Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch May Be In Trouble
July 15,2013
For such a serious and professional place of business something needs to change. I was told the air conditioning hasn’t been working for at least 4 weeks for the current employees and its been between 78-82 degrees inside the call center. They were told to come in shorts and t shirts until it can get fixed. I’m thinking its one thing for the employees to be hot but the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars of equipment that can overheat in that center, it’s scary to even think about. You would think Ridgewood and Glen Rock who own Central Dispatch would help them out with portable ac units or something to withstand the heat.
Over and over again I hear complaints about this agency and it would be nice for the people to realize how the hero on the other end of the 911 telephones are getting treated. Maybe it’s time to switch up the head staff and get a manager in that place that knows how to function a business!
Dump the entire operation, have Bergen County take over 911 and radio dispatch, and save over $1 million each year in the process.
Who is the director and why wait for seven months to even say anything?
Jack Tancos and they fear their jobs.
Jack Tancos couldn’t run a small nursery school correctly if he tried….
Agree with #1 above, the place has had problems ever since it began with Greenlaw.
BRING BACK BOB GREENLAW!
Central dispatch was a political debacle that never worked from the start it was sold to the public as a cost saving measure and the costs the went thru the roof. The last figures I heard were 600,000 dollars a year from the village to central dispatch, the county will do it cheaper, if the council did that, that would be admitting they or the council’s before them made a mistake, the only council member left from the central inception is Tom Richie. and his company did the phone system. When problems were realized the complaints fell on deaf ears, Central had support from the council because it was their personal project, and the bosses in the village were brow beaten into accepting a lower standard of operation
Isn’t there a managment committee that “looks over” the 911 center? Do they realize what is goin on?
Lets have another political moron tell us what is best for the cops
Working in this heat without air conditioning is probably an OSHA violation.
Bring back Pease Library.
Going to the county is a mistake! They say its free , however trust me it wouldn’t be. With a radio plan like the villages it would be over 1,000,000 just to change into the courts radio plan. Add to that the county is far more understaffed then Ridgewood dispatch center is , and the service of Ridgewood residents would drop.
Think about it , who safe would you feel of when you dialed 911 the phone rang for eight, nine ring before someone would pick up?
Lets put the onus back in the proper hands. The management committee is too busy stuffing their pockets to care about the center or the employees. The management committee helps themselves to 4% raises as well as the Police Departments. Dispatchers are told no increases will be given due to lack of funds. The money is constantly misappropriated. This causes the dispatchers to seek other employment out of necessity to pay bills and provide for their families. As far as the AC problem a new part was ordered but failed. Should this be the Directors fault?
When you go before the management committee there defense is ” We do not know what you people due” maybe its time for them to find out!
The management committee takes 4% raises as well as the Police and Fire Departments. The dispatchers are told no increases due to lack of funds. This forces the dispatchers to seek other employment to pay their bills and take care of their families. The management committee does not know what the function or jobs of the dispatcher are. They have stated this at many meetings. Maybe it is time for them to spend time at the center! Ignorance is no excuse!
The AC part was ordered but failed. Can we really blame the Director for this?
I would take central over the county any day of the week! They are awesome!
Hire Greenlaw back!!!! At least the place was run properly when he was here
Ask Jack to show you his policy on training new employees. Oh wait. He doesn’t have one. He sticks the new person off on their own and hopes for the best. When they are short staffed he never helps in the radio room. He just sits in his office-not doing much of anything. When a storm or bad weather is forecasted he never plans ahead to bring in more staff. He sends out pages at the last minute then wonders why he can’t get anyone to come in. I just have 1 question-why do our tax dollars pay for him to have his own Village car?
He spends more village money running Hawthorne fire calls in his fully equipt village crown vic!! How many towns has central picked up in the last year? Or 2 ? Or 3? NONE! I wonder why…. POOR MANAGEMENT and snotty supvs..
Joann Chiesa, Admin Asst – NWBCD
I am amazed at the cowardice of those who take cheap shots at NWBCD and Jack Tancos while hiding behind the cloak of anonymity. If they had the courage of their convictions, any kind of moral center and the well being of NWBCD at heart they would be proud to post their names.
As for the pseudo journalist who wrote this “article”, perhaps information from more than one source would have resulted in an article less biased against NWBCD.
Joann Chiesa – Admin Asst NWBCD
I am amazed at the cowardice of those who take cheap shots at NWBCD and Jack Tancos while hiding behind the cloak of anonymity. If they had the courage of their convictions, a moral center and the well being of NWBCD at heart they would be proud to post their name.
