Officials Seek to Fire Worker Over Trash Truck Accident

City officials are trying to fire the maintenance supervisor who failed to flag a troubled trash truck for repairs last month on the night before the truck malfunctioned, colliding with a school bus and killing two third-graders.

Dave Wear, the veteran supervisor who has been on paid administrative leave since the fatal crash Dec. 6, said he will fight his proposed ouster at a hearing next week, but fears that he is becoming a sacrificial lamb so that higher-ups at City Hall won’t have to take responsibility for the accident.

“This is politics,” Wear said Tuesday. “Wait till you see my new license plate. ‘Fall guy’ is already taken, so I’m getting ‘scapegoat.’ ”

After investigating the crash, General Services officials are recommending that Wear be terminated. State law mandates that Wear have an opportunity to meet with department officials on the matter, and a session is scheduled next Tuesday with Department of General Services personnel officer Gary Stout. Stout will make a recommendation to General Services chief Randall C. Bacon, whose decision can be appealed to an arbitrator.

Stout declined to comment on the matter, citing employee confidentiality.

Wear has admitted failing to put truck No. 70 on the “hold list” to keep it off the street Dec. 6 even though a driver had filled out a trouble report noting serious problems with the truck.

But like many drivers and maintenance workers, Wear and Michael Berman, executive director of the City Supervisors’ Assn., say the crash highlighted an archaic record-keeping system vulnerable to breakdowns with even the slightest human error.

Berman also pointed out Tuesday that in addition to Wear, others made mistakes during the events leading up to the accident: The driver of the truck placed his trouble report on the wrong desk, so Wear didn’t see it until nearly midnight, about seven hours later than usual; the next morning’s supervisor failed to cross-check the hold list with a log of the trouble reports; and, on the day of the accident, the driver had the hydraulic system running while traveling through the city even though there was no trash in the truck.

“There is a whole chain of events that happened, and Dave is like a freeze-frame in that chain,” Berman said. “I think the whole system broke down and the politicians don’t want to hear that. It appears to me that in their wish to punish somebody, they settled on Dave.”

The accident occurred after a hydraulic ram that powers the truck’s packing mechanism burst through the steel side of the truck, then sliced into an oncoming school bus. Brian Serrano and Francisco Mata, both 8, were killed, and Serrano’s 8-year-old cousin Mario Garay was injured. The Serrano and Garay families have filed claims against the city for a total of $40 million.

Wear said Tuesday that he had little contact with his supervisors during his monthlong hiatus until he learned of the imminent discipline. “I’m trying to figure out a way to get my job back,” he said. “Otherwise, I’m very bored.”

Berman said he is confident that Wear will retain his post in an appeal, noting that the civil service codes governing employee discipline deal only with the acts committed or omitted, not the fallout from those actions. Wear committed a clerical error, Berman said, and the fact that children died should not be considered.

“They’re not disciplining Dave for the act, they’re disciplining him for the consequences of the act, which we all believe is a tragedy. But that’s inappropriate,” Berman said.