Lawsuit Claims SF 911 Dispatchers Ditch Work, Party, Surf Internet, Even Ignore Calls
Categories: Law & Order
San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management, long subject to allegations of maladministration, is described in an employee lawsuit filed last week as a den of dysfunction where 911 dispatchers skip work and cover for each other, spend days surfing the Internet and gossiping, and in at least one case, walk off the job rather than answer emergency calls.
So is the city's 911 system in a personell-management meltdown?
"If those allegations are contained in a lawsuit, I don't know that we can offer comment on it," said Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Laura Adleman.
On May 23 of last year, a manager gave two 911 call takers on the midnight shift pink slips, with the expectation that they'd complete their shifts, the complaint said.
"The Pink-Slipped employees were upset, (and) refused to plug-in and take the 911 calls," the complaint said. "Plaintiff Jane Doe encouraged them to plug-in to answer the 911
calls. They refused. One went home and the other left the area upset. Plaintiff Jane Doe's primary concern was the safety of the community."
The suit also claims that four employees in the dispatch center played a version of round-robin, in which an employee would not show up for work, and one of her friends would cover for her. The AWOL employee would later return the favor, covering for other work-skipping co-workers. The plaintiff and another dispatch center supervisor complained about the scam, the lawsuit claims.
But "there was no internal investigation of this matter even though it clearly had been going on for months if not years," the complaint said. "This type of outrageous abuse of City monies would be, in many other departments or organizations, an immediate ground for
dismissal as it is tantamount to stealing."
Instead, the complaint said, the AWOL employees learned they'd been tattled on, and supposedly ostracized the whistle-blowers.
Again, Department spokeswoman Adleman said,"to the extent there is an internal complaint, it's a confidential personnel matter."
The city's Department of Emergency Services has long been legend as a mismanaged bureaucratic backwater. Until 2008 it was managed by AnneMarie Conroy, who'd been appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 1992 by her godfather Mayor Frank Jordan, who then made her a police commissioner. Willie Brown appointed her to oversee Treasure Island, and Gavin Newsom appointed her to run the Department of Emergency Services.
Critics claimed that her apparent status as a patronage hire was behind problems described in a scathing 2006 official audit, which said that, despite spending $82,797,851 post Sept. 11, 2001 grants aimed at enhancing the city's emergency preparedness, the Department "poorly managed its fundamental responsibility of facilitating effective communication and collaboration of emergency services in the City."
In April, 2008, the Chronicle reported that 439 people died in San Francisco during the previous four years while waiting for delayed medical help following 911 calls.
Also in 2008, Conroy resigned, with Vicki Hennessy, a chief deputy sheriff, now serving as the department's director.
Subsequent reports showed better response times. But if the dispatch workplace is as chaotic as the recent employee's lawsuit claims, it's worth wondering whether a call to 911 will result in a timely rescue.
So is the city's 911 system in a personell-management meltdown?
"If those allegations are contained in a lawsuit, I don't know that we can offer comment on it," said Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Laura Adleman.
The supposedly dysfunctional 911 call center was described in an Oct. 14 complaint, filed in Northern California Federal District Court in Oakland, by two employees who claim to have been victims of harassment by supervisors and coworkers. As disgruntled workers the plaintiffs can be expected to criticize their bosses. But the lawsuit, filed by Anne Raskin and an employee referring to herself anonymously as "Jane Doe" for purported fear of further harassment, relates, in specific terms, events where public safety may have been compromised because workers didn't sufficiently attend to their duties answering 911 calls.
We left messages with Raskin, her attorney, and three co-workers named as defendants in the suit. We'll append comments when they get back to us.
We left messages with Raskin, her attorney, and three co-workers named as defendants in the suit. We'll append comments when they get back to us.
"The Pink-Slipped employees were upset, (and) refused to plug-in and take the 911 calls," the complaint said. "Plaintiff Jane Doe encouraged them to plug-in to answer the 911
calls. They refused. One went home and the other left the area upset. Plaintiff Jane Doe's primary concern was the safety of the community."
The suit also claims that four employees in the dispatch center played a version of round-robin, in which an employee would not show up for work, and one of her friends would cover for her. The AWOL employee would later return the favor, covering for other work-skipping co-workers. The plaintiff and another dispatch center supervisor complained about the scam, the lawsuit claims.
But "there was no internal investigation of this matter even though it clearly had been going on for months if not years," the complaint said. "This type of outrageous abuse of City monies would be, in many other departments or organizations, an immediate ground for
dismissal as it is tantamount to stealing."
Instead, the complaint said, the AWOL employees learned they'd been tattled on, and supposedly ostracized the whistle-blowers.
Again, Department spokeswoman Adleman said,"to the extent there is an internal complaint, it's a confidential personnel matter."
The city's Department of Emergency Services has long been legend as a mismanaged bureaucratic backwater. Until 2008 it was managed by AnneMarie Conroy, who'd been appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 1992 by her godfather Mayor Frank Jordan, who then made her a police commissioner. Willie Brown appointed her to oversee Treasure Island, and Gavin Newsom appointed her to run the Department of Emergency Services.
Critics claimed that her apparent status as a patronage hire was behind problems described in a scathing 2006 official audit, which said that, despite spending $82,797,851 post Sept. 11, 2001 grants aimed at enhancing the city's emergency preparedness, the Department "poorly managed its fundamental responsibility of facilitating effective communication and collaboration of emergency services in the City."
In April, 2008, the Chronicle reported that 439 people died in San Francisco during the previous four years while waiting for delayed medical help following 911 calls.
Also in 2008, Conroy resigned, with Vicki Hennessy, a chief deputy sheriff, now serving as the department's director.
Subsequent reports showed better response times. But if the dispatch workplace is as chaotic as the recent employee's lawsuit claims, it's worth wondering whether a call to 911 will result in a timely rescue.
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