Public Employee Press

De Blasio puts outsourcing on hold at 911

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The union applauded Mayor Bill de Blasio's May decision to pull the plug on the new troubled emergency 911 system pending an investigation into the contracted-out project's cost overruns, delays and mishaps.

"We have called this project a boondoggle for years," DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said. "The mayor's decision is a very prudent step. This debacle is a lesson in the perils of contracting out."

First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris ordered the immediate 60-day suspension of the project in a letter to commissioners. He said the administration has called upon the Dept. of Investigation to conduct an independent review of the Emergency Communications Transformation Program, which was launched 10 years ago to upgrade the emergency response system by integrating the fire, police and ambulance dispatching operations.

Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ordered the overhaul after the 9/11 tragedy in which 300 Firefighters lost their lives in part because of the old communications system. But as he did with the contracted-out CityTime automated timekeeping project, he ignored signs of trouble and warnings from the union as Hewlett-Packard and other contractors mismanaged the job and wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Over budget

"Our number one priority is protecting the safety of all New Yorkers," de Blasio said as he announced the suspension.

"That means not only fixing the problems that have for too long plagued the ECTP, but also addressing new issues that demand immediate corrective action [so] the new emergency communications system is operationally, technologically and financially prepared to protect future generations."

The project began with a budget of $1.3 billion. Since then, the price tag has almost doubled to over $2 billion.

The project has been plagued by mismanagement, poor work by contractors, overbilling and delay after delay. The new system operates out of the call center at 11 MetroTech in downtown Brooklyn. Behind schedule, the backup site in the Bronx is not up and running.

When the new system went online in May 2013, it was marred by computer glitches that caused shutdowns and blamed for putting the public at risk and contributing to the death of a 4-year-old child.

Last year, citing the repeated breakdowns in life-and-death situations and contracting-out abuses, Roberts called for a federal investigation of the 911 system. The union has exposed the project's cost overruns and misadministration in its white paper project on contracting out and revenue enhancement that DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido coordinates.

"We are happy that they are putting this project under the microscope," said Eddie Rodriguez, president of Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549, which represents the call operators and clerical workers at the call center. "The new system has been plagued by issues that need to be addressed. Unfortunately, our members have been scapegoated for problems created by profit-seeking consultants."

Deputy Mayor Shorris said in his letter that the Dept. of Information Technology and Telecommunications would replace the Office of Citywide Emergency Communications in administering the project. The 60-day suspension freezes spending on existing contacts, halts new contracts and purchase orders and blocks further major changes in 911 operations.

A step backwards

President Israel Miranda of Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics and Inspectors Local 2507 and EMTs President Vincent Variale of Uniformed EMS Officers Local 3621 appeared at a news conference May 30 in which they described the new system as a failure and a misguided step backwards from the old dispatching operation. Public Advocate Letitia James and Elizabeth Crowley, chair of the City Council's Fire and Criminal Justice Committee, joined them.

The old system routed calls to Fire, Police and Emergency Medical Service dispatchers depending on the nature of the emergency. Now, Fire and EMS calls first go to police operators, who log basic information before making referrals to the Fire and EMS dispatchers. The EMS locals and the Firefighters Union say the new procedure delays their response time in emergencies.

"It's unacceptable for an EMS dispatcher to get the calls from another dispatcher three minutes after the call comes in," Miranda said. "Let's stop playing with people's lives."
Vast sums of money have been wasted on a system marred by glitches, Variale said.

Shortly after the news conference, DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido and local leaders addressed a joint hearing of the City Council's Fire and Criminal Justice Committee and Public Safety Committee which is chaired by Vanessa Gibson.

A failure from the start

"The Unified Call Taking System is anything but that," said Local 1549 Executive Vice President Alma G. Roper. "It is simply not unified. The city needs a new system and a new strategy. The 911 operators, dispatchers and supervisors must be included in the planning and implementation from beginning to end. They are the ones who utilize the system and make it work."

Chair John Armstrong, 1st Vice Chair Tracy Whitehead and 2nd Vice Chair Jim Hamlin-McLeod of the local's Police Communication Technicians and Supervising PCTs Chapter accompanied Roper. Variale, Miranda and Local 2507 Recording Secretary Oren Barzilay also testified.

"We applaud the de Blasio administration's decision to halt the new set of changes proposed for the ECTP and for not wasting any more money on a system that is proving to be a lemon without a thorough review of what needs to happen next," said Garrido.

He identified a number of outstanding problems of the system, including:
• failing to standardize addresses,
• severe understaffing,
• a lack of clear dispatching protocols,
• letting consultants run operations, and
• failing to hold vendors accountable for not fulfilling their contracts.

In 2012, an audit by former New York City Comptroller John Liu concluded that Hewlett-Packard had ripped off the taxpayers for up to $160 million in "possible fraudulent" overcharges.

In January, Liu's successor, Scott Stringer, rejected a $6 million settlement with HP that the Bloomberg administration had worked out.

"There should be a full review of the issues around Hewlett-Packard's 911 deal," Stringer told the Daily News. "We must know all the facts before resolving a dispute of this magnitude with a vendor that has cost the city millions of dollars."