The fire chief vs. the council member. DC’s Dennis Rubin is accused of “scare tactics” after talking about the possibility of closing fire companies.
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District of Columbia Council Member Phil Mendelson called recent statements by the city’s fire chief “scare tactics”. Chief Dennis Rubin told reporters on Tuesday that more than $3 million in money removed from the 2010 budget by Mendelson’s committee, and approved by the council, will “severely impact” the department.
In a May 5 letter to Mendelson Rubin wrote, “… the department will be placed in a crisis situation that could lead to the drastic action of placing fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency apparatus out of service, as well as closing fire stations.”
When asked on Tuesday if there is still the possibility of firehouses being closed on a rotating bases, Rubin replied “I wouldn’t rule it out”.
Rubin and Mendelson are in a dispute over approximately 80 positions removed from the budget. The chief says the cuts will increase overtime expenditures. If overtime funds run out, Rubin claims he will be forced to consider closings.
Mendelson, the Chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, said, “If he says he is going to close firehouses he is going to have a battle with the council.”
Mendelson contends the reduction still leaves 120 vacancies on the department that the chief did not fill from the current budget. According to Mendelson, “If the chief wants to get into this debate than we can talk about the quality of management, filling these vacancies and avoiding the overtime.”
The last time DC had rotating closures of fire companies was in 1994 when Otis Latin was chief and Sharon Pratt Kelly was the mayor. The city used a similar means to save money in the 1970s and 1980s. Each time the plan was halted when people died in fires near closed fire companies.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKuFdIuSTgw&hl=en&fs=1]It has been 15-years since the District of Columbia did rotating closures of firehouses. Above are two stories from late June and early July of 1994 looking at the politics of what some dubbed “Firehouse Roulette”.
