D.C. fire chief, council member go at it

The District’s fire chief on Monday accused the D.C. Council member with oversight of public safety of slighting his department and caring little about the community’s welfare.

The rocky relationship between Fire and Emergency Medical Services Chief Dennis Rubin and at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety committee, further devolved during the latest in a series of oversight hearings, as the two men went after each other over the department’s burgeoning budget, overtime spending and threatened cuts.