Gray to Reappoint Lanier: Sources

Mayor-elect also to name new fire chief

Sources with D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent Gray's transition team said he will reappoint Police Chief Cathy Lanier.

Sources also said Gray will appoint a former D.C. assistant fire chief as the replacement for D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin. Kenneth Ellerbe is chief of the Sarasota County Fire Department.

An announcement is expected Thursday.

Earlier this month, Lanier said on WTOP's "Ask the Chief" that she would stay if asked. She has been with the department since 1990.

"I'm a career employee here," she said. "I love the city and I love what I do."

Ellerbe still owns a house on Alabama Avenue in Ward 7. A year ago, The Washington Times reported that when Ellerebe took the Sarasota County position in the summer of 2009, he was put on leave without pay by D.C. Fire and EMS so that he could begin to collect 80 percent of his pay in retirement benefits when he turned 50 in April 2009. STATter 911 later reported that Ellerbe retired from the D.C. Fire and EMS on Jan. 15, a month and a day after the report in the Times.

Rubin was named D.C.'s fire chief in March 2007. In October, he said he won't stay on past the end of his contract on Jan. 2, when "the new administration takes over." He said he plans to find work as a consultant until he finds a new permanent post.

The D.C. Council must approve the appointments.


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