Posted: May 12, 2010 |(0) Comments

While Brown Deer officials say having Bayside handle its police calls would cost that village more than what it's paying now, two other North Shore communities that rely on Bayside for dispatch services say they're saving money on the arrangement.

Brown Deer officials last week received a report from the Police Department that said it would cost the village about $566,000 per year to become part of the Bayside Dispatch Center, about $70,000 more than what it would cost to maintain and remodel the existing center.

But Bayside Village Manager Andy Pederson questioned that figure, saying the actual cost for Brown Deer would be between $300,000 to $350,000.

And officials in Fox Point and River Hills, which are part of the Bayside Dispatch Center, say the joint center is less expensive than the cost of maintaining their own centers. In fact, both communities plan to renew their contracts with Bayside.

Fox Point sees savings

Fox Point Village Manager Susan Robertson has a 10-year history with the Bayside center.

Fox Point will pay $187,665 for operating costs at the center in 2010, plus an estimated $27,000 toward the cost of a new $72,000 computer-aided dispatch system. River Hills will pay $69,504, plus the $27,000 of capital costs.

Neither Robertson nor River Hills Village Manager Tom Tollaksen are complaining about the cost.

"When we did the analysis at the time we joined, it showed it did save money to do that," Robertson said. "For the first few years, we did comparisons of the cost of doing our own vs. them doing it and it saved money. We stopped doing the analysis because they added services and it was no longer a fair comparison."

Pederson said one of the advantages of a combined dispatch center is the ability to add services that might not be affordable for an individual community.

"Economies of scale have let us enhance services for everyone," he said.

Additional services offered

Bayside would provide services to Brown Deer that the village doesn't currently have and won't have even with its proposed $210,000 dispatch console upgrade and remodeling, Pederson said.

Bayside Police Chief Bruce Resnick outlined the additional service level provided in Bayside:

• two full-time dispatchers, occasionally three, on the busiest shifts compared to one in Brown Deer;

• capability to directly answer wireless phone calls rather than having them routed through the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office dispatch; • automatic mapping on a computer screen of the location of calls coming into dispatch;

• automatic text messages. The system is programmed to send automatic texts to key personnel for events such as armed robberies or weather alerts ;

• even division of capital costs. The three member communities now pay 33.3 percent but if Brown Deer joined that would be reduced to 25 percent. .

Pederson said the village operates the center as a business, including heating, lights and insurance costs in its budget. The 2010 budget for the center is $466,929, plus the $72,000 Viper CAD capital cost. "We are audited every year and most years we have returned money to Fox Point and River Hills," Pederson added.

Happy with results

Other than a few operational issues that were quickly resolved during the transition to the center in 2004, Tollaksen said he has been very satisfied with the result.

"We analyze it on year-to-year basis and it serves our needs in a manner that saves money," he said.

Dispatchers in both River Hills and Fox Point provided service to walk-in customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week prior to consolidation.

In his report to the Brown Deer Village Board last week, police Capt. John Graeber raised the issue of having the department closed part of the time. He said it would cost about $112,000 to have clerks staff the station from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Both Robertson and Tollaksen said the loss of that service was a concern at first. Robertson said Fox Point initially provided desk clerks from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, but over the years, the service has been cut back to its current level of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Fox Point started with four desk clerks and now has one 36-hour-a-week clerk and a 16-hour-a-week clerk. River Hills has found a less expensive way to handle walk-in traffic and the clerical duties done by dispatchers. Tollaksen said the village has five part-time clerks paid a total of $33,000 a year. Since they all work less than 1,000 hours a year, the village does not pay any benefits, he said.

Both Fox Point and River Hills installed emergency buttons outside their police stations. The buttons can be used to call the dispatcher in Bayside, who can remotely open outside doors to allow entry and then direct an officer to meet the individual in the lobby.

"There are ways to accommodate concerns people may have," Tollaksen said. "Sometimes people may be coming to seek safe shelter."

Review will continue

Brown Deer Village President Carl Krueger said he continues to be committed to determining the true costs of consolidation and if it would be a good fit for the community. He asked for information about dispatch consolidation during budget discussions last fall. Graeber prepared his report, which also looked at the cost of merging with the Tri Community center in Whitefish Bay, in response to the request.

Krueger has been visiting other dispatch centers and gathering information on his own in recent months.

"I have a concern that even if we spend the money to upgrade our center and dispatch console, we will still end up five years behind in technology," he said.