Almaden Resident
Cover Story
Photograph by Vicki Thompson
In the Field: Mark Skeen fills out paperwork after responding to a report of a car fire on Almaden Expressway. When he arrived, Skeen discovered the car was overheating. The fire captain recently came under fire with union members after he set off a chain of events that led to the unauthorized release of confidential information about city police and firefighters. Skeen says political pressure comes with the territory.
Burning Issues
Firefighter Mark Skeen climbs the ranks in Almaden
By Eli Segall
Almaden Valley resident Mark Skeen knows what it means to feel the heat.
As a San Jose fire captain, Skeen has pulled people from burning buildings, and as vice president of the fire union, he settles internal strife.
Skeen, 45, has come under fire recently since he set off a chain of events that led to the unauthorized release of confidential information about city police and firefighters last fall. Some have accused Skeen of dragging his feet to squash the problem. Although a city investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing, the incident galvanized the San Jose police union to strip him of his position as chairman of the city's police and fire retirement board.
The retirement board will hold elections this fall, and police say they want one of their own at the helm.
"I'm going to work on that this year," police union president Bobby Lopez said in a recent interview at his N. Fourth Street office.
Lopez is angry that it took several months to secure and destroy the released data.
"People were playing games," he said. "No one stepped up and said, 'I'm going to take care of it.' "
Skeen dismissed the allegations during a recent interview at the fire union office on E. Santa Clara Street. His daily routine as a firefighter and union leader continues.
"All the positions I'm in are political," he said. "This is what comes with that territory."
Early Beginnings
Skeen, who once fell 30 feet from a blazing house, has a mixed reputation. City officials describe him as aggressive and temperamental, but family and friends see him as jovial.
"He always got along with everybody," said his mother, Barbara Skeen. "All the neighbors loved him, especially the women."
Now a married father of two, Skeen moved from East San Jose to Almaden Valley when he was 10. He attended Leland High School, where his hobbies centered on his girlfriend and future wife, Kim, and his morning newspaper delivery route, said his father, John Skeen. Inspired by his dad, a 30-year San Jose fire veteran, young Mark applied to the city's fire academy after graduating Leland, but was rejected nine years straight.
In that time, he earned his junior college degree, worked for Southern Lumber Co. in San Jose, operated a side business installing doors and floors, and applied to nearly 30 fire departments across California, looking for a chance to fulfill his dream.
In 1989, at age 27, Skeen was accepted to the San Jose Fire Department, and within two years was elected to the board of the city's fire union, Local 230.
"He came in at a rough time," said then union president Ken Heredia. "There was a vote of no confidence in the fire chief and in me, and the department's promotional test was in court [in a discrimination lawsuit]."
To let things cool down, Heredia delegated authority to underlings, including Skeen, whom Heredia met years before when he served in a unit under John Skeen. "He handled himself with all the professionalism of someone more seasoned than he."
Release of Information
Skeen quickly scaled the ranks of the department and became a captain in 1997. He now works at station No. 6 in Willow Glen. In 1999, Local 230 elected him to represent the union on the police and fire retirement board, an independent body that oversees the two groups' pension plans. He was elected board chairman in 2001, and has been re-elected every year since.
Last November, Skeen asked Ed Overton, director of the San Jose Retirement Services Department, to send encrypted pension information to an actuarial firm. Overton passed the request on to a city staff member, who mistakenly sent it without deleting sensitive information such as names and Social Security numbers.
Interim city manager Les White launched an investigation into the release shortly after it was discovered, and in a February memo cleared Skeen of any wrongdoing.
The ensuing flare-up did not surprise some board members, including police Sgt. Bret Muncy, a friend of Skeen's. Keeping politics--namely differing union interests--out of the boardroom is impossible, Muncy said.
"Oh, boy, I don't see how," said Muncy, who has been criticized by Lopez for his friendship with Skeen. "It's all interwoven."
Love of Politics
After Skeen joined the 230 board, Heredia assigned him to the political action team. In that role he rounded up firefighters to make phone calls, put up signs and walk door to door for political candidates endorsed by the local.
Through the campaigns, he met city leaders and established his reputation as a dependable, tireless worker.
"If you want to get something done, he's the one to talk to," said Pat Dando, who was endorsed by Local 230 in her failed 1998 mayoral bid. "If he said he's going to turn out 30 people to walk precincts, he would turn out 30 people to walk precincts."
Skeen has also taken his politics to the airwaves. He appeared in two television commercials for the state firefighters union, first in 2004 and again in 2005, to talk about state ballot items.
Although he plans to stay in the fire department for another 12 years, Skeen said he thinks about representing Almaden Valley on the city council or the school board--and he already has support.
"My hope is that in the near future he will be prepared to run for public office," said Dando, the former District 10 councilwoman. "Being interested and concerned about your neighborhood means you have to get involved politically."
Running for office would continue his family's long history of public service. Kim Skeen's late grandfather, A.P. "Dutch" Hamann, is a former San Jose city manager. Skeen's older brother, John Skeen Jr., is a 25-year San Jose fire veteran, and younger brother Steven Skeen is a 20-year member of the California Highway Patrol.
With his daily schedule packed with firehouse, union and political duties, Skeen wakes up each day knowing that taking heat is part of the job.
"I love this city, and I'm proud to call it my home," he said, "and I will stay a long time in Almaden--until I go in the pine box."
