Never, never, never believe it when some government official says a new way to save money has been found. Government ALWAYS costs more.
Case in point: Houston’s Emergency Center. KTRH-740’s awesome Brent Fuller did some digging and discovered that HEC’s budget is a bit fudged:
Houston City Council has approved more than $21 million to run the city’s combined emergency dispatch center over the next year. But a NewsRadio 740 KTRH investigation has revealed the cost of operating that center is actually more like $40 million.
The emergency center, often called the HEC, has employees from at least five different city departments working under its roof. They include the Houston Police Department, the Houston Fire Department, Houston Emergency Center staff, the Office of Emergency Management, and the Building Services Department.
It seems some of the salaries for those employees, who work every day at the HEC, were put in other sections of the city budget and not included in the center’s total operating cost.
Here are some of the items that were not included in the HEC budget:
$8.1 million in salaries for 92 civilian dispatch positions and 27 classified police officers. That’s in the police department budget.
$4.1 million in salaries for about 80 fire dispatchers and 13 administrators. This was included in the fire department budget.
$750,000 for dispatcher overtime Also in the fire department budget.
$893,000 for eight full-time workers and one part-time employee at the city emergency management office. This is included in the city Finance and Administration budget.
$2.5 million for an interest payment on the HEC property at 5320 N. Shepherd. Under the “debt service” portion of the city budget.
That brings the total spending on the HEC center to $37.5 million, without the cost of building maintenance staff and a contract to provide security guards for the center. Some of that cash comes from local taxes, the rest from 911 fees charged to phone subscribers.
And the coup de gr
