The City Council Thursday approved funding to hire three emergency dispatchers and a supervisor for the newly created Public Safety Communications Department.
The $42,234 appropriation from free cash was transferred to the Police Department salary account to cover the cost of hiring and training the new dispatchers through the end of the current fiscal year.
The council approved the ordinance creating the new department at its March 15, 2012 session. The 2013 fiscal year budget, which goes into effect on July 1, 2012, will reflect the creation of the new department with its own line items specific to salaries, equipment, capital improvement and maintenance. The dispatch center will be located at the Technology Center on Apremont Way at Barnes Regional Airport.
The ordinance also established a board to oversee the operation and policies of the new department. That board includes the sitting police and fire chiefs, the technology center supervisor, and two members nominated by the mayor and confirmed by the council.
The additional dispatch personnel will receive further medical emergency dispatch training through grant funds now in the Police Department budget. That training grant expires at the end of the current fiscal year.
The council also referred to its Finance Committee an appropriation request of $371,000 submitted Thursday night by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik to purchase additional equipment for the dispatch center.
The city had applied for a state grant to purchase that equipment, but the state grant money was awarded to regional dispatch centers. Ironically, the additional hardware and software requested in the grant, and now in Knapik’s appropriation request, positions the city’s dispatch center to serve as a regional facility. The city is currently discussing that option with two neighboring communities.
The new dispatch center, which will have a projected annual budget of $657,000, is anticipated to save the city $1.3 million over the next three years.
That savings is based upon the fact that police officers and firefighters now performing dispatch duties are paid substantially higher salaries than civilian dispatchers.
The dispatch center will not only improve emergency communications among all city departments, it will also enable the Police and Fire departments to reassign officers and firefighters.
Firefighters, who are currently performing dispatch duties, will be assigned to line companies and increase the number of firefighters available to respond to emergencies, while police officers performing third shift dispatch duties will be assigned to patrol duties.
