SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Orange County Fire Authority Chief Keith Richter announced Tuesday that he will be retiring, just weeks after a report found low morale and a lack of leadership within his department.
Richter said in a memo that he made the decision because “recent controversies have placed me in a position of being a distraction,” the Orange County Register reported Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1h63Sel).
Richter, 55, previously said he did not plan to step down from his position, despite increasing scrutiny from the authority board this past year.
In the past two years, the Fire Authority found it billed more than $1.7 million for inspections that were not done or could not be verified.
Officials also learned that firefighters had disabled seat belt alarms in several trucks and engines.
Richter plans to retire Aug. 29, which comes only a few days after his five-year anniversary as fire chief.
Richter oversees more than 900 firefighters, 71 stations, 23 cities and an area of more than 1.6 million residents.
OCFA board chair member Steven Weinberg would not say if the board had begun taking steps to hire a new fire chief.
