Two committees of the Dane County Board of Supervisors are meeting tonight to gather information on the performance of the Dane County 911 Communications Center in the wake of the murder of Brittany Zimmermann.

Board Chair Scott McDonell and others have called for an audit of the Center focusing on its procedures and whether its procedures are being followed.

It is suggested that such an audit be conducted by an outside firm, free of political considerations.

Good idea.

To complement this reasonable course of action, Dane County needs the establishment of a paid citizens' committee composed of broad communities of interests, devoid of elected officials, and certainly free of civil servants in Dane County, including those serving in the County Executive's office.

Such a committee ought to have as its deliverables:

- The establishment of specific directives to improve the performance of the 911 Communications Center

Amid the discordant political backdrop, recriminations abound about whether the murder of a 21-year-old UW-Madison woman could have been prevented.

Aside from proposed audits and spirited defenses of the Dane County 911 Communications Center and other Dane County officials, it's worth noting the priorities and policies of local law enforcement agencies here. [I hope not to read the word 'leadership' again; it doesn't exist on this matter.]

As the routine break-up of house parties and the pursuit by police of other frequent illegal college recreational pastimes continues apace here, one wonders if police officers foot-patrolling neighborhoods at night with the objective of protecting property and persons might be a better use of limited police resources vis-a-vis busting a 19-year-old for having a beer or smoking a joint on campus.

And one less parking meter boy (like that pathetic guy who wears the floppy safari hat), and one more officer walking on the street looking out for a female student walking home at night from the library would certainly do.

The Dane County Sheriff's Department endorsed Kathleen Falk when she ran for Attorney General in 2006.

Now, former Dane County Sheriff's Deputy and current Dane County 911 Center Director Joe Norwick has been loudly, and justifiably criticized for the handling of Brittany Zimmermann's call for help. 

It doesn't help that Norwick had no public safety management experience on the level his current position requires. That stands in sharp contrast to this:

“We searched far and wide, and found the best candidate here at home,” Falk said of Norwick.

Is Falk's support of him payback for a past political endorsement?

Progressives are holding Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk’s feet to the fire on the Brittany Zimmerman tragedy.

If Falk decides to run for reelection as Dane County executive in the spring of 2009, she will surely face opponents in a politically charged race, and one gets the impression Falk is abundantly aware of this fact.

From the Capital Times (aggressively on the Zimmerman story now and catching up to the first-rate reporting and insights by Isthmus, the Wisconsin State Journal and the Madison blogosphere):

A former dispatcher that answered a 911 call from Brittany Zimmermann's cell phone before she was allegedly stabbed to death in her West Doty Street apartment committed two different procedural errors in handling the call, according to Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.

Falk’s statement on the 911 call, "I do not believe, had the (911) errors not occurred, that her murder could've been prevented," amounts to a Bushian I-can’t-tell-you-anything-but-trust-me assurance.

It's nice that Executrix Falk is apologizing to the Zimmermann family a month after it was revealed their daughter called 911 and got no help.  

And now, Dane County Executrix Falk could restore some citizen faith in the 911 Call Center operations, you know, show some political backbone that she presumably had enough of to run for the governor's seat, and throw the State Attorney General's race to J.B. Van Hollen. But, here's what we get instead:

"Falk plans to instruct Dane County 911 director Joe Norwick on Tuesday as to what steps need to be taken to assure that a similar situation does not occur in the future, and has also told Norwick that she expects to be updated regularly on events in the 911 center ..."

They'll discipline someone when the 911 call center finishes its now month-plus long internal investigation of what they did wrong ... ah yes, a report by the same foxes guarding hen houses that never revealed Zimmermann's call for help in the first place.

Did you miss this story in Sunday's WSJ?

"County officials were warned in 2004 to increase staffing, change procedures and put in place a stronger oversight board.

"At worst Dane County faces possible liability and the potential for a catastrophic event," according to the 145-page "strategic plan" from MTG Management Consultants of Seattle."

And here's the money quote from a republican who's advocating more support for important social services!

Mark Hazelbaker, a Republican lawyer who represents the Dane County Towns Association, said solving the issues in the 911 center boils down to a matter of political will.

"I don't know if I blame Kathy Falk so much as I blame a climate in which people are afraid to spend money on vital services," Hazelbaker said.""

via MAL Contends - Update: Cap Times back on it: See - Falk apologizes to Zimmermann's family, fiance (Capital Times, May 6) and County Board chair wants answers on 911 problems (Cap Times, May 6). 

Expert calls Dane County 911 staffing inadequate (WSJ, May 6) 

I was sorry to see the Capital Times hard copy newspaper go, but I told a friend its online iteration was an innovation that would see it stay on the bleeding edge of technology in bringing Dane County residents the news.

It's bad enough that the dispatcher who received Brittany Zimmermann's call for help soon before her untimely death last month has NOT been disciplined (her name isn't available for public consumption either, although she's a public employee).

Bad enough. But in today's Wisconsin State Journal, reporters Matthew DeFour and Patricia Simms crack open the story further in contribution to Isthmus journalist Jason Shepard's prize-worthy reporting about developments in Zimmermann's last moments of life.

The WSJ crew detail the sheer incompetence of Dane County's 911 Call Center Director Joe Norwick.

How does this guy - Joe Norwick - have a job come Mon., May 5, 2008?

Updated: WI State Journal Edit (May 2, 2008), No apology? You better find one. WI State Journal (p.1) (May 4, 2008) 2004 report warned of 911 Center problems; Co officials warned to increase staffing, change procedures

The first rule in crisis management for public servants is not Save your ass.

It's serve the public.

So when the public clamors for answers about why a 21-year-old UW-Madison student was murdered in early April, and asks what could have been done to prevent her death, the response ought to be openness, transparency and honesty.

Unfortunately, the Dane County 911 Center doesn't see it that way, and the stonewalling has begun.

Jason Shepard writing for the Madison weekly, Isthmus, has run into a brickwall in his reporting on the death of Brittany Zimmermann.