[B]URLINGTON — Burlington and surrounding towns are looking to consolidate dispatch centers in Chittenden County. The change represents a major shift in the way emergency services are coordinated and voters on Tuesday will be asked if they want to move forward with the plan.
Safety leaders in Chittenden County, including fire and police chiefs, town managers and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, all support consolidation. The creation of a regional dispatch center has been discussed for 50 years, but it’s only recently that the idea has gained traction.
Dispatchers have vehemently opposed the change. On Sunday, the Burlington Police Officers Association announced its opposition to the plan. Both groups say dedicated local dispatchers ensure that officers get the right information on the ground in difficult public safety scenarios.
Public officials say a centralized system would speed up emergency response times.
Presently, when someone calls 911, the call is picked up at a Public Service Answering Point. If a call is made in Chittenden County, for example, it’s most likely answered at the state police barracks in Williston.
That call taker collects information and then makes a subsequent call to a dispatcher where the emergency is taking place — if the emergency is in Burlington, a dispatcher in the Burlington Police Department will take the call and organize the emergency response.
With a consolidated center, the initial Chittenden County 911 call would be taken not by the Williston PSAP, but by the regional center, where dispatchers would take the call and coordinate the emergency response without making a second call to a dedicated dispatcher in one of the seven towns where the emergency is happening.
The regional center would be governed by a “Union Municipal District,” which is essentially a governing body created by multiple towns. In Chittenden County, there are already several municipal districts like Green Mountain Transit, Champlain Water District and the Chittenden Solid Waste District.
The new body would be called the Chittenden County Public Safety Authority.
Voters in Burlington, Colchester, Milton, Shelburne, South Burlington, Williston and Winooski will all be asked if they want to create the district — but only three towns need to approve it in order for the plan to move forward. It would take approximately a year to form the authority, officials said.
Aaron Frank, Colchester’s assistant town manager and head of a Joint Survey Committee for the proposed Chittenden County Public Safety Authority, said early adopters will have a say in how the new district is formed.
“This board will start meeting and filling in some of the details of the organization, so voting for it at this time, you get a seat at the table to be at the organization’s inception. You can help shape it, and help shape it to suit your communities’ needs,” Frank said.
The center would be housed at the vacant second floor of the South Burlington Police Station, according to Burlington Fire Chief Steven Locke.
“The building is already hardened, protected, it’s got backup power, there’s plenty of IT infrastructure there,” Locke said.
Proponents say that a regional center would serve the crucial function of reducing 911 call time by cutting out the second call a 911 call taker needs to make to contact a dispatcher, since both duties would be assumed at the center.
It would also allow dispatchers to back each other up. In many Chittenden County towns, there is often one dispatcher on at a time.
“At two in the morning there’s one dispatcher on in Colchester, there’s one on in South Burlington. If they have a significant event, they’re all by themselves,” Locke said.
There could also be savings. All towns voting on a regional center spend over $3 million a year on dispatching combined, Locke said, with Burlington alone spending around $1 million annually. Towns would save money by sharing space, equipment and bills, he said.
Frank said Colchester and Milton recently consolidated their dispatch centers and have already saved money. “There are reasons to believe the savings are true,” Frank said.
Chittenden County dispatchers have been fighting against the plan for months. They say the plan is underdeveloped, the call time savings of a consolidated center are exagerrated and they worry about job security.
“We are in pretty serious disagreement with the time savings and how realistic it is,” said Kathryn Clarke, a Burlington dispatcher who is leading the charge against the center.
The Burlington Police Officers Association opposes the plan because the local dispatchers bridge “communication between Burlington Police Officers and those in need of help.”
Richard Weinisch, vice president of the association, said Locke has not been able to say how many dispatchers would be “dedicated directly to the citizens of Burlington and the police” in the new dispatch center.”
“I assure you it will not increase and will more than likely decrease,” Weinisch said.
“From the perspective of the patrol officer, our Burlington dispatchers are extremely knowledgeable of the geography and ‘repeat customers’ that we encounter on a daily basis,” he said. “Dispatchers are often able to provide additional direction to officers above and beyond the basic information they received and the Burlington Police officers do not want to lose that. Without that information, it could be very difficult in some scenarios to provide the same high level of service to its citizens.”
Locke, Frank and other supporters of the plan say that call times could be cut by up to 71 seconds, based on a survey of 16,000 calls made statewide in December 2016, and tracking the time between the initial call — when it is answered by a 911 call taker at a PSAP — and when the 911 call taker tells a dispatcher what’s going on.
The time savings would come because a call taker could also act as a dispatcher, eliminating the need to call a dispatcher. That interaction between a 911 call taker and a dispatcher would no longer be necessary in a regional center.
“Based on our training, that would be closer to 10 to 20 seconds, if that,” Clarke said.
Dispatchers are also worried that taking them out of communities could be dangerous. They spend a great deal of time learning the geography of neighborhoods in their area — buildings, streets and landmarks — that they use to help direct people in unfamiliar territory.
Technology that tracks cellphone locations is getting better, but is useless if someone calls 911 on behalf of someone else, Clarke said.
“There may be [dispatchers] from other towns and other cities that may not know the little quirks and intricacies of Burlington, just as we wouldn’t know about their town,” Clarke said.
Dispatchers have been largely left out of the conception process, but largely because of legal concerns, not by choice, Locke said.
Dispatchers are represented by a union, and lawyers told the Joint Survey Committee that discussions with current employees about a future Union Municipal District could run afoul of labor laws.
“So we stayed away from that dialogue, and it created this discontent,” Locke said. “The legal advice we were given is you can’t talk to them, and that’s very frustrating.”
And because a Union Municipal District is essentially a new government, and therefore a new employer, all the dispatchers who now work for the towns will have to reapply for jobs at the new regional center, Locke said
“They’re going to have to reapply for jobs. But, it’s tough to find good dispatchers — we have good dispatchers,” Locke said.
The new center will need every dispatcher already working in Chittenden County, Locke said.
Every town and city in the new district would need selectboard or city council approval for the transfer of existing dispatch services to the new center.
“It basically forms this group and says now we can continue to talk,” Locke said. Once the district is formed, dispatchers will be brought in to help design the center as well.
Burlington voters will see this question on their ballot on Town Meeting Day, March 6:
FORMATION OF A UNION MUNICIPAL DISTRICT TO PROVIDE REGIONAL EMERGENCY DISPATCH
“Shall the City of Burlington enter into an agreement for the formation of a union municipal district to be known as the Chittenden County Public Safety Authority for the purpose of providing regional emergency dispatch?”
