OpenSky Remains a Failure

Despite Revisionist Claims of Success
UWM Grenade Threat Exposes Shortcomings

Lost in all the continuing revelations of technical system failures and missed implementation dates is the stunning failure of the City of Milwaukee OpenSky radio system to meet it primary objective – to provide an interoperable communications platform for all critical city emergency responders including police, fire, and other key departments. This capability was the impetus behind the federal mandates to upgrade emergency communication and coordination systems in the aftermath of the September 11th disaster.

As early as July of 2003, the City of Milwaukee amended the OpenSky contract to include the Milwaukee Fire Department with final purchase occurring in 2005 under Mayor Tom Barrett (see the Exhibit at http://www.crgnetwork.com/Shared/Open%20Sky%20Officer%20Reports/OpenSky%20Fire%20Department%20Documents/Exhibits/OpenSky%20-%20Exhibit%204.pdf). Far beyond the recent total system failure of both police and fire radios and the failure to install already purchased and required equipment, the OpenSky system is still not close to accomplishing its primary goal of interdepartmental communication.

“Forget the pie in the sky notion that emergency responders will one day be able to coordinate firefighting and high speed police chases across municipal boundaries,” said Citizens for Responsible Government spokesperson Chris Kliesmet. “City of Milwaukee Firefighters cannot even directly communicate with City of Milwaukee Police across the street. Just the other day we had a situation where City of Milwaukee police officers could not talk with armed and sworn officers of the UW-Milwaukee Police Department over the discovery of a hand grenade. Imagine if this were a crazed gunman on campus. How many dead students would we be talking about today? The OpenSky project is so late, over-budget, and of such poor quality that any accomplishment at all is hailed as a complete victory. This is nothing but pre-election posturing. Basic OpenSky installation and coverage is still incomplete and its functionally no where near delivering what was promised to citizens and City emergency personnel and paid for by taxpayers.”

Is Barrett Playing Politics with Officer Lives?

OpenSky Radio Blackout the Second This Year

The $18 million OpenSky fire and police radio system was five years late and millions over budget when Mayor Tom Barrett finally found a reason to declare mission accomplished. With one month remaining before the gubernatorial election, Barrett had his police chief declare the system fully operational.

October 1 Milwaukee Police Chief Flynn declared, "We're announcing, sooner than we really wanted to, that on Wednesday, September 22nd, we flicked the switch, so to speak, and made the total conversion to 700 megahertz on the digital system."

A week later, the entire system crashed, as it had earlier this year.

“Barrett knew the danger because the system had crashed before,” said Chris Kliesmet of watchdog group Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG). “CRG published a series of ‘Alarm Bell’ wake up calls to the mayor and OpenSky problems in other cities are widely known. This system is unsafe. One has to ask the question. Did Mayor Barrett push his Chief to bring the system up before it was ready for political purposes? After five years of failure and missed deadlines but an election only a month away, the timing is curious.”

CRG has documented the January 9th crash as well as failures in multiple tests of the system over months of research. CRG has combed through over 1,000 pages of fire and police documents on OpenSky to bring the scandal to light.

“How many more times will we accept being lied to about OpenSky? We got lucky this time. The Mayor needs to get the job done and stop playing poker with the lives of police officers, fire fighters and the public,” said Kliesmet. “Politics should stop where lives are on the line.”

Barrett Should Take a Long Look in Accountability Deficit Mirror!

More OpenSky Hypocrisy: Take responsibility, take action, BEFORE someone is KILLED!

We received an email alert from Tom Barrett that raised the issue of “accountability” and “leadership” with language like “man in charge” and “enough is enough.” Naturally, we thought Barrett was finally taking responsibility for the police radio boondoggle that after $20 million and 5 years of delays is still leaving police officers and fire fighters in harms way without radio backup. Maybe, we thought, he is taking responsibility for failing to stop dumping sewage into Lake Michigan as he promised when he was campaigning for Mayor six years ago.

No, the “Man in Charge” at City Hall still isn’t. “Accountability” and “Leadership” still apply only to others and “enough is enough” is still just campaign finger-pointing.

Rather than flush Barrett’s hypocrisy into Lake Michigan like so much blended sewage, we edited it into a message for our Milk Carton Mayor. If a petition is what passes for Barrett action, we’ll send him one of those, too (note the button depicted below is not an actual request to sign a petition).

UPDATE: Due to popular demand, we made the "SIGN THE PETITION" button below active so you can "sign the petiton" by logging your contact info.  We'll deliver the message to Mayor Barrett.  For those of you who have contacted politicians in the past, you know they require contact info before they take a "petition" seriously.  We left out the address block so at least we can guarantee you won't get junk mail!

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Dear Friend,

Yesterday evening [For months], I [We] have called on Scott Walker [Tom Barrett] to finally hold himself accountable for the continuing crisis at [with] his Milwaukee County Health Complex [OpenSky Police and Fire Radio System].

One hour later [For six years], what initially looked like the first real step in making some long overdue reforms at the mental health facility has turned out to be nothing more than a worthless shuffle on Scott Walker’s county organizational chart. Instead of being fired, Walker’s crony is getting a golden parachute to a cushy new county job [Barrett’s police and fire departments have been trying make the OpenSky radio system work without endangering the lives of officers, fire fighters and the public without success].

