Plan to combine Spokane’s regional 911 call response draws rebuke from police, fire and clerical workers
City lawmakers heard the case Thursday from
Those concerns prompted the
"I thought we'd have data and evidence that this was the right move to move forward,"
Sanders and De Hicks, of
"We have delays in dispatch because of our fractured system between 911 and our dispatchers," Sanders said. "We have less-than-stellar service delivery and follow-up with our citizens, from the Crime Check side. We have inconsistencies with how we're handling dispatch with our various entities."
Crime Check is the county-wide nonemergency call-taking system.
Sanders noted that the creation of such a system was one of the planks of the negotiated two-year strategic plan agreed to by Mayor
"Can you, be specific, in that? What are the delays? How many have we had? What's the data there?" City Councilwoman
"We're getting notes for all these questions, and what we don't answer today we'll compile and deliver to everybody as a part of our FAQs," Sanders responded.
City spokesman
"It's a complex and complicated discussion, set up over a number of years," Coddington said. "It's going to take a little while to sort through all the details."
Hicks gave an example of a heart attack call, that could require an extra 45 seconds to two minutes to determine which agency needed to respond.
"A handoff, when fire takes it, starts it all over again," Hicks said. "In an integrated center, that does not happen."
But Hicks said later that, in an integrated system, some handoff of information would still be needed. Union groups have said that dispatchers trained in law enforcement and fire or medical response have unique sets of skills that wouldn't translate well to a combined system. Hicks said integrating would enable the hiring and training of a larger pool of workers for the system.
Letters to city officials from the largest city union, Local 270 of the
"This, and the foreseeable impacts of this proposed reorganization to our members leaves us with no other alternatives but to withdraw our involvement (as limited as it was) and to oppose the centralized dispatch proposal," wrote
Schaeffer and
"We are damn good at processing calls, and putting trucks on the road," Schaeffer said.
Sanders said the city welcomed the involvement of the labor groups now that the city and county are working to hire a new executive director to oversee the new emergency communications entity.
"I appreciate, from the labor folks in the room, your engagement at this point," Sanders said. "Now is the right time for us to begin those conversations, but we haven't started them yet."
Coddington said the city wasn't surprised by the response of the unions, but reiterated that the leadership of the organization needed to be in place before labor discussions could begin.
"We're going to continue to work through the framework of the structure," he said. "Really, the unions need more detail, too."
Stuckart said the notion that the council was doing the bidding of the unions by opposing the new center wasn't true, noting that even Councilman
Fagan said his concerns extended beyond union representation, but believed those questions needed to be answered before the city moved forward.
"I wasn't seeing anything in any of the correspondence between the administration and the council that gave me a level of confidence that we had our employees as a priority," Fagan said.
Union tension with an integrated system is not unique to
Council members also are concerned the new governing board of the agency won't give the city enough say in the how the system is run, potentially giving a majority of the representation to areas outside of city limits.
"We're the biggest entity in the county, and we know that the amount of calls that the city of
Two-thirds of the employees working at the combined communications center work for
Sanders said she expected an executive director to be named sometime in the middle of June.
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