The date of the first meeting of the Citizens Ad Hoc Fire Services Advisory Committee has apparently not been set. The City Council-appointed commitee is made up of five Seal Beach residents, all of them with emergency service backgrounds. Two members are former professional firefighters, two are former volunteer firefighters and one is a member of the local emergency ham radio organization. The purpose of the commitee is to look at Seal Beach’s options for fire and emergency services. The commitee members are:
• District One (Old Town and Surfside): Joe Kalmick, a Main Street businessman before his recent retirement, is a former volunteer firefighter. Kalmick was one of three District One residents to apply to the fire committee. Kalmick ran for City Council in 2010, but lost a runoff election to current Councilwoman Ellery Deaton in 2011.
• District Two (College Park West, Rossmoor Center, and Leisure World): Michael Maronta is the retired CEO of an engineering and construction firm. His is the chief tactical officer for the local Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service.
• District Three (Bridgeport, the Coves, Heron Pointe, and the Hill): Michael Garofano is a 25-year veteran of the fire service. According to his resume, he has been a captain and an acting administrative chief in the Hermosa Beach Fire Department for the past eight years. Garofano has been a licensed paramedic for 23 years.
• District Four (College Park East and Old Ranch Town Center): Thom Thomas, the only District Four resident to apply to the committee, is a retired businessman with 40 years of management and transportation experience.
According to his resume, after he graduated high school he was a volunteer firefighter in Fairfax County, Virgina, for five years. He was also a reserve police officer in Long Beach and Seal Beach.
• District Five (Leisure World): Warren Hartley of District Two was selected to represent Leisure World by a vote of the City Council when no residents of the District 5 applied to be on the fire service committee. Hartley, who retired from the Garden Grove Fire Department with the rank of fire chief in 1999. He was interim chief of the GGFD in 2015. He spent 30 years in the fire service.
Bridgeport resident Robert Goldberg shared the applications of the appointees to the fire service committee with the Sun. He obtained the applications through a California Public Records Act request. Goldberg, a past member of the storm drain committee, also applied to represent District 3 on the fire service commitee, but was not selected.
