07/05/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Special Council Minutes of 7/5/2005 because the other cities are ten yeazs behind our progress? If this goes through, we would be regressing. We would not be progressing. • Fire Chief Tom Klecan said we cannot use the monies the way Becky envisioned them. We have specific items that we can purchase and specific areas in which we can spend that money. We can buy the equipment for our own dispatch center; however, we will only be putting our equipment on there. As was noted in the presentation last week, we have one form or another of mutual aid either into the city or out of the city about twice a week. It amounts to going out of the city once a week and having them coming into the city once a week. Those units would not have the mapping and the GPS, and we would not be able to interact with those. Again, we can only spend that money in specific azeas. When we approached FEMA with the idea of changing to a more centralized or more regional approach, FEMA was very willing to allow us to spend those dollars in that approach. If we do not, we are going to have to concentrate on what we originally had that monies for. So while we may have the mapping and GPS in North Olmsted, the only items on there will be our equipment and our equipment only. So we really won't be losing that $350,000. Truthfully, in his opinion, we will be better enhancing it. What he has heard is don't change, don't change, don't change, keep it the same, keep it the same, keep it the same. That's not progress. That's stagnation. He thinks we need to move forward and provide us with some impetus to start the progress again. • Councilman Gazeau commented that, regardless of where people stand on this particular issue, he thinks this has been one of the more involved intellectual debates we have had on any issue in a long, long time. There was a healthy discussion, and it was professionally handled on both sides. Whether you aze for it or against it, as a city we have a lot to be proud of for the way this has been handled. Thank you to all involved. • Councilman Ryan said he would like to join in Mr. Gazeau's remarks. He was impressed with the Mayor's efforts and what he presented. It was an excellent presentation, and Council was fully informed. He is sure Council will vote their consciences and pocketbooks to make the right decision. It is nice to work with an administration that is willing to work so hazd. Thank you to the Mayor. • Mayor O'Grady expressed his thanks. He has said repeatedly the watchwords of his administration will be that government must become more efficient. We must begin doing more with less. It was pointed out here today that we're already doing more with less. That's inaccurate. Today, we're doing more with more. The idea of putting two dispatchers on most of the time costs us in excess of $500,000 annually. Doing more with less would be put on two additional dispatchers at a fraction of that cost, at approximately $160,000 annually. There is no financial risk for our citizens over the period of these two years if we are part of the central dispatch. If things go the other way, that's where we find financial risk and that's where we find safety issues. We have five municipalities, four are committed to this project, one is looking at it. Of those five municipalities, the chief executive officer of all five municipalities looks at this and knows that it is the way of the future. Each of the mayors have supported that. Of the five municipalities, the lawmakers, the City Councils, four of them have agreed and said this is the future. It will decrease response time; it will make our citizens safer; it will reduce costs to our citizens ultimately. One is yet to 4