STATter 911

That was painful. Too bad the whole thing is incidental to the real issues in the Dept and the main problem never has to give testimony.
 

Gill, another example of the a PG Volunteer - always trying to get over on taxpayers, oh I mean helping the taxpayers. Solution for DCFD - promote him again - or put him in charge of investigations, maybe he and the other two clowns can take a trip.
 

A lot of departments donate old apparatus and equipment to other countries. I was in Cozumel, Mexico and there was a Miami ambulance and a pumper from Colorado in the firehouse, they didn't even take off the old decals.
What am I missing?
 

Dont worry the real issues will come to light real soon...Trusssst me on that. You can pick up the Washington Times in the morning and see the beginning and hopefully the end of this phony and his 2 cronies as well as his other worshipers...I just feel sorry for all the suckers all over the country that believe what this fool is about....stay tuned...I warned ya..Oh and the clown who said i made a fool of myself during the March 4 hearing...Little ole HOOKMAN isnt as dumb as you think..I would hope you wouldnt take it in the side C when your employer brings false charges against you and then on top of that doesnt follow the disciplinary system and as a result, it effects your family and livelihood. So if you think i looked like a fool, then stay tuned because the real fool is about to be revealed....Until then stay anonymous,.it seems your good at that.
 

Just as long as you dont have to distinguish between a dry chem and a Co2 extinguisher hook you'll be fine. Just stick to crying and whining.
 

Just wait until they find out he took his wife on vacation with him. Oops did I say vacation, what I ment to say was, went to train the members of the impoverished, poor tropical paradise restort town on how to "operate" the fire truck!
 

I don't understand what this moron's problem is. We donate equipment every year. We also send personnel out to do trainings all over the county and sometimes to cental america. This just seems like a politician trying to get his face on the camera. This is a great example of politicians wasting our tax money. I am surprised that the chief was able to keep his cool. I think after I was asked the same question 5 times in a role that I would have let him have it.
 

The problem is, no one will say who made the decision to make this donation to this particular town. I think this would pass muster if Fire Department personnel hadn't gone to the Domincan Republic as part of this deal. You can't say that the property was surplused and we had no role in where it went and why, and at the same time, send a representative from Fire/EMS on an apparently useless trip to a resort time, using D.C. funds. Since the truck wasn't there yet, what was Chief Gill and the other members of the "delegation" doing? If this trip was approved, then somebody needs to know why it was in the District's interest to pay for this trip.
 

Hook, hang in there, you'll be ok. These guys are Stupid as they so eloquently displayed. They are just hiding behind positional power that will soon be gone. Also, everyone know they control STATter 911, the wanna be fire fighter, so don't waste your time reading or blogging on this one-sided site. It only used to promote their PROPAGANDA.
 

TRUE.... that's why there is only 10 hits.
The secret is out Statter!!!! No wonder you have not had any breaking news stories lately?
 

HOOKMAN,
Save the drama man, you will be a long forgotten pimple on the rear end and Chief Rubin will still be here, running the department. Unlike you HOOKMAN,Rube was a man and excepted responsiblity for his mistakes. Those are two things you haven't learned to do yet. What's that old saying , something about, winning the battle , but losing the war.....hmmm...might wanta take heed there Hook.

PIPEMAN
 

Hi all,

I guess I should step in to make a couple of points.

This story isn't about a fire engine and ambulance that are basically scrap metal (you may recall that I immediately questioned the $340,000 price that some claimed). In the end this may not even be a story about the fire department, or the fire department's role in it may be relatively minor.

This is a story about transperancy in government. If someone in the Fenty administration wanted to donate fire and EMS equipment to a town anywhere, why didn't they just do it instead of going through a third party?

It has been more than a week and rather than answer some very basic questions on this topic, the administration has decided to let the fire department and Chief Rubin try and explain it rather than the person who made these decisions for the city.

Today is Friday. If there is some bad news to come out of this for someone, Friday afternoons at 4:00 are often a time governments like to release that type of information. Or maybe not.

Now onto a couple of comments about the proprieter of this forum.

"Also, everyone know they control STATter 911, the wanna be fire fighter, so don't waste your time reading or blogging on this one-sided site. It only used to promote their PROPAGANDA."

Please tell me more. No, I want to be someone who writes about the fire service. For the most part I don't even wear fire department t-shirts or hats, so I am not a very good wanna be.

And this one:

"Anonymous said...
TRUE.... that's why there is only 10 hits.
The secret is out Statter!!!! No wonder you have not had any breaking news stories lately?"

What do you see is only 10 hits? What secret is out? If I only had ten hits, it is nice to now you are one tenth of my audience. We ain't Firehouse.com, but I can assure you if there wasn't a substantial number of people out there reading this stuff, I wouldn't be writing it.

But thanks for taking the time to read STATter911.com and sending us your thoughts.

Statter
 

Dave:

Things might have changed lately but when this administration (Rubin's) came in, I noticed a BIG difference in the news media's attitude toward him and his upper management. Every other day there was some simpering story about how wonderful Rubin and crowd were.

It was my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of observers that the news media as a whole (not just your blog, but most other news media, especially the Washington Post) pretty much seem to have abdicated their watchdog role and had become glorified fan clubs. If I ever had an "scoop" and I have a few times, I would not go to you, because I would conclude that you were in the "bag" so to speak. I have noticed that things are starting to change, and now I think that the media is a lot more cynical about Fire Department operaitons, which is as it should be.

It is unfortunate, but while you all were NOT looking, a lot of pretty bad stuff has been going on in the Department and elsewhere. Better late than never I guess.
 

Interesting perspective that I totally get. But let me give you another side of this.

