Watch last Wednesday’s hearing on overtime spending (Chief Rubin’s testimony begins at 20:30)
Watch the March 12 performance oversight hearing (Chief Rubin’s testimony begins at 2:17:25 )
Previous coverage of the council chairman & the fire chief
For just short of a year we have been closely watching the very rocky relationship between DC Fire & EMS Chief Dennis Rubin and City Council member Phil Mendelson. Last April 1, the two went at it over an unusual deal that sent a fire engine and ambulance to a resort town in the Dominican Republic. Since then there have been many other testy exchanges between the chief and the chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary.
For those who have been drawn to this battle, we now have new videos for you covering two hearings in just five days. The first one we previously covered. It was a regular oversight hearing on Friday, March 12. That entire hearing is now online (see the link above).
Much of the testimony on that day covered the recent death of two-year-old Stephanie Stephens. Maybe it was out of respect for the loss of the little girl, but there was little in the way of confrontation between the two men.
That would change on the following Wednesday. The March 17 yearing specifically covered the department’s growing overtime expenditures. It is an area where Rubin and Mendelson have long disagreed.
A lot of the heat from this hearing seemed to center on Mendelson’s questions about the money spent to upstaff the department during the back-to-back blizzards. You will see in the video it is pretty clear the two men did not come to any agreement on the issue.
Also on STATter911 …
- Update: Watch entire hearing on DC Fire & EMS Department overtime spending. More fireworks between Rubin & Mendelson. – May 19, 2010
- Dennis Rubin’s memo attempts to rally troops to fight budget cuts. The latest in the battle between the fire chief and the councilmember. – May 17, 2010
- What did the fire chief know and when did he know it? Dennis Rubin’s answers on the fire engine/ambulance giveaway scrutinized by two reporters. – January 31, 2010
- UPDATE: DC Chief Dennis Rubin takes full responsibility for mistakes made surrounding the death of two-year-old girl. Supervisors now involved in non-transports. Read his testimony & watch report on City Council hearing. – March 12, 2010
KUDO’s to Chief Rubin,
Fire Departments need more people like him. Standing up for what is right and not backing down to a misinformed councilman. Mr Mendohlson really needs to become educated as to how the fire department works. Also, public hearings that rountinely grill the chief, severely undermines his authority. It’s more like a kangaroo court. Stand your ground chief Rubin!!
How the fire department works? Heck, Chief Rubin doesn’t know how the fire department is run. He can’t answer questions about how his own department operates.
The council seems to have more information than he does, and he is in charge. They know the meeting is coming…you would think he would do take some time getting his stuff together.
Man, there is no love there. The councilman is all over him.
As for public hearings…funny thing…they kind of go with working a public job. Every department head has public hearings…you can’t have private hearings usually because that is against the law. So, department managers should probably figure out how to do public hearings without looking like a horse’s rear.
After you come up for air, maybe you can write the councilmember and see if he’ll educate you on how to spell his name.
Rubin shouldn’t be standing his ground, he should be resigning like most of his Medical Directors.
Granted they did it out of disgust, and he’d be doing it because he’s a complete failure, but that’s not the point.
Its lose lose in this city. No matter how much we lay it on the line every day, its never enough. We are overworked daily and underpaid, make this a better place to work and you may get a little bit more from everyone. Phil needs to come out and hit the street with some of our busiest companys, ambulances included, and find out how this really operate.
A real fire chief! What a concept! staffing up for snow storms. wish i had a chief with half his balls. what is the staffing on the rigs in dc?
Another educated response from none other than hookman.
One can only hope that the Councilman/Mendelson can/will conduct himself in a Mature Adult fashion. He seems to listen to union agitators who run to him against Chief Rubin. These alledged Professionals only have prejudice and negative attitudes. Mendelson knows absolutely nothing about Public Safety. He listens to words of vile thoughts and intentions from those who donot like nor Respect Chief Rubin. Yes he has an overture spending within his Budget. There are day to day
occurrances that cost money. There is overtime, then costs of
maintaining Apparatus. As one can only believe there are other important issues that Chief Rubin has to address. He is mandated to put together a workable Fire and EMS Delivery System. Yes there has been three Medical Directors in three
years. Is that the sole fault of Chief Rubin? NO. The three
former Medicalk Directors perhaps realized the up hill battle
to provide Direction and Oversight of a Professional EMS System. Since the Firefighters have it in their minds not to have EMS within equal Departmental Training, etc. These Firefighters must realize that change does occur. The Incidents in question that werenot handled properly, play a critical role in determining what,who, why,whynot, when, where
Resources are to be implemented/deployed. Come on people, wake up this the 21st Century. What is wrong with you people? Every
911 Emergency Response should/must be handled just as if the
person/people were the families of the DC Fire and EMS Professionals. Think about it.
