Wisconsin Waste Watchers: ALARM BELL No. 9: New Radios Don’t Work

So Bring Back the Old Ones – DUH!

You’d think if the $20 million OpenSky radios were so bad, that Mayor Tom Barrett would get involved and try to get the best equipment possible for police and firefighters.

So, in June 2008, when the Fire Department had to get 125 of the OLD radios because the NEW radios didn’t work, there would be some mayoral leadership.

What could the mayor do? He’d launch a probe. He’d hire a consultant.

Or, as they might sat at every neighborhood, common sense watering hole , he’d say: “What the "flock" is going on with the radios not working?”

Not our Mayor Tom.

This is our 9th Alarm in our series of 11 Alarms that Mayor Barrett snoozed through when the fire department’s radios were failing. The 11 Alarms are based on over 1000 pages of documents obtained by Citizens for Responsible Government – not the media – and posted on the Internet to reveal the failed leadership of Mayor Barrett in the OpenSky scandal.

There have been 11 critical points at which the OpenSky radios failed so badly that any normal mayor of a big city in America would have intervened to help his cops, firefighters and citizens avoid death or injury.

Incidentally, you will notice that our Pulitzer Prize Winning Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did not request these documents, or do a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles about our cops and firefighters using radios that don’t work. In fact, we offered these documents to them and they weren’t interested in looking.

So, take a look at this Alarm Bell and pause to think about the men and women who risk their live to protect us. The fire department actually brought 125 of the old radios they were supposed to have completely phased out years earlier because the OpenSky radios were “not intrinsically safe.”

And not one word from Mayor Tom!

Exhibit 38 (link to complete document)