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On Friday, Washington Post reporter Theola Labbé-DeBose officially broke the news in the blog DC Wire that Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service PIO Pete Piringer was moving to a similar position with the DC Fire & EMS Department. The topic had already made the Internet forum thewatchdesk.com on June 2.


Piringer, a fire service veteran of 40-years, has also been a spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department and Maryland State Police. (Full disclosure: we worked together at PGFD in the mid to late 1970s.) Piringer acknowledged for the Post story that he's coming to work for Chief Dennis Rubin. Piringer told the reporter his exact job and title are undefined. "It will be something in public information and public affairs".

Today, Chief Rubin provided some definition in a very official way at a hearing of the DC City Council Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary. First brought up in the testimony of DC Federation of Citizens Association President Anne Renshaw (58:15), Chief Rubin then provided details during his own testimony (1:44:37).

According to Rubin, Piringer will supervise the press office for the department, replacing Billy D. Hayes, who moves over to public education. Chief Rubin says it will still be a two-person PIO office, with Piringer supervising PIO Alan Etter.

Etter has been in his post for eight-years under at least four different fire chiefs. He was briefly terminated at the start of the administration of Mayor Adrian Fenty and then rehired by the city. Etter has been passed over for the top spot on a number of occasions.

At the hearing, Chairman Phil Mendelson wanted details about Piringer's hiring and the roles and positions of the various players. Compared to the other topics of the day, this one was pretty tame.

If you haven't attended, or watched on TV or the Internet one of these hearings in recent months, you are missing interesting insight into the criticism a big city fire chief faces and how Dennis Rubin handles these situations. You have also missed Chief Rubin's regular sparring with Chairman Mendelson (1:31:35, continuing for 10-minutes or so).

As has been the case in previous hearings, prior to Chief Rubin's testimony, there were a number of witnesses talking about various problems facing the department. Many of the people are very vocal about their problems with various aspects of Chief Rubin's leadership of the department.

One of the more unusual topics this time was the concern by EMS workers that the Star of Life was left off the new department patch. This even included some discussion of swastikas (10:51 and 1:53:57).

The patch problem is just a symbol of the decades long division between fire and EMS in the District of Columbia. During the hearing will find, as usual, much discussion about Chief Rubin's and Mayor Adrian Fenty's goal and commitment to finally unify the agency. In today's hearing an EMS union official said he believes the divide now is worse than prior to Rubin's arrival.

This hearing was somewhat calm compared to the one held on March 4. That gathering had numerous fire and EMS employees complaining about various aspects of the department's disciplinary process. It ended with Firefighter Chris Sullivan being gaveled down by Mendelson because of the firefighter's pointed remarks to Chief Rubin and members of his command staff. Sullivan said he was upset with their reaction to his testimony. (3:53:14 on the March 4 video).

The confrontations between Mendelson and Rubin may have hit a peak at the April 1 hearing. That was the hearing with the lengthy discussion of the donation of fire equipment to a resort town in the Dominican Republic. Note how Chief Rubin had much of his command staff with him at the April hearing and was up there all by himself today. At the earlier hearing, Mendelson went around Rubin asking difficult questions of an assistant chief.

Having covered DCFD, now DC FEMS, for about thirty years, I can safely report these types of hearings and the level of discontent and passion are nothing new (check this one out from 1994). But the ability now to watch these hearings unfiltered on our computers gives everyone a chance to see for themselves the frustrations of those who make the effort to testify and those in charge.

Here is a list of times to help you find specific testimony at today's hearing:

AFGE Local 3721 (EMS) 1:39
Panel of citizens 44:25
IAFF Local 36 1:03:20
Chief Dennis Rubin 1:14:54