Andrew McIntosh of The Sacramento Bee reports that the state Employment Development Department has cut a deal with Verizon to limit its out-of-control costs on its antiquated telephone system.
"The deal between Verizon and the Employment Development Department, if it receives final approval, would give EDD an estimated $2.6 million credit or refund to be used against future phone bills," the newspaper reported.
The only reason a change is being considered to this cozy deal is that The Sacramento Bee repeatedly shined a light on the problem. The EDD and Verizon thought everything was fine with the arrangement until the newspaper pointed out how much money was being wasted. That caused a public backlash, and the bureaucrats started scurrying.
Here's more from our sister paper: "The Bee reported last month that each time a jobless person calls to file an unemployment insurance claim and no EDD operator is available, the call is routed to a recorded message -- and Verizon is paid 5 cents.
Desperate callers trying to reach EDD have dialed the unemployment call centers' toll-free lines more than 100 million times since October, costing the state $4.4 million for the messages since December."
On April 1, the state Legislature will conduct a hearing into the problems at the EDD. Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, will run the hearing.
After The Sacramento Bee reported this problem, I wrote a column about a Fresno woman who had a personal experience with the phone system at the local EDD office. You can read that column by clicking here. She had to wait three hours to use the phone at the EDD office and it took here 53 tries to get through to a representative.
I blame the problem on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has allowed the EDD to get away with not dealing with the problem until it got some newspaper heat.
Whoa. There seems to be a problem with the timeline here. The Sacto Bee is claiming credit for the EDD and Verizon contract talks after they reported on the cost problem a month ago. However, Devers from Verizon stated that the EDD has been talking to them since January. Time being linear it suggests the Bee is puffing themselves with questionable credibility. Hmmm.
Dean Florez running the hearing? What a big surprise. You have to understand in Florez' dictionary hearing = publicity stunt. If the Legislature wanted to give the impression they were being proactive or giving serious thought to this the should have had someone else run the hearing. Florez should be calling another hearing in a few weeks to decide where his family will go on vacation; followed by the spiked heels damage the infrastructure hearing; followed by restuarants serving Halibut are discriminating agains Cod fisherman and all eateries must offer both now.
I could be wrong on both issues; lets have a hearing.