Council Grills D.C. Fire Chief
Rubin Addresses Claims of Department Misconduct, Bias

By Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 15, 2007

D.C. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin acknowledged yesterday that certain allegations of sexual misconduct in his department are "potentially true," but he declined to elaborate when asked for specifics.

In nearly four hours of testimony before the council's public safety committee, Rubin also faced tough questions from D.C. Council members about racial disparities in disciplinary actions against employees of his department.

Regarding the allegations of sexual improprieties, council member Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) asked Rubin several times to clarify his remarks. Rubin said he was advised by lawyers not to discuss details of the investigation.

"Well, what was the truth?" Alexander asked. "So there was some truth in these allegations about sexual harassment, overtime for sex and prostitution?"

"It's possible, at least one of those," Rubin said.

Rubin asked D.C. police to investigate allegations involving exchanges of money for sex among D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel after the issue was brought to public attention in August. Among the allegations was that emergency medical technicians and paramedics were asked to perform sexual favors in order to get overtime approved by supervisors.

When a reporter sought further explanation of Rubin's comments during a break in the hearing yesterday, the fire chief said he was referring to "sex for overtime," but he did not say that during the hearing.

Rubin said that the investigation is ongoing and that no one has been terminated, but he reminded Alexander that one employee resigned voluntarily.

The employee, Sgt. Darryl Green, was charged with indecent exposure in early September. Officials said then that the probe was triggered in part by an episode July 29 at the Engine Company 8 firehouse in the 1500 block of C Street SE, in which a fire sergeant allegedly exposed himself to a female colleague, an emergency medical technician.

Rubin has previously said that Green's case triggered much wider accusations about sexual improprieties among employees, including allegations of prostitution.

The chief also had a hard time explaining why black employees are disciplined at a rate five times as high as that of white employees. Slightly more than half of the department's employees are African American.

Council members uniformly expressed alarm at the statistics.

"I really don't know how to look at these numbers without seeing race as a factor," said council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the committee.

According to statistics provided by Rubin, African Americans were the subjects of 80 percent of the department's discipline cases in fiscal 2007. Whites composed 15 percent, and Hispanic personnel 4 percent. The numbers were similar in the two previous fiscal years.

Yesterday's hearing was a continuation of an oversight hearing two weeks earlier, during which several current and former members of the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services testified that stiffer penalties were levied against minorities in the department.

Nathan R. Queen of the Progressive Fire Fighters Association, which represents black firefighters, said many firefighters have come to his organization with concerns about inequities in hiring and discipline.

Rubin said the numbers raised concerns for him, but he firmly denied any racial profiling in the department. He said that since he became fire chief in April, he has made great effort to promote blacks.

"I agree [the discipline rate is] alarmingly high, but I cannot characterize it as disparaging treatment," Rubin told council members.

Mendelson also asked about perennial problems in the department with back pay, ballooning overtime costs and complaints about the medical clinic for police and firefighters.