911 will continue to be a joke for another two years

 

NY Post

 
New York’s new 911 text messaging system will finally arrive next summer, two years late and millions over budget, city officials admitted Tuesday.

Eusebio Formoso, the interim commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, testified to city council members that his agency is “moving ahead” with the project to phase texting into the city’s existing 1980s-era analog 911 system by June 2020.
Officials initially promised to have the system online by “early 2018.”

The program is part of a larger $28 million contract awarded to Motorola subsidiary Vesta Solutions in 2017, which has ballooned to $41 million as the delays built.

The improved technology will help domestic violence victims by allowing battered women and children to get help quietly, without tipping off their attackers.

It would also be welcomed by 208,000 city residents who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, as well as the speech-impaired, who can’t call 911.

The long-overdue option — part of the city’s larger “Next Generation 911” project — is already available in 2,000-plus municipalities and counties across the country.

“Since this interim system is being built to handle the highest 911 call volume in the US, getting the system right is a matter of life and death,” said Formoso.

He added that DoITT “would certainly like to be further along than where we are” but blamed the delays on the “complexity” of the project.

Councilman Robert Holden, who chairs the technology committee, wasn’t buying the excuses.
“Nine New York state counties — including neighboring Rockland and Dutchess counties — have all had text-to-911 since as early as 2013, so it’s kind of weird that New York City doesn’t have [911 texting], considering we have the largest population of people with disabilities,” he said.

Holden also said he’s “puzzled” that the city hasn’t even implemented a “Smart 911” system similar to the one now being used in Nassau County.

de Blasio's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications; plenty of city money that's in the wrong hands

NY Daily News

The city’s scandal-scarred tech agency was overcharged millions for an electronic procurement system, according to an investigative watchdog.

Ivalua Inc. was first hired by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications in 2016 to come up with a a system that allows 40 city agencies to buy products and services online.

In the years since, the contract has ballooned from $30.5 million to a whopping $46.9 million, the watchdog Checks and Balances Project found. The city has spent $27.5 million on the contract so far.

A similar system made for Dallas, Texas, cost just under $50,000 a year, according to documents obtained by the watchdog and shared with the Daily News.

“It appears new York City taxpayers were ripped off,” said Scott Peterson, executive director of Checks and Balances Project.

 Ivalua, a software company founded in 2000 and headquartered in California, had no prior experience contracting with American governments before it was chosen to build New York’s e-procurement system.

The city said Ivalua had worked with public sector clients in France. After being hired by New York, Ivalua secured more public contracts in Arizona, Ohio and Maryland.

The system Ivalua is constructing is intended to streamline and shorten the city’s procurement process – making it easier for dozens of agencies to buy goods and services from more than 11,000 vendors.

 Two years after the contract began in April 2016, Ivalua’s design still hadn’t been completed, an internal 2018 document obtained by Peterson shows. But the cost for the Procurement and Sourcing 

Solutions Portal – dubbed PASSPort – still went up by $15 million.

Ivalua did not respond to an email seeking comment Friday. Phone calls to the company went unanswered.

The city insisted Ivalua’s product has been a success so far – even through it’s not finished.

Scary 911 situation for streets with 2 names

From DNA Info:

When Forest Hills resident James Freeley called 911 earlier this month because he suspected someone had broken into his car, the operator couldn't find his address.

Five minutes later, the dispatcher finally found Freeley's home on Puritan Avenue. That was only after he provided the nearest cross streets and the precinct he lives in, he said.

“If somebody was having a heart attack, taking five minutes to figure out where you were is a problem,” said Freeley, 72.

Mix-ups such as these are "a chronic issue citywide," including in Hamilton Beach, a small neighborhood near JFK that has had street names changed twice in the past couple of decades, said state Sen. Joseph Addabbo who represents the area.

The NYPD, which oversees the 911 dispatch system, could not immediately say how many similar incidents there have been. It was also not clear how many dual-named streets there are in the city.

In the Forest Hills case, the street was only logged in the 911 system as 75th Road. Puritan Avenue only applies to the portion of the street inside the private community of Forest Hills Gardens and the name has stood since the street was first created in 1909, according to Queens historian Michael Perlman.

A similar situation applies to busy 71st Avenue, which becomes Continental Avenue in Forest Hills Gardens.

