07/11/2022 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Special Council Minutes of 07-05-2022 Councilman Scarl voted yes with comment stating that he is a 46 -year resident and wants to be very clear that this has not been an easy vote for him. He has had several conversations with the Administration and looked at all the information Council has received and listened to all the questions and arguments that have been made at multiple Council and Committee Meetings on this topic. Noted that he is comfortable with the process that took place and the information received, stating "the safety of our residents is the most important factor in all of this. If I felt the safety of our residents was at risk, I would be voting no'. He is confident the Administration and the City would not bring this forward if there were concerns about the safety of our residents. Councilman Scarl stated he heard if we cannot stay in North Olmsted, that the dispatching should be moved to Westcom and adding that Westcom is not a viable option at this time. Councilman Scarl further noted that he is not comfortable entering into a contract with an organization that is not even currently certified to dispatch police, as he is not willing to take that chance with the residentssafety. He went on to say, yes, there is a cost savings to this, but let me be clear, my yes vote is not due to a cost savings, my vote is based on our Safety Director, our Police Chief and Fire Chief stating that Chagrin Valley provides a level of service that just cannot be matched in North Olmsted. That is not a knock on our dispatchers, I am proud of the work they've done, but CVD has a level of service that we just cannot match. I trust the experts to say that this will not lower the quality of emergency response, if anything it will make it better for North Olmsted, I take this at their word, and for the reasons stated above, my vote is yes. Councilwoman Williamson voted no with comment stating that we have held a number of meetings to discuss this issue, some of those meetings were very long and there was a lot of information to be discussed and considered. While the meetings focused on the services of CVD and their compatibility with our present needs, the discussions seemed to shift to Westcom. While Westcom is a well-established entity in the Westshore area, it was noted that they may not be able to provide all of the services we would require at this time. Councilwoman Williamson went on to say, it has been my desire to hold this matter in Committee until we could find a solution, if we needed to regionalize. However, pressure was made to move this legislation along, otherwise it would have been pulled for a vote sooner than tonight; this impedes our legislative process. In consideration of the information we have received at this time, what I deem as the only logical alternative is to keep our North Olmsted dispatchers, here, at home in North Olmsted. We have the best group of dispatchers around, they are the best of the best and there is no one who can do a better job. Councilwoman Williamson stated having been a resident who has needed the services of a dispatcher when I first moved into this City, and knowing the compassion, their knowledge, their ability to calm me down. I can't say that we could ever get that from another agency, and thanks to the dispatchers for everything they do. Councilwoman Hemann voted yes with comment stating her background is in Fortune 500 Chapter 11 work. It was heart -breaking to work on things like LTV Steel and tell people that their benefits and wages were being cut. Unfortunately, not all work is easy and dispatch work is not easy. I personally spent time at Chagrin Valley Dispatch for two hours' yesterday, on a holiday, thinking that may afford me the opportunity to hear the greatest number of dispatch calls. They gave me a headset, I sat with a supervisor, they offered me the option to sit with any dispatcher that I wanted. I sat with a supervisor dispatching fire because that seemed the least invasive with regards to LEADS procedures and other things. They are organized in two pods with a supervisor in each pod. During my two hours there, they took in 295 calls. I witnessed a 911 call dropped and brought back by that dispatcher within less than 20 seconds. They do know where you are, they have three to four methods of finding you immediately. The only way they cannot find you is if your cell phone has been turned off because you didn't pay the bill. Councilwoman Hemann noted the legislation they follow provides that your cell phone will dial 911, but if that call drops, they cannot call you back because technically you do not have a number. So that is something that has to be looked at through cell phone carriers not through any dispatch service. Ms. Hemann stated there were welfare checks, lost animals, found animals, fireworks and any number of things. I next went to our own dispatch center,