10-05-16 Health and Public Safety

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Mr. Croymans stated that is a very valid point. With the four (4) additional staff they approved, we are going to put them into key times which will help this situation. We are currently combining some positions to maximize our efficiency and move people around within the department for the best use of the numbers we have. County Council President Morton stated he has to leave, but thanked everyone for having this conversation. Council President Scott asked if dispatchers are assigned to specific cities or can they cross train and overlap between South Bend, Mishawaka, and the County. Mr. Croymans stated currently the way we are operating is we are just co- located, everyone is working in the South Bend Police building but they are working on their own independent systems. It is extremely inefficient because you have South Bend who is extremely busy while Clay Fire doesn't process as many calls in a day. Those are the benefits we are going to gain when we move in together and are on one (1) unified phone and radio. Instead of having separate fire dispatchers for each entity, they will all be combined together. Police dispatches will still be jurisdictional. It would be very advantageous to do another study once we are in to see how the calls are coming in. Council President Scott asked Ms. Etter to explain her position. Ms. Etter responded she mostly handles all the payroll and Human Resources questions that they have and the County cannot answer right away for them. She stated she also does a lot of the budget stuff for Mr. Croymans while he is handling the technical issues. Council President Scott asked what her background is. Ms. Etter responded she started two (2) years ago with the County in this position, before that she was in hotel sales. Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked how long Mr. Croymans has had this position. Mr. Croymans responded two (2) years just like Ms. Etter. He stated he has been with the Sherifs Department since he was eighteen (18) years old. He ran the Sherif 911 Center for the last fifteen (15) years and has extensive radio and data background. Mr. Murphy asked when Ms. Etter will we have the final numbers. Ms. Etter responded that we have the numbers that make us pretty confident what it will be for South Bend but she is not a financial advisor so they have advisors looking at it tomorrow and we will do multiple scenarios because the County asked for different percentages. Once we get that all figured out, everyone will get a copy of it and come October 20th, 2016 at the Executive Board meeting, they will vote to approve how much of the reserve money we are going to use and that will be the end of it. 11