Have a Nice Day
Chief Rubin does have more important issues to address and those issues are addressed monthly on the 2010 Lemons to Lemonade Tour. This weeks issues will be addressed out of the United States in Ontario, at the 12th Annual Northeastern Fire Education Conference starting Thursday March 25th.
Remember Dennis Rubin spends 60-80 hours a week at work…Its just not in the District of Columbia. Lemonade…that cool refreshing drink…….
DCFD Over worked?? 24 on 72 off. May be a schedule change of 10/14s or 12/12s shifts of 2 on and 2 off would help. You wouldn’t get burned out on a 24 hour shift. This may help reduce some of the “over worked” issues.
For an agency that falls under his purivew as Chairman of the Judiciary, Councilman Mendelson displays an incredilble lack of knowledge of the District of Columbia Fire Department staffing needs. He has also clearly demonstrated that he does not understand how the members of the DCFD are compensated through structured pay scales and regulations. Mr. Mendelson only seems concerned that the DCFD has exceeded its overtime budget and that certain members of the DCFD who are willing to work the overtime shifts so that other DCFD members can be relieved of their duty in a timely manner are earning six digit salaries.
News flash Phil, this isn’t rocket science: DC’s firefighters work 24 hours on, 72 hours off; working at most four 24-hour shifts in a 14 day pay period. If a member were to take sick leave on his/her work day, he/she should be able to work 24 hours of overtime later in the same pay period if they are healthy enough to return to work.
Any fire chief in any metro-sized FD is going to be hamstrung to staff ALL the minimum riding positions each day without the use of overtime to cover for people on sick leave, vacation leave, injury leave or attending specialized training. Somewhere the scales tip between paying overtime and filling existing vacancies within the Fire Department. When the vacancy rate is low, overtime may be a cost-effective alternative rather than paying for new hires who will also require benefits such as health insurance and pension fund contributions to be paid for by the city. If the vacancy rate is as high as Chief Rubin states (100+ positions to be filled) then maybe it’s time to consider hiring new firefighters (at the low end of the pay scale) rather than pay overtime to more senior members. Again, I don’t think the math is terribly difficult here; I sure any bean counter can work the numbers in a day or two.
As a DC resident, I expect judicious use of my taxes to pay for the salaries of city workers. I have no heartache whatsover that additional rigs (and other agencies) were upstaffed during the recent snow storms and other events (State of the Union, Inauguration Day)to ensure the safety of the citizens and visitors to Washington, DC; it’s part of the cost of doing business in public safety Phil. It is my personal EXPECTATION for elected officials like you, Mr. Mendelson, to make it a high priority to have a deep understanding of the operations of an agency who’s oversight you are tasked with through your chairmanship of the Judiciary.
Perhaps IAFF Local 36 should hold a Fire Ops 101 for Mr. Mendelson and other local elected officials so that they can understand and appreciate the work that a DC firefighter must do everyday.
Mendelson’s public lashings of Chief Rubin not only undermines respect for Chief Rubin, but also shows the Councilman’s lack of decorum. If he wants to be nasty and show his lack of knowledge, then maybe that should be kept behind closed doors.
As far as upstaffing the equipment for major storms and events, that is pretty much the industry standard and is nothing new nor soley for the DCFEMS. Mendelson doesn’t get it and needs to stop holding stock in complaints from the misfits and malcontents.
I support the Chief 100% He is standing his ground and trying to keep what we have now. I don’t always agree with the administration, mostly disagree with daily operational issues, but I do support the Chief.
Now if the Fire Chief would only instruct the Operations Chief to allow Battalion Chiefs and Deputies to act that way, then I would support the Operations side.
Any time you have an Assistant Chief-Ops that runs every fire and gets involved, you have a system that creates Officers who are incompetent. Or in our case, an Assistant Fire Chief that never was in charge of a Fire Ground and is now responsible for every day Operations.
There’s no science behind the idea that 12h shifts are “healthier” than 24h shifts. In fact, there is some science out of Canada, Toronto, I believe, that shows the 12h shifts are more fatiguing than the 24h shifts. Simply put, there is no good way to sustainably work people on busy units at night. The best option is to keep them busy during the day, give them a chance to rest between runs at night, and then give them a chance to recover at home. Even pilots and doctors working straight nights on 8h shifts make many more errors than those on day or evening shifts. DC can’t afford more errors due to a poor shift schedule. .
