Sunday, July 11, 2010 New Orleans budget in the red, 911 staff included in NOPD layoffs By BIGAD SHABAN | WWL-TV Eyewitness News | July 6, 2010
NEW ORLEANS – At the center of Valerie Wimberly’s world is her 10-year-old son Terrence, Jr.  They both call New Orleans East home, although nearby Methodist Hospital no longer does. Emergency response times are a concern here, especially now. At the city’s 911 call center 23 operators have been laid off.

“To have my service delayed for some reason because we don’t have a call person to take a call, that’s devastating,” Wimberly said.

At the New Orleans Police Department 27 other employees have also been let go, including 12 recruits, who up until Tuesday were still training in the police academy.

The total of 50 NOPD employees are the latest casualties of a growing an estimated $67 million budget deficit.

“Obviously, people were spending more than what they had been given authority to spend,” said City Council president Arnie Fielkow.

Fielkow, also chair of the council’s budget committee, said the overspending has often been through employee overtime.  According to the city, the biggest overspender has been the NOPD, consuming $11 million more than they were supposed to during the first five months of 2010.

“The overtime issue is one that in the past has been used in the summer time primarily,” said Fielkow.  “We aren’t doing that this summer, so how we got from January to May with an $11 million overage in overtime, to me, reflects really poor management at the time.”

The finger is clearly being pointed at former Police Chief Warren Riley and former Mayor Ray Nagin, who both left office on May 3.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu, during his State of the City speech on Thursday, is expected to announce more details on how he hopes to bring the city out of the red.  In the past, the administration has said nothing will be off the table, including furloughs and layoffs.

When asked about this latest round of layoffs, a spokesperson for Landrieu referred Eyewitness News to current NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas, saying he could best answer our questions.  But after arriving at police headquarters, we were told Serpas wouldn’t be taking any.  Two hours later, the NOPD released a statement, calling the layoffs “a necessary step.”  Bob Young, NOPD spokesman, went on to write that ”staffing and scheduling will be adjusted to minimize the effects of the dismissals.”

Bryan Lagarde, who heads the non-profit group Project NOLA, which tracks calls to the city’s 911 dispatch center, isn’t as optimistic.

“They’re probably, at times, are going to be greater back logs for calls waiting for service,” he said.

The former NOPD cop also fears less call takers will push operators to hang up sooner in order to tackle the next emergency.

“If they can’t spend enough time with each caller, not enough information might be covered,” said Lagarde.  “Then, obviously the less information the police officer is going to work with.”

That doesn’t sit well for Wimberly.  Just this past weekend, she lost a family member in Mississippi because the ambulance didn’t arrive fast enough. A sadness she never wants to feel again.

“That’s not a reason for someone to lose their life,” she said.