Then a council member asked whether I would testify at the next public procurement hearing.
I agreed to explain my limited role and the defects I had observed.
I would not speculate about Voss’s intentions or claim that a failed generator had caused an accident it had never experienced.
At the hearing, a lawyer asked why I had failed to attend the original approval meeting.
I said the meeting had been postponed after staff identified fraudulent communications and conflicting inspection documents.
The lawyer referred to the assault allegation and asked whether I was under investigation for threatening an elderly neighbor.
I said the exterior camera showed Lorraine approaching and striking me, and that the matter was proceeding separately through the court.
The chair instructed the lawyer to remain within the hearing’s scope.
I described the generator relay, the duct penetration, and the document controls.
I explained how a properly signed inspection form differed from a scanned signature pasted onto a file.
I did not raise my voice.
The council members asked practical questions about costs and delays.
The project engineer confirmed that the city could contract with another vendor if the present one failed to satisfy procurement requirements.
No one declared victory.
The public had learned that a necessary emergency system needed repairs and closer oversight.
That was not exciting, but it was useful.
Afterward, an older man approached me near the exit.
He introduced himself as retired firefighter Arthur DeLeon.
He had worked at Bellwood eleven years earlier.
He said a reporter told him I was the person who found the warehouse power records.
I told him the records were city documents and that several people had helped locate them.
He nodded, then asked if I remembered the boy in the red bicycle helmet from the old newspaper.
I said I did.
Arthur looked away.
He had been the firefighter who called for Jonah’s transport.
He had spent eleven years believing the ambulance was delayed by confusion in the smoke.
The new records made him wonder whether the confusion had been encouraged by someone with something to hide.
He did not want me to answer.
He wanted me to know that first responders were asking questions too.
Arthur DeLeon invited me to a meeting of retired emergency workers at the volunteer fire hall.
I declined to speak formally because I had not been at Bellwood and knew less about the incident than many people in the room.