Unfortunately, what initially looked like the first real step in making some long overdue reforms at the mental health facility has turned out to be nothing more than a worthless shuffle on Scott Walker’s county organizational chart. [challenge for Barrett as Mayor six years ago (aside from his promise to stop sewage dumping into Lake Michigan) has still not been addressed by the Mayor]. Instead of being fired, Walker’s crony is getting a golden parachute to a cushy new county job [doing his job as Mayor, Barrett has hidden from the scandal and left underlings to take the heat and police officers and fire fighters to needlessly risk their lives].

That's not accountability.

Walker [Barrett] himself has said the system as well as individuals must answer for [nothing about] this scandal. But for the past eight [six] years as county executive [mayor], Scott Walker [Tom Barrett] has been in charge of the system – appointing people to run the facility [departments] and setting the budget priorities.

If the buck doesn’t stop with Scott Walker [Tom Barrett], where does it stop? Watch our videos on this important issue and demand that Scott Walker [Tom Barrett] finally take responsibility for the years of reckless mismanagement at the county mental health complex [of the OpenSky police and fire radio system].

Here are some of the big questions still begging for answers:

• Why did the County Health Complex [Mayor] fail to [stop payment on OpenSky when radios were determined to be unsafe]?

• Why did facility staffing decrease [OpenSky cost rise] by over 20%, while at the same time the County paid more than $250,000 for lawyers and PR flacks to hide behind [Barrett allowed implementation to fall 5-years behind (and counting)]?

• Why have more than 40 funded staffing positions remained vacant [500 pages of officer complaints and a fire department internal investigation not received any attention from the Mayor], while the facility suffers from chronic shortstaffing [radio system fails at 3-Alarm fires, police foot chases and “officer down” calls]?

• Why is Scott Walker [Tom Barrett] allowing officials and investigators [citizens and reporters to be stonewalled] as they search for the truth?

The crisis at Scott Walker’s County Mental Health Complex [with Tom Barrett’s scandal-ridden radio system] has gone on for far too long, and it’s time for some accountability from the man in charge.

Please visit www.wiwastewatchers.com today then tell Mayor Barrett we need answers.

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Link to printable document

Mayor Barrett, How About a Tour of Your Radio System? Or MMSD?

Today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story with Barrett’s Democratic Party flunky bragging that Barrett had stayed in Milwaukee over the weekend and “spent several hours touring five areas that were damaged by the flood.”

Wow, we're sure touring on Saturday was a lot more important than Walker’s touring flooded areas the day before Barrett. In fact, touring a day late was so important that Barrett’s Democratic Party Chief Flunky said, "One man stood up and led, Tom Barrett."

Now that Barrett is leading through timely tours, we have a couple more tours to suggest:

OpenSky Radio System – As CRG uncovered, Barrett has literally hundreds of police officers he is responsible for who would love to show him around this $20 million boondoggle. They would love to talk to him about the 500 plus pages of reports they have filed warning him that their lives and the lives of the citizens they protect are put in danger every day by a system he won’t even talk about.  By the way, Barrett has already had SIX YEARS in office to solve the problem ,, and virtually EVERYONE blames lack of leadership!

Here is what your Police Chief had to say about you.

The police union rep also blamed your lack of leadership.

And the firefighter's union blamed your lack of leadership citing specific incidents like the "Pizza Man" fire where police officers, firefighters, and citizens lives and property were endangered!

Six years Tom - SIX (not to mention millions in cost overruns)!

MMSD – Normally, Barrett would have to go down to the Milwaukee River or Jones Island to see his sewer system continue its annual pollution of our Lake. This week, he can tour basements all over the city to see what his six years of inaction has left for others to clean up. Maybe Milwaukeeans can wipe their floors with the MMSD study Barrett commissioned six years ago.  Hmmm, speaking of things no one has seen or heard from lately, where is that report?

Here are a couple of interesting shots.  No, this is not the Gulf Coast.  This is Tom Barrett's Milwaukee.

Anchors away Tom!  We have a boat fueled and ready to take you on this tour and await your call!  Funny how visible and eager you were when you were blaming it all on Marvin Pratt!

Earlier this month, CRG revealed internal Milwaukee police documents showing the Mayor and the police chief know cops lives are placed in jeopardy as $20 million in radios fail in deadly situations. And even more documents, obtained under the Open Records Law, reveal that the radios are failing the firefighters, too.

Mayor Barrett has issued no public statements in the wake of those revelations. His silence is deafening, and he needs to plop his butt down in Milwaukee and fix the mess before he starts job-hunting. We’d at least like to know he spent enough time in Milwaukee to read the reports from his officers before someone gets killed.

Mayor Barrett, tours are nice. But, they shouldn’t be confused with leadership.

Stand Up! Lead! Protect your police officers! Protect Lake Michigan!  If you REALLY care!

Take your own advice; don’t leave Milwaukee until the crises you are responsible for are fixed!