Gene Neely will not be returning to head the Lathrop Manteca Fire District.

The longtime district employee – who spent more than a decade at the helm of the department – has officially retired, effective Friday, April 23.

He has been on administrative leave for more than a month for an unspecified reason.

According to Lathrop Manteca Fire Board President Gloryanna Rhodes, that information had not been made available to the board when they met in closed session last week to discuss Neely and matters surrounding his employment.

No reportable action was taken during that board meeting, Rhodes said.

Neely took over the district – which serves the City of Lathrop as well as Manteca’s Raymus Village and the outlying areas between both cities – at the height of the Great Recession and had to navigate the district though uncertain fiscal times.

Because the district relied heavily on property taxes for its operating revenue, the depressed housing prices caused a massive reduction in the district’s income and prompted an appeal to property owners for a parcel tax that was ultimately unsuccessful.

While Neely had to lay off firefighters as a result and shift staffing away from rural stations to provide coverage to the more populated areas, he also helped negotiate an agreement with the City of Lathrop to receive 40 percent of a one-cent sales tax increase that went before voters in 2012.

That appeal – Measure C – passed with more than 70 percent of the overall vote, and helped the district not only hire adequate staffing to protect its coverage area, but also purchase new apparatus and equipment that would have been otherwise impossible to afford.

Through a combination of Measure C and Fire Facilities Fees that were imposed on new development, the district has been able to completely rectify its financial position and also grow along with the booming city that has long been its home – adding a new state-of-the-art fire station to River Islands, renovating the former headquarters on J Street in Lathrop, and pushing for an expansion of the medical scope of practice to include paramedics providing advanced life support on every responding engine.

Neely also worked to improve the district’s ISO rating – saving homeowners money on their insurance bill – and played an active role in emergency management and planning including the most recent flood scares and countless forest fires throughout California as a strike team leader and eventually a division group supervisor for CalFire.

According to Neely’s contract – which was in place through 2022 – he was supposed to notify the district no less than six months before his retirement. The decision to leave the fire service, which came after nearly 30 years on the job, came after he was placed on leave and the board appointed an acting fire chief, former Battalion Chief Josh Capper, to act in his stead.

No official word about the investigation that was launched upon is placement upon administrative leave has come from the district. When asked earlier this month, Rhodes said that she couldn’t comment on “personnel matters” – citing privacy laws.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.