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Home My Public Portal About6/05/2000 specialCity of Greencastle City Hall Four East Walnut Street • Greencastle, Indiana 46135 Pamela S. Jones Clerk- Treasurer GREENCASTLE COMMON COUNCIL SPECIAL SESSION MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2000 7:00 P.M. CITY HALL The Greencastle Common Council met in Special Session Monday, June 5, 2000 7:00 p.m. at City Hall. Mayor Michael called the meeting to Order. On the Roll Call, the following were found to be present: Councilor Roach, Councilor Hammer, Councilor Crampton and Councilor Rokicki. Mayor Michael started the discussion with the philosophy and concept of the idea to merge City Dispatch with 911. Mayor Michael stated the intention is to come up with an idea of a "real doable" thing. Non - emergency calls for the Water, Sewer and Street Departments are currently forwarded to City Dispatch after hours. Mayor Michael further stated that the County has agreed they can also take these non - emergency calls after hours. The issue, Mayor Michael continued, is that with the technology that is available it is our responsibility to do what we need to do in the field to make our officers more efficient - competition of workers and pay are issues that need to be discussed. Under the Agreement the City would compensate the County for three dispatchers for the remainder of 2000. The County will fund the difference in pay to the three dispatchers. County salaries start at $21,000.00 where the City pay for a beginning dispatcher is $17,100.00. The City would have to secure the City Police Department with cameras and a phone that will be linked to 911. Mayor Michael stated she has not yet talked to the County Council. Fire Chief Bill Newgent stated the Board of Captains meeting was held today and the consensus of the Board is that it is in the best interest of the Fire Department to move their dispatch services to 911 for the following reasons: 1. The Fire Department covers the Township as well as the City; 2. The Fire Department offers mutual aid to all Departments in the County; and 3. It supports the plan to merge 911 and City Dispatch. Councilor Roach stated that he has talked to alot of people about a lot of issues. A couple of the issues include employment and salaries. Councilor Roach shared an article from the Sunday Star stating that work environment keeps people, not pay. Councilor Roach asked for a rough estimate of dispatcher pay and benefits. CT Jones stated it is approximately $60,000.00 in salaries and approximately $30,000.00 for benefits for three dispatchers annually. If we do this mid year it would cost approximately 545,000.00. Councilor Roach asked what a rough cost estimate is to do what needs to be done at the Police • Department. Chief Hendrich replied with the following: Fire and Security $1,820.00 installed plus 30.00 monthly fee • Lighted Vestibule & Phone 40.00 to move phone Monthly fee 17.75 Solid Core Door to go to Department no estimate yet Upgrade recording system 12,000.00 (Court Municipal Funds) Do away with Dispatch Console and replace with recording equipment 14,000.00 Repeater 6,000.00 - 7,000.00 Closed Circuit TV for Vestibule 8,900.00 New Locking System for Back Door 6,200.00 Cell Phones 100.00 for phones 7,900.00 annual fee Voice Mail 4,300.00 Breeze Link from City to 911 6,800.00 Chief Hendrich stated they are anticipating a $10,000.00 Block Grant and any future upgrades will be done by 911, as they will use this as a backup system. Dave Costin stated they currently use the City Dispatch as backup and they do have another backup at the new County Highway Department, but having a backup dispatch one block away at the GPD is much more convenient. Councilor Roach went on to say that the officers are not crazy about the mobile data systems Chief Hendrich wants to install in the vehicles to the tune of approximately $16,000.00 per unit, plus training, updating, etc. Chief Hendrich replied those quotes are not yet available, but the issue is the technology is • available to help relieve some of the load on 911 dispatchers. These units are not being considered until the 2002 budget Chief Hendrich stated. Councilor Crampton stated the bottom line is the approximate one time cost to the city is $49,000.00 minus the $22,000.00 already appropriated from Municipal Coma Funds, which is approximately $27,000.00 one time cost, which does not include $8 for cell phones. On going expenses are approximately $10,000.00 annually. Councilor Roach stated these figures