Sacramento terminates fire captain for working from Rocklin. He says it’s retaliation

The city of Sacramento has terminated a fire captain for allegedly working on his real estate business, and frequent trips to gyms while on the clock.

On several occasions, Sean Dail was late to emergency hazmat situations because he was driving from his Rocklin home when he was supposed to be at his Sacramento office, according to a March 22 termination letter from Fire Chief Chris Costamagna.

Dail, who is appealing the termination, said he believes he was fired as retaliation for reporting a racist action by another then-captain who was favored by the chief. He says he worked from home because the city did not give him a workable office.

On Feb. 25, 2022, Dail was dispatched to deal with a carbon monoxide leak at an apartment in North Sacramento’s Hagginwood neighborhood. One adult, two children and a baby were breathing in carbon monoxide from a wall heater, causing them to go to the hospital. When the call came in, the termination letter stated that Dail was supposed to be at work in the city limits, but he was at home in Rocklin. He took 38 minutes to arrive.

A similar incident happened on Sept. 29, 2021, when Dail took 42 minutes to respond to a call at 3rd and I streets, driving over 90 miles per hour from his Rocklin house, the letter stated. If he had driven from the office, he would have needed 14 minutes.

“Failure to be in the city limits, or at a city work location, such as your office at McClellan Park, and driving speeds at more than 90 miles per hour caused increased liability to the city, unnecessary risk to the public, and potentially delayed the mitigation of a hazmat incident,” stated the letter, which The Sacramento Bee obtained from a California Public Records Act request.

Dail said he worked at his Rocklin home with permission because the city did not have an office for him for over a month when the department was moving his division from one office to another during the COVID pandemic. When the city did provide the office at McClellan Park, it was an old garage that lacked Internet or temperature controls, he said.

“It was a very difficult place to work in,” Dail said.

$89,000 in taxpayer dollars lost

Dail had been a firefighter with the department since 2000, the letter stated. In 2006 he was promoted to fire engineer and in 2016 he was promoted to fire captain. In 2017 he was appointed to the position of Hazardous Materials (Hazmat) fire captain in the special operations division.

Dail received total compensation last year of $164,297.

As a hazmat fire captain, Dail was supposed to work Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and always report in person, the letter stated. His request to work remotely was denied. But he rarely worked a full day. From April 2021 to April 2022, he worked only 44% of his scheduled time, according to GPS data on his city vehicle, the letter stated. That equaled a loss of $89,000 to the city.

Dail said he did not commit timecard fraud because he was working from home during the hours the letter marked him as not working.

The investigation that resulted in Dail’s termination started in 2021, when Shawn Wolf, another captain at the time, told supervisors that Dail was inappropriately using his city vehicle for his real estate business.

The termination letter stated Dail obtained a real estate license in 2019 for the real estate company he and his wife run, but failed to submit a Supplemental Employment Request. Dail said he only got the license to sell his own home, and the homes he visited during work hours were not his listings.

While the city investigation was ongoing, Dail was on paid leave.

For more than a dozen days, Dail was paid for a full 10-hour day of work even though he worked zero, the letter stated.

On one day in 2021, Dail visited two different Rocklin gyms, a medical facility and Econome Family Fun Park in Folsom. That day he was paid for 10 hours of work but worked none. On June 24, 2021, he was only in the city limits for about 45 minutes of his 10-hour shift, the letter stated.

During an interview with investigators, Dail said he considered workout time at the gym part of the paid workday, although the Local 522 fire union contract does not allow it, the letter stated.

Dail told The Bee that during COVID he would sometimes go to the patio of a gym to work there, not to work out.

On July 20, 2021, Dail called out sick, but then traveled to Body Heat Hot Pilates and Yoga in Rocklin, and two Granite Bay houses associated with his real estate business, the letter stated.

The letter also alleges fraudulent overtime collection and unauthorized vacation days. Dail collected 14 hours of overtime to respond to a hazardous material spill on Nov. 20, 2021. However that included six hours he was at home not working.

In 2021, Dail traveled to the Dominican Republic and Hawaii without submitting it to the system to take vacation days, the letter stated. Dail said he told his supervisor about the vacation and the supervisor was supposed to put it into the system.

Dail violated the Rules and Regulations of the Civil Service Board that relate to insubordination, dishonesty, inexcusable absence without leave, and willful disobedience, the letter stated.

City Manager Howard Chan approved the termination letter April 9 with his signature.

Fired captain’s retaliation accusation

Dail has appealed the discipline and an arbitration hearing is scheduled for January, city spokesman Tim Swanson said. If Dail is successful in the January arbitration hearing, he could get his job back.

“I feel this is retaliation and I look forward to presenting my case that these allegations are severely misconstrued,” Dail said.

Dail contends that the investigation that resulted in his termination started after he reported to his supervisors that Wolf, the captain whose complaint triggered the investigation, was buying firearms illegally by using ID cards intended only for police officers. He also alleged Wolf had kicked the helmet of an Asian American female firefighter while it was on the ground during a call.

“The reason I am writing this memo is because I believe in equality to all, for the minorities who come into the fire department now appear to be treated in a different manner,” Dail wrote in a Nov. 1, 2022, email to then-battalion chief Pat Costamagna, his supervisor at the time, and the chief’s brother. “I have two daughters, who are Asian. Will they be treated differently for their sex or race than the white male firefighters if they become Sacramento Fire Department firefighters?”

Wolf is no longer a city employee, and his last day was June 2, Swanson said. He declined to say whether he was fired or quit, because he said the city does not comment on personnel matters. Wolf was promoted to battalion chief in January 2022, according to a fire department tweet.

Wolf did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story.

The alleged helmet kick is also referenced in a lawsuit battalion chief Jonathan Burgess filed in February. That lawsuit alleged a culture that protects refuses to promote people of color, and protects white employees despite wrongdoing. It was the latest in a string of similar accusations against department leaders in recent months.