Fenty legal team linked to firetruck donation
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
April 7, 2009
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| D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles, left, signed off on a three-page statement Friday declaring the gift of a firetruck and an ambulance to a beach town in the Dominican Republic “legal and totally proper.” (Examiner file photo) |
Two members of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s inner circle asked the District’s contracting office to outline the process for donating a surplus firetruck and an ambulance to a beach town in the Dominican Republic, officials said Monday.
Chip Richardson, Fenty’s acting general counsel, and Thorn Pozen, the mayor’s special counsel, both contacted the Office of Contracting and Procurement about organizing the donation to the tourist enclave Sosua, Nancy Hapeman, OCP’s general counsel, told a D.C. Council committee Monday.
She said the District lawyers sought to use the District-based Peaceoholics as an intermediary.
The revelation took the mystery of why the city chose to donate emergency equipment to a Caribbean town into the mayor’s office but left unanswered key questions about the transaction.
The contribution was made possible by an emergency rule issued in late March, weeks after a deputy D.C. fire chief traveled to the north Dominican coast, on the taxpayers’ dime, to announce the deal.
“I signed that rule to allow us to make that donation,” said David Gragan, the director of the city’s contracting office. “There were no red flags to me.”
Under questioning at the council hearing Monday, Gragan denied having met Sinclair Skinner, a close confidant of Fenty’s. Two sources, including a former D.C. procurement officer, said Skinner had traveled to Sosua before the deal occurred. He could not be reached for comment Monday.
Richardson, the mayor’s principal attorney, declined comment. The issue has been forwarded to the D.C. inspector general for further review, he said.
The donation of surplus equipment to a foreign country, though not unprecedented, has raised numerous questions. D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles signed off on a three-page statement Friday declaring the gift “legal and totally proper.”
But some of Nickles’ statements about the deal are now under scrutiny.
The firetruck had 55,000 miles on it, not 197,000 as Nickles claimed, said at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson, who inspected both vehicles Monday. The executive, Mendelson said, “is clearly acting as if they’re hiding something.”
The 1998 Seagrave Pumper fire engine and 2002 Ford E-450 ambulance were shipped out of the District in late March. But after questions were raised about the deal, the equipment was returned April 1. The donation, via a shadowy emergency rule, “looks like an end-run about the statutory requirements,” said D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, Ward 3.
Wilbur Giles, OCP’s now-former chief of staff and head of its personal property division. also was involved in the deal, Hapeman said. Giles was moved from his job as head of the personal property division Monday.
Nickles barred Giles from testifying before Cheh’s committee Monday, citing the IG’s investigation.
mneibauer@dcexaminer.com
