Photo via Office of Councilmember Tommy Wells
Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) is finished with D.C. Fire and EMS Chief Kenneth Ellerbe. In a letter to Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who leads the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, Cheh says it’s time for Ellerbe to go.
After Wells’ committee rejected a fire department-backed plan last week to re-assign 14 ambulances staffed by “single-role” emergency medical technicians and paramedics from after midnight to between 1 p.m and 7 p.m., Cheh found all the reason she needs to call for Ellerbe’s head.
“In your committee report on this resolution, you thoroughly highlighted the agency’s many recent failures,” Cheh writes. “It is now very plain that the agency’s ability to respond to emergencies has been significantly degraded, and I lay that at the doorstep of poor management. I believe that the current Chief no longer has the confidence of the people of the District and should resign.”
In the committee report to which Cheh refers, Wells’ staff cited details about the Fire and EMS Department that question the agency’s reliability and readiness. The department, the report reads, “failed to produce evidence or documentation supporting the number of ambulances, it says are needed, to provide timely medical care during the peak demand times of service.”
Cheh is also asking Mayor Vince Gray’s office to submit a plan for reorganizing the department within 90 days. A spokesman for Gray did not respond to a request for comment on Cheh’s demand for Ellerbe to step down.
But this is hardly the first time Cheh has been out for the city’s top brass. Last summer, amid guilty pleas by several of Gray’s 2010 campaign aides, Cheh called on the mayor himself to resign.
