Judge Tells Bloomberg to Release 911 Report

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A state judge ordered Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Monday to release what is said to be a sharply critical report on New York's costly, much-delayed emergency dispatch system, but gave the city a week to appeal.

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: April 9, 2012

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The judge, Justice Arthur F. Engoron of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said the city's rationale for suppressing the review of the $2.3 billion 911 call-handling system called to mind President Richard M. Nixon's obfuscations during the Watergate scandal. "Nixon kept claiming executive privilege," the judge said. "The public and the courts didn't buy it."

"Executive privilege is not a phrase that the city is invoking here," the judge added. "But I think we are talking about much the same thing."

City lawyers argued that the review was an unfinished draft , and that to release it prematurely could deter officials from freely expressing their opinions.

But Justice Engoron, citing a belief in openness and transparency, said the report and all its drafts, which were paid for with public money, belonged to New Yorkers.

Mr. Bloomberg said he was studying his options, but warned that the ruling would set a dangerous precedent if upheld.

"I don't know how any government would be able to function if you had to put out every single paper, even at the beginning of a study," he said at a midday news conference, adding: "You'd come to a screeching halt. You just can't do this."

The mayor drew a comparison to journalists' having to publish their notes. "I don't know how your paper could survive if they had to publish the first copy of your story," he told a reporter.

"No company could survive," he added. "No government could survive. And that's exactly what, if this ruling — if the courts say you have to publish this, you'd have to publish everything."

The 911 system is already years behind schedule and more than $1 billion over budget. Critics have accused the administration of trying to suppress a report that could deliver another blow to the mayor's already tarnished image as a steward of large-scale technology projects, after a scandal with the CityTime payroll system and delays and overruns in a system handling personnel records.

The Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, said the mayor should give up the fight to suppress the 911 review. "When is a draft a report? When a Supreme Court judge says so," he said in a statement. "New Yorkers deserve to read this report as well, because lives literally hang in the balance."

The outside review of the 911 system, formally called the Emergency Communications Transformation Project, was performed by Winbourne Consulting , based in Washington, a longtime subcontractor on the project.

Two unions representing city firefighters learned of the existence of the consultant's report several months ago and subpoenaed it in a long-running legal battle over the new 911 system, which they say has only worsened emergency response times.

At the hearing, Justice Engoron, a nine-year veteran of the bench whose term ends this year, said that by the administration's logic it could merely stamp a damaging report with the word "draft" and keep it out of public view indefinitely.

"Anything can be labeled a draft," he said. "In 10 years we can have an even more final or subsequent draft, but meanwhile fires are happening and firefighters are responding."

He also said that an analysis by an outside party had intrinsic value, even if it were revised before being issued in its final form.

"This isn't some man or woman sitting at a desk giving his private thoughts," Justice Engoron said. "I totally buy the firefighters' argument here: public safety is at stake."

Kate Taylor contributed reporting.

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