DC Council members eye turning down $25M no-bid deal for fire trucks

Weeks after the News 4 I-Team started asking questions about one of D.C. Fire’s largest contracts ever, a planned $25 million purchase of fire trucks might be on hold.

D.C. Council members say they’re taking action to turn the contract down, rejecting a deal the I-Team found was initiated by a deputy fire chief with past connections to the company.

A group of six council members formally told the fire chief and mayor they don’t want a planned deal with a company called HME. It sets up a crucial contract vote for the next D.C. Council meeting on Tuesday, March 31.

D.C. Fire’s own records show their fire engines are aging and they’re broken almost 40% of the time. There’s a backlog of new fire trucks nationwide. Chief John Donnelly was ready to spend $25 million on 18 new fire engines from a company that said it could deliver them. The city has never worked with HME.

“I want fire trucks. I am agnostic on the manufacturer,” Donnelly previously told News4.

But it turns out some council members have real questions about the manufacturer D.C. Fire picked.

“I heard an uproar of concerns from our firefighters themselves and from the fire union. This contract is moving forward and it has not properly been vetted and we’re really worried about the quality,” said Brooke Pinto, chair of the public safety committee. “That created some serious red flags for me and led us to a deeper investigation.”

Pinto said she was especially concerned about comments by the Detroit Fire Union, whose members use HME equipment. While Detroit Fire leadership said the trucks are holding up well, a Detroit union official told the I-Team “they’re terrible,” complaining about design and durability.

The I-Team reached out to HME several times but has not heard back.

On its website, HME says” “We prioritize product quality, performance on the fireground, apparatus safety and support after the sale.”

Pinto is now leading a council disapproval motion, the formal way to vote down a deal the city wants to make.

“There were just too many question marks that were raised in the quality,” she said.

Donnelly told the I-Team there was no competitive bid for this deal. Instead, he said D.C. Fire found HME through market research, where the department called around to manufacturers.

News4 asked: Did every company get the same chance to bid on the same number of trucks at the same time?

“So, no, not in a sense of sending it out,” Donnelly said.

News4 also found Michael Poetker, the deputy chief in charge of DC Fire’s fleet, used to work for a company that was the sole dealer for HME trucks in the D.C. area.

News4 asked Donnelly who made the first call to HME in the market research process.

“I believe he did,” Donnelly said, referring to Poetker.

That didn’t sit well with Pinto, who said relationships aren’t disqualifying but she has concerns about this one.

“I go back to: That’s why process is so important,” she said.

The officer had arrested the suspect the day before on a drug charge, court documents say. News4’s Mark Segraves reports.

Donnelly said D.C. ethics officials cleared the deal, and Donnelly said he didn’t have any concerns about a potential conflict. The department didn’t let us speak with Poetker during our reporting. Emails to the department and the mayor’s office about the contract have not been returned.