Dispatch group ups ante
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Nov. 22, 2006

Mayor Thomas O’Grady is offering a six-figure enticement in an effort to get City Council to approve having the city enter the Central Dispatch group based at St. John West Shore Hospital.

O’Grady sent council a memo this week outlining the West Shore Council of Government’s offer to waive for 2007 North Olmsted’s estimated costs of about $200,000 for participating in the fire and emergency services dispatch center which already includes fellow Westshore cities Bay Village, Fairview Park, Rocky River and Westlake. The offer allows North Olmsted to take part in the group at no cost for one year and examine how the service performs for the city. If officials don’t like it, they can opt out of the group after a year, O’Grady said.

O’Grady is currently head of the West Shore Council of Government group. The government group’s offer follows a contentious North Olmsted City Council Safety Committee meeting last week in which, after more than an hour and a half of questions and discussions about Central Dispatch, the committee declined to recommend that the city join the group.

Last year, council rejected by a 6-1 margin joining the group with members citing the potential six-figure annual cost and North Olmsted’s already strong dispatching services for the fire and police departments.

O’Grady said he believes the COG offer should allay most of council’s concerns.

“The cost factor has been one of the major sticking points and objections from council members,” O’Grady said. “I really don’t believe that council members can raise any legitimate objections to our taking place on this basis.”

O’Grady said the city can’t lose with the offer.

“We save the $200,000 it would cost us and see how the service performs,” O’Grady said. “I’m confident that council will like how it performs and stay with Central Dispatch. But if they don’t, then we can leave and resume our services.”

Council members had mixed reactions when told of  O’Grady and COG’s offer.

“My primary objections to joining Central Dispatch have been economic in nature,” said Councilman-at-large Michael Gareau Jr. “It does allow us some additional options that we didn’t have previously. I’m not prepared to say whether I support it or not yet, but I will be examining it and other information closely.”

Council Finance Committee Chairman Ron Tallon said council needs to examine the financial aspects of the deal closely.

“It’s great that we would get the $200,000 free the first year but what about after that?” Tallon asked. “How do we pay for it two, four or five years down the road?”

Other council members said they hadn’t seen the proposal yet but cited some of their questions in the committee meeting.

“To me it’s still a question of response time and how fast and well they can get the fire and emergency squads somewhere,” Councilman-at-large Paul Miller said. “North Olmsted already has the best fire dispatch services in the area. It’s all well and good to say they’ve dropped the response time for the communities involved. But they’re still not at North Olmsted’s levels or times. They also can’t match the advantage we have of having the police and fire dispatcher’s right by each other. That saves time that could be crucial.”

Ward 3 Councilwoman Nicole Dailey Jones, who was not on council for last year’s vote, said she still wants more information on cost projections and other data for future years.

“No one was able to give me cost projections at the meeting about what it will cost the city five or 10 years down the road,” Jones said, adding that she was looking for additional analysis and projections about the dispatch center for the future.

Ward 2 Councilman Paul Barker said he wants to examine the COG offer.

“It will affect a lot of people in the city and its services,” Barker said. “I have to see exactly what’s being offered before I can really say much.”

O’Grady said he also still objected to several firefighter and dispatch union officials being at the committee meeting last week and answering questions posed by council.

“It’s not their place to comment on or be involved in matters pertaining to a management decision,” O’Grady said. “I object to being there and to being recognized for example when the safety director should have been when he was trying to make a point.”

Safety Committee Chairman Larry Orlowski had allowed the union officials at the meeting and also recognized them during the discussion, saying they had pertinent information. Council President Kevin Kennedy also said he wanted to hear what they had to say during discussion.

O’Grady also objected to North Olmsted dispatch official Becky Bielozer’s contention that the North Olmsted Center has never experienced a problem comparable to a recent one by the Central Dispatch Center in which it took more than 10 minutes to get a squad to a Westlake school when a student was down.

“It’s patently false when dispatch officials here say they’ve never made a mistake,” O’Grady said.

During the discussion of the Westlake school incident, dispatch officials told Bielozer that the North Olmsted center had to have made mistakes as well. Bielozer told them not like the one made at the school.