10-05-16 Health and Public Safety

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Mr. Agostino stated a simple way to think about that is to say you have three (3) police departments operating who will want probably two (2) dispatchers each which is a bare minimum. There's six (6) dispatchers. The fire departments are not asking for quite as many but they in total need four (4) or five (5). That puts you at ten (10). Then you have the call takers to take the calls before they get assigned to wherever they are going. Then we are at a minimum of fourteen (14) or fifteen (15) people per shift. If you build from the bottom up like that, it is simple math and you are over the number they originally allocated. It is hard to tell a person in charge of a police of fire department that they are not going to get the dispatchers they need to do their jobs. There are some nights where the City needs ten (10) or twelve (12) at one (1) time. Vice Committee Chair White stated she knows they were mandated by the State to have two (2) centers and South Bend could be the backup. She stated this originally was supposed to increase efficiency and create better service, but we don't know if that has happened yet. She asked as of now, what have we gained. That is important for us as individuals who must take action on the budget, but also we interact with our constituents. Mr. Croymans responded it is no secret that the State made a mandate without giving you any funding mechanisms. The things that you do benefit from with the combined center is the use of the equipment. For example, if you had to buy a 911 telephone recorder it is about a quarter of a million dollars. If you had South Bend, the Sheriff, Mishawaka, and Clay all buying (1) that is a million dollars where the total could have just been $250,000. The money that is truly saved is going to be on the technology side. The human element is really something that you can't get savings from. County Council President Rafael Morton stated he never stopped and looked at it like that. Because of the mandate and that we had to update the equipment, he will reluctantly agree that there is cost savings in that arena. Mr. Agostino stated you do also have some efficiencies in terms of the administrative side regarding personnel. You are not going to somehow answer more calls with less people, you can't do it. Council President Scott stated your people are always going to be the most expensive thing in the operation. Vice Committee Chair White asked Mr. Murphy how much is being asked for from the City. Mr. Murphy stated he was going to ask that himself. We had an estimate back on September 2 nd � 2016 and that was a little over $2 million. We have to find out if that still is what the request is. Mr. Agostino stated we are waiting on some financial advisor numbers to give us hard numbers we need. The estimates range from $2.1 million to $2.4 million from the City of South Bend. The County has $3.4 to $3.8 million.