911 center workstations to be replaced just 9 months after updates
911 CENTER | Redesign will aid training
The Daley administration has awarded a $2.1 million contract to replace and maintain console work stations at Chicago's 911 emergency center -- nine months after spending $480,000 to modify the old consoles to accommodate 17-inch monitors.
Blackwell Consulting Services will replace 109 consoles that have been in place since the 911 center opened in 1995 and install 30 additional work-stations on a redesigned operations floor.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
"That will allow us to do training on the floor and, during a large-scale event, we'll be able to staff those positions instead of moving people to the 311 center," said Ray Orozco, executive director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported this summer that Jim Argiropoulos, deputy executive director of OEMC, gave AT&T the go-ahead to modify the dispatcher and call taker consoles, even though the city was simultaneously soliciting bids from furniture vendors interested in ripping them out.
Since 1995, dispatchers and call takers who field 911 calls have used 15-inch monitors that were the largest available when the $217 million center opened at Madison and Loomis.
Seventeen-inch monitors show more information. Orozco stressed that the new furniture would accommodate 17-inch monitors.
Orozco is facing a Nov. 15 deadline to decide whether to follow the inspector general's recommendation to fire Argiropoulos for unrelated contract irregularities that cost taxpayers $2.25 million.
The OEMC chief also revealed that 12 call takers called in sick last weekend -- nine on the police operations side, three on the fire side -- forcing shifts to be extended.
Sources said the surge in absenteeism was tailor-made to protest the city's decision to substitute comp time for cash overtime.
But Orozco said, "I don't necessarily know that's true. I just think these people are sick. It concerns me when employees are sick -- especially with everything going around today."
Despite the spike in absenteeism, Orozco stressed that there were no reports of any dropped 911 calls between 8 a.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Monday.
"If someone doesn't come in when scheduled, people are held in so we maintain our ability to answer calls," Orozco said.
But he said, "There's obviously gonna be times when volume increases and you're not able to answer in one or two ring-cycles," each lasting five to six seconds.