As for the pseudo journalist who wrote this “article” – perhaps information from more than one source would have resulted in an article less biased against NWBCD.
I am amazed at the cowardice of the people who take cheap shots at NWBCD and Jack Tancos while hiding behind the cloak of anonymity. If they had the courage of their convictions, a moral center and the well being of NWBCD at heart they would be proud to post their names.
As for the pseudo journalist who wrote this “article” – perhaps he should have gotten information from more than one source. He might have produced a story less biased against NWBCD.
READ: This is for all lay people who may not fully understand how the Administration at Central Dispatch really works. There is a Director, yes. There is also a Management Committee which oversees and ultimately makes most of the final decisions pertaining to the center. This committee consists of one representative from the Village of Ridgewood and one representative from the Boro of Glen Rock. There is also a third representative which is one of the CFOs from either of the two towns. I am not sure how you can blame a director who technically DOES NOT have the final say for many items such as the raising of the starting salary, raises, purchasing of new equipment, or even the hiring and/or termination of employees. The Director makes his recommendations to the Management Committee and either they agree or tell him to “Go scratch!” Ultimately, many of these problems fall in the hands of this committee and they should be the ones answering for the issues. There is only so much that a director can do if he does not have the support of his bosses.
As for Bergen County taking over dispatch, ask any other town who has made the switch and see if they are happy. I am sure they will respond with a big NO and that the quality of the service has definitely gone down. If you are a resident of any of the towns that Central Dispatch services and you don’t mind listening to the phone ring 9 or 10 times when you dial 9-1-1 or waiting an extra 10 minutes for a police officer to arrive at your home because of a dispatch delay, then plead your case to your council members and save an extra few dollars in taxes by switching to the County. By the way, once you make the switch, there is no going back!
Right. The management committee is just as guilty for not doing their jobs and stepping in. They have no idea what goes on in there and do whatever the director stays. How can they represent and manage a 911 center when they have no clue what goes on?? Of course they are going to listen to the director no matter how wrong he is. Just my two cents
No municipality that has switched over to the County for 911 call answering and/or radio dispatch has complained publicly.
The “check with those towns who have switched over and I’m sure they’ll tell you how poor the service is” is nothing more than a scare tactic perpetrated by employees of NWBCD.
Dump NWBCD now and begin saving money now.
Joann yep they are cowards and spineless cowards at that!
If it is such stellar place to work, why is there constantly open shifts ? Or, why does no one want to work? I am told that back in the day when the n in open shift was typed into a page for an open shift that the shift was gone in five seconds flat. North maple and Harding plaza, we have a huge problem!!!
If I were the director and my own staff were writing about how bad their work environment is, I would immediately revoke all TV and public internet access and any additional privileges that isn’t required in the work place.
While the pay may be bad, the work load is in no way demanding. Take a trip to NYC communication command and see what its like to have the phone ringing non-stop and radio communication constantly.
That was a good one jack!!! ^^^^^
I don’t think this is solely about writing, people over there are quitting in unhealthy numbers and not working any extra shifts, that is a red flag to anyone with management experience.
Taking away TV and Internet from the already over worked underpaid staff is just plain stupid.
No one wants to work there as it is. Maybe it is time to ask the employees for ways to make the center better.
Rumor has it Jack has been out sick for two days since this post. Interesting!
The problem here is that the center is so complex that training new people takes time. While it was said there is no policy on training new people, I don’t think a center like Central could possibly train 7 new people in 2 months to replace those that have resigned. On the other hand, it’s also not right to risk public safety by having trainees cover minimum or below minimum staffing levels. Overall, something needs to be done now if Central wants to stay in business much longer.
If the residents knew that the staff drops down after 2am or 3am to only 2 dispatchers. How can 2 dispatchers man the center? I believe the past Director was fired for doing the same thing.
Pages going out all day again. No employees willing to cover shifts.
Must be nice, a director making over $90,000 a year and a secretary the third highest paid at that place. It’s time the management committee wakes up and see the hard work those people put in. I think if the management committee just worked there for one week, they would have very different outlook on that place, us residents of Ridgewood have a great service and It’s something we need to protect.
Speaking of the management committee, who are they ? What do they know about being a dispatcher? Or know anything about how Emergency Communications work? They seem to be a bunch of uninformed and clearly ignorant people who are only worried about making sure that the budget is a low as possible. Typical small government.
