NEVADA CITY, Calif. March 8, 2019 – Nevada County Sheriff Captain Jeff Pettitt will be overseeing Nevada County’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) starting March 24th, due to the upcoming retirement of Nevada County’s current OES Manager, John Gulserian.
Recognizing wildfire prevention and preparedness as a top community and Board of Supervisors priority, the County’s OES Program has risen to a new level of criticality and importance. There is now a greater need for OES to partner and coordinate closely and continuously with Fire, Police, Sheriff, State OES, FEMA, and other first responder agencies year round.
“Collaborating with the Sheriff’s office will help heighten the level of service the County’s OES program can provide to our residents,” said Nevada County Executive Officer Alison Lehman. “Having a Sheriff’s Captain embedded into our OES program will help strengthen our collaboration with our first responders, and community collaboration is key to tackle this important community issue.”
As a Sheriff’s Captain, Pettitt is trained in peace officer leadership and has a strong foundation in OES based incident command practices. These skillsets will contribute to OES’ ability to continue building strong relationships with other first responders in our community, and increase the operational safety of defensible space inspectors as the County ramps up outreach efforts to residents.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to work closely with the community to plan and prepare for emergencies,” said Captain Pettitt. “Being a part of this community and raising my two kids here, it’s important to me that we all know how to keep our community and families safe in an emergency event.”
Pettitt began his career with the Sheriff’s Office in 1999 after spending six years in the military. He has worked in a variety of positions including Patrol, Major Crimes Unit, Truckee substation, and the Personnel and Training Unit. Pettitt promoted to Captain in 2012 as the Jail Commander overseeing the Corrections division. Since promoting to Captain, Pettitt has commanded each division within the Sheriff’s Office and has recently rotated back to Corrections.
“We are looking forward to the increased collaboration between our office and the County OES,” Sherriff Moon added. “We work side-by-side with OES staff during an emergency event. Jeff’s experience will give the County’s OES program additional tools to serve the community to the best of our ability.”
The OES program will continue to reside in the Information and General Services Agency (IGS).
“Jeff has been great to work with throughout his career in the Sheriff’s office at Nevada County,” said IGS Director Steve Monaghan. “We are excited to bring his talent and community approach to the OES program, and wish John a happy retirement.”
The County extends its thanks to John Gulserian for his 3 years of service to Nevada County. Gulserian’s leadership led the County through two major emergency events, the 2017 Oroville Dam evacuations and the response and recovery from the 2017 Lobo and McCourtney fires.