Documents back up clergy’s allegations
By Chris King Of the St. Louis American
According to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, a group of activist clergy that has called for an investigation into the leadership of Director of Public Safety Sam Simon were correct when they claimed that Simon ordered that all Fire Department airmasks be removed by Aug. 1 without notifying Fire Chief Sherman George, a move the clergy described as “dangerous and incompetent.”
The clergy – led by Bishop Willie James Ellis Jr., the Rev. B.T. Rice, the Rev. James T. Morris and the Rev. Anthony Witherspoon – publicly made this claim on August 14.
City spokesman Ed Rhode responded, “After information came out that the equipment was defective, Sam Simon wrote the distributor asking for a $1.2 million refund. The distributor tried to take the masks back. Sam Simon prevented them from doing so until they gave the City a refund.”
An exchange of letters between Simon, who oversees the Fire Department, Christine J. Bierman, president and CEO of Colt Safety Inc., and Mayor Francis G. Slay shows that the clergy had the correct version of events.
And, according to Bierman and the Fire Department, it was Chief George and not Simon who stopped her company from removing from the Fire Department all of its protective airmasks, as Simon had demanded the company do.
On July 12, in a letter that was not copied to Chief George, Simon described to Bierman defects he said the City had uncovered in a model of self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) that the City had purchased from Colt Safety Inc.
“The St. Louis Fire Department has spent over $1,200,000 on the initial purchase of the SCBA’s and related equipment, upgrades and replacement parts,” Simon wrote to Bierman, with no copy to George.
“Toward a resolution, we demand that you accept the return of all of the SCBA’s purchased, and refund the City of St. Louis $1,200,000 by August 1, 2007. We would appreciate a response within 10 days of this letter.”
Capt. Steve Simpson, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said that Chief George had no knowledge of Simon’s “demand” that Colt Inc. “accept the return of all of the SCBA’s purchased” until Bierman forwarded a copy of Simon’s letter to the Fire Department.
Simpson said that the SCBA’s purchased from Colt Inc. were the Fire Department’s complete supply of airmasks and that the department had no plan to replace them within the 10 days Simon demanded a response from Colt Inc.
Had Colt Inc. complied with Simon’s “demand,” Simpson said, “We would have been totally shut down – totally out of business, as far as emergency firefighting is concerned. Those airmasks are what we rely on to protect our firefighters.”
Simpson said the Fire Department has no resources to replace the airmasks immediately, and even if Colt Inc. had refunded the $1.2 million to the City on the day it took back its SCBA’s, it would have taken the Fire Department “six months to a year” to test alternative airmasks for safety and purchase a full supply of replacement gear.
Bierman, president and CEO of Colt Inc. responded with a letter to Mayor Slay on July 17, which was copied to Simon and Chief George.
She remarked that Simon had not copied the mayor nor the fire chief with his “demand” that her company “accept the return of all of the SCBA’s purchased.”
“I find this extremely odd due to his great concern for the safety of our city’s firefighters,” Bierman said.
Bierman noted that she called Simon on July 16 and was told by an assistant that Simon was not in the office and his voice mail was full. She said she had told the assistant that she would arrange with a trucking subcontractor to pick up the airmasks and would call the fire chief and ask him to consolidate the SCBA’s so they could be picked up.
Before Simon returned her call, Bierman said, Capt. Michael Richardson from the Fire Department called her to say that Chief George had received his copy of her return letter to Simon.
“Capt. Richardson said, quoting the chief, that for the safety of his firefighters and the city he could not let the breathing apparatus leave Fire Department premises,” Bierman said.
Bierman said she found it “most bizarre and most unprofessional” that Simon “who is responsible for the safety of our city has the authority to send such a demand letter and leave our firefighters without protective gear.”