44-minute hold time for Portland 911
Here's a wild one on KATU: A Portland man was on hold for more than 44 minutes over the weekend before 911 picked up. I've written a lot about the atrocious ambulance crisis in Portland, but when 911 doesn't pick up, that's even worse.
And of course, the latter problem is not new.
We've got dozens of people running around asking for Portlanders' votes for mayor and City Council. When they show up, ask them what they know about the problem, and what specifically is going to solve it.
In particular, give Rene Gonzalez a hard time. The emergency communications bureau has been his baby for a year and change before Dud Wheeler recently took all the bureaus over en route to the new city government structure that will take effect in January.
For all the ugly local taxes Portland residents pay, you'd expect platinum government service. And yet we can't even get the basics.
We know that the obstacle to fixing the issue isn’t money. It isn’t technology. And there are plenty of qualified people looking for work. The issue is management. And that’s a problem that permeates all levels of the Portland area city/county bureaucracy. I wish there were some sort of hiring standards.
ReplyDeleteI would expand your comment to a whole lot of incompetent employees as well. As a former county and city employee, there was a trend before I retired to hire and promote primarily much younger workers. No way you would get hired if you were over 50. The youngest were glued to their phones and their social media feeds, and their work ethic was meh.
DeleteMy friend had a neighbor whose kid was attacked by a crazy dude living across the street. He came over with a sledge hammer and was pounding on the doors and windows trying to break in. The kid and the mom (not home) kept calling 9-1-1 but nobody showed up till 3 hours later. They said it wasn't bad enough unless he broke in the house. They did later arrest him and take him away.
ReplyDeleteThe flip side of this is the stress of the job, with a huge amount of burnout and turnover. Even if the pay was higher and the management of employees was good, it’s not really the job someone would consider as a long term “career”.
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