This morning, Examiner's Michael Neibauer broke off another scoop from the fishy fire truck story that he broke last spring. On the heels of a D.C. Council investigative report, he describes how Dennis Rubin, the city's fire and EMS chief, testified on April 1 last year that he knew very little about the shady donation of emergency equipment, when it fact he knew quite a bit about it—as e-mails produced in the course of the council probe reveal.

Talk about explosive charges: Rubin was under oath at the time, so did a top city official engage, you know, in the P-word? After all, he swore that day, under penalty of law to tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

That's a charge serious enough that LL decided to go to the tape (forward to 1:50:45) to see if Rubin made any statements directly contradicted by his e-mails. And from what LL sees, there's nothing that would indicate the Rubin ever intentionally lied to Phil Mendelson's public safety and judiciary committee.

According to the e-mail obtained by the council, Rubin at the time of his April testimony knew that (a) a scheme was underway to donate a used fire truck, (b) acted to help identify a suitable fire truck, (c) knew the fire truck was going to the Dominican Republic, and (d) knew that David Jannarone, a top aide in Fenty's economic development office, was a prime mover in the transaction.

Did he contradict any of that on April 1?

First thing to point out is that at that point, when so little was publicly known about the transaction, most of the questions jumped off from what little was known—including that a deputy fire chief, Ronald Gill Jr., had traveled to the Dominican Republic in order to facilitate the transaction.

So most of Mendelson's questioning dealt with that issue—what did he know about Gill's travel? There is nothing in the e-mail to suggest he was notified that Gill would be heading to the Dominican Republic last January, so he was credible when denying that he knew anything about it.

The second thing to point out is that Rubin clearly did not want to answer questions on the matter, referring many times to the Office of the Attorney General and how it would produce a "much more detailed report." (That report, of course, ended up being three pages long, did not answer many pertinent questions, and ended up emboldening the council to embark on its 10-month probe.) So Neibauer is right to point out the discrepancy between the e-mails and Rubin's performance on April 1.

Asked about the fire truck itself, Rubin said at the hearing that he knew "very little about that" as well, describing a "1996 or 7" Seagrave pumper with about 197,000 miles. That's fairly close to the equipment in question—a '98 Segrave—although the mileage figure was way off, a discrepancy accounted for in a later report.

Rubin also acknowledged that he was aware of a fire truck donation taking place: "If you went back when I first arrived," he said, "there was discussion of a donation of a vehicle. I knew it was somewhere in South America." Mendelson informed him that the D.R. is not is South America. "Central America, sorry," Rubin said. Whatever, close enough.

Then Mendelson asked, "Who's in charge of this?"

Rubin replied, "Who's in charge of the department or the donation? I'm gonna say one more time, there's things that happen in the department I'm not aware of up to the second. I'll take full responsibility, hold me fully accountable, but, was I aware in any way, shape, or form? No sir." There he appears to be answering as though Mendelson asked about Gill's travel, not the donation writ large. Mendelson doesn't follow up, he moves on to ask Rubin whether he reviewed the travel request.

Then the "clueless" line comes up—again, in the context of Gill's travel, not the donation as a whole. Mendelson asks Rubin if his position is that he was "clueless" about the travel arrangements. "Yessir, I was clueless," he replied.

Later on, Rubin again discusses his knowledge of the donation, saying "it was obvious to us that the truck was being donated by someone in the city government." Mendelson did not directly follow up to ask if he knew who that someone was. Rubin did discuss a little more about what he knew two years ago, describing discussion about whether there would in fact be a donation. He added: "I was unaware it was a tourist destination or an oceanfront town....I wasn't even sure what country it was going to."

That is about as close to dissembling as Rubin comes; one e-mail in the committee record shows that on Dec. 26, 2007, he recommended a FEMS official advise on the transaction because he "can speak some Spanish and has been to the D R before." Is it plausible that he would forget the precise country more than 15 months later? Plausible it is.

The closest Mendelson gets to finding out the most important thing Rubin should know—the involvement of a top Wilson Building aide—comes with this question: "So who's in charge of this program?"

Answers Rubin, "I have no idea, sir....I'm not even sure it's a program." Which it wasn't; it was, as a council report notes, "merely the pet project...of a senior District official [Jannarone] and a well-connected nongovernment individual [Sinclair Skinner]."

Again, Mendelson did not follow up to ask who he'd had contact with.

