(Editor’s note: This story was expanded and updated at 5:15 p.m. April 4.)
[T]he Shumlin administration slammed the Enhanced 911 board Monday for telling reporters that the state is planning to stop handling 911 calls at the state level — a change the board said could push the responsibility to regional call centers.
The independent E-911 board oversees Vermont’s system through a contract with FairPoint Communications.
The board announced Monday morning in a news release that the state had said the Department of Public Safety would stop handling 911 calls at its call centers in Rockingham and Williston effective July 1, 2017. The release said those sites handle 70 percent of such calls in Vermont.
By noon, two hours after the announcement, the department had not responded to two inquiries from VTDigger, which then posted a story about the announcement. The Burlington Free Press and Vermont Public Radio also published stories.
Soon after, Scott Coriell, the spokesperson for Gov. Peter Shumlin, contacted all three news organizations through Twitter to say the board’s information was not “truthful” and that the story “must be a late April Fool’s joke.”
At 1:21 p.m., Coriell issued statements from Administration Secretary Justin Johnson and Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn.
“No decision has been made surrounding the participation of the Department of Public Safety in the statewide 911 call taking system,” Johnson said in his statement. “The attempt to misled (sic) the media and public is completely outrageous and underhanded.”
Flynn’s statement said it was concerning that the leadership of the 911 board “chose to use such tactics to misled (sic) the press and public about a decision that has not been made.”
Later, Johnson said in an interview that the E-911 board didn’t sit down and talk with him, and his staff hasn’t briefed the governor. He said the board might have “misunderstood” what was going on “and I wish they’d called me first.”
The E-911 board’s version
Barb Neal, the executive director of the independent board, said Monday morning that the Shumlin administration told the board about the decision two weeks ago. She later provided documents backing up her story.
“I can tell you that we issued the press release this morning based on what we had with the verbal conversation with Commissioner (Keith Flynn), and that’s it,” Neal said in an interview around 2 p.m. “In order to prepare for such a significant change, we need to begin reacting and responding to that information immediately.”
Around 4 p.m. Monday, she sent a second news release saying the board “stands by the information” it had given reporters. She attached internal emails and meeting minutes, as requested by VTDigger.org and other news organizations.
Those documents included an email from Joe Flynn, the deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, and Gary Taylor, the chair of the 911 board. “Your meeting notes accurately convey what I heard in the meeting as well,” Joe Flynn wrote. “DPS would like to be out of the 911 call-taking business.”
Another attached email was from Taylor to Keith Flynn. In it, Taylor appeared to be documenting a conversation from the previous day. “You told me that you intend to stop operating any DPS (call centers) and asked how much notice the E-911 Board would need to effect necessary changes,” the email said.
Additionally, draft minutes from an emergency meeting the board held March 28 say that Taylor, who became chair on March 24, spoke with the board about the issue. The minutes also say he had previously met with Keith Flynn to discuss call-taker position funding.
The minutes say the two then held a subsequent meeting, and Keith Flynn spoke of a two-part project: One part would end state-level 911 call-taking on July 1, 2017, and the second part would end the state’s role in municipal dispatching.
The minutes say Taylor asked Keith Flynn to submit his proposals in writing. “As of the date of this meeting, official written notification had not been received from the Department of Public Safety,” the minutes say.
The minutes say both Taylor and Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux, the board’s vice chair, met with Shumlin administration officials “concerning DPS’ announcement,” and that board members discussed how much time the board needs to plan for new call-taking facilities, staff and agreements.
In the Monday morning release, Taylor said he was “disappointed by the commissioner’s decision to end 911 call handling services at the Department of Public Safety.” He said the board partnered for about 20 years with the department and spent significant sums of money on 911 answering.
VSEA’s Involvement
The Vermont State Employees Association, the union for state workers, said in a statement that even though the Shumlin administration has denied there’s any final decision, the union is “not taking any chances and will be moving forward to develop a plan to thwart any effort to privatize the remaining” call centers.
The Department of Public Safety’s two call centers are called public safety answering points, or PSAPs. The workers both answer 911 calls (called call-taking) and facilitate getting first responders to emergencies (called dispatching).
In 2015, the state closed PSAPs in Rutland and Derby and consolidated their work into the call centers in Rockingham and Williston. The Rockingham location is scheduled to move to Westminster this year.
There are four regional PSAPs not run by the Department of Public Safety: the Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department, the St. Albans Police Department, the Hartford Police Department and the Shelburne Police Department. It is unclear whether those PSAPs would absorb 911 call-taking responsibilities under the Shumlin administration’s alleged plan.
The VSEA statement said that a year ago, the administration “ignored strong public outcry against two proposed PSAP closures (led by frontline dispatchers, first responders and many in law enforcement) and went ahead and shuttered the Rutland and Derby PSAPs.”
The union’s leader, Dave Bellini, said his staff would “be working with our PSAP members in the coming weeks to learn whatever details there are about this privatization effort.”
