Saturday, April 05, 2008

911 $pending

It's shocking how much money is being spent in Oneida County on the Utica + New Hartford + County call centers: $2.6 million according to the Observer-Dispatch -- mostly salaries. . . .

It's costing about $12.50/person in Utica, $25/person in New Hartford, and $9.33/person in the County. (The economy of scale should be obvious from these napkin-back calculations).

However, local businesses such as APAC have been performing similar services for people all over the country, building up expertise in handling calls and becoming efficient enough to compete with call centers in other countries.

It's answering the phone and networking with the right service providers, folks . . . not rocket science.

Why aren't we drawing on our very own local expertise to cut down costs and improve services?

Maybe its time to privatize our 911 services.

[
BTW, a BIG WELCOME to New Hartford People on the Fault Lines' Blogroll.]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

$25.00 a person for NH? Holy cow. Can imagine how much more for the NH Dispatchers benefits too

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I just read the Dispatcher's Contract at website: http://www.townofnewhartford.com/dispatcherscontract.pdf

Who do these people think they are and more importantly who does Chief Philo think he is?

I guess next they will be telling us they have a money tree just like the New Hartford School Superintendent is telling everyone, especially when he was quoted in the newspaper that he is not concerned with how much NYS Education Aid New Hartford School gets because the School Board will simply increase the School Budget for more ridiculous spending.

Rebecca Mecomber said...

Holy cow, $25 per person for NH! And they don't have enough $$ for the stormwater management problems?!

Anonymous said...

Where does all the 911 surcharges go that are taxed on Cell Phones and Land Line phones? I was under the understanding that it went to the town the phones billing address was in.