Council member seeks 911 reports

PROVO — Provo city's elected representatives should be provided access to two reports prepared after a 911 dispatcher botched a call and a man died in October, a city councilman said Monday.

Councilman Steve Turley said he asked Mayor Lewis Billings more than a month ago to let him see Provo's internal report on the death of Scott Aston and an audit prepared for the city by Ogden dispatch experts. He still has not seen them.

Aston died after the dispatcher misheard his address and couldn't trace him to his Provo apartment because the call was placed from a cell phone.

Turley said members of the City Council have an obligation to review the documents.

"Is there something wrong with Provo's call center?" said Turley, chairman of the council's public safety committee. "I just don't know. That's why I want to see the reports."

Raylene Ireland, spokeswoman for the city administration, said Billings agreed to provide them to the council during a future closed-to-the-public meeting. At such a meeting, the council can review the reports without concern they would become part of the public record.

The city wants the reports to remain confidential pending a potential lawsuit.

Ireland said Council Chairwoman Cynthia Dayton must place the issue on an agenda.

No member of the City Council has seen the reports, and Turley said that means council members have been "derelict in their duty" to provide administrative review.

The Aston family was frustrated to learn that the council had not seen the reports.

"He died on their watch," said Carol Davis, Aston's sister. "The least they should do is get some answers."

The Aston family took the first step toward a lawsuit against Provo when it filed a notice of claim on May 2. The lawsuit cannot be filed until 60 days after notice of claim. The 60 days on the Aston family claim expires Friday.

Aston died Oct. 1 after the dispatcher, who was subsequently fired, failed to follow procedures designed to overcome misunderstood addresses. Emergency workers couldn't locate Aston. His body was found four days later, but the family wasn't told about the 911 call for nearly two months, and city officials didn't disclose the mistakes to the public until March.