Published March 4, 2010
Trustees vote to close dispatch
center, consolidate fire services
By Christine Cuthbert
ccuthbert@thehinsdalean.com
In front of an audience
filled with Hinsdale firefighters Tuesday night, village
trustees approved an agreement to share services with
Clarendon Hills and close Hinsdale’s dispatch center to
use an outside service provider.
“Everyone up here is
concerned about public safety, but if there’s a way to
obtain our objective of public safety more efficiently,
as stewards of the village’s finances, it’s not a trade
off,” Trustee Doug Geoga said.
Prior to making its decision
on both matters, the board heard from members of the
Hinsdale Fire Department, Clarendon Hills police and
fire chiefs Patrick Anderson and Brian Leahy and
Hinsdale police and fire chiefs Brad Bloom and Mike
Kelly.
The first agreement will
close Hinsdale’s dispatch center tentatively by the end
of April and will outsource the service to Southwest
Central Dispatch Center in Palos Heights.
Using the dispatch center
will put Hinsdale on the same radio frequency as
Clarendon Hills, Burr Ridge and Willowbrook and allow
for emergency calls to come in simultaneously to both
stations.
Currently Hinsdale’s dispatch
center has two operators staffed during peak hours and
one on the weekends and early morning hours. SWCD has
two employees constantly staffed to a dedicated fire
desk and a supervisor on the clock at all times, which
means a faster response time when multiple calls come in
at once, Bloom said.
“It’s an advantage to us to
have a dedicated fire desk,” Bloom said. “You need two
operators on duty for emergency medical dispatch. (They
can also give) pre-arrival instructions for someone who
is awaiting medical attention. This could mean
instructions for CPR or how to deliver a baby. That
can’t be done if we only have one operator on duty.”
Part of the agreement
includes keeping one full- and two part-time employees
on staff in the Hinsdale Police Department to handle
clerk and records duties as well as questions from
residents. They will work from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
weekdays and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Anyone who
comes to the police department when the lobby is closed
can pick up a phone receiver outside the building and be
immediately connected to a 911 dispatcher.
“I want you as a board to go
into this decision with all the pluses and all the
minuses,” Bloom said.
Currently the Hinsdale
dispatch center, which employs six, costs the village
$512,000 annually to operate. The agreement approved by
trustees included discount incentives that would give
the village a net savings of $162,000 in the first year,
$198,000 in the second and $123,000 annually after
that.
The SWCD board was expected
to vote on the agreement Wednesday night after The
Hinsdalean’s deadline.
Trustees Cindy Williams and
Bob Schultz voted against closing the dispatch center,
citing the need to go through the budget process prior
to making personnel cuts.
“We need to do a
prioritization process and we need to determine when we
do the budget as a whole which items we need to cut,”
Williams said.
Trustee Laura LaPlaca was in
favor of the agreement.
“This should not be looked
upon as just a cost-savings measure,” she said. “No
matter how much money you have, you should always be
looking for efficiencies. We should always be working
toward the future. As Chief Bloom told us, in five years
no one will have their own dispatch center.”
Schultz and Williams also
were the only opposing votes to a shared services
agreement between the Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills fire
departments.
Village President Tom Cauley
called the agreement “skeletal” and a first step in the
two villages working together.
“Someone made a comment that
there’s a hidden agenda here,” Cauley said. “That’s not
the reason that the agreement with Clarendon Hills is
vague. We’re going to move with baby steps on this. This
is a good faith effort between the two communities to
work together.”
The main components of the
agreement include both departments being on the same
radio frequency so that calls come in simultaneously,
minimum staffing levels at each station and common rate
structures for ambulance billing. Both departments will
remain in their own stations. Several aspects of the
agreement, including the sharing of vehicles and
equipment, will be flushed out at a later time.
“This agreement is vague in
nature,” Kelly said. “Those things are included as areas
to continue to have discussions on to guide the two
agencies. I don’t think anything has been defined or
agreed upon.”
Prior to a decision by the
board, Hinsdale Fire Capt. Tom McCarthy asked the board
why an agreement is necessary since both departments
already respond to one another’s calls.
“We presently respond
automatically to Clarendon Hills and they respond to
us,” he said. “We worry there is another motive to this
agreement that we’re not being told about.”
Dispatch consolidation costs,
savings
$512,000 — current cost for
Hinsdale’s dispatch center, which includes six personnel
$324,000 — SWCD annual cost
without discounts. This includes $10,000 per sworn
officer (Hinsdale police cost $260,000) and $25 per fire
call (Hinsdale fire cost $64,000)
$162,000 — first year’s net
savings, including a $120,000 one time cost for
equipment and salary and benefits for Hinsdale
employees. This includes a 50 percent discount from
Southwest Central Dispatch Center.
$198,000 — second year’s net
savings, including a 25 percent discount
$123,000 — ongoing annual
savings after second year