Saturday, February 7, 2015

Bloomberg Administration Hid 911 System Overruns, Conducted Little Oversight Of Consultants Or Vendors

Juan Gonzalez reports that fiscal genius Mayor Bloomberg oversaw a 911 system overhaul that was $1 billion over budget and ten years delayed.

Gonzlaez also writes that Bloomberg officials hid the cost overruns:

-The overhaul, now scheduled for completion in 2017, has soared in cost by almost $900 million — from $1.3 billion to $2.2 billion.

-More than $200 million of those costs were not previously known because Bloomberg aides buried them in the budgets of other agencies.

-Officials rewrote the monthly reports of 911 project managers or pressured them to “sanitize” and “soften” negative news so as to “to improve the spin” on its progress.

And of course there was no accountability from the Bloomberg administration on the consultants or vendors putting the project together because these weren't lazy city employees working on it, they were heroic private consultants and innovative private vendors:

-Multiple layers of private consultants and vendors virtually ran the overhaul with little supervision from city employees. At times, those consultants ended up marking up their bills to the city as much as 600%.

 -During one 18-month period, City Hall kept cancelling meetings of the interagency city group that was nominally in charge of the project, leading the city’s own quality control consultant, Gartner Group, to complain: “The most senior members of the administration simply failed to pay attention.”

I wrote yesterday that if de Blasio oversaw such a public safety and financial disaster, there would be hell to pay in the media for it.

But really, other than a couple of Juan Gonzalez columns and a few other news items, it seems former Mayor Bloomberg remains the fiscal and management genius he was always depicted as in the media.

8 comments:

  1. What a shock...you'd never think it from a guy like him.

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    1. Nahh, he was a genius. BTW, current Bloomberg employees are finding out he treats them like children - have to wear name badges he can see, the time they clock in is on emails for all to see. Makes me laugh, because many of these journalists think this is the way gov't employees should be treated - but not them. Bloomberg doesn't care, though.

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  2. Whats really....really ....REALLY scary is this douchbag , and maybe two or three other douchbags just like him own and control "The Press" in this country. They get to create our reality...douchbags...

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    1. He is said to be in the market for the NY Times. Have heard that rumor for years, was sort of confirmed this week when Bloomberg responded to a question about whether he wanted to buy the Times by saying "It's not for sale."

      Imagine he owned the Times - Muroch owns WSJ and Post, Zuckerman owns DN, Bloomberg gets the Times. Talk about neo-liberal reality.

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  3. Clinton sold all of you "liberals" down the river....in many ways. Lifting the cap on how many news outlets individuals (corps) can own has created this slimey situation. NAFTA was also a cynical ploy on The Rapist's plate. Me...I always knew he was a snake oil salesman.

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    1. Agreed Some of the worst damage has been done by "liberals" like Clinton and Obama.

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  4. Wow! Is anyone going to step up and file a criminal complaint against Mr. Bloomberg? Or on the other hand justice and accountability are only for the little people in our Orwellian judicial system?

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  5. Overturned term limits saying I, Michael Bloomberg have the business skills to lead the city through a crisis. Denied union labor pay increases during rough times and royally screwed them. Now it turns out Michael Bloomberg is a genius at allowing Fraud, Mismangement, Waste and incompetence. Michael Bloomberg is under the protectorate of the American Orwellian Justice System. Justice and accountability are for the little people!

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