Previous coverage of this story from STATter911.com here and here.
For the first time Sarasota County Chief Kenneth Ellerbe makes some comments about the controversy he is embroiled in back in his native Washington, D.C. We will get to that in a moment, because there are a few other developments related to this story.
The reporter who uncovered this story, David Lipscomb at The Washington Times, got through to the DC Fire & EMS Department official who STATter911com first reported signed DC Standard Form 69, a “Personnel Exchange Agreement”. Here’s what Lipscomb wrote:
Reached by phone on Thursday, Chief Lee said the fire department already had addressed the matter, and would not disclose whether he signed the document.
“I have no comment,” Chief Lee said.
As we reported on Wednesday, Andrew Gerst with the DC Department of Human Resources, officially confirmed, without providing details, that the “Personnnel Exchange Agreement” existed in Ellerbe’s file. Lipscomb reports a different experience when he first brought up the subject a week earlier:
But in a Dec. 9 response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Times seeking “documents related to Deputy Fire Chief Ellerbe’s participation in a personnel exchange agreement,” Mr. Gerst responded, “DCHR is not in possession of any such documents.”
Our FOIA request is still pending.
You may recall that we mentioned on Tuesday how Joe Morgan, a District of Columbia firefighter who nearly died because of critical burns in a 1999 fire, was turned down as he attempted, with the support of chiefs and others, to remain employed by DC and was forced to retire. As we said then, it was a different set of circumstances, but a case STATter911.com and others thought relevant in comparing treatment for fire department employees.
We caught up with Joe Morgan in a long phone conversation on Thursday. Always good to hear from Joe and that he is doing well. He has written to STATter911.com, giving a detailed explanation of what he went through and answering a lot of questions that were brought up in our comments section. Joe also gave his thoughts about Chief Ellerbe:
One thing I will say about Chief Ellerbe that I know, he is a smart man and knows the books. He would not make a move like this if there was any doubt of legitimacy. It’s also interesting to me that his leave of absence is being challenged when so many have used this in the past to maintain the maximum retirement possible. I’m sure if an honest assessment were to be rendered, it would be found to have many Ellerbes on the books.
Click here and scroll down toward the bottom to read Joe Morgan’s entire posting.
And finally, our sister station in Tampa, WTSP-TV, was able to get some brief comments out of Chief Ellerbe that are in the video at the top of the page. Here is an excerpt from the article:
Although Ellerbe didn’t want to talk about his situation with the D.C. department, he says the citizens of Sarasota have nothing to worry about, because his full attention is focused on Sarasota.
Although some County Commissioners and those in administration were not aware of Ellerbe’s unique employment situation, Commissioner Jon Thaxton
says he doesn’t have a problem with it as long as Ellerbe is giving his full attention to his new job. But Thaxton admits he can see where some people might have a problem with it, especially with the flap over double dipping in Florida.