Mendelson, reached today, makes the good point that the best questions weren't obvious at the time: "Nobody knew much at that time....In hindsight, it's obvious what questions should have been asked."

The at-large councilmember passed on the question of whether Rubin lied under oath, calling it "not clear-cut." Mendelson said he'd reviewed the tape in the course of his committee's investigation but did so some time ago.

"I've thought about this quite a bit, and I don't have an answer," he says. "It is a good question."

Ms. Cusick's employment suddenly became a problem after she allegedly flipped out at Rubin during a one-on-one meeting. Rubin goes so far as to say that she might have sexually harassed him. "I needed relief from this," Rubin said at one point and called the meeting "horrifying" and stated that "I was overwhelmed."  What was the sexual harassment? Cusick demanded to be involved in executive meetings and used the word "cocksucker." Cusick had problems with fire department managers and referred to them as cocksuckers and other bad words. Rubin did not investigate her charges, saying: "Well you know, I don't know how you'd investigate whether they're cocksuckers or not....I guess I could ask them if they suck dicks or not." Instead, he had Cusick removed from the department.

Second clip after the jump!

In my item (linked above, please read it!), I quote from two OAG lawyers' e-mails to the fire department. The two attorneys call out the department for their potentially damaging stonewalling on the discovery, and question whether fire investigators followed basic national standards when they worked the Georgetown library case.

In my calls to the OAG prior to publishing the piece (linked above, please read it!), I got nowhere. Nothing much beyond no comment, it's pending litigation, the usual.

A few hours after my item ran (linked above, please read it!), OAG's Kimberly Matthews called to say she really, really wanted to see those e-mails. Could I please send them to her?

I wondered aloud to Matthews: Why would you need me to give you e-mails your own people sent? Couldn't you get the e-mails another way like by asking the attorneys that sent them? After all, the e-mails were sent by her people.

I told her no dice.

I wonder if this is a ploy to try and figure out who leaked me those e-mails? Or am I just being paranoid?

The D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services department has hydrant problems, that much we know. With water flow cited as a key cause in the destruction of Peggy Cooper Cafritz's Chain Bridge Road manse last month, the department has been checking and rechecking plugs across the city to prevent another disaster.

Tania Shand also has hydrant problems.

Shand lives down the block from the FEMS headquarters, in the former Grimke School at T Street and Vermont Avenue NW. She has a hydrant in front of her house, and fire department brass are constantly parking in front of it.

"It's a regular occurrence," she says, noting that she'll catch cars parked illegally at least once a week. "It's not just the fire vehicles; they will park their private vehicles there as well."

And Shand says this isn't a matter of idling for a few minutes while running an errand inside. "What I have a problem with is parking, going to a meeting, sitting in your office for two hours, and using that as legitimate parking."

The situation came to a head earlier this month, when Shand was leaving for work and spotted a FEMS vehicle in front of the hydrant as she pulled out of her driveway. She drove up to the Grimke entrance, walked in and asked to see Fire Chief Dennis Rubin. He never showed, but another fire official, she says, made a "patronizing" comment equating her double-parked car to the hydrant-parker.

Incensed, she e-mailed Rubin demanding an explanation for his scofflaw subordinates.

Rubin, responding to the message, apologized. Barely. The phenomenon of fire officials obstructing fire hydrants, he explained, was due to the need "to make room for a customer that needed a child safety seat installed this morning. I could cancel the child safety seat program, but I don't think that would make sense in that it is the only one in the City that I am aware of and clearly protects [our] children."

Circling the block in search of a legal space, it seems, was not an option.

The hydrant offenses represent just one front of a war that's been waged for years between Grimke's neighbors and Grimke's occupants—the FEMS brass and the Department of Corrections. Says neighbor Chuck Dittrich, "They park on the sidewalk. They park in the alley."

And in front of the hydrant. The photo above, supplied by Dittrich, was taken in October 2007. The car spied by Shand last week was a similar FEMS fleet car.

The issue is the small parking lot available at Grimke for employees' private cars. Add to that the bevy of fleet cars used there, and the result is a terrible parking crunch—never mind that there's a Metro station right across the street. At one point, Dittrich says, the parties hashed out an agreement with the help of Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham to have the city officials obey parking laws, but adherence to that covenant has deteriorated over the years.

