By Ryan Hutton
Posted: 05/17/2011 01:07:18 AM EDT
Tuesday May 17, 2011
North Adams Transcript
ADAMS -- The Finance Committee has agreed to the Selectmen’s plan to only fund the town’s dispatchers for the first six months of the fiscal 2012 budget while providing the option to fully fund the positions if the switch to the Sheriff’s Department dispatch is not agreed upon before Jan. 1.
The committee reopened the police personnel budget after voting against it over a month ago and voted 13-1 Monday to recommend its passage. The condition attached to the vote was that the Selectmen include a Town Meeting warrant article authorizing a $100,000 free cash transfer to fund the dispatchers for a full year if all parties can’t agree on the transition to Sheriff’s dispatch.
Member Sandra Kleiner was the sole ‘no’ vote.
Prior to that, members Kleiner, Edward Driscoll and Joan Smigel voted against reopening the budget, while John Lawson and Paul Demastrie abstained since they were not present at the original vote.
Town Administrator Jonathan Butler and Selectmen Chairman Arthur Harrington presented this option to the committee so that the police department budget would be fully recommended to pass at town meeting and not risk leaving the department without funds for police officers.
"This would allow us to explore the feasibility study for regionalization while also having the budget covered in case we decide not to move in that direction," Butler said.
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"Š I’d go so far as to say that I’d be fine with a warrant article that says any one of the entities involved -- the ambulance service, the fire, the police -- has a trump card that means they can say ‘no, not this year’ after the study is complete. But I want to have the ability to do it this year if everyone agrees."
Butler said the town applied for a grant for a feasibility study into regional dispatch services and if it’s awarded, the study will be fully funded by the E911 program and should be completed in a few months.
He added that, right now, the state is pushing for regionalization of dispatch services for towns, and as a result, there is a lot of grant money available for the one-time costs associated with the switch. The study will also look at North Adams in addition to the Sheriff’s Department as a regionalization option and will recommend the best one.
Butler also said that the yearly fee the town would have to pay for dispatch services would be worked out after the feasibility study recommends a dispatch hub to the town.
If it is the Sheriff’s department, Butler said he does not imagine Adams will have to pay any more than Lanesborough -- the largest town it currently dispatches for -- which pays about $20,000 per year. Compared to the roughly $200,000 it costs annually to run the local dispatch, Butler said this is something that cannot be ignored.
Driscoll asked what would happen if five years down the line, the Sheriff’s Department raised Adams’ rate to $250,000 for one reason or another. He said that because any move away from local dispatch would likely be permanent, this could leave the town in a disadvantageous position. He said the state -- which contributes to the funds the Sheriff gets for being a regional dispatch center -- has long had a history of reneging on promises of funding for things.
"If we’re just going to assume, then the rest of the state is going to evolve, and we’re going to remain right here," Butler said. "At some point, you have to trust your government to do something or nothing is going to get done. Š If we don’t work with each other, we’re not going to find better and more cost-effective ways to do things down the road. If we just take this approach where we’re just going to build a wall around Adams, and we’re not going to try anything, it’s going to be difficult for us to create a better environment for the people who live here."
Butler added that if the Sheriff raised the rates exorbitantly, the town would still control its own police department and would have the option of contracting with another regional center, for example, North Adams.
Kleiner asked why the dispatch budget was targeted for the most drastic cut in the budget. Butler explained that it was part of the process of looking for new technologies and methods to provide similar services at a lower cost.
"If I take two employees out of the library, I can’t provide that in a different way," Butler said. "If I pull an administrative assistant out of an office at Town Hall, I can’t provide that service in a different way. If I eliminate three DPW positions, I can’t provide that service in an alternative way. But if we regionalize our dispatch, that’s providing the service in an alternate way without losing the service."
With this vote by the Finance Committee, Butler will now draft a warrant article asking for permission to borrow $100,000 to fund the dispatch for an additional six months if one of the parties involved vetoes the regionalization.
The Selectmen will then have to vote on that article -- along with all the other Town Meeting warrant articles -- at its May 25 meeting.
The Finance Committee will then vote on the articles at its June 2 meeting.
To reach Ryan Hutton,
email rhutton@thetranscript.com
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