Crazy cost associated with 911 system

From the Daily News:

The city's 911 system still isn’t fixed and the costs are soaring out of control.

Problems with the Fire Department’s dispatch desk outlined in a city investigation Tuesday are just one flaw in the convoluted 911 emergency response system that officials have been trying to fix for years.

Back in 2004 the Bloomberg administration announced ambitious plans to modernize 911 by linking police, fire and EMS systems in one well-coordinated computerized network. The choreography soon fell apart, and a system that was supposed to cost $1.3 billion and be finished by 2009 is now expected to cost $2.03 billion and won’t be finished until August 2016.

In May, Mayor de Blasio froze the city’s 911 upgrade project and ordered a 60-day review. In August, his administration outlined what he called the “root causes” of delays, including the city’s overreliance on outside consultants and lousy communications between city agencies. De Blasio cut back on consultants and put just one agency — the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications — in charge.

The Fire Department, meanwhile, made temporary fixes to streamline communications and will soon request more money for upgrades so EMS will be automatically notified of all “active fire” calls.

Bloomberg misdeed undone by Stringer

From the Daily News:

The company fired by the feds for the botched rollout of the Obamacare website has been “fired” again — the time by the New York City controller.

Controller Scott Stringer’s office refused Tuesday to approve a contract awarded by the Bloomberg administration to the Montreal-based firm CGI to overhaul the city’s 311 information hotline.

The Daily News reported that the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, known as DoITT, approved the contract hours before Mayor de Blasio took office, and that rival companies questioned CGI’s qualifications to do the work.

Sources said the controller’s office had questions about the planning and scope of the project and was concerned that the cost could balloon to as much as ten times the original $10 million pricetag.

An additional concern, sources said, was that the outgoing administration pushed through the contract on its final hours, denying de Blasio a say in the 311 overhaul.

In a letter Tuesday, Deputy Controller Lisa Flores said that if the new administration decides to go through with the project, it should request additional companies to bid on the work.

Bloomberg's final act as mayor was a doozy

From the Daily News:

In one of its final acts, the Bloomberg administration pushed through a costly contract to modernize the city's 311 call system — hiring the same company fired by the feds for the botched rollout of the Obamacare website.

The city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, known as DoITT, awarded the contract to the Montreal-based company CGI on Dec. 31, hours before Bill de Blasio was sworn in as mayor.

Bloomberg administration officials were keen on approving the deal because the former mayor sees the 311 hotline as one his legacies, sources said.

But rival companies are up in arms, saying CGI has little if any experience managing call centers. A website, Dont911nyc311.com, has popped up to protest the contract.

CGI has never overhauled “a 311-type system,” said a source in the information technology industry.

From CBS Local:

A contract awarded to a Montreal-Based CGI on December 31, has caught the eye of City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

“I’m certainly reviewing the contract now,” Stringer told WCBS 880′s Jim Smith.

“This is a critical project when it comes to enhancing 311 and we’re going to be looking at all aspect of this process and contract,” Stringer said.

Stringer said that it was important to make sure that the company does what it said it would do. CGI and the city’s IT department say the competitive bid was awarded after a rigorous evaluation process.

Upgrading the payphone

From AM-NY:

The mayor says there's still a place for pay phones in the 21st Century.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications launched the Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge Wednesday, seeking urban designers, policy experts and engineers to update the phones' look and functionality.

Although the number of public payphones had decreased by 24,000 over the last 20 years thanks to cell phones, the mayor said they are critical during emergencies such as Superstorm Sandy.

(Except when the flood destroys the lines and the service is out for a month.)

Taxpayers ripped off in 911 upgrade

From the Office of the Comptroller:

According to an audit released today by City Comptroller John C. Liu, the contractor selected to streamline the City’s vital 911 call system was unqualified and so poorly monitored that it was able to overbill taxpayers by as much as $163 million. Because of the severity of the findings and potential for fraud in both the vendor selection and billing processes, Comptroller Liu has referred the matter to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for further review.

This follows a previous audit released by Comptroller Liu in March that found the Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP) had only one component up and running, was seven years behind schedule, and a billion dollars over budget.

Today’s audit found that severe mismanagement by DoITT has resulted in the City taxpayers not getting what they paid for. In fact, the systems integration portion of the much needed 911 upgrade could cost an additional $362 million, with taxpayers entitled to as much as $163 million in restitution.

