Bloomberg wastes another billion dollars

Juan Gonzalez, who has been all over Bloomberg for years, writes:

“City Hall aides repeatedly bungled supervision of a massive upgrade of the 911 system, even as the project fell years behind schedule and its costs ballooned by as much as $1 billion, an audit has found.

“When Mayor Bloomberg launched the 911 project in 2004, he promised a seamless system that would replace antiquated police, fire and EMS call-t6akng and dispatch functions with 21st century technology. It had a price tag of  $1.3 billion and was supposed to be done in three years.

“City Hall now concedes the cost has zoomed to at least $2 billion, and Controller John Liu [says] that the price tag is closer to $2.3 billion.”

Soon this will add up to REAL money.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s planned repairs to the 911 emergency call system are $1 billion over budget – NY Daily News.

6 thoughts on “Bloomberg wastes another billion dollars

  1. Several things.

    First off: how is it shocking that Bloomberg has wasted money again? I mean, come on, he does it all the time. CityTime comes to mind as a good example.

    Secondly: How much can I trust our Controller? He’s facing serious ethics questions because of campaign financing. Give that, do I trust his numbers?

    • Given that City Hall says the number is $2 billion, I’ll trust Liu that the real figure is at least 15% higher.

    • The Daily News says that the city is fighting to conceal a consultant’s report on the failure of the 411 system makeover. Typical Bloomberg, I figured. But the DN editorial refers to a “Virgina-based technology firm.” The only such firm that I can find is Winbourne Consulting of Arlington VA (http://www.winbourneconsulting.com/contact.shtml).
      I sure hope that the consultant that is reviewing the 911 system isn’t Winbourne. According to their website, they’ve been trying to get the damn thing working for the last eight years:

      >June 2011
      >New York City’s 911 Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP)
      >Since 2004, Winbourne Consulting has supported New York City’s 911 Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP) and the lead City agencies: New York Police Department (NYPD), Fire Department of New York (FDNY), Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Office of Citywide Emergency Communications (OCEC).

      >Over this period, we have provided project management and technical expertise to the FDNY’s renovation, technical fit-out and migration of staff and technology for the Borough-based Communications Offices (CO). We have also supported the technical design, with NYPD, FDNY, DoITT and OCEC) of Public Safety Answering Center One (PSAC1) and Public Safety Answering Center Two (PSAC2). We have developed technical requirements for the new 911 telecommunications, Logging & Recording, Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), networks, radio systems and provided procurement and implementation support.

      >We are continuing to provide project management and technical subject matter expertise services to the ECTP program.

      From the Winbourne site: http://www.winbourneconsulting.com/company_news-2011.shtml

      Daily News editorial: http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-04-05/news/31296241_1_emergency-response-mayor-bloomberg-response-times

  2. Pingback: Bloomberg’s $73 million 911 system crashes twice | BiteMe

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