Newsgroups: misc.emerg-services
Date:         Fri, 9 Oct 1992 01:30:00 GMT
From:         Daniel Burstein <0001964967@MCIMAIL.COM>
Subject:      NYC-EMS in the news...

Date:     Fri Oct 09, 1992  1:25 am  GMT
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Date:     Fri Oct 09, 1992  1:25 am  GMT
From:     Daniel Burstein / MCI ID: 196-4967

TO:       Emergency Services List
          EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
          MBX: ]emerg-l@marist.bitnet
Subject:  NYC EMS in the news, again
Message-Id: 01921009012510/0001964967NA3EM

@title="Too Far Away?"

Channel four news (WNBC-tv) continued its investigations into EMS
problems.  Tonight's broadcast, reported by David Browde, noted
some curious living arrangements by a high ranking EMS chief.

Attached please find the transcript, provided through the
resources of the Ragsheet....

Good evening, I'm Chuck Scarborough with Dawn
Fratangelo.  The top uniformed official for New York City's
Emergency Medical Service is under scrutiny tonight for where he
lives, and the way he has responded to some emergencies.  His
address is Putnam County, sixty-eight miles from New York City.
And he was a no-show at two plane crashes.
Dave Browde
 is in the
newsroom right now with an exclusive report.  Dave...


Dave Browde:
 Chuck, as the ranking uniformed officer of the
Emergency Medical Service, McNeill Cross is responsible for
supervising the activities of twenty-six hundred staffers, and
the 328 ambulances that provide emergency healthcare throughout
New York City.  He's paid just over seventy-seven thousand dollars
a year, and has a full time city car.  But News4 has learned that
there are serious questions being asked as to whether the
citizens of New York are getting their money's worth.


Dave Browde:
 When he was promoted to the position of Chief of
Operations, McNeill Cross lived in Yonkers, just over the City
line.  But now, News4 has learned, he's moved to this house
[shown on screen] out in Putnam Valley, in Putnam County, sixty-
eight miles from EMS headquarters in Maspeth, Queens.  EMS
concedes that at two of the biggest emergencies the agency
handled this year, McNeill Cross was nowhere to be found.


Dave Browde:
 It is Sunday nioght March 22nd.  US-Air flight 405
crashes at LaGuardia Airport.  Twenty-seven of the fifty-one on
board are killed.  A massive rescue effort is underway... Top
Police and Fire officials respond to the emergency.  EMS's top
official is not at the scene.


Dave Browde:
 July 30th: Twa flight 833 aborts a take-off and
crashes at the end of the Kennedy Airport runway.  McNeal Cross
is at a New Jersey rock concert, watching Bruce Springstein (and)
we're told, he stayed there.


Andrew Stein:
 The Chief Officer of the EMS has to respond to
major disasters and emergencies. He has to be on the scene in
minutes.


Dave Browde:
 Andrew Stein showed us regulations that mandate that
all EMS employees live inside the City.  EMS says McNeal Cross
was given a waiver of that requirement because the post was
considered "difficult to fill," and that all of the candidates
"who applied lived outside the City."


Dave Browde:
 EMS also claimed that Cross is an administrator,
(and) is not required to respond to emergencies, and said that he
was legitimitely off-duty at the time of both plane crashes.


Dave Browde:
 But the same EMS regulations obtained by News4, the
same ones justifying the full time car given Cross -
this one

[shown on screen] parked in his upstate driveway, say that he is
on call 24 hours a day and is required to respond.


Andrew Stein:
 Mayor Dinkins is the Commander-in-Chief here and
once again he is showing poor leadership.  he should demand that
this Chief live in New York City because that's the only
responsible thing to do to protect the public in case of
disaster.


Mayor David Dinkins:
 It (HHC/EMS) is not a City agency,
precisely, however, I think that a person at that level ought to
be available in times of disasters and what not, and I'm going to
be talking to Dr. Billy Jones (HHC President) about it.


Dave Browde:
 McNeal Cross refused to appear on camera, but he
spoke to me on the telephone.  He told me that he's not the only
one in violation of the regulations (requiring) that EMS
employees live inside the City limits.  Cross told me several EMS
managers don't even live in New York State.  When we started to
check that out, it got a lot worse, but that's our story for
tomorrow night.


Dave Browde:
 Tonight, after hearing about our investigation,
Doctor Billy Jones, head of the City's Health and Hospitals
Corporation, said there would be a full probe of EMS residency
and who lives where.  Chuck..., Dawn...
Newsgroups: misc.emerg-services,alt.radio.scanner