Gilroy's interim fire chief resigned Monday morning after being caught selling alcohol to an underage decoy in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz police and county sheriff's deputies were conducting a sting operation at Pleasure Point Liquors on Friday when interim Fire Chief Roger Bloom, 52, was cited for a misdemeanor offense after he agreed to buy a 20-year-old law enforcement decoy alcohol, according to Santa Cruz County sheriff's Deputy April Skalland.

Gilroy's Human Resources Director, Leeann McPhillips, said that she believes Bloom's decision to resign was the right one and that she had been shocked by the news.

"It was the correct decision for him to make, it is just not consistent with the city of Gilroy's core values or what we expect from a chief," McPhillips said.

McPhillips said that the fire department had expected to have Bloom working as their fire chief until the end of the year.

"We're taking today to digest what happened," McPhillips said.

The normal Gilroy City Council meeting started in an abnormal way Monday night.

"Interim Fire Chief Roger Bloom has resigned as chief of the city of Gilroy," announced Gilroy City Administrator Tom Haglund.

"He was concerned about this being a focal point as a short tenured he would have as interim fire chief and did not want to jeopardize the reputation of the fire department in that way," Haglund later explained. 

City council member Bob Dillon was blunt about Bloom's decision to resign.

"I thought it was unbelievably stupid of Mr. Bloom," said Dillon. "I can't believe he made that mistake."                

When asked if it was the right decision for Bloom to resign, Dillon replied emphatically: "Hell yes."

Gilroy residents KTVU spoke with were concerned about bloom's actions, but not sure he deserved to lose his job.

"In that position, you should probably know better than buying a minor alcohol," said Gilroy resident Michael Green. "That shows poor judgment."

Jack Fritch, another Gilroy local, wasn’t so sure.

"Unless there's a lot more to it, to the rest of the story so to speak, I think he should have kept his job," said Fritch.

Police Chief Denise Turner has been appointed the interim fire chief and will handle both jobs.

Before serving as interim chief in Gilroy, Bloom worked at the Palo Alto fire department for 21 years before retiring as the department's deputy fire chief earlier this year.