do not include the mobile data systems either. Chief Hendrich stated there is a different configuration for the mobile data systems. Councilor Roach gave a pro and con list: Con: Walk in after hours availability at City now would be additional load on 911 dispatchers; Priority given to City Officers is decreased Officer Safety is #1 issue - this is probably the #1 reason we took this on and have kept City dispatch; - Technology does not offset officer safety; - Additional stress for 911 dispatchers; - Will be laying off four City employees; - Loss of City control over a City Function - Cost to City and County • - Lack of service and increase in fees Difficulty in staffing will be transferred from City to County Pros: More effective and efficient • _ Potential budget savings Cost to citizens - won't lower taxes - potentially raise phone fees. Councilor Roach further stated he will not vote in favor of the merger. He has talked to approximately 50% of the officers and they are against it and the other 50% are intimidated. Councilor Roach continued that he does not think we have changed that much since 1991 and that technology is not worth officer safety. On the other hand, Councilor Roach continued, he does feel the Fire Department does need to�go through 911. Councilor Roach stated that he, Mayor Michael, Doug Cox and Kenny Hirt met regarding DePauw Dispatch. Chief Hendrich was invited but did not attend. Councilor Crampton asked if there will be any additional funding from the City to the County after December 31, 2000. Mayor Michael stated that in order for the 911 fee to remain at $1.90 and not be increased to S2.00, the City would fund one dispatcher in the amount of 523,000.00 to $30,000.00. This is not in the proposal, it was just discussed tonight. Councilor Hammer asked how many dispatchers we currently have. There are four full -time positions, one is vacant at this time and part-time positions. Councilor Roach asked if the secretary could be transferred to dispatcher and do paperwork from that position. This would eliminate secretary position and save $20,000.00 and fill a dispatcher position. Chief Hendrich stated the secretary manages the workload of 14 officers which cannot be done • while dispatching. Sherri Roach stated if the merger takes place the call load would increase 54 %, but the staff would not increase 54 %. By the time employees take vacation, sick, comp time, etc, you end up with the same amount of people with more calls. Mrs. Roach continued that she is concerned for the officers and the Mayor better be ready to listen to complaints because people will have to wait for responses. If money is the issue, Mrs. Roach continued, why aren't the City Dispatchers beating down the door at 911 forjobs now? More issues than money. Councilor Crampton stated he is concerned with perception and the long term. Feel we are trying to address temporary problem with permanent solution. Councilor Crampton continued that it is our responsibility to ensure residents of safety and security and we hope to have a nice building for the Police Department with a 24 hour presence. The City will be making a statement about it's own long term plan and a vestibule will not "hack it ". Community policing has been discussed and our police department should be open 24 hours especially if they are taking squad cars home. Councilor Rokicki stated that we have talked about putting computers in car and say we don't have the money to do that. Councilor Rokicki continued that he talked with the Chief of Police in Plainfield and was told the officers can pull the information they need up on the computers and don't need dispatch. Crawfordsville Dispatchers are funded through 911 fees. Councilor Rokicki stated Ire is for continuing negotiations. Sherri Roach questioned why we aren't looking at raising 911 fees and passing that money on to help the City fund dispatchers. Councilor Roach made the motion to maintain Greencastle Dispatch as is and investigate other avenues of funding. Turn down the Proposal to merge 911 and City Dispatch, seconded by Councilor Crampton. Vote as follows: Councilor Roach, yes; Councilor Hammer, no; Councilor • Crampton, yes; and Councilor Rokicki, no. Since this is a tie vote Mayor Michael must vote to break the tie. Mayor Michael voted against the motion and, therefore, the motion didn't pass. Discussion will continue. Motion to adjourn made by Councilor Roach, seconded by Councilor Crampton. Vote was unanimous. ATTEST: Pamela S. Jones, Clerk asurer Nancy A. Mi hael, Mayor •