Futuristic Firetrucks Prove State-Of-The-Art Lemons -- $550,000 Spent On Two Vehicles Now In Mothballs

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The high-tech hazardous-incident truck was perfect for the department San Jose Fire Chief Bob Osby was building but for one thing: the cloth awning that extended from the side to protect firefighters from the sun. Looks like a camper, Osby fumed; I want metal.

Truck builder Ralph Colet, who aspired to sell more trucks to the city, added his own touches: stainless-steel skin, wipers that came on automatically during rain, built-in jacks that lowered from the truck in case of flat tires, a television camera to give the driver a view from the rear.

Firefighters streamed over daily to Colet's shop, located a block from the department's maintenance yard. Do this, change that, they said, and make it big: 11 1/2 feet tall. Oops; the door to the station where the truck would be parked was 10 feet, 10 inches.

The story of how San Jose spent $350,000 on a hazardous-incident truck (HIT) it doesn't use - and then $200,000 more on a command vehicle from the same designer - is a classic tale of bureaucracy run amok.

It features a now-departed fire chief with visions of grandeur; a controversial truck builder - genius to some, flake to others - who claimed to have constructed tank-retrieval trucks for the Israeli army; and departmental management procedures that virtually institutionalized chaos.

TRUCKS IDLE AS DEBATE RAGES

Today, after reports of brake and electrical breakdowns, the two trucks have been sitting idle nearly a year. The department is using a converted bread truck to inspect toxic spills.

A county grand jury is investigating the purchase and construction of Colet's trucks, as are city officials. And in a fire department rife with infighting, debate continues over who is responsible for the screwups with the trucks and whether the trucks ought to be overhauled and returned to service.

Osby's plan to acquire a state-of-the-art HIT vehicle, most everyone agrees, was laudable. In Silicon Valley, where about 1,000 semiconductor companies use and store toxic gases, it made sense for San Jose to have a vehicle second to none.

Osby believed a special truck required special handling, so he set up a high-level committee. This was unusual. Normally, one man - master mechanic Don Wisniski - had primary responsibility for specifications and oversight. For the HIT vehicle, the chain of command reached all the way to Osby, Assistant Chief Lejames Suess and two deputy chiefs, Ron Delgado and Richard Wattenbarger.

Specifications went out in 1990, and the low bid belonged to a local businessman, Ralph Colet.

Though he ran a small, family-owned sheet-metal operation, top brass at the San Jose Fire Department considered Colet a known quantity. He had built several patrol tankers for the department, and Osby said Colet "bordered on genius in his automotive skills."

But others in the department viewed him with suspicion. Colet claimed ties with the Israeli army and said he was working on a design for a stealth helicopter cockpit frame. There has never been confirmation that Colet actually did such work, and the department didn't check these claims.

Some firefighters also worried about the quality of Colet's work. They described his blueprints for past jobs as "cartoon drawings," and blueprint quality was a particular concern this time because Colet would do the design himself.

But the biggest reason for concern was something few would have predicted. The rear door to Colet's shop is only a softball throw from the department's maintenance yard - too close and too tempting for anxious firefighters wanting to voice opinions.

And Colet was a guy who had trouble saying no.

"At best, we visit a facility once or twice to make sure things are built to spec," Wattenbarger said. "We never became acquainted with anybody.

"But with (Colet) being right there, there were people going in and out who had no business there," Wattenbarger said. "Everybody had an idea."

Like the firefighter who wanted a truck taller than the garage. Or the one who made Colet change the seat belts, only to find out that the shoulder harness would cut into the face of a shorter firefighter.

And what pleased one firefighter upset another. On a day Osby popped in unannounced, he discovered the cloth awnings - a specific suggestion from one of his firefighters - and erupted.

"He started yelling and screaming," Colet said. "I said, `Chief, everything I've done I've been told to do.' "

The change to metal cost an extra $14,900. Instead of going out to bid on the awning, the department backdated the bill so it appeared the metal awning was part of the original purchase, an audit found.

Soon, Colet began to feel under-appreciated. In what he calls an effort to solidify his reputation, he was making his own additions to the trucks, such as the automatic jacks and windshield wipers. And with all the changes from the department, his profit margin was shrinking drastically. (Colet now says he spent $30,000 more than he bid.)

Nevertheless, when the trucks were finished, the chief was pleased. From the outside, the trucks sparkled with their silver, stainless-steel finish. Resembling SWAT vehicles in size, the trucks were packed with the latest toxic-fighting gadgets and $5,000 firefighter suits.

Eager HIT members took their truck to the station and immediately washed it. To their surprise, water leaked inside onto sensitive equipment. Scully began to wonder what else might be wrong.

The trucks went into service in 1992. There were a few problems - including a driver's seat so high that the driver looked out over the windshield wipers - but top officials say they were easily fixed.

By the end of the year, however, the department brass who had supported Colet were gone: Osby and Delgado to other cities, while Wattenbarger, Suess and Wisniski had retired.

FIREFIGHTERS SKEPTICAL

That left the angry and skeptical firefighters who viewed Colet's relationship with Wisniski, Wattenbarger and Suess with suspicion. Rumors spread that the three had gone to work for Colet. In recent interviews, each man denied accepting any money from Colet, although Wattenbarger and Wisniski say they advised Colet on various matters.

Attitudes toward the trucks quickly went from bad to worse. City officials declined requests to provide a log of breakdowns, but firefighters say there have been numerous operational problems, mostly with brakes. Firefighters finally gave up on Colet's vehicles late in 1992, when the brakes on the HIT failed and the rig almost crashed.

In February 1993, the two vehicles were taken out of service. But Colet said recently he wasn't notified of the alleged problems for almost a year, until recent newspaper stories were printed.

"They have a problem?" Colet said. "I'm right next door."

Colet has not built a single truck for San Jose since the controversy began. His bid to build an airport crash-and-rescue vehicle, though the lowest one, was rejected twice. The panel said his bids were "unclear, ambiguous and lacked supporting documentation."

Colet is now building a truck for Atlanta.