Questions Surround Fire Truck Donation

Two DC City Council members who are attempting to get to the bottom of a controversy over donated surplus fire equipment say they are seriously considering conducting their own investigation-- using the subpoena power of the council.

Council members Mary Cheh (D- Ward Three) and Phil Mendelson (D- At-large) both said Wednesday it appears Mayor Adrian Fenty and Attorney General Peter Nickles are hiding something. The subpoenas may be a means to an end.

"Your committee has to vote to authorize an investigation," said Cheh. "You describe generally what the investigation is about and you confer subpoena authority on the committee through the chair, so what Phil and I are thinking of doing, his committee would do that for him on the issue of the fire truck and the ambulance, and mine will do it for me because I have government operations."

Cheh says she and other council members have become increasingly frustrated with the Fenty administration for obstructing the testimony of city officials. Sometimes they get nobody at all.

"It's a very real problem," said Cheh. "We cannot legislate. We cannot know what's wrong unless we gather information-- that's the part of oversight."

In recent weeks, the council started asking questions about the fire truck and ambulance, both of which were placed out of service by the fire department. They were considered surplus. The council wanted to know how the Peaceaholics, a group that works with at-risk youth, got the equipment and then donated it to a small town in the Dominican Republic.

The Peaceaholics said they were just helping the D.C. non-profit Faith Productions, a group that had established a cross-cultural exchange with the mayor of Sosua, putting on a boxing tournament as well as holding classes on AIDS awareness.

"Every time we lift the cover on it a little bit to find out what has happened, we get either conflicting or unsettling information," Cheh said in an interview on Wednesday.

In a report to the council, Attorney General Peter NIckles said the mayor of Sosua asked the city for the equipment in late 2007, and that's really where the investigation will begin. Council members want to know how the equipment was selected, who paid to ship it, and if there was favoritism or just someone who knew the system and knew how to get the surplus equipment.

There is also an issue with the value. Nickles said the value of the fire truck was 'minimal', but council members say they find that hard to believe.