Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-09-14 09-297 ORDERCOUNCIL ACTION Item No. Date: 9-14-2009 Item/Subject: Order, Transferring the City's Public Safety Answering Point to the Penobscot Regional Communications Center Responsible Department: City Council/Police Commentary: At a recent meeting of the City Council and the County Commissioners, consolidation of Dispatch Services was discussed. Interest was expressed in the possibility of the City continuing to dispatch Police, Fire, and EMS while transferring its Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to the County. This discussion continued at a Government Operations Committee meeting and a Council workshop where a majority requested that an order be drafter to transfer our PSAP to the County while retaining our-dispatet! function. Under this proposal, E-911 calls would be answered by the Penobscot Regional Communications Center and then transferred to the City for actual dispatch and continuing call supervision. The primary benefits of such a change include: avoiding the costs associated with adding a supervisor to our dispatch office in order to comply with state quality control requirements; reduced training needs for dispatch personnel who would no longer require certification in emergency medical dispatch; some minor expense reductions associated with E-911 lines; the potential for our dispatchers to take on some additional duties; a reduction in potential liability associated with emergency medical dispatch; and taking advantage of a service for which the City already pays through the County Tax. The change may, however, add slightly to the time required to dispatch a response since calls will be answered at the County than transferred to our dispatch center. No significant cost savings will result since we will maintain our current staffing and the County will add personnel to handle Bangor calls. Attached please find a memorandum from Chief Gastia that provides greater detail. The attached order would direct that the transfer take place on or as close to January 1, 2010 as possible. Department Head Manager's Comments: As noted, this has been reviewed by Government Operations and during a Council Workshop. dwxk. City Manager Associated Information: Memo from Chief Gastia Budget Approval: Legal Approval: Introduced for x Passage First Read nance Director City Solicitor Panp of r Assigned to Councilor _ Gratwick A 297 DAMg September 14, 2009 o CITY OF BANGOR g4iED,FE (TITLE.) Order, Transferring the City's Public Safety Answering Point to the Penobscot Regional Communications Center By the City Council of the City of Bangor. ORDERED, that The Public Safety Answering Point currently operated by the City of Bangor shall be transferred to the Penobscot Regional Communications Center while the public safety dispatching function shall be retained by the City. BE IT FURTHER ORDERED, THAT Staff is directed to take the necessary steps to implement this change on or as close to January 1, 2010 as possible. IN CITY COUNCIL Septmeber 14, 2009 09-297 Motion Made and Seconded for Passage Chief Cammack urged council to defeat this measure _ ORDER Chief Gastia stated that he was not totally opposed to this, But Cautioned the council that if we leave as is, he will need to hire a (TITLE,)Txanqferrin the City's Public full time dispatch supervisor in the future Mr. James Ryan, Executive Director of CafPty Answerine Point to the Penobscot Penobscot Regional Communications Center, stated that the county would continue to Regional communications Center work with the city regardless of this vote Tom Higgins, , 1040 Essex Stl, stated that this doesn't offer any financial savings to the city but provides for a lesser service Motion Doubted Vote: 4-4 Assigned to Couaej1or--()7%jft-)/-r,&8-tL / Councilors Voting Yes: Bronson, Nealley Palmer & Gratwick Councilors Voting No: Blanchette, D'Errico, Stone & Wheeler Councilors Absent: Hawes Faile —� CITY CLERK Bangor Police Department TO; City Manager Edward Barrett FROM; Ronald K, Gastia, Chief ofPolice DATE.- -1u/y-16,2009 RE., Bangor PSAP u9 297 240 Main Street Bangor, Maine 04401 207-947-7382 Fax 207-945-6824 At a recent meeting between the Bangor City Council and the Penobscot County Commissioners, consolidation of Dispatch Services was discussed and interest was expressed in the possibility of the City continuing to dispatch for its Police, Fire, and EMS while relinquishing its Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) duties to the County. This memorandum assesses such a proposal. There are twenty-six PSAPs in the State, including the City of Bangor. Each PSAP is the point to which Emergency 911 calls are routed for appropriate action. Call -takers at a PSAP are required to be certified to handle Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) calls. That requires a call -taker to acquire information regarding the medical emergency and to respond appropriately by providing step-by-step instructions to the caller for the purpose of rendering care until emergency responders arrive. In some cases, call -takers route the caller to a Dispatch Center that dispatches the appropriate responders. In other cases, PSAPs also provide full-service public safety communications for individual communities. Penobscot Regional Communications Center (PRCC) does both depending on the community from which the call for service comes. For example, PRCC performs full-service dispatching for the City of Brewer. However, when PRCC receives a 911 call from Aroostook County, they EMD the call if required and send the call to the appropriate Dispatch Center in Aroostook County for further action. The Bangor PSAP is a full- service Dispatch Center. Impact on Personnel: If the PSAP function is transferred to the County, all 10 Bangor dispatch positions will need to be retained. The number of calls answered by Dispatch personnel would not be reduced. All 22,000 E-911 calls, while initially answered by PRCC, would be forwarded to Bangor Dispatchers for action. Only a small reduction in the time necessary to handle some calls would be realized. Relinquishing PSAP responsibilities to PRCC will likely only delay the necessity of hiring a full-time Dispatch supervisor, estimated to cost $62,000. Currently, a Sergeant assigned to the Services Division supervises the Dispatch Center. While certain resource -intensive tasks will no longer be required of the current dispatch supervisor, that supervisor has numerous other duties unrelated to Dispatch, and a full-time supervisor will likely be eventually required. The County has indicated that between three and four new employees would be needed to accommodate Bangor's calls. This would increase our County tax by between $42,500 and $56,750. Finally, as customary in Union settings, the City would need to meet with the Union representing our dispatchers and formally discuss the impact of transferring PSAP work to PRCC. Given that the proposal would reduce the workload of Dispatchers to some degree, and based upon some preliminary informal discussions, it initially appears that there should be no significant opposition to this proposed change. Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement: The State mandates a QA/QI process that includes reviewing and evaluating a specific number of E-911 calls on a weekly basis based on a percentage of total E-911 calls received by a PSAP. This process is very time intensive, and the State will soon be increasing the number of calls that need to be assessed. If Bangor maintains its PSAP, approximately 20 — 30 hours per week will be required to satisfy this. mandate. Moving our PSAP to PRCC would eliminate the need for - these assessments and reduce the burden on the Dispatch Supervisor. Operational Impact: If Bangor relinquished its PSAP while retaining its status as a Dispatch Center, the operational impact would be significantly less than if all dispatch functions were transferred to the County. All calls for Police, Fire, and EMS response in the City would be forwarded by PRCC to the Bangor Dispatch Center. Only Emergency Medical Dispatching would be handled by PRCC. The change would be almost seamless to Bangor's emergency responders. Callers should experience only a slight delay, typically seconds, while the call is forwarded. All other dispatch functions would remain the responsibility of Bangor Dispatchers. Training: E-911 and Emergency Medical Dispatch training is mandatory to certify Dispatchers/Call-takers working in a PSAP. While the State provides this training, over -time costs to back -fill for employees attending training is not covered. Reducing training time would eliminate the small cost associated with staffing vacancies due to training. Financial Considerations: Handing Bangor's PSAP over to the County will not result in substantial savings to the City. Postponing the hiring of a full-time Dispatch supervisor will, however, result in an initial, short- term cost avoidance. Reduced mandatory training will result in some minimal over -time savings. The fee associated with the E-911 lines would be eliminated, although some additional lines may be required to accommodate calls transferred from the County. Currently, E-911 telephone lines cost $600 per year. In the event that Bangor's PSAP responsibilities are eliminated, a small percentage of employee time would be saved. This could benefit the City in two ways. First, with increasing technology there are additional tasks required of our Dispatchers. For instance, in the near future we anticipate that the City will utilize GIS. We also expect that GPS systems will be utilized in police v9 '19"t cars. These and other advances, although requiring minimal time, will continue to increase the burden on Dispatchers. Second, the possibility exists of accepting burglar alarms directly at the police station, which would generate revenue for the City. Currently, the Police Department does not accept burglar alarms due to the amount of time it takes to receive the call and make contact with responsible parties. Instead, they are received by a third party agency that contacts the Police Department. This often results in delayed responses, some of which are significant. Liability: With the acceptance of a PSAP, liability exposure is increased. The State mandates that all PSAP Call -takers be trained to specific standards and continue to meet them. If a Call -taker deviates from those standards, the City's liability increases, particularly if injury or death occurs as a result. The protocols and training used by the State are supplied by a national company that will only back the Call -taker's actions if the Call -taker adheres, verbatim, to those protocols. While it is expected that employees will respond in accordance with their training and these protocols, relieving Dispatchers of PSAP responsibilities would reduce potential liability to the City. Implementation Time -line: If the City elects to relinquish its PSAP to the County, a number of items would impact a switch - over date. The State has ultimate control over when a switch -over would occur due to the time necessary to install additional equipment at PRCC, change -over E-911 telephone lines, and remove currently installed equipment at the Police Department. PRCC has indicated that they would like to hire additional personnel prior to the switch -over to ensure appropriate staffing levels. They also would need time to purchase and install additional consoles. Further, because the County uses a calendar year budget, they would prefer to have a decision by late summer or early fall so as to include any changes in their next budget. Director Ryan of PRCC has indicated that the State has informally told him that they would prefer not to make the switch -over immediately. He has suggested that six months notice would meet his needs. Conclusion: There is little money to be saved by transferring our PSAP to the County. However, a small amount of employee time will be saved, and a significant potential liability would be deferred. There are several yet -to -be -answered questions regarding a change including the cost for telephone lines through which calls would be transferred to Bangor and whether we will be able to view the Automatic Location Identifier (ALI), which identifies the origin of the call, after it is transferred to us. Little difference in service would be experienced by the community, and emergency responders would, for the most part, be unaffected by the change. File update 09-297 went to a Special Meeting on 09/21/2009 and was postponed until April 2010. Did not go to council in April but did go to council on 10-25-2010 and was renumbered to 10-360. Went to referendum and on the Ballot for the November 2011 election.