Council initiates new
department ordinance
By DAN MORIARTY
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD – The City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance which will establish a new Public Safety Communications Department and consolidate the city’s dispatch operation at the Technology Center.
The first reading, approved by a unanimous voice vote, positions the ordinance for the second reading and final passage at the council’s March 15 session.
The City Council’s recently adopted a policy to do the “heavy lifting” during the first reading of an ordinance in terms of debate and offering amendments as part of its rules to ensure that citizens have an opportunity to review and comment on a proposed ordinance before the second reading and final passage, a process not possible when amendments are offered during the second reading and final passage.
Only one amendment to the proposed ordinance was offered last night under that new approach and was rejected by a 3-8 vote.
The ordinance was under review by both the Legislative & Ordinance Committee (L&O) and the Personnel Action Committee (PAC).
Ward 2 Councilor James E. Brown Jr., chairman of the L&O requested the motion for approval from his committee be tabled until the PAC, which reports out issues after the L&O report, presented the job description for the new department supervisor.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty offered the amendment to the job description during the PAC report, requesting that the council add language pertaining to experience in the job description. Flaherty requested that the description be modified to include the phrase “two years experience in leading and managing a department is preferred.”
“This is a new department. We will need someone who has management experience,” Flaherty said. “It is a preference, not a requirement, in the description. A manager is required to prepare budgets, hire and fire employees of the department. A shift supervisor is not that same (function) as a manager.”
“We should be asking for what we really want in the job posting,” he said.
Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell supported Flaherty’s proposed amendment.
“I have no problem with including that verbiage in the job description. It’s not mandatory and it does not hurt the city to set the bar a little higher,” she said.
At-large Councilor Brian Sullivan opposed Flaherty’s amendment “because this (Dispatch Department supervisor) will have direct supervision from the police and fire chiefs.”
Brown said that the Public Safety Communications Department is a new concept, not only in the city, but also in the state, and that few candidates will have had the opportunity to manage such a department.
“It’s a brand new concept,” Brown said. “We need to make sure we have some wiggle room. We have not had supervisory positions available.”
Brown said that a new commission, composed of the Fire and Police chiefs and the Technology Center director, as well as two members nominated by the mayor, will oversee the department, similar to the function of the current Police and Fire Commissions.
At-large Councilor John J. Beltrandi III said that the Police and Fire departments “need to fill the position with someone qualified in dispatch operations.”
Currently dispatch management experience opportunities are limited to shift supervisors.
Ward 3 Councilor Peter J. Miller, a member of the PAC, said that “it would have been helpful to have this comment” made during the PAC discussion of the job description. The PAC met at 6:30 p.m. yesterday, just prior to the 7 p.m. start of the council meeting.
The PAC, following the vote to defeat the amendment and the unanimous voice vote of the job description, referred the ordinance back to the L&O for further discussion.
Brown said that his committee conducted a lengthy discussion of the ordinance and the need to establish a separate dispatch department Monday, Feb. 27, with Police, Fire and Technology Center officials. That discussion focused on three issues: the quality of emergency dispatch services, potential cost savings and the fact that the state has mandated that communities comply with a new requirement that all dispatchers be certified as emergency medical dispatchers.
The city currently has six dispatchers who meet the state’s new training mandate. Those dispatchers cover two shifts at the police department, but the third shift, the midnight to 8 a.m. shift is covered by police officers. The Fire Department has four firefighters working at its dispatch center.
The city will have to hire three additional civilian dispatchers, whose salaries are substantially lower than those of police officers and firefighters, to provide 24-7 dispatch coverage, meaning that the firefighters and police officers will be available for front line duties in the respective departments.
Brown said that the state could require the city to yield its dispatch operations to another community, or the state police, which would delay the city’s emergency response because that dispatch center outside the city would have to call the city’s departments to relay the 911 information.
“Minutes are the difference between someone living or dying. That is not acceptable,” Brown said.
Flaherty said he supports the concept of a centralized dispatch center, but the cost saving figures are skewed.
“I do have a problem with the numbers,” he said. “There is no way we’re going to save $1.3 million over three years.”
“My math says we’re going to lose money, but I’ll still support it,” Flaherty said. “It’s not going to save us money, but I still think it’s fantastic to consolidate. We have 10,000 911 calls a year, which works out to 50 cents a call. With this facility, we will have the capacity to handle more towns, so we will be able to recoup some of the cost from other communities. Our center could easily handle the whole region.”
Brown said the city is currently involved “in serious talks with two other communities” to establish a regional dispatch center in Westfield and that the state would fund both a feasibility study to determine the additional equipment and technology required to support regional dispatch operations, then provide funding to purchase and install that equipment. That study, which would be performed periodically, would also provide an assessment of personnel requirements based upon the volume of 911 calls coming into a regional dispatch center.
Dan Moriarty can be reached at [email protected]