Whatever you think of Rubin, for better or worse, he is attempting to change the culture of the department and DC has never seen a fire chief quite like him. This ruffles feathers and upsets a lot of people.

There isn't a week that goes by that every news organization in town gets tips about his dastardly deeds. The large majority of them don't check out or are a matter of opinion and there is nothing concrete any of us can report. For example, in the Fall, the Post, WTOP Radio, and every TV station were getting numerous calls for weeks that Chief Rubin was involved in an off-duty driving incident that, if true, would be newsworthy. Do you honestly think for a moment there is a reporter in town (including me) who wouldn't want to break that story, if it were true? Every news organization checked it out, again and again, to the point it became comical. The people who continually call in these rumors (trust me, they are not stop) are not helping their cause by wasting the time of reporters and are destroying their own credibility.

In the case of the fire investigators (and I am not relating that to the driving rumor), a WTOP reporter stood in front of the press conference desperately trying to get a smoking gun out of Bowyer, Pennington and their lawyers. They refused to provide one. It is easy to make charges. But someone needs to back them up with facts.

And yes, there is probably always a certain honeymoon period with any new appointee or newly elected official.

But don't forget, right after Chief Rubin announced the firings in the Rosenbaum case, shortly after he got here, I immediately pounced on the issue of how is he going to do that (it turned out he couldn't).

If you (and I don't mean you in particular) provide us something concrete to follow and lead us to facts, instead of firehouse rumors, there isn't any reporter I know so beholden to Dennis Rubin or any other chief they won't do a solid story. Will we be fair and make sure Rubin's side is also heard? I sure hope so.

Now, to be totally honest, there are a few leads I have been given that I haven't had the resources to check out thoroughly to see if they are true. They are usually very time intensive that just doesn't work with the expectations of my position. That doesn't mean there aren't reporters in town who could and would tackle it if they thought it was newsworthy.

I truly appreciate your point of view and understand completely. I just wanted to share mine.

Thanks.

Statter
 

Hookman,

I've checked the paper for the past two days as you requested and haven't found anything.

The lack of an article, however, confirmed my thoughts on a person who I already know to be fool.
 

And as i posted on thewatchdesk Captain, i said it was another story as in the one of the DC inmates being released early. One is in the works so save your fool comment as it is your entitled opinion, but when it comes out you might look like the fool. Also provide detailed information about what im crying and whining about. Just like Mr. Statter said if you dont have anything concrete then he isnt going to run a story, based on firehouse rumors. You sound like the typical person that feeds off 3rd party info while sitting around the firehouse.
You may know of me, but you dont know me nor what ive been through. Maybe your part of the problem? I dont know and i really dont take to much time out of my day to dwell on it. Im pretty comftorable and confident of what im doing. If your not happy or dislike what im doing, then dont pay attention to me. Ive been a vocal person for most of my life, even before i entered the fire service. If you knew anything about me you would have known something about me. Feel free to contact me and we can discuss like men your cares and concerns. Have a great day.
 

My opinion of Dave has changed quite considerably since a few years ago. I thought that he was a reporter that was out to report on only the bad in the department. I would be like dont report on the 3 kids that were rescued in a fire, but report on why it takes an ambulance this long to get from point A to point b.
This was my opinion based on what i see as he reports. Opinions of people change when you get to know a person and get to know more about why they do what they do and where there coming from.
Which is similar to comments made on here about me which are pretty baseless because they either dilike me for things ive done or dont like the way i walk etc...Fine in thats your opinion, but get factual information before you make comments that are borderline 3rd grade mentality.
Im not here to say Dave is my new best friend, but as a person i respect what he does and why he reports the way he does.
If Dave reported all the time on false rumors, i doubt this blog would last too long. As busy as this blog is for Dave he still has a job as a news reporter. If all the stuff coming to him were true he would have to hire a staff to maintain this blog. So those who dont like Dave because there rumors arent being reported ought to come to him with concrete facts and you might have a different opinion of his blog.
 

Dave:

I think the statement that Chief Rubin is "trying to change the culture" of the Fire Department and that ruffles feathers is an example of accepting things at face value. As they say, Rubin can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?

I have to confess that I worked over the years, in various capacities, with 5 or 6 different fire chiefs. Rubin is not that different from the others. In fact, he is very similar to Ronnie Few. As you may recall, Ronnie Few used to say things like people are upset because they don't like change. Well there is revolution and there is devolution. Not all change represents progress. Rubin's fire department looks like the Fire Department of the '50s. His six top managers (his five assistant chiefs and his chief of staff) are all men. Five of the six are white.
 

Rubin's performance in front of this council committee was beyond appalling. I have to assume whoever's ass he is covering is higher up than this council. Just because you say the "right thing" ("I take full responsibility") does not make you competent nor does it make you accountable. If a department head in my jurisdiction came before a council body in this manner they would no longer have a job. Apparently D.C. has no "fitness for duty" requirements. This fiasco makes D.C. fire department look like a joke. The pitiful part of it is, the underlying issue appears to be a real nonstarter.
 

Hey Man, I like Stater's site. Very informative. Lay off him. I hate it when bad things get in the media. The media much rathers to report on stuff like that than all the good things DCFD has accomplished and stood for. Take Care out there, everyone and be safe.
 

Just wondering which DC Deputy Chief is applying for Fire Chief of Sarasota County Florida. Is he bailing out because of problems.
 

Its obvious why this is an issue, because DC is not set up to make a donation like this. Other cities may be, but not DC.

Secondly, its terrible that the donations are going overseas, when departments right here in the US are desperate for equipment. You call that truck scrap metal, departments in the rural world call it a lifesaver.

Take care of our OWN FIRST.

If you need help finding departments to donate to, post, and we will send you to them.