City’s emergency dispatch would double costs

HIGH SPRINGS – Despite efforts by High Springs commissioners Sue Weller and Scott Jamison for the City’s emergency dispatch to remain with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Combined Communications Center (CCC), they were outvoted 3-2.  Mayor Dean Davis, Vice-Mayor Bob Barnas and Commissioner Linda Gestrin remained steadfast to have the High Springs emergency police dispatch return to the city.  The expectation is that the City will activate their system on Oct. 1, 2012.

According to a presentation conducted by High Springs Police Chief Steve Holley on Monday, July 2, the City estimates cost of local operations will be $90,267 this budget year through Sept. 30.  On an annualized basis, the cost will be $235,075, compared to $84,075 currently spent with the CCC, an increase of more than $150,000 annually.

During the special Monday meeting, Commissioner Scott Jamison attempted to convince his fellow commissioners to rescind the previous motion that cancelled services with the CCC.

The motion failed to pass, even though Jamison and Weller advocated against a city-operated dispatch due to budgetary concerns. Davis said the letter stating the City’s intent to separate from the CCC had already been hand-delivered by Holley prior to the meeting to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO).

However, Holley said ACSO would have no problem letting the City back into the CCC agreement in the future, if the City should decide to return.

“With the economic times that we are in right now, it is paramount that we plan, not spend,” Jamison said. “I’m concerned with the haste by which we are trying to do this. This is the first we’ve had numbers that show what it was going to cost this year.”

According to figures presented by Holley, future costs of the required technology break down to $52,206 for a Motobridge console, which Motorola offered to finance for the City; $39,200 for CAD software, with yearly maintenance totaling $4,200; $1,200 for cabinets to be rebuilt and $2,000 for telephone upgrades.

Within the next year, the police radios will also have to be upgraded. For 13 radios, the total cost will be $71,279. Additional smaller expenses, such as the price of training manuals and uniforms, would also have to be tallied into the cost required to start dispatch.

If all of the potential applicants require training, the City can expect to pay $44,392 for employee salaries for time spent in training, according to the budget provided by staff.

Gestrin had cited concerns that when the High Springs population trips over 6,000 residents, the CCC cost per call will increase from $14.75 to $24.26.  The City expects to trip that threshold in the next five years, but even so, the cost savings of the CCC would remain at an estimated $100,000 or more annually.  In the meantime, before High Springs trips that 6,000 population threshold, the City would expect to save between $130,000 and $145,000 annually, by remaining with the CCC.

Some estimates project that reopening the city’s emergency dispatch center will cost in excess of $600,000 more than the CCC over the next four years.

The total cost of an in-house emergency dispatch service is estimated at $1.3 million through September 2016.  On the other hand, sticking with the CCC would only cost an estimated $653,000 for the same time period, including a higher per call rate for the last of those four years.

High Springs Finance Services Director Helen McIver reported that the City is experiencing a shortfall in revenue for the current year, but it is not as large as had been previously projected. Some departments have had cost savings, but she could not say the City would definitely have the required funds.

“We’re still willing to go into an expenditure of this type with question marks,” Jamison said. “I don’t think anyone would run their home budget the way we are talking about here.”

Jamison said he wasn’t advocating never bringing the dispatch back into the City, but that it was not prudent to do it currently.

Despite safety concerns expressed by High Springs police officers regarding bringing the dispatch back locally, a split commission voted to do just that on May 22.  Davis, Barnas and Gestrin supported bringing the dispatch center back to the City and Weller and Jamison voted against the motion. Commissioners in favor of bringing the dispatch back cited various reasons, including keeping autonomy, avoiding address changes and providing local knowledge.

However, on July 2, Barnas said he would be in favor of remaining with the CCC if the sheriff’s department allowed the city to keep the same addresses and raised the cut-off number from 6,000 to 10,000 before the cost of CCC service fee increased.

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