The City Council’s Finance Committee will discuss tonight a free cash appropriation requested by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik to purchase additional equipment for the new Dispatch Department.
Knapik submitted the request to the council at its April 5, 2012, session, after the state did not approve a city grant to purchase the equipment.
Ward 5 Councilor Richard E. Onofrey Jr., chairman of the Finance Committee, said Monday that Knapik’s funding request is a priority for the city.
“The dispatch center funding appropriation is important because we need to have something done by July 1,” Onofrey said.
The state has mandated that dispatch centers be certified as medical emergency dispatch facilities by the July 1 date, the start of the 2013 fiscal year.
The Finance Committee’s consideration of the $371,000 funding request comes on the heels of a vote taken at the April 5th meeting to approve a $42,234 appropriation free cash transfer 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 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. That funding will enable the Police Department to hire three additional emergency dispatchers and a supervisor for the newly created Public Safety Communications Department.
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.
Onofrey said he has requested city officials from the Police and Fire departments and from the Technology Center to attend the committee session, slated for 6:30 p.m. tonight, to give details of the equipment needed for the dispatch facility and for an explanation as to why the city did not secure the state grant.
“This is the money we were hoping to get through the grant,” Onofrey said, “but didn’t get. I want to question that, have it answered officially.”
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, now in Knapik’s appropriation request, positions the city’s dispatch center to serve as a regional facility.
“It does position us (to become a regional dispatch facility) anytime after July 1,” Onofrey. “It will be nice if that eventually happens, because the dispatch center may not save the city significant money, but regionalization will certainly save us money, because it will generate additional revenue from other participating communities.”
The state formula for emergency dispatch funding is based upon the number of calls received. Regionalization will increase the calls at the city’s dispatch department. Participating communities will also provide funding in proportion to the number of calls generated from their community.
The city is currently discussing that option with two neighboring communities. The new dispatch center will have a projected annual budget of $657,000.
The funding appropriation will be used to purchase capital equipment, to relocate existing equipment from the Police Department to the new Dispatch Department and several modifications at the Fire Department Broad Street headquarters building.
Specific items include purchase of a dispatch console ($196,000); relocating recording devices ($4,000); purchase and installation of additional network servers ($50,000); database consolidation ($40,000); vehicle traffic emitters ($12,000);
a public address system ($10,000); municipal fire alarm software ($6,000) fire headquarters security system ($5,000); apparatus floor cameras ($5,000); IMC Mobile ($5,000); emergency call boxes ($3,000) renovations at the Technology Center ($1,000); and a contingency for additional equipment of $34,000.
