An inspection of five of the city’s new firetrucks has turned up more than 50 parts on each truck that don’t meet the city’s bid specifications, according to a source familiar with a report that will be delivered to the mayor and City Council on Wednesday.

However, the president of the Lincoln distributor that sold the city the trucks, Jeff Mellen of EDM Equipment Co., said Monday that the trucks meet and exceed all of the city’s specifications.

Meanwhile, Police Chief Tom Casady informed the City Council Monday that the FBI is assisting his department’s investigation of the

$2 million firetruck purchase.

The 50 alleged deficiencies on the trucks would eclipse the 10 that a competing firetruck dealer said he found during a June inspection of one of the trucks, and more than double the number of problems city inspectors reported midway through their examination of the trucks.

The city law department requested a full inspection of the trucks to see whether they meet the city’s specification, in anticipation of litigation over the truck order. The city ordered seven pumpers from EDM, which ordered the trucks built by Florida manufacturer Emergency One, or E-One.

Mayor Coleen Seng asked for Fire Chief Mike Spadt’s resignation and placed Assistant Fire Chief John Huff on administrative leave on July 7 after she said a cursory inspection of the trucks showed they don’t   meet the bid specs.

Last week Seng asked Casady to investigate whether crimes were committed in connection with the purchase. The following day, Casady asked the FBI for assistance with what he called a complex investigation.

But he cautioned people against reading too much into the FBI’s role, saying it’s not unusual.

“There’s nothing sinister about this,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’re ratcheting the investigation up.”

But EDM’s president said Fire Department employees signed off on the trucks, indicating they met specifications, after inspections.

He said Spadt, Huff and the Fire Department’s deputy chief of maintenance, Dennis Klein, all got under a truck and counted the cross members during an eight-hour inspection at the Florida manufacturing plant in December.

He said some of the cross members are difficult to see “unless you’re a contortionist.”

Klein wrote the bid specifications and signed off on inspection sheets indicating the trucks fully complied with the city’s requirements, Mellen said. Klein is still employed by the city but has declined to comment on the investigation.

Mellen said he welcomes the investigation, and will fully cooperate. He said he understands that when you do business with public entities, occasionally these kinds of issues come up and sometimes “there are personalities involved.”

“We’ll obviously be very glad when the investigation is completed and this is all cleared up. We understand that there is a process and we fully support the mayor’s decision to have an investigation and we welcome that. We want the city to continue to be satisfied after 12 years of doing business with them, and fully expect that once this investigation is completed, they will be,” Mellen said.

Casady said he asked the FBI to assist his department to assure the public that the investigation is unbiased and because the FBI has special expertise investigating financial crimes and can reach beyond Nebraska’s borders, if necessary.

However, before the FBI agrees to assist, there must be potential for violations of federal law, he said.

Casady said he didn’t make the FBI angle public earlier because he didn’t want to turn up the vitriol even further or increase trepidation among people, particularly Fire Department employees who haven’t done anything wrong.

Mellen said it might have been more logical for Seng to wait until the investigation was complete before asking for Spadt’s resignation, but added “I don’t know any of the details” surrounding her decision.

“We are aware of absolutely no wrongdoing on the part of any city employee and we stand fully prepared to participate or cooperate in the investigation into any matter we can,” he said.

He said E-One assured him the trucks meet the city’s requirements after an extensive engineering review that lasted more than a week.

“Our own review has confirmed this as well,” he said. The city has five of the seven trucks; the last two are being outfitted with finishing touches at EDM on West O Street.

Mellen said his company has yet to be officially notified by the city of any alleged deficiencies in the trucks, and wasn’t asked to participate in the inspection of the trucks last week. City officials plan to begin talks with EDM after presenting the mayor with the inspection report.

“If they had questions … it may have aided in the process,” Mellen said.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.