The matter is set to be discussed during the Board of Supervisors' meeting this Tuesday, Jan. 5, at 1:30 p.m. in the board chambers, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
In October, the Board of Supervisors voted to assign the County Administrative Office the task of conducting an initial investigation into the use of federal Drug Enforcement Administration grant funds for pilot training for Sgt. Dave Garzoli.
Garzoli was involved in a hard landing on Cow Mountain on June 25, 2009, after which it came to light that he had been training as a pilot while on duty, as Lake County News has reported.
A National Transportation Safety Board report on the hard landing said it occurred seven miles west northwest of Lakeport at 3 p.m. in clear conditions, with the main rotor blades impacting the tail boom and the helicopter being “substantially damaged” as a result.
Garzoli was attempting a 180-degree autorotation with a power recovery – a maneuver in which the aircraft enters a glide and turns, but the helicopter's power failed. Tests on the helicopter later showed that the engine appeared to be working normally.
However, the Robinson Helicopter Co. had issued a safety notice titled “Practice Autorotations Cause Many Training Accidents,” which stated, “There have been instances where the engine has quit during practice autorotation,” and urged specific throttle usage to avoid the problem, the NTSB reported.
The situation concerned the Board of Supervisors, especially after County Counsel Anita Grant informed the board that the county's liability insurance doesn't cover county employees flying aircraft. Garzoli's flights had therefore exposed the county and its holdings to major liability concerns.
As a result, the board made it clear that county employees were not to fly aircraft.
Documents Lake County News inspected that were part of the county's investigation into the pilot activities also indicated that Garzoli was working on a proposal to create a sheriff's aviation unit, including a $457,000 quote for a used Robinson R44 helicopter that was included in a Dec. 2, 2008, memorandum to Sheriff Rod Mitchell that detailed the proposal.
Garzoli also had been seeking financial support for the plan outside of the sheriff's office.
Lake County News obtained a copy a copy of a letter written by Big Valley Rancheria Tribal Secretary Charmaine Mankiller, dated March 1, 2009, and addressed to Mitchell, offering support for a sheriff's office application to the local Indian gaming funds committee for the “Sheriff's Aviation Program.”
“The Tribe feels that having the aerial capabilities of a helicopter would offer much needed law enforcement services, whether it be an attempted robbery, vehicle pursuits, search and rescue or other emergency calls,” Mankiller wrote.
County focuses on specific questions
The county needed to explore whether or not the DEA marijuana eradication funds – under which Garzoli was flying – covered his pilot training. The funds do cover the rented helicopters the sheriff's office uses to do marijuana surveillance during the marijuana season.
That was the task for county Chief Deputy Administrative Officer Matt Perry, who began going through the voluminous amount of paperwork which came from a number of sources, including Grant, who earlier had begun looking into the grant funds' usage.
Perry's report to the board for Tuesday's meeting said he focused his research on six key questions:
Did the DEA authorize pilot training?
To what extent were county funds (i.e., the DEA grant funds) used to pay for pilot training?
Did the helicopter contracts include pilot instruction as well as marijuana reconnaissance?
Did Garzoli fly a helicopter for reasons other than for official county business (e.g., marijuana detection)?
Did the county (i.e., DEA) pay for helicopter costs not associated with marijuana reconnaissance?
Can the equipment be located?
Regarding the first question, Perry noted that the sheriff submits an operational plan to the DEA which, in 2009, included a request to use grant funds for pilot training and certification. That operational plan – which Garzoli negotiated and submitted to the DEA – wasn't presented to the Board of Supervisors, as it hadn't been the sheriff's practice to do so, as Mitchell told the board last year.
That plan, a copy of which Lake County News obtained, stated that the sheriff's office planned to train “one or more” deputies as pilots, with the estimate that within two years they could reduce helicopter operating costs from $480 an hour to under $300 an hour “by simply leasing and operating the aircraft ourselves.”
The document stated, “Once we reach that point, we will reach out to our neighboring counties and offer assistance to them in their marijuana eradication efforts.”
Another section of that plan stated, “We will publicly oppose any legislation that is brought forth that aims to decriminalize or reduce penalties for marijuana and other drug offenses.”
Perry's report explained that it appeared that the DEA approved the pilot training and certification request. However, when Perry called to speak with the office of DEA Deputy Chief of Operations David Dongilli, he was told that DEA staff had overlooked the flight training mentioned in the operational plan and that they likely would not have approved it.
According to what the DEA told Perry, “flight training is not usually covered because it is questionable whether its primary benefit is for marijuana eradication,” Perry's report explained.
However, since the training in 2009 was approved, Perry said the DEA stated that it considers the matter closed.
