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Some city officials still aren't satisfied with answers they're getting about an unusual donation to a Dominican Republic beach town.
WASHINGTON -- D.C.'s donation of an ambulance and a fire truck that originally cost about $340,000 to Peaceoholics -- so Peaceoholics could donate it to a Dominican Republic beach town -- was not improper, according to Attorney General Peter Nickles, but it's raising more questions than answers.
Two D.C. Council members are demanding the inspector general investigate and that the investigation includes three months of travel records in the mayor's office.
The 10-year-old vehicles were decommissioned as surplus and worth a fraction of their original value. Usually, they'd go to auction, but instead, they were donated to the small beach town of Sosua.
Council Judiciary Committee Chairman Phil Mendelson inquired about the donation this week but isn't satisfied.
"I couldn't get answers to the most basic questions," he said. "The fact that they're not being forthcoming suggests there's something being hidden."
Mendelson and Government Operations Chair Mary Cheh have drafted letters asking for answers.
One to the inspector general demanded a full review of the donation and the Peaceoholics involvement. One to the city's chief financial officer demanded travel records showing who went where, what was spent and why.
Nickles cleared the transfer in a report Friday and scoffed at Council concerns that he wasn't impartial.
"If they want to have an investigation, that's fine," he said. "Whatever they want. The suggestion that somehow I'm in the middle of this is ridiculous."
Nickles did order the gift canceled, though, and the vehicles are back in D.C.
In February, a Dominican Republic newspaper highlighted the gift and showed some D.C. Fire officials visiting. The story said district workers would also be coming later to show how to use the equipment.
The Council wants to know if the donation was really just a cover for government-paid, wintertime trips to the Caribbean.
