Houston Emergency Center employees will be giving City Council an earful tonight, according to KHOU-11:
Houston Emergency Center workers are sounding off at City Council Monday. They say they are overworked and understaffed and the public could be at risk.
The multi-million dollar HEC has crashed several times since opening in 2003. Some employees say no one is listening to their concerns.
[snip]
“We’re just at our wit’s end and we’re tired of it,” said HPPU Vice President Johnnie McFarland. “So we’re here to tell the public safety committee that if something isn’t done, the crisis is only going to get worse.”
A city spokesperson said a consulting firm will begin studying the personnel and equipment issues this week. That’s expected to take about three months.
“In the meantime, we’re looking at issues that we can do to resolve some of the ongoing issues that we have in terms of computer systems, problems with hardware and software,” said Patrick Trahan with Mayor Bill White’s office. “So we’re working on two different fronts on the technical end.”
Sgt. McFarland wrote a Chronicle op-ed on Sunday, about the problems with the 911 call center.