Deputy Fire Chief Kenneth L. Crosswhite says he is aware of Shand's complaints and has met with her several times, but he denies that department employees are parking vehicles in front of the hydrant. "That is one of Chief Rubin's pet peeves. He made that known since Day 1," he says. "I can assure you that there's no officials parking in front of fire hydrants."

Crosswhite notes that the department's rulebook indicates that drivers of official cars are "accountable for ensuring that the parking/stopping of Department vehicles, during non-emergency situations, is done in such a way as to cause the least amount of inconvenience to the public." The Grimke building and fire hydrants are both specifically mentioned.

But nowhere in the rule does it mention that drivers are obligated to follow applicable parking laws. Crosswhite does note that department employees are responsible for any tickets they may incur.

The long-term plan has been to move the city agencies out of Grimke, but D.C. Council politics have thus far interfered with that plan. Thus Dittrich posits a conspiracy of sorts on the part of the FEMS and corrections employees, who don't want to be in the decrepit building any more than the neighbors do. "They try to do this on purpose," Dittrich says. "Their goal is to take it out on us, to have us lobby to get rid of them."

Dittrich says the hydrant violations would be the "most egregious" example thereof. Adds Shand, "It's just symbolic of the whole sitation."

Two years after the fact, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells has gone on the record suspecting that the Eastern Market fire was arson. Wells tells the Voice of the Hill:

"'I have a tremendous amount of suspicion that it was arson,' Wells told the Voice immediately after the market reopened Friday."

Eastern Market re-opened today with the expected fanfare. Which is great. But it doesn't erase the screw-ups surrounding that massive blaze. In December 2007, we wrote a piece addressing the concerns of numerous fire fighters that the Eastern Market case was arson. Two arson investigators got bounced off their beat for making their concerns known.

It will be interesting to see what Wells does after all the celebrations this weekend. If he truly suspects foul play, what will he do about it? Will he fight for the jobs of those arson investigators? Will he hold a hearing on the fire? Will he question Fire Chief Dennis Rubin who insisted on an electrical cause for so long?

"The District of Columbia Fire and EMS Department met with the Washington Nationals to identify additional measures to ensure spectator safety during pyrotechnic activities at Nationals Park. These new measures will be put in place to serve as an additional layer of protection to reduce debris when fireworks are used during the National Anthem, when the team takes the field, and during the Nationals' homeruns and victories. Normal pyrotechnic activities will resume for the next home game."

More details after the jump.

The District now moves at super-sonic speed to fix major safety problems. Or the fireworks problem wasn't much of a problem at all. Alan Etter, the spokesperson from the fire department, says the angle in which the devices were being deployed had to be changed so the fallout would end up outside the stadium. "They did tell me that the product itself is being revised so that there's less debris that is subject to fall on people," Etter says. But adds: "None of this stuff is on fire."

What if it's windy? "That will be something the experts ... will consider," Etter says. "The wind is the huge determination."

What fell on Rubin? Paper debris—the wadding. "There was no fire, no fire that landed on anybody," Etter says.

The new precautions were ironed out during a meeting held today between the Nationals and the Fire Department. Etter says Rubin was in attendance.

Etter says he does not know why Rubin had overruled the department's fire inspector at Nationals Park yesterday.

Few in public service have fallen harder. Recently, we chronicled Greg Bowyer, a fire department whistleblower who had been demoted from arson investigator to hydrant checker. Today, his hydrant checking duties were temporarily suspended in favor of rescuing some flooded bathrooms. This morning he attended to the Florida Avenue NW water main break–which still appears to be a problem–and helped citizens mop up their flooded basements and bathrooms. "We responded code one with lights and sirens," Bowyer says of his community service unit's response to the bathroom detail.

Bowyer adds he's "thankful for the unique opportunity."

"I'm not sure if this is a promotion from the hydrant detail or a demotion," Bowyer jokes. "It wasn't too bad today. At least I helped some citizens even if it was just cleaning the bathrooms out....After a year, I finally got a chance to respond to an emergency, although it was a water emergency."

The reason: the fishy fire truck donation to the Dominican Republic.

The two councilmembers have also requested an "immediate" investigation by the Office of the Inspector General into the fire truck issue including the involvement of Peaceoholics Inc.'s Ron Moten. They note that the donation had been contemplated within dc.gov since June 2008. You can read their letter to the IG's office here.

