By Christian Boone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — Miles Butler, the embattled director of Atlanta’s 911 Center, was fired Wednesday.
In a tersely worded news release, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington announced the dismissal but did not offer a reason for it. He declined to comment further.
Butler has “always been a problem as far as I’m concerned,” Atlanta City Councilman C.T. Martin said. “The job was bigger than he was able to handle.”
Butler did not respond to calls seeking comment.
His 19-month tenure was marked by lengthy delays in dealing with emergency calls.
In January, a house fire in Grant Park burned more than 20 minutes after 911 calls came in and before firefighters arrived. Wilford Reed tried to douse the blaze with a garden hose, but his home of 40 years — less than a mile from the nearest fire station — was gutted.
“Miles Butler was fired? Good,” Reed said Wednesday. He said the 911 director never apologized to him for the tardy response to his fire.
Butler initially blamed callers to the 911 Center, saying they reported the wrong address. He later clarified his response when audiotapes showed otherwise.
He said retraining was necessary for the operator in question. “For us, this has been a learning experience,” he said.
Terry Jackson, an attorney representing Reed, said Butler “admitted they were negligent in the training, hiring and supervising of people in the 911 Center. They were understaffed and overworked, and that’s coming from the director.”
Reed asked the city in June to compensate him for the loss of his house and furnishings. The city is considering the request.
In May, a fire that interrupted a children’s birthday party in West End burned for nearly 17 minutes before firefighters were dispatched. Officials blamed the delay on a heavy call volume and staff shortages at the 911 Center.
Butler said in May that Atlanta answered 88,075 calls to 911 the previous month in 12 seconds, on average, but would not provide documentation verifying that.
Martin said complaints about the 911 Center have continued through the summer. “We get them all the time,” he said.
A 2008 city audit assessing the reliability of data in the computer-aided dispatch database found that the center’s problems predated Butler’s tenure.
“We were unable to conclude whether the data is reliable because the contractor responsible for maintaining the system did not provide system documentation or consistent answers,” a letter by city auditors said.
Butler was paid $86,921 a year. His interim replacement is Brenda Ross, a 27-year Atlanta Police Department veteran and a commander in the 911 Center.
Copyright 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution