NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Interim Orleans Parish Communication District Executive Director Karl Fasold held a news conference to discuss the future of the department on Tuesday, July 18.
“I’m a lead from the front kind of person. Follow me. We’re going to get this done,” Fasold said.
The new man in charge at OPCD, Fasold says he knows what direction he needs to lead.
“I think a leader has to understand what the goal is, know where we are, and what we can do to get there,” he said.
Since 2004, he’s worked at OPCD in technology.
“We will embrace technological changes, get the best technology we can to help our people do their jobs,” Fasold said.
One area he knows he wants to work on is the staffing shortage, especially with the staffing crisis at 911 call centers nation-wide.
“We are not unique in having open positions and needing people to do overtime,” Fasold said.
While they are currently meeting the national standard of roughly answering 90% of calls in 15 seconds or less, still they need more dispatchers.
“God forbid you need to call us. somebody will be there to answer. We will always have enough people doing the job to accomplish what we need,” Fasold said.
Fasold recognizes there’s a learning curve.
“I prefer to look at everything in small steps. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” he said.
Fasold temporarily took over the position after former director Tyrell Morris resigned.
Although he says he has no plans of taking on the position permanently, as of now he will continue to focus on doing what needs to get done during this transitional period.
Watch the full conference in the video player below.
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