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       Nearly 100 neighborhood representatives in D.C. signed a letter sent to city leaders Tuesday decrying the operations at the city’s 911 center and calling for more transparency.

       “These chronic problems have diminished residents’ faith in our city’s emergency response system, and in your ability, as city leaders, to resolve them,” the letter said.

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       The letter — signed by 97 current Advisory Neighborhood Commission members and seven former representatives — was addressed to D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), Office of Unified Communications Director Heather McGaffin, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) and other council members.

       It calls for the council to hold an Office of Unified Communications oversight hearing with the city’s auditor and launch an independent task force “charged with examining chronic and systemic problems at OUC and issuing recommendations to address them.” It also asks the agency to publicly report daily staffing statistics, including the number of call-takers and dispatchers working each shift and the number of employee call-outs, and release 911 call recordings and transcripts upon request.

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       Spokespeople for Bowser, McGaffin and Mendelson did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday evening.

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       Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), the chair of the council’s public safety and judiciary committee, said she agreed that “improvements are needed” at the 911 center and would consider the letter’s demands.

       “I take very seriously any time that our community is calling for change, and I think it is very indicative that so many ANC commissioners have signed on to this letter,” Pinto said.

       The Office of Unified Communications has long faced criticism for failing to dispatch first responders quickly to the correct addresses, and for failing to relay accurate information to emergency responders in the field. Dave Statter, a retired WUSA reporter who closely tracks emergency dispatches, has repeatedly uncovered and reported failings by the agency. Family members of people who died in cases where mistakes at the 911 center delayed emergency response have been similarly outspoken. Criticism of the agency intensified last month, when emergency responders did not arrive at a flooding doggy day care for 23 minutes and 10 dogs drowned in their kennels.

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       Pinto said she plans to hold a hearing in October on legislation meant to require more transparency at the Office of Unified Communications, and she will use that to conduct more broad oversight of the agency. She said she “would welcome the auditor to testify.”

       Pinto also said she “remains open-minded” about the independent task force but is wary of “adding another layer of bureaucracy with trying to seek improvements.”

       The city passed a bill as emergency legislation this summer that required the Office of Unified Communications to post data on the number of call-taker and dispatcher errors and their causes by the end of August. As of early Tuesday evening, the agency had yet to post the required information.

       “The council can pass laws, the executive needs to follow the law as written,” Pinto said. “That’s really important with OUC and the emergency bill. We need to see this data.”

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