Newsom Disappears $450 Million of our Money, 911 is Still Broken. But Hey, the Hair Looks Great!
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has a simple question for Gov. Gavin Newsom ,politely translated as: “So… where exactly did the $450 million go, and why is California’s new 911 system still a figment of our imagination?”
Back in 2019, during his “I’m-new-here-and-I’m-going-to-fix-everything” phase, Newsom declared that California’s ancient analog emergency network was unacceptable and needed a shiny digital upgrade. Fast forward seven years and nearly half a billion dollars later, and surprise! The new system didn’t work. At all. When they tried to turn it on, 911 calls got lost, misrouted, and the whole thing crashed for 12 hours. So now the state is scrapping the plan and starting over. As one does after spending the GDP of a small island nation.
Meanwhile, the rest of the country is rolling out Next Generation 911, a system that basically works like every smartphone on Earth has worked since 2010. Texts, photos, videos, location data, real time sharing , nothing revolutionary, unless you’re California.
Most states are at least making progress. Some even finished years ago. But California? California spent $450 million and achieved the impressive milestone of zero. Just a big, expensive nothing-burger. Honestly, Newsom might as well have spent the money on hair gel, at least we’d see some results.
To make matters worse, the old system California is still using is literally failing, according to both the FCC and Sacramento. So the state now has:
No new system.
A collapsing old system.
A $450 million hole where a functioning 911 network should be.
Welcome to Newsom's Cali-failure!
The only way out of this mess is to elect a Republican governor and to finally break one‑party rule, end the parade of ridiculous policies, and get this state back to basic common sense.
Carol Pefley
Candidate for Ca State Assembly