Glad to see Chief Rubin standing his ground; however, both him and Councilman Mendelson both look like bad here. First, it is obvious that Mendelson has a grudge against the Chief for one reason or another. It is also obvious that Mendelson has good intentions, but is severely misguided in achieving those intentions by his grudge against the Chief.
From the Chief’s side, he did make himself look bad by being unprepared for the meeting with Mendelson. Based on previous meetings with Mendelson it should have been obvious the direction Mendelson was going to take the testimony and the Chief I believe could have done a better job preparing for that. I can understand that the Chief’s unpreparedness for the meeting only fueled Mendelson’s misguided attacks on him.
Mendelson needs to understand several things when it comes to the fire department in any major city and/or county. First, it is virtually impossible to get to true ZERO overtime in a public safety organization. That is a fact of the beast. Second, it is beyond obvious that Mendelson does not understand the day-to-day operations of the fire department and relies on solely looking at what is on paper in front of him. His aggressive, argumentative nature towards the Chief shows me that he knows internally he has a lack of knowledge, but yet is to proud to admit that lack of knowledge publicly. He lashes out at the Chief to compensate for that lack of knowledge.
Mr. Mendelson also needs to understand a basic workplace attitude that is evident whether you work at the local McDonalds or in the DCFD. You will always have people who will jump at an overtime offer and you will always have people who will turn down overtime. The problem management faces here is why continue to call people who routinely and without regard will turn down overtime requests. A good manager is going to manage time efficiently and not waste time calling 50 people who have a history of turning down overtime. On the other hand, if you have an overtime need and have an employee list and start at the first person on the list and they accept for that shift, you have to wait until the next request to get to the next person on the list. If you get to this person and they turn it down, you move to the third person, and continue on until you fill the slot. Based on Mendelson’s argument here though you still are not spreading the overtime across more people. You are only spreading that overtime across the same people who already gladly accept every overtime request.
I don’t understand Mendelson’s sick leave argument. If I work in any job that offers both a sick leave benefit and the ability to work overtime then, yes, you technically can have both in the same pay period. Common sense here Mr. Mendelson. Even if you do not have a sick leave benefit it is completely possible to have overtime and take an unpaid day off during the week.
Returning to the Chief his preparation for this hearing was completely lacking. Mendelson had obviously asked him to come with certain information. Within 5 minutes of listening to the video I could anticipate almost every angle that Mendelson was going to attack the Chief. The Chief should have known who the big sick leave users were, how they compared to those who earned the most in overtime, and had clear numbers of staffing. Dealing with people like Mendelson takes a lot of hand holding and having all your numbers in a row. You can’t just go in and state the obvious you will need to back it up with figures and on paper.
Personally I would have gone in to the meeting with a Fire Management 101 attitude. Starting with showing how many engines, trucks, ambulances, rapid response units, community service units, how many pieces are in the shop, how many reserve units are operating, etc… What the staffing for every piece is from engine to battalion aides and assistant chief offices. Next I would have taken a best case scenario. No people on vacation, no sick leave, etc… How many workers are on duty at any given time in the DCFD to be fully staffed. Next show numbers on any given day of how many people are on light duty, sick and/or vacation, other leave. How many people does it take to fill those slots? That is overtime for someone. Finally I would have looked at all the pay periods over the last year and accounted for overtime during those periods. For each period show any special events (inauguration, snow, etc), light duty, sick, annual, etc… Next you have are working with an incremental pay scale where two people in the same position with varying amounts of time on the department are going to earn two different rates when working overtime. You have to show Mendelson that it costs more to have a 5 year veteran work the line on an engine in an overtime spot than a first year firefighter in the same spot. I could go on for days here criticizing the Chief’s approach to this hearing, but my point is that his preparation for the hearing was deficient at best.
Mr. Mendelson I applaud your efforts to control a budget, but you need to step back, take a breath, eliminate your bias for the Chief and understand how the fire department works. You are fighting a worthless battle here and instead should be working with the Chief to determine an appropriate resolution to the problem. I have bad news for you, it is a problem that you can not eliminate entirely with a limited budget. Even if you fill all vacancies in a department you are still going to have people who go on light duty, call in sick, take vacations, etc… All of these result in overtime in an organization that is mandated to meet federal and city standards for number of personnel responding to calls. The fire department is unique in that unlike police departments where if one person calls in sick there can be one less unit on the road, if a firefighter calls in sick the position has to be filled to meet minimum staffing requirements.
Anonymous,
The DCFD did use an overtime list where it rotates thru to everybody. Though, it doesn’t take long to get to the same people who worked and are now at the bottom of the list if many of the members ahead of them decline the OT opportunity. The DCFD just switched over to the Telestaff software system, but that also factors in times worked and when you decline an opportunity. But it’s still the same as the same people will make themselves available, and the same people who decline OT will still do so.
T Riley,
Whether the DCFD works 12 hours shifts, 10′s and 14′s, or 24 hour shifts, it still comes out to a 42 hour workweek. So, the change in shift will be limited in it’s effect if there even is one. And as Brooks pointed out, there is some info out there showing that 24 hour shifts are not worse than the shorter shifts.
Berating Chief Rubin over the ‘upstaffing’ during the snow storm is silly. Chief Rubin did the right thing, and he did what most other communities faced with similar conditions did. And this just wasn’t a larger than usual snow storm either, this was a huge snow storm followed by another huge snow storm a few days later.
Also, DC was crippled during these storms, but the one agency which shined was the DCFD. The DCFD was still able to provide service, and did it very effectively, during this storm. Much of the department’s ability to handle these storms was due to the extra units they had in service. They had additional engine companies, truck companies, and ambulances in service along with having all of the CSU units in service and staffing a number of specialized units.
Altogether, the DCFD’s handling of the two snow storms was well managed, and the members did a great job in handling their requests for service.
T Riley,
Also, the overworked comments aren’t due to the shift. It’s the volume of work that is handled by the DCFD. On a per capita basis, the DCFD is one of the busiest departments in the country.
I would like to take this opportunity to praise and point out the comments here are definitely a refreshing view of the DC Fire and EMS Professionals who realize and understand that Managing a Large Metropolitan Urban City like the District of Columbia takes Money and a lot of it. As is pointed out Staffing issues, ie; Overtime, sick leave, vacation etc. all of these entities are real. Councilman Mendelson has no concept nor understanding the Basic Body of Knowledge necessary
who, why,whynot,when,where, how many Personnel Resources, Apparatus Resources/Maintenance, and other Equipment Resources
are absolutely what DCFD is all about. Mendelson needs to take a step back, Listen and learn set Priorities as he should be doing. The Money reflects what it costs to do business 24/7 365. When he listens to the agitators who run to him like children pitting one Parent against the other. Chief Rubin is a Human being, he doesnot deserve the Disrespect and vile words those immature ignorant juvenile mentality individuals speak. Mendelson has no idea what Public Safety/DC Fire and EMS is. He covers his lack of understanding about DCFD with his Authority by throwing his weight in his Political Position. One can only presume that Chief Rubin has a lot on his plate trying to keep together one of the best Respected
Fire Departments in our Nation. Mendelson maynot stop to think but his continued Attitude not only shows no Respect for his
Elected Position by the People, but also he shows unwarranted disrespect for DC Fire and EMS Dept. Mendelson needs to get his Priorities in Order and voice his concern, in a Professional Manner when he is speaking with Chief Rubin.
Mendelson stop listening to those agitators who have little or no respect to ensure the Total DC Fire and EMS Delivery System is sharp, in place as Chief Rubin trys to carry out his mandate as the Fire Chief of our Nation’s Capitol Fire and EMS
Services.
Thank You
Contrary to what some may try to persuade people to think,DCFEMS is lucky to have Dennis Rubin as our chief. If you don’t think so, just look around, it could be a whole lot worse.His actions at that meeting should prove that to all the naysayers.
Perhaps some of you need to go back and watch some of the hearings when Rubin first got here to see how this came about. Also, for the Department to submit a budget that does not include mandated longevity compensation for members is iresponsible on thier part.
Chief Rubin has been given adequate amounts of funding to cover any and all FUNDED positions, initiatives and programs. However for whatever reason he chose to do other things with the funding.
There is no reason to have the 80 or so members down in the so called “Rock Garden.” The vast majority of the members there not only were not required to be EMT’s, let alone NREMT’s when hired, they are either Technicians or assigned to divisions other than Operations, and will never do patient care.
Perhaps it time to move these members back to the regularly assigned positions (as most will be retiring soon)to help get this overtime spending under control.
Mr. Mendelson comes across as an out of touch bean counter. He does not understand the fire service nor does he care.
Glad I’m not in DC…
The reason why we work the 24 hour shifts in DC is so that we have time to work our full-time jobs elsewhere, and lets not forget, many of us need time to work at our volunteer houses.
Does anyone have background information on Mr. Mendelson’s past. Has he served in any capacity, at all, dealing with emergency services? Services involving volunteer or paid professional departments. Has he served in the armed forces protecting our country?
Just curious, maybe someone can answer.
Thank You