Whitestone says there are too many cell repeaters on building

From the Times Ledger:

The reception might be good near the intersection of 150th Street and Willets Point Boulevard in Whitestone, but state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said his calls haven’t been answered yet.

The senator gathered with area residents Friday to protest what he called the poster child for the unwarranted expansion of the cell phone industry outside a real estate office, at 24-12 150th St., riddled with more than 20 cell phone towers and a large generator.

“The amount of antennas on this building presents a handful of dilemmas for the entire community,” Avella said. “The sheer number of these towers alone beg the question of whether the building can even sustain the weight of the multiple towers.”

Avella said he reached out to the city Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications as well as the city Department of Buildings to no avail, asking them for an analysis on the number of radiation-linked illnesses in the last decade in that area.

The DOB returned his calls with what he called an incomprehensible response, only recognizing that each individual permit was valid.

Aside from the aesthetic disadvantages Avella had mentioned, the senator also said area residents were concerned about a potential health risk in living so close to the towers.

More city data to become public

From Gotham Gazette:

The City Council voted yesterday to pass the most far-reaching and transparent open data legislation in the nation.

The Open Data Bill will require city agencies to release government data to the public online in spreadsheets to speed analysis and trend spotting by the government, outside groups, and citizens alike.

The bill will be fully enacted by 2018. The first wave of data — that which is already available online — will be combined into one web portal within the year. The bill will also create an online forum for citizens to provide feedback on the data released and request more specific data or point out trends.

“What we're striving to do here is making sure we get the total data and get it out there regularly,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, adding that the bill will create a “more transparent, effective and I hope, problem-solving focused government.”

As the city aims to adapt its governing policies to the digital age, it is becoming increasingly transparent.

The data that will be disclosed is essentially all the data the city would otherwise release if released via a Freedom of Information Act request. There are exceptions to the rule — like employment and legal data, and the data sets used by only one agency and stored on one computer.

The bill will cost the city around a million dollars, Quinn said, “it’s a lot of data.” But she doesn’t expect additional staff to be added for it. The bill doesn’t include an enforcement mechanism, but Quinn said that with the Mayor’s support, “'we don't expect anything but full compliance.”

As for the city’s game plan to enact the massive data release, the bill’s lead sponsor Gale Brewer said that’s up to the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, with input from the Council of course.

It's who you know...

From the NY Post:

Deputy Mayor Patti Harris’ stepson enjoyed a meteoric city career, with nine raises in nine years, before he quit his $175,000 job last August and got a pretax $57,803 payment for unused vacation days, The Post has learned.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Michael Lebow is the son of Harris’ husband, MTA board member Mark Lebow.

Soon after Harris became Mayor Bloomberg’s top deputy, Michael, then 27, was hired by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication at $115,000 a year to help launch the 311 call-in system.

He’d dropped out of Washington University and held IT gigs at Bloomberg LP and Rudin Management. His first job required six years’ experience for those without a BA.

“It’s actually rare to find a tech person who didn’t start working in the field as a young student,” said City Hall spokesman Stu Loeser.

But an ex-DOITT worker griped: “No one knew exactly what he did, but it was ‘Hands off . . . He’s Patty Harris’ stepson.’ ”

Liu rejects 911 modernization contract

From the NY Post:

Comptroller John Liu refused today to approve a $286 million contract to complete a five-year-old upgrade of the 911 system, contending that "some of the issues are similar to problems" encountered in the scandal-ridden CityTime project.

In a brief letter to Mayor Bloomberg, Liu said he’s concerned that the project’s cost has increased from $380 million in 2005 to $666 million "and counting."

Liu said the new IT contract with Northrup Grumman that would help establish a second 911 center to back up one that began operating at Brooklyn’s Metrotech in May 2009 includes multiple layers of contractors and a time and expense billing arrangement "which does not encourage timely completion."

But city officials insisted that most of contract is for "fixed-cost deliverables" and hourly rates only apply to selected portions of the deal.

Liu aides said he acted because the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, which is overseeing the contract, couldn’t produce documents relating to "a number of pricing issues" and couldn’t justify the cost of various hardware used in building the system.

