No Third Term : Th3 ill-fat3d, karmically-doom3d th3rd t3rm of Micha3l Bloomb3rg
City medics are demanding the resignation of EMS boss Abdo Nahmod, claiming he mismanaged the response to Superstorm Sandy, reported The New York Post (via Firehouse.com).
First responders say medical care devolved into chaos as the hurricane’s floodwaters swamped EMS stations and paralyzed ambulances — sometimes stranding medics on their roofs — all because the FDNY failed to follow its own hurricane plan.
Read more : FDNY Medics Calling for Ouster of EMS Chief for Sandy Decisions
Related : Related : Hurricane Sandy - Political Accountability For Hospital Evacuations
that's frightening. reader Gchats me "911 literally just rings and rings." #nyc #sandy
— Azi Paybarah (@azipaybarah) October 30, 2012
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at this morning's late morning press briefing, denied that the inability of the 911 emergency telephone call system to orderly handle all of the emergencies during Hurricane Sandy contributed to any unnecessary injuries or deaths. Mayor Bloomberg said that calling 911 for help would not have saved a man's life, who died when a tree crashed though his house, leading to destruction that killed the man.
The artist and political blogger Suzannah B. Troy has posted on her blog concerns about whether the 911 dispatch tech system in New York City will hold up during the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Remember how New York City's emergency response plan turned out to be inadequate in the lead up to and the in the aftermath of the Snowpocolypse ?
Scathing NYT editorial, about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's scandalous 911 emergency dispatch system.
2012-05-01 Bloomberg Failed NYC 911 Call System Report Heavily Edited Doomed Emergency
New York’s blizzard of 2010 revealed serious weaknesses in the city’s 911 emergency dispatch system. With separate telephone facilities for police, fire and ambulances, many callers had to speak to two or three different operators. There were delays and mistakes and at one point 1,000 callers were urgently waiting for help.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg moved to speed up what is now a $2 billion plan to consolidate the 911 systems. But a new consultant’s report, released by the Bloomberg administration only after a judge’s order, raises worrisome questions about the new system’s effectiveness.
The report says that operators are still asking too many questions: about the location of the emergency, borough, address, cross streets, whether it is a residence or building, apartment and building floor, the caller’s name and phone number — before finally asking what the emergency is. Only then is the right operator typically brought into the conference call and a vehicle dispatched.
The report does not say that response times have slowed because of the duplicative questions — the city insists times have improved with the new system. But the report argues that things would move faster if operators answered: “911. What is your emergency?” and then conferenced in the relevant department while the rest of the information was sought. Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway will only promise that the city will study this recommendation. The report also raises questions about the way New York calculates response times. Instead of starting the clock from the second the 911 call is placed, as other cities do, it counts from the time an emergency vehicle is dispatched. That makes response times look shorter. But New Yorkers need to know how long it takes from the time they dial for help to when that help arrives.
The new system is supposed to be able to handle 50,000 emergency calls an hour, 40 times more than the average daily volume now. But the report concluded that the Police and Fire Departments have still failed to plan coordinated responses for operators and dispatchers to major emergencies like a blackout or terrorist attack. The departments need to develop formal procedures and training to work together when there is such an event and calls surge. Mayor Bloomberg has a lot more work to do.
Court Orders Mayor Michael Bloomberg To Hand Over 911 Call Processing Review Report.
The Bloomberg administration is reviewing its "next move" following the court order, issued by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron. Judge Engoron issued his order following the filing of a complex labor-arbitration case brought against the City by two fire department unions. According to The New York Post, "The unions have subpoenaed the report in their effort to show the city's 911 system is worse than ever despite $2 billion in improvements."
Gino Menchini, Technodyne Lobbyist, and former NYC Telecom Commissioner
Agostino Cangemi's lobbying partner on the Technodyne-CityTime deal is Gino Menchini ; both men now work for National Strategies, LLC, a lobbying firm that performed recent lobbying work for Technodyne, one of the subcontractors implicated in the CityTime fraud scandal.
According to Mr. Menchini's biography, he was : "appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) and New York City’s Chief Information Officer (CIO). As the City’s CIO and DoITT Commissioner, he reported directly to Mayor Bloomberg and was responsible for the oversight and direction of IT and telecommunications activities for all of the City’s agencies."
In 2004, Mr. Menchini oversaw the motherload of IT contracts for that time : a $1 billion telecommunications and internet contract for the entire city. The amount of money tied to that telecom contract was described as a ''BONANZA'' (in all capital letters, according to The New York Daily News headline).
Naturally, Mr. Menchini is a very close and personal friend of Mayor Bloomberg. In 2005, Mr. Menchini was among those who attended the wedding of Miss Emma Bloomberg, Mr. Bloomberg's older daughter.
After he left his job as telecommunications commissioner, Mr. Menchini worked for a time with Northrop Grumman, one of the subcontractors on another controversial $2 billion Unified Call Taker-911 dispatch and emergency call system that is also known as the Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP) -- a deal that has already become the subject of review by New York City Comptroller John Liu.
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