South King Fire and Rescue is making its way back after a scandal.

The department was rocked last year after discovering that former chief financial officer Grant Gaspard had been embezzling money for years. Gaspard, who has pleaded guilty, will be sentenced on May 8.

“It was an ugly chapter in our history,” Fire Chief Al Church said.

Rather than dwell on the past, SKFR is looking to the future — and helping others prevent this financial fraud from happening again.

Church will be speaking to other fire departments and government groups in the next few months about changes SKFR has made to its accounting process.

The case came to light last summer. Two employees approached Church with their suspicions about Gaspard’s financial practices.

Within 24 hours, Church had met with the board of commissioners, a legal team and law enforcement including state auditors and the FBI. Gaspard was placed on administrative leave; he resigned from his position with the district on July 31, 2008.

Forensic accountants looked at the records and discovered that Gaspard had stolen more than $700,000 in money and merchandise, including a high-definition TV, Blu-Ray player, Apple computer, photography equipment and more.

Gaspard had been with the department for more than 25 years.

The case was so strong against Gaspard that he had no choice other than pleading guilty, Church said.

Following the scandal, South King Fire and Rescue has revamped its system to prevent a repeat of the offense.

Rather than a final check by the CFO, anything related to finance is checked and double-checked by several staff members — including department heads, the board of directors, Chief Church and the new CFO, David Lawson.

“A higher level of scrutiny is not a bad thing if it makes you stronger,” Church said.

Lawson has worked for King County, Seattle Fire and North Highline Fire District as an auditor and financial officer.

Lawson has made several changes already, including weekly meetings with staff, changing the rules and regulations about credit cards, and having three different people look at every payroll.

“It’s working pretty well,” Lawson said. “I keep my staff informed.”

“No one person has all the power,” Lawson added.

As part of his sentence, Gaspard agreed to full restitution. The fire district has already recovered the entire amount of the $727,990 that was stolen. The district is working to recover legal fees and costs of accounting forensics that total about $200,000.

“The criminal actions of one person will not and should not reflect the department,” Church said. “We were truly betrayed. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. But it brought the department closer together.”

Changes to prevent financial fraud at South King Fire and Rescue

• Administrative and financial responsibilities are segregated to prevent the concentration of authority in a single position. The finance and information technology functions are now divided into separate organizational sections, and now report directly to the Fire Chief Administrator Al Church.

• All aspects of financial policies and procedures were reviewed and amended to strengthen business practices. Finance staff are now cross-trained so all members of the staff can perform roles of their colleagues.

• Financial duties have been separated to the extent possible, and a new process is in place to regularly review and validate staff members’ work.

• The CFO reviews all purchase orders and credit card transactions to ensure they are within approved budgets and are appropriate transactions for the use of public funds.

• Finance staff members have been advised to bring any transaction or proposed transaction to management that they question or cannot resolve.