We all know by now that Jamie Jones and her husband, Christopher Wackerly, have been indicted for embezzling money from Fire Safe, a 501c3 non-profit. In considering the charges, and the length of the time frame that the alleged embezzlement occurred, it makes one wonder what the Fire Safe Board of Directors was doing after being informed there were significant accounting problems in 2021. There is no indication that the Board of Directors ever cared about or questioned blatant accounting discrepancies over a five-year period.
Early Warnings in June 2021
On June 14, 2021, Attorney Sue McGuire wrote a letter to the Fire Safe Board, copied to Jamie Jones, Executive Director of Fire Safe and Nevada County Supervisor Sue Hoek. (Supervisor Hoek was a Director on the Fire Safe Board). The letter describes in detail accounting problems with contracts and grant funds administered through the Nevada County Office of Emergency Services (OES). It has been apparent since 2021 that OES has not monitored the grants and contracts with Fire Safe. Furthermore, OES has had a policy of advancing funds to Fire Safe in direct contradiction to contract guidelines.
June 2021 letter to Jamie Jones & Fire Safe Council from Alison Lehman, Nevada County CEO.
It is estimated that the total amount of the alleged embezzlement of Federal and State grant funds might be as much as $10,000,000. However, there has never been a forensic accounting, only an ‘Agreed Upon Procedures’ (AUP) conducted by CliftonLarsonAllen LLP in July, 2022, at the request of Marcia Salter, Auditor-Controller.
The Ponderosa Project grant, which started in July, 2019 was $3.3 million. Fire Safe Council received another grant in July 2021 for $4.9 million. Then there were additional funds coming from Fish &Game, Green Waste, Chipping programs, etc. as well as some other County funded projects, all adding up to the estimate of $10 million dollars in unaccounted for funds.
Why Only Jones and Wackerly?
My question is, why indict just Jones and Wackerly since the Fire Safe board so blatantly failed to protect Federal and State grant funds? According to California 501c3 non-profit law, a Board of Directors has a fiduciary duty to set up basic financial controls, and make corrections when it is brought to their attention that there are significant indications of potential embezzlement and fraud.
Because a 501c3 board has a responsibility to ensure that funds are properly appropriated, boards that don’t act on information can open the organization up to fraud, theft, and misaligned grant spending. Board directors can be held personally liable when their actions or decisions cross the line from honest business mistakes into breaches of fiduciary duty, illegal behavior, or gross negligence.
Individual board members can face civil liability, regulatory penalties or breach-of duty lawsuits if:
Ignored Red Flags: Liability is highest when the board ignored obvious financial warning signs, skipped reviewing financial statements, or failed to enforce basic internal controls.
Failure of the Duty of Care & Loyalty: Directors must stay informed about the organization's financial condition. Failing to address known misappropriations or failing to remove misbehaving officers after red flags appear can be ruled a breach of care.
Covering Up Theft: If board members discover embezzlement and intentionally cover it up to protect the organization's reputation—allowing the perpetrator to stay on or keeping silent instead of investigating or reporting—they can face civil claims, breach-of-duty suits, or actions by the state Attorney General.
Recommended Board Response to Embezzlement
What Should a Board do if Embezzlement Occurs?
Preserve records: Immediately secure bank statements, accounting files, payroll data and Board minutes.
Conduct an Investigation: Hire independent legal council or forensic accountants to perform a review under attorney-client privilege. (No forensic accounting was ever done)
Take Corrective Action: Report the crime to law enforcement. Update internal financial safeguards.
The 2021 Fire Safe Board of Directors
Not to point any fingers, but who was responsible for ignoring financial warning signs?
The Fire Safe Board of Directors in 2021
Don Thane, Chairman
Rick Nolle, Vice Chair
Dave Walker, Treasurer
Warren Knox, Secretary
Sue Hoek, Nevada County Supervisor, Director
Steve Eubanks, Director
Pete Williams, Director
Hank Weston, Director
Bill Drown, Director
Allan Doerr, Director
Wanda Martens, Director
Heidi Hall, alternate
Eric Trigg, deceased, the only director to report concerns to the DA.
In a July 19, 2022, letter from Marcia Salter, Auditor-Controller, titled, ‘Discussion report for final examination of controls and procedures over contracts’**,** it seems no one at OES was monitoring contracts. Furthermore, in violation of contract guidelines OES was actually providing advances for as much as $200,000 a month.
Finding No: 2021-06: “During our review, as the contract had a significant amount of advances paid to the vendor according to a predetermined budget within the contract, we deemed it necessary to select reported vendor expenses that were actually recognized during the course of the vendor’s completion of the project. Selections were determined and selected from the Department provided “Master Claim Tracking” detail. During this interim review over vendor expenses, we noted the most recent transaction date of the reported expenses was March 31, 2022, and advances totaling $3,007,769 have been paid to the vendor, we would expect there to be continual project costs to be recognized until project completion”.
County Officials and Oversight Failures
County Officials responsible for awarding Federal and State grant contracts, monitoring contract expenditures, & oversight of project completion:
The Board of Supervisors: Sue Hoek, Dan Miller, Heidi Hall, Ed Scofield, Hardy Bullock
Alison Lehman, Nevada County CEO
Steve Monaghan, in charge of signing contracts
Craig Griesbach, Director OES, beginning in July 2022
Marcia Salter, Auditor-Controller until 2023
Gina Will, Auditor-Controller beginning January 2023
Despite the initial whistleblower account of potential embezzlement of Fire Safe funds in 2022, the 2022 “non-audit Agreed Upon Procedures” of CliftonLarsonAllen, the yearly Fire Safe Council audit by Richardson & Associates, two Grand Jury Reports, and numerous County meetings with Jamie Jones, the Board of Supervisors continued to award contracts as late as 2024.
The license to steal continued for five years and no one, not The Fire Safe Board of Directors, the Board of Supervisors, the CEO’s Office, or the Office of Emergency Services did anything to stop the theft of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds.
On April 29, 2026, Nevada County District Attorney, Jesse Wilson, issued a Felony Indictment against Jones and her husband Christopher Wackerly for Embezzlement of Fire Safe non-profit funds in excess of $100,000. So far, the DA is only pointing fingers at Jones and Wackerly. But what about everyone else?
