The son of Garden Grove Mayor Bruce Broadwater was hired as a city firefighter despite a criminal record, and his work there subsequent to his October hiring has drawn severe reprimands from his superiors, documents show, reports The Orange County Register.
Rookie firefighter Jeremy Broadwater’s job performance has included potentially life-threatening mistakes on medical calls, according to internal department records obtained by the Register. Doubts about his abilities have resulted in him being removed from at least one fire call and have led a captain to call him “unsafe” and recommend his termination.
The department’s handling of Broadwater was part of the reason the union firefighters cast a 51-0 vote of no confidence in Fire Chief David Barlag in June, and is one of the issues being examined in an ongoing independent audit of the department.
Fire Chief David Barlag did not return repeated calls from the Register. Jeremy and Bruce Broadwater also did not respond to requests for comment.
Multiple calls to City Manager Matthew Fertal resulted in two email responses that did not address the Broadwater hiring. He questioned whether Broadwater’s colleagues are prejudiced against Broadwater, but did not elaborate.
Jeremy Broadwater, 37, was one of 10 new hires in October, from a field of 500 applicants.
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