The two also note that AG Peter Nickles is said to be investigating the matter. But they say Nickles had to be involved in the issue—i.e. he may have worked with Moten—and is tainted; the two contest that his investigation would at least appear to present a conflict of interest.

The Examiner reported last week on the latest twists and turns in this fire truck saga: "Peaceoholics Inc., a nonprofit anti-youth violence organization, claims to have organized the gift of vehicles, which were transported as far south as Miami this [past] week before being ordered turned around. The donation was authorized through an emergency rule quietly published in the D.C. Register on March 20 — 44 days after Gill returned from the island."

On Friday as well, Nickles leaked a letter to the press claiming that his investigation showed that the transaction was proper and reasonable–the fire equipment was not going to be used by the District employees, and that Moten and District employees were operating with "the very best of intentions."

Perhaps if the District government was upfront and transparent about the donation then the good people of the Dominican Republic would have been able to get their much-needed fire supplies. Or say, if Mayor Fenty was upfront about his outside travel, this little excursion wouldn't have been such a big deal. After all, it's just donation of a bunch of old fire equipment, right?

Nickles: Next time why not post a press release about the whole thing before the controversy breaks? You know, own the story, wrap it in a shiny bow. Instead, we get Fire Chief Rubin before the council last week declaring that he was "clueless" about the whole thing.

The councilmembers' letters and call for an investigation means this truck issue will not end soon. And shouldn't.

More on City Administrator Dan Tangherlini's budget powwows. Post lunch, the city's top day-to-day manager had three additional rounds of discussions with agency directors on money—first with the Office of Property Management (OPM). "We need to find savings everywhere we can," said Tangherlini to OPM Director Robin-Eve Jasper. "We're doing to look to you for a lot of help."

More than an hour later, the brass from the Fire and Emergency Medical Services agency arrived—Chief Dennis Rubin and two assistants, all of whom are gloriously mustachioed white guys. Dan Tan's message to Rubin: "What is the core mission and function? What are the things that protect lives? What are the things that we've inherited, longstanding practices that we can look at?"

Just before a reporter for Average Day got kicked out of the room, Rubin said, in describing possible savings, "We feel like there's somewhere between $3 and $5 million in auto accidents." Now, does figure encompass departmental vehicles? Don't know—we got the hook.

Dan Tan is now deep in a skull session with University of the District of Columbia executives, including new President Allen Sessoms.

By Mike DeBonis

For those still waiting for a final pronouncement on the cause of the Eastern Market fire of April 30, 2007, be prepared to wait a little longer...maybe forever. As the City Paper reported in December (Cover Story, "Was This Really an Accident?"), various D.C. Fire & EMS personnel believe (and a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives report insinuates) that the three-alarm fire started on the outside of the building—a synopsis that contradicts the publicly stated opinions of District Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin, who believes the inferno was caused by an electrical problem.

Eight months later, things are still muddled.

In the most recent issue of the Hill Rag, Rubin appears to be hanging tough with his original conclusion. Referring to a "final report" on the market fire, he explains that the blaze  "was determined to be electrical in nature with four or five suspected sources, but accidental in nature."

But the report Rubin is referring to, authored by D.C. Fire employee and certified fire investigator Sgt. Phillip C. Proctor, doesn't corroborate Rubin's outlook. With 10 pages of painstaking detail followed by a one-paragraph conclusion, Proctor's report is, at the very least, noncommittal. "Based on a systematic fire scene examination," it surmises, "witness statements, and all the available information to date, it is the opinion of the undersigned that the origin of the area of this fire is near the west wall (Side C) of the structure. The exact point of origin has not been identified at this time. The cause of this fire has not been determined and is currently still under investigation."

Not exactly the wrap-up a "final report" would merit.

The most damning blow to Rubin's electrical-accident hypothesis, however, isn't found in the ambiguity of the report's conclusion, but in a bit of juicy info appearing on Page 8, where Proctor mimics—verbatim-0z–a bullet found in the ATF report on the fire:

All evidence of electrical activity found during this investigation was a victim of the fire and not its cause.

Fire department public information officer Alan Etter says in an e-mail he doesn't think Chief Rubin's statements and Proctor's report are at odds.

"I think while the cause of the fire has not been definitively determined, anyone who's looked at [the report] thinks it was caused by malfunctioning electrical equipment," he writes. He adds that Chief Rubin was just "saying what everyone who's looked at [the report] is sure of."

—Rend Smith

(Photograph by Arthur Delaney)