The latest from your Nation's Capital: Mayor backs fire chief after article on sexual harassment claims. $70,000 in shirts that are safer for firefighters but have the wrong logo sit in warehouse.
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Earlier coverage of sexual harassment claim against Chief Ellerbe
Previous coverage of Chief Ellerbe
Watch testimony of Chief Ellerbe at Wednesday's City Council hearing (Fire department portion of hearing begins at 1:23)
From Tom Howell Jr and Andrea Noble at The Washington Times:
Mayor Vincent C. Gray on Wednesday offered a vote of confidence to D.C. Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe after a report detailing sexual harassment and intimidation complaints against Chief Ellerbe at his prior job in Florida.
Mr. Gray said Chief Ellerbe remains a qualified pick for the top post at the D.C. Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services based on his extensive knowledge of the agency’s duties and operations.
“I think that Chief Ellerbe has done an exceptional job as fire chief,” Mr. Gray said.
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From Karen Gray Houston at Fox5/WTTG-TV:
A spokeswoman for committee chairman Phil Mendelson said he did not know about a complaint. His understanding was that there was an accusation, but never an official, formal complaint.
Mayor Vincent Gray said he has not read the story, but had only accolades for his chief, saying he has done an exceptional job.
A spokesman for the mayor said asking for personnel files is not part of the hiring process.
From Liz Farmer at the Washington Examiner:
Fire-resistant shirts designed to prevent burn injuries when a firefighter's outer uniform fails were sitting in storage last year when five District firefighters were injured during a two-alarm blaze.
The reason the shirts were in storage rather than on firefighters? The clothing didn't have the correct D.C. Fire and Emergency Services patch, Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe testified at a hearing Wednesday. Ellerbe added that the order was placed before he started his job last January.
"There were held because of the logo and it's a polo shirt [so it’s] not a uniform shirt," Ellerbe said at a D.C. Council Judiciary Committee performance hearing.
From Andrea Noble at The Washington Times:
Nearly $70,000 worth of brand-new shirts ordered by the District’s fire department have gone unused because they are adorned with the wrong emblem, fire officials testified Wednesday.
The shirts were delivered early last year. But because they are polo shirts, which Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe has said can no longer be worn as part of the uniform, and because they are embroidered with an old emblem that the District's Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department no longer uses, the shirts have sat boxed in a warehouse, fire officials admitted.
“Chief, I have asked you many times, have I not, about the truth of the polo shirts? And every time I’ve asked until this week the answer was been, ‘There are none,’” Phil Mendelson, at-large Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said during the hearing.
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