The modernization of 911 — known as the Emergency Communications Transformation Project — is designed to centralize all call and dispatch functions of police, fire and ambulance services into one computerized system.

A spokesman for the mayor responded by saying, "We will be working with the comptroller to resolve any concerns and ensure this important project, which has already improved public safety in the city, can move forward."

The projected bill for the overall 911 modernization plan — which includes equipment, building and land acquisition costs — is $2 billion, of which $645 million has been spent.

Bloomberg autobiographical documentary paid for by us

From the Village Voice:

Shortly after his re-election in November 2005, Mike Bloomberg decided to raise his national profile several notches. He began traveling widely, making speeches and accepting awards. We later learned this was mostly about setting the stage for a potential run for president. He ultimately passed on that race, without giving up hope that he might get lucky next time. But one of the interesting features of this publicity push was that—despite his own fabulous wealth—the mayor wasn't shy about using city resources to promote his image.

Starting in February 2006, the Bloomberg administration began assigning a team of video camera operators from the city's television station—NYC-TV—to follow the mayor on his far-flung voyages. The mayor flew on his private jet; the city crews followed behind on commercial airlines.

At taxpayer expense, city workers traveled to Shanghai, Beijing, Bali, Paris, London, Mexico City, Belfast, Berlin, and Jerusalem. They also covered his cross-country jaunts to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta, Boca Raton, and Fort Lauderdale. The crews shot the mayor as well as he made his less glamorous, workaday trips to Washington and Albany.

This fascinating footage was then routed back home for use by local commercial television stations seeking to show viewers their mayor in action. The tapes also aired on one of the city's TV stations, where they ran in endless loops, similar to the way leaders are promoted in places like North Korea. Much of it was also posted for posterity on the mayor's website...

The Voice was hoping to bring this information to readers much earlier. The subject of the mayoral video teams was raised last spring by NYC-TV employees complaining how their agency was being used as a playpen for the mayor and his pals. Their complaints were sparked by a wide-ranging scandal, broken by the Voice, in which top executives at the station—all Bloomberg appointees—were forced out after they were caught abusing their posts; the financial director was arrested when it turned out he had taken advantage of his boss's frequent absences to steal some $60,000.

A Freedom of Information request for travel and expense records was filed last May. As requests go, this one was standard, plain vanilla. But DOITT officials instantly said it would take six months to compile. Why six months? Heavy traffic in the FOI department, they said. This also conveniently ensured that the information wouldn't be available until after voters had decided on the mayor's third term bid in November. Even then, six months stretched into nine. The documents finally emerged a couple weeks ago, after a lawyer was retained to get the agency's attention.

About 10 years ago, we would have expected to read this story in the NY Times.

Today, instead of corruption inside City Hall, they spend their time writing about a cracked driveway outside of it.

Financial genius' 911 center is late and over budget

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg's $1.3 billion plan to modernize the city's 911 system is two years late, plagued by poor management and bad equipment, and has ballooned in cost to more than $2 billion, the Daily News has learned.

Launched in the summer of 2005, the Emergency Communications Transformation Project was supposed to centralize call-and-dispatch operations for police, fire and emergency medical services into a single state-of-the-art computerized system.

Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, who oversees the project, has called it one of the Bloomberg administration's top initiatives.

"We are taking the city's archaic 911 system into the 21st century," Skyler said.

But a host of problems dogged the project from the start - none of which have been publicly acknowledged.

DoITT's commissioner at the time, Gino Menchini, gave Hewlett-Packard a $380 million contract to oversee a consortium of vendors that would design and erect the new system. Those vendors included Northrop Grumman, Verizon and Motorola.

Within months, virtually every aspect of the project was experiencing delays. Costs started to mushroom, with scores of computer consultants coming on board, many at annual salaries of $300,000 to $500,000.

Things fell so far behind schedule the city asked its quality control consultant, Gartner Group, to find out what was happening.

Gartner's report, issued to top officials in March 2007, said the city was "losing $2 million a month," from mismanagement.

It called the ballooning costs of a new "logging and recording system" for the NYPD "ludicrous."

WiFi may come back to the parks

From the NY Post:

...[Wednesday] the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications asked companies for ideas about providing free WiFi service at 40 hot spots in 32 parks and public spaces in all five boroughs.

The city wants companies to suggest ways they could turn a profit while still offering the service free to users.