Sunday, February 8, 2015
911 system is crap
From the NY Times:
New York City employees were pressured by supervisors to “ ‘sanitize,’ ‘soften’ or ‘spin’ ” failures surrounding the long-delayed, $2 billion upgrade of the city’s 911 system by tampering with color-coded ratings, a new investigation has found.
The overhaul of the 911 dispatching system, a decade in the making and $700 million over budget, was brought to a halt nine months ago by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who ordered a fresh review by the city’s Department of Investigation.
The department’s 105-page report, to be released on Friday, highlights some of the same problems as did a 2012 examination by the city comptroller’s office, which found mismanagement, overbilling and poor oversight by the Bloomberg administration.
But the agency sought to go further, by exploring the reasons for those deficiencies. It conducted more than 50 interviews and sifted through more than 1.5 million documents, according to Mark G. Peters, commissioner of the Investigation Department.
“The importance of this report is that it laid out in such detail how this went off the rails, and it laid out what we need to do to make sure it doesn’t go off the rails again,” he said in an interview.
The previously unreported issues the agency identified included an 8 percent cap on markups that was “effectively nullified” because of multiple layers of contractors. A line item for installation increased by 647 percent.
The agency also found more than $211 million in costs that were not reflected in the project’s budget but that it said should have been.
Mr. Peters said that an over-reliance on contractors and subcontractors had helped lead to outlandish markups, but that no one was effectively monitoring the escalating costs and extended deadlines.
11 comments:
I thought that was how city government was supposed to work
Bottom line is $700 million vanished and no one goes to jail.
John Liu Bloomberg and cuomo is responsible.let's see how much they got kicked back.
Two main reasons for this debacle: Bloomberg and the childish lack of cooperation by NYPD & FDNY.
So get up get, get get down
911 is a joke in yo' town
Get up, get, get, get down
Late 911 wears the late crown
911 is a joke
911 is a joke
Another bottomless cesspool to pour tax dollars down. No politician ever leaves office poorer. They all pocket every dollar they can and steer millions to their cronies.
George Washington is rolling over in his grave over what NYC has become.
I think Brian Williams came up with this program and runs 911, saving the poor, huddled masses!
Poor Ariel Russo...
And how about the RIDICULOUS 311 system, seemingly staffed by morons plucked from the gutter? If you foolishly waste your time calling 311 to bring the city's attention to burned out street lights, dangerous potholes, weeds blocking signs, etc., you first get to hear the gibbering idiot on the other end of the phone saying they "have to look that up" or "they have to ask someone about that", etc. Then, they tell YOU to call the relevant agency. Which you could have done in the first place, but you incorrectly figured 311 was that catch-all place to call to save you time in finding out which agency, which number, etc.
Good idea. Lousy execution. They could eliminate 311 and not lose a thing.
2 Billion dollars wasted on garbage that those not work. That much money could be used to build affordable housing and feed the hungry. Taxpayer dollars is easy to spend these days.
So much for the advantages of having a "businessman" as Mayor.
this project was a goldmine for military corporations and unscrupulous contractors.What happened here was criminal.
even though it will cost more millions to prosecute this case if schneiderman were to pursue,everyone complicit must be locked up.From The fun size mayor to the unscrupulous military corporations and contractors.
And suspensions without pay should go to the ones at the NYPD who probably lobbied to break up the service.
and 311 is also a joke.
12 years of business expertise has ruined this town.I am sure lil bloomie would never tolerate any cost overruns or tech glitches on his website and media empire.
Keep on overbuilding without regard for the adequacy of emergency services and 911 will always be crap unable to keep up with the rapid pace of mega development.
Post a Comment