March 16, 2006

By Robert Mihalek

During its meeting on March 6, Village Council expressed support for a proposed governing model that would oversee a Greene County-wide dispatch center.

The governance structure includes a nine-person board, made up of representatives of local and county jurisdictions. The center would become an arm of the Greene County government.

Village Manager Eric Swansen emphasized that such an expression of support does not commit the Village to participating in the dispatching operation, but does allow the Village now to pursue a review of the possible cost-savings for the Village.

Swansen told Council that the Village cannot determine what the financial impact would be if the Village turns its police dispatching operation over to a regional dispatch center. The previous Council estimated that the savings could be $75,000 a year.

The Village employs eight full- and part-time people who run the Police Department’s dispatching service around the clock, 365 days a year. In a written report to Council, Swansen said one of the Village’s biggest challenges is managing new technology for the dispatch operation “in a manner that is cost-effective and timely.”

Dispatching is becoming “increasingly more difficult for small communities to provide,” he told Council.

According to Council president Jocelyn Hardman, former Police Chief Carl Bush told Council that the Police Department’s equipment is out-of-date and would cost over $100,000 to upgrade. She also said 911 calls are handled in Xenia.

Last fall the Village told Greene County that it was interested in the concept of joining a centralized dispatching center, while expressing concern that the center provide Yellow Springs residents the same level of service they now receive.

The county has told the Village that the dispatch center could accept calls for both the Police Department and the Village utility departments. The Yellow Springs Police Department often takes calls about utility issues, especially after the Village offices have closed at nights and on weekends.

During last week’s Council meeting, Swansen presented Council members with a draft set of bylaws for the Greene County Dispatch Center and asked for consensus on the governance model outlined in the bylaws.

Council members did not vote when they expressed support for the governing structure.

Council member Karen Wintrow said Council was not yet committing to join the Dispatch Center, but the regional service is “something we have to consider.”

As Council’s representative on the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, Wintrow emphasized the importance of planning regionally.

Council member Judith Hempfling said she and other Council members needed more information “if we’re going to talk about this as a community.”

The Dispatch Center bylaws state that the Greene County Board of Commissioners would have general responsibility for the ownership and operations of the Dispatch Center. This would mean the county would provide such services as human resources support, financial management and facilities management, Swansen reported.

No other agencies expressed interest in being the center’s sponsor, he said.

The center’s daily operations would be managed by a director, who would be considered a county employee and would be hired by the Greene County commissioners.

A nine-member executive board would govern the dispatch center. Its duties would include screening and recommending to the commissioners candidates for the director’s position, and reviewing and recommending to the commissioners the center’s annual budget.

The board would include one representative from each of the county’s township trustees and its cities and villages, two representatives of both the county’s fire chiefs and police departments, the Greene County sheriff, the county emergency management director and the Greene County administrator.

The representatives of the fire and police departments would include people from both small and large jurisdictions.

According to Swansen, the city of Beavercreek has expressed “dissatisfaction” with the proposed makeup of the executive board, insisting that as the largest city in the county they should have their own seat on the board.

Several Council members said they didn’t like Beavercreek’s position.

Council member Bruce Rickenbach called Beavercreek’s demand a “slippery slope” and said he was not in favor of giving one jurisdiction more power than other communities participating in the Dispatch Center.

Swansen said that if Beavercreek’s position does not change, the Village could consider working with other small communities to create an alternative dispatch center, perhaps in Yellow Springs.

Last fall a private consulting group hired by the Greene County commissioners recommended that the county Dispatch Center be built on Greene Way Boulevard in Xenia.

Contact: rmihalek@ysnews.com