El Dorado County District Attorney press release on Embezzlement of Garden Valley Fire Department District Funds.

Link 6 button- Lawsuit by former Garden Valley Fire Department Secretary Maria Capraun against Bill Dekker and the Fire District after she was sexually harassed and then terminated.

Link 7 button- Associated Press news story that mentions Fire Chief Bill Dekker no longer employed after drinking and driving in a fire truck while on duty in Lyon County Nevada.

Link 8 button- Las Vegas Sun news story that also mentions Fire Chief Bill Dekker DUI Incident while on Duty In Lyon County Nevada.

Link 9 button- Sacramento CBS news story - El Dorado County Auditor Calls Garden Valley Fire Chief’s 10-Year Contract ‘Outrageous’

Link 10 button- Website of the drug and alcohol abuse treatment center located in Sacramento,CA. that Bill Dekker has made credit card charges to on a Garden Valley Fire Department credit card. Read further down to see the details.

Link 11 button- Sacramento CBS news story - On the Money: Garden Valley Fire Chief Under Investigation. This is a news story documenting Fire Chief Bill Dekker's embezzlement of Fire District money using a fire district credit card.


      WWW.GARDENVALLEYFIRE.COM

Click on the page 2 button and then scroll down on that page to see which Garden Valley Fire Department Board member placed ads on several gay websites and used Garden Valley Fire Department pictures in an attempt to meet young men to have sex with. This Fire Department Board member is still currently serving on the Fire Board.
GVFPD_Credit_Card_Stmts_7-2011_thru_1-2012.pdf
GVFPD_Credit_Card_Stmts_7-2011_thru_1-2012.pdf
Click on the red PDF file to the right of this text. This file contains copies of Garden Valley Fire Department Credit Card statements recently obtained from the Auditor Controller of El Dorado county. These credit card statements are charges made by Fire Chief Bill Dekker and other employees. These charges are paid by the Fire Department Board of Directors using taxpayer money. If you glance through these files, you will see Bill Dekker and other employees making numerous charges like there's no tomorrow. Numerous charges are made at restaurants, hotels, and supermarkets. If you look at the pages with charges made in July and August 2011, you will see an $1100 and a $900 charge made to a business called "Willingness to Change". This is a Drug and Alcohol treatment center. These are illegal charges being paid by you, the taxpayer, for a drunk Fire Chief. Click on Link button 10 above to see the website of this treatment center. If you click on Link button 1, Link button 7 and Link button 8 you will see the prior alcohol related news stories of Bill Dekker at previous Fire Departments. All of this is confirmation that the Garden Valley Fire Department Board of Directors hired a drunk Fire Chief and maintains the employment of this drunk.