Mayor Vincent Gray’s pick for fire chief said he has begun cutting the overtime spending that has plagued the D.C. Fire and EMS Department for years. Ken Ellerbe, who began acting as fire chief at the start of January, said he tackled the department’s overtime budget right away.

“Overtime has been trending down,” Ellerbe said Tuesday during a D.C. Council oversight hearing . “It’s about 35 percent lower than it was previously.”