Sebastopol, Gold Ridge fire departments to divvy up benefactor’s bequest

It was a nearly $83,000 bequest from the estate of a late Bloomfield woman who meant to thank firefighters for the many times they’d responded to her calls for help with falls and other medical issues.

But the gift from Esther Patton, apparently intended for the Gold Ridge Fire District, which had often come to her aid, instead went at her direction to the Sebastopol Fire Department.

Officials there were left in a quandary over what to do with the money.

The dilemma caused a stir among west county residents and in the larger fire community, where the scramble for limited public resources and push for charitable donations can sometimes put departments in competition with one another.

The $82,960 check in question came to the Sebastopol department in January, with a letter explaining it was from the trust of Patton, who’d been grateful for the many times firefighters responded to her Bloomfield-area home.

The firefighters who helped Patton, who died in 2013 at age 80, were, however, from Gold Ridge.

Sebastopol Fire Chief Bill Braga said it initially seemed clear where Patton wanted the money to go: Gold Ridge.

He sought to give it all to that department but Patton’s estate attorney discouraged him, saying the woman had been active in Sebastopol through the senior center, her church and Analy High School and that she’d specifically talked of wanting to leave the money to Sebastopol’s fire department.

So he settled on a 50-50 split. But that didn’t resolve the matter.

News reports of the donation and Braga’s attempts to share the money sparked passionate public input and responses.

“Oh my god, it did,” Braga said. “We went through a lot, I went through a lot in dealing with this.”

There were emails, phone calls, a thank-you letter with a $40 donation and station drop-in visits. The chief even heard about it while in the bleachers at his grandson’s high school basketball game. He said most of the feedback was positive about his desire to share the money.

Others lobbied for a different split or blasted him for keeping any of it.

Even his own department questioned the decision to divide the money evenly with Gold Ridge. There was extensive debate at a Feb. 9 meeting of Sebastopol’s volunteer fire association and the chief said his department seemed split on the 50-50 share or opting to send it all to Gold Ridge, concluding “‘it really wasn’t meant for us.’”

Gold Ridge Fire Chief Dan George, meanwhile, tried to stay on the sidelines during the debate over the gift. He said he was grateful for any of the money, as it legally belonged to Sebastopol.

“Like I’ve been telling my guys, this is money we would never have seen had they (Sebastopol fire) chosen to keep it all to themselves,” he said.

On Thursday, Sebastopol’s volunteer firefighter association reached a consensus to give two-thirds of the bequest to Gold Ridge, keeping the remainder for its department. The decision seems to have satisfied most parties, including Gold Ridge’s two volunteer firefighter associations.

Braga, for one, is glad to have the matter settled.

“I think my firefighters are much, much ?more comfortable now,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.