ALARM BELL No. 10: Five Years of Delays and Counting

“This Cannot Continue to be Dragged Out Any Longer”

In July 2009, Dave Wenzel of Milwaukee’s Homeland Security unit belted out an email to his superiors.

It should have been a shot heard throughout Milwaukee City Hall, and the Mayor should have hit the panic button. But, again, Mayor Tom Barrett snoozed in a blissful slumber – content to let cops and firefighters hit the streets every day with radios that don’t work.

“This cannot continue to be dragged out any longer,” Wenzel wrote, reminding the police command that his records show the radios were supposed be installed and running by May 2007 (note original promise date was 2005).

But records obtained by Citizens for Responsible Government show that the police department had to cancel a department training session on the radios in June 2007 because the radios weren’t ready.

That’s right the $20 million OpenSky radios didn’t work, and weren’t ready on time.

The radios had to be sent back to the manufacturer for coding, and the delays began.

That dragged on.

And, on.

And, on.

And, on.

The police department was told the radios would be ready by August 2007.

August came and went, and January 2008 came along. Still no radios.

Then, records show, the radios weren’t ready by January 2009. “Our radios have been gone for over a year,” one memo reports.

This is part 10 of 11-part series detailing critical points at which mayoral leadership should have been exercised to get to the bottom of the OpenSky faulty radio scandal. Cops and firefighters facing death with bum radios should be a top priority for the mayor of the state’s largest city. Acting Chief Michael Jones put the fine point on it in July 2009: “To date, not one MFD (OpenSky) radio functions in any operational capacity for operational use.”

Let’s take a look at the timeline of delays and disaster.

1. Timeline – Oct. 18, 2007 (Can't even get the straps and cases right!)

2. Exhibit 28 – May 2007 (well, the upside of being late was taxpayers avoided paying time and one-half)


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3a. Exhibit 41 – April 16, 2008 (Wow!  Someone who gets it - no delivery, no pay - it's now April 2008!)
 

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3b. Exhibit 41 - May 2, 2008 (Reasonable delays? Only in government are delays acceptable!)


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4. Exhibit 68 - Jan 16, 2009 (2007, 2008, 2009, still no radios!)

 5. Collection 0758 – July 9, 2009 (Lucy!  You got some 'splainin' to do to Homeland Security!)


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(and Assistant Chief Jones is not to happy about the heat in this memo to the OpenSky vendor!)

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C'mon Mayor Barrett, these warning bells have been ringing on YOUR watch for years.  What's it gonna take to light a fire in your pajamas - a dead firefighter?

OpenSky was started in 2003 with a promise of completion in 2005.  Well, it's already 2010 with 2011 looming around the corner - and we are already about $4 million (about 25%) over budget.  One more alarm bell to go.  Will Tom Barrett EVER wake up?