As an employee, I will remain under the cloak of anonymity to protect my job. Here’s what I have to say: Despite the issues with the Director and the Management Committee, the employees still come to work and provide exceptional and superb service to all of the agencies. These problems have been present for easily over six months and no one has seen a deterioration in service. The public would never have known about any of this until this blog. It is awful that we have to work under such conditions as poor pay, a hostile work environment, and most of all no recognition or appreciation from the higher ups. There are no lunches, no breaks, sometimes not allowed to go the bathroom because of staffing levels which could leave only 1 person in the room, weapons waved in front of other employees, harassing remarks from management and administration, and the list could go on….
Oh- and the chairs suck too!
In response to the last comment, what exactly do you mean by “weapons waived”? If somebody was bringing weapons to Central I would think that’s a major problem. Was anything done about that?
Anonymity protects employees from retribution, so in this case it’s hardly cowardice. Besides, Fuhrer Tancos has a legion of little snitches who love to report to him whenever someone has the audacity to question the sub-par service of his little circus. As for you, JoAnn, how noble of you to try and take a bullet for your boss. Pathetic. Even when Greenlaw ran the show, people knew it was a patronage mill for “FOB”s to get in the door for jobs. Granted, some very talented and dedicated people came through those doors and onto the front lines protecting the residents. Sadly, in recent years it’s only become a depository for the lamest excuses for dispatchers, and a way for Jack to hand out jobs to his fire buddies. The powers that be ran around soliciting more business without increasing the staffing or the quality of service properly. None of them are allowed to publicly say it, but the emergency workers in many of the towns they picked up say the level of service is rock bottom at best. Now you have people from the inside saying that night shifts are often staffed by only TWO operators. How many towns are having their safety gambled with at that level? Look at any significant weather event. It only takes a small increase in the call volume before they get flustered. On one such occasion, they were heard to tell a local fire department “you’re on your own, we’re completely inundated here”. Beyond unacceptable. Factor in the incidents like Irene and Sandy when there was ample advance warning. Units sent to the same locations numerous times, complete breakdowns in communications and major failures of the critical infrastructure. Adding insult to injury, the director has been caught in numerous LIES to department heads, yet he is never held accountable. MAJOR violations of NJSP regulations for dispatch center operations have gone under the radar, despite the fact that someone should have been disciplined and/or prosecuted. The departure of so many full time employees has led to borderline incompetent employees being put in supervisory positions simply by attrition. If the taxpayers footing the bill for this house of horrors knew the TRUTH about what is going on there, they’d be mortified. The county may not be the best answer, but leaving this vital service under the direction of an incompetent buffoon is continuing to put lives and public safety at risk. People outraged by this should demand answers from those responsible.
It seems pretty clear that the root of Central’s issues stem from the director and his supervisors. My recommendation to the management committee is to work from the top down on restructuring Central. Mr. Tancos must be removed. Appoint a new director for the center as well as a deputy director (like central once had). From the top proceed to the middle and retrain or reappoint supervisors. From the middle work down to the dispatchers. Retrain those dispatchers that have fallen behind in Tancos’s era. Change the hiring process and make it more competitive include a testing process prior to an interview. Restructure the training program and send employees to become CTO’s. The list goes on and on. Tancos does not have the proper business management skills/people skills for his position and that is why he fails so bad. Central needs a true leader with experience in the field and still can treat his or her employees like real people and not just a body in the chair.
Weapons ?
This is another example of a problem that has been developing for a long time and was ignored by the council. Central was titled a “Joint Meeting” between rwd , grk, and midland pk, it didn’t take long for mpk to realize it screwed up by joining and it pulled out rwd should have done the same but it was the rwd councils idea, with Rodney Irwin then village mgr. From there on in it was a downhill slide.
I would still like to hear more about this weapons ordeal. Does anybody have information on this?
Perhaps there should be a police supervisor and/or a fire supervisor to act as a liaison to be sure dispatchers are being trained properly to handle the police and fire calls that they will be dealing with.
This was tried at the beginning and when the dispatchers on the committee said put a cop in central bob greenlaw said if they put a cop in here one of you gets laid off.
Central was supposed to cut costs of dispatching with the vill of rwd spending at least 600,000 a year to central I think the village is subsidizing other towns dispatching just to keep the place alive, that way the politicians wouldn’t have to admit they screwed up. For 600 000 a year the vor could have a lot of dispatchers. When central was developed the VOR could’ve had 911 service for about 17000 dollars instead the politco’s opted for this boondoggle that never worked and became a money pit. Bob Greenlaw left under very closed mouth circumstances, there are a select few who know the whole story behind “the file”.
bring back Jack and Joann