City Council honors firefighter’s vacation heroics (video)

Capt. Richard Jackson of the Maricopa Fire Department was presented with the Maricopa Medal of Valor by Maricopa Mayor Christian Price and the members of the City Council for going above and beyond the call of duty.

During his vacation, Jackson’s son pointed out a woman being attacked against a vehicle. Jackson stopped loading his vehicle and went over to intervene. He was able to de-escalate the situation and protect the woman and her child from any further violence.

“We feel this was, in short, above the call of duty,” Price said. “In a situation where many would’ve walked by, this individual went out of his way to make sure this young lady and her child were protected that evening. We wanted to present to him, on behalf of the fire department and the city of Maricopa, this special Medal of Valor.”

Price and Maricopa Fire Chief Brady Leffler presented the award.

“I’d like to give recognition to my son,” Jackson said. “He is the one that recognized there was an emergency and notified me. This is very impressive.”

Price also awarded Maricopa Budget Director Brian Ritschel with a “Certificate of Recognition for Budget Preparation.” This was presented to the city for their work in the budget process. The city also awarded Ritschel personally with a certificate for his work with the budget.

“This is one of the very highest awards that can be given out from the Government Finance Officers Association,” Price said.

Ritschel added, “People think it only takes a couple months, but the budget is a 12-month period and it takes a lot of people to work together to get the budget together.”

The Council also discussed and approved a design and construction agreement with Electrical District No. 3 for the new Maricopa Police Department substation at the Copper Sky Recreation Complex, and an amendment to the existing contract with Jacobs Engineering Group to increase the spending limit to an amount $193,000.

The council briefly discussed changing the cost of the special summer COMET shuttle from $1 to 50 cents. The board unanimously approved the change, and the shuttles began transporting residents from their neighborhoods to the Copper Sky complex at noon today.