Perry therefore focused on pilot training that took place before Jan. 1, 2009.
What he found was that Garzoli received flight training from 1995 to 1997, 2000 to 2004, and in 2008, years in which the flight training component wasn't included in the operational plan submitted to the DEA.
“Most of this training appears to have been received on county time and presumably paid for by the DEA grant and perhaps other grants received by the county for marijuana eradications,” Perry explained.
However, he said a careful review of the associated documents raised questions, particularly in instances where there were no invoices found and no hours reported when flights were noted in Garzoli's log book.
As to the issue of whether pilot training was received during marijuana reconnaissance or if helicopter costs were incurred specifically to provide the training, Perry found that, beginning last August, Garzoli's pilot log book began noting activities that appeared for the purpose of flight practice, such as repeated landings. Most of Garzoli's training flights also occurred on days he submitted time records to the sheriff's office.
All told, Perry stated that the total cost of the helicopter time during which Garzoli received training cost $98,898.
That amount included $41,293 which was paid prior to 2008 and appeared to have included training during the course of marijuana reconnaissance. Another $8,500 in flight training didn't involve marijuana overflights.
That leaves another $49,105 that requires further review to determine what portions may have been incurred solely for pilot training, Perry said. That investigation should include speaking with the pilot-instructors and Garzoli, which Perry didn't do.
Perry explores missing invoices
Perry also said that the fact that invoices for 14 of the 65 days Garzoli received flight instruction prior to 2009 can't be found raises further questions. An estimate of the value of those missing invoices totals just over $16,000.
He explored whether Garzoli could have personally paid for the costs of the helicopter covered by those invoices. While Garzoli's log book noted the flights' purpose was marijuana reconnaissance, Perry questioned why those flights' dates didn't appear on invoices submitted to the county.
Perry spoke to Gary Meredith, the former owner of one of the companies who has rented helicopters to the county, Cutting Edge Helicopters – whose Robinson R44 helicopter also was damaged in the hard landing Garzoli had last June.
Meredith – whose helicopters were in Lake County on the days for which invoices are missing – told Perry that Garzoli paid for none of that company's time himself, and that everything was billed to the county.
Meredith and one of the company's current co-owners, Joe Ryan – the company changed ownership after last June's incident, Perry noted – both told Perry that it was their understanding that their contract with the county included flight training.
In reviewing Garzoli's flight book, Perry found 13 entries – accounting for 21 flight hours at a cost of $8,500 – that did not mention law enforcement or marijuana reconnaissance.
Those entries include a two-hour night flight from McClellan Airport in Sacramento to Colusa Airport and then to Lampson Airport outside of Lakeport on Sept. 27, 2008. Other night flights were recorded on Sept. 28 and Sept. 29, 2008, Perry reported. Several supervised solo flights were recorded in October of 2008.
Perry said Garzoli's log books included frequent reference to night flights, which Ryan said would be too dangerous to do as part of marijuana reconnaissance unless one had night vision binoculars.
The county had purchased night vision monoculars, which Det. Steve Brooks said were only used on the ground.
Brooks, Perry's report noted, had been in charge of the marijuana eradication program for five years until Garzoli took it over in the middle of 2008. Brooks is now in charge of the program again.
Brooks showed Perry Garzoli's Nomex flight suit, which was similar to the suits worn by other deputies except his included Lake County Sheriff's Office patches sewn on the sleeves and a patch with Garzoli's name and the word “pilot” that could be attached by Velcro to the suit. Perry stated that he didn't see that patch when inspecting the suit, which cost between $189.00 and $259.99.
Conclusions include possible repayment of some grant funds
Perry's report concluded that from September 1995 through November 2008, Garzoli spent 219.3 hours receiving pilot instruction and taking the pilot test, at a cost of $98,898 for the helicopter and instruction and $7,421 in salary and benefit costs.
“A closer review of the activities conducted during the training indicates that some training hours may have been received during the normal course of conducting marijuana reconnaissance, while other hours and costs may have been spent for the sole purpose of pilot training,” Perry stated in his report.
Training costs range from the $8,500 in the missing 14 invoices up to $57,605 for all of the training done before the DEA gave approval for flight training, he explained.
Because the DEA hadn't approved the training, Perry suggested, “the county may have to return some or all of the money to the DEA.”
Perry cautioned the board that the report's research was limited in scope and research.
He said county staff wants the board's direction on whether they should contact the DEA and advise them that the grant funds may have been misspent.
Perry also questioned if – before staff contacts the DEA – the board wants to consider further review to arrive at a refined estimate on how much was spent on pilot training only versus training provided during the course of marijuana reconnaissance.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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