DC Auditor Dives Deeper Into 911 Center Woes
An upcoming sequel audit of the District of Columbia’s 911 center will be a “deeper dive than we do with most of our audits,” reflecting “the incredible importance of the issues,” D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson said in a Friday interview. Patterson raised questions about the return of Karima Holmes to lead the Office of Unified Communications (OUC). Advocates for D.C. 911 improvements said they want results.
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The Office of D.C. Auditor (ODCA) signed a contract last week to follow up on last year’s OUC probe. The October audit said OUC failed to meet national standards in many months for getting timely help to callers, with insufficient supervision and operators’ distrust in location technology contributing to failures (see 2110190048). Under the new contract, Federal Engineering will provide two reports. The first, due June 30, will discuss what steps have been taken and where progress has been made; a second, due Sept. 30, will include metrics, said Patterson. OUC didn’t comment.
Patterson hopes to learn OUC has completely addressed the problems with supervision, use of mapping technology and response-time metrics, she said. The auditor praised Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) for including in a proposed FY 2023 budget funding to add about 30 more staff for call-taking and dispatch Oct. 1. When the first audit came out, OUC’s then-interim director Cleo Subido was receptive, “so we were anticipating that would be forward movement on a lot of the recommendations,” said Patterson. Rather than continuing to ask the agency about progress, “we thought it made a lot more sense with something this important to have the actual expert consulting firm come back.”
The auditor was “very surprised” by Bowser's reappointment of Holmes “because our findings had been so focused on leadership and management,” said Patterson. The former D.C. Council member said it would be fair for the Council to ask in Holmes’ upcoming but not yet scheduled confirmation hearing, “Why did you not do this during your five years at the helm? How is it that you did not realize there were supervision issues? How is it that you did not realize that the mapping technology was not being used?”
Since the first audit was more than five months ago, D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B06 Commissioner Tiffani Nichole Johnson wants to know “what recommendations, if any, have been implemented by OUC?” Johnson is concerned taxpayers “are paying for study after study” to make recommendations that aren’t implemented, and meanwhile District “residents are still dying,” she emailed Monday. Johnson wants to know what training OUC provides and why Holmes was allowed to return. “How are DC residents supposed to feel safe?”
"The work isn't done to make sure every DC resident gets help when they call 911,” and OUC mustn’t “move backwards,” emailed ANC 4B01 Commissioner Evan Yeats. “I'm grateful for the auditor for continuing their careful and deliberate work.” ANC 4B planned to vote Monday night on a draft resolution opposing Holmes’ confirmation.
“OUC’s audit was an important step to get official recognition of DC 911’s serious problems,” said Dave Statter, a former journalist who regularly blogs and tweets about OUC issues. “Any efforts to follow-up or look further into these issues is welcomed.” However, Statter doesn’t “expect much to change for the better at OUC without effective leadership,” he emailed Friday. “OUC’s interim director worked closely with the ODCA’s contractor and had been candid and transparent about making the important changes outlined in the audit, particularly when it comes to supervision and management of DC 911." The work involved "shuffling and removing staff put in place by the previous director,” noted Statter: With Holmes returning, it’s unclear if reform efforts “will continue or if OUC reverts to old form.”