OEMC Scandal

Missed this one. Seems like it should be bigger news than it is, but we wouldn't want to point out crooked contracts and what appears to be extortion when we're all rooting for the Olympics, right?

• The inspector general's office is recommending the firing of the No. 2 man at Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications for alleged contract irregularities that cost taxpayers $2.25 million.

  Jim Argiropoulos, the $149,832-a-year first deputy who once served as OEMC's acting director, is accused of engineering a scheme that culminated in the falsification of documents to expedite the purchase of a new 911 dispatch console system from Schaumburg-based Motorola.
  

  Chicago taxpayers have yet to receive anything for their money.

• Without a contract to justify the console purchase -- and apparently unwilling to wade through the normal bidding process -- Argiropoulos allegedly ordered underlings to find a way to get it done. As a result, a phony voucher was issued for 18,000 handheld radios under an existing Motorola contract.

  No sooner had the company started ordering software than Argiropoulos allegedly demanded an upgrade, with the $2.25 million payment applied to the new system.

  When Motorola balked at the demand, Argiropoulos allegedly played hardball: If Motorola didn't give him what he wanted, its future city contracts would be in jeopardy, according to sources familiar with the inspector general's report.

Would these 18,000 radios be the current pieces of crap we have with inactive GPS capability, the inability to link up with CFD radios in the event of a major catastrophe and can't hold a charge for more than 6 hours without dying? This fucker should be in prison for a long time.