An old idea is making a comeback, proving once again that even
crises can have silver linings.
1. Dispatch deja vu
An old idea is making a comeback, proving once again that even crises can have silver linings.
Given ever-tightening budgets in the current economic meltdown, officials from Morgan Hill and Gilroy are looking at the idea of combining the communities’ emergency services dispatch centers. It’s worth noting that the communities’ police departments have already combined their SWAT and hostage negotiation teams.
During his term in office, former Morgan Hill Councilman Mark Grzan advocated contracting for dispatch services with Santa Clara County, an idea that was dismissed with a study that City Manager Ed Tewes said showed “minimal” cost savings. Some questioned the validity of that study.
Now the idea’s back, this time in an altered form. We think it’s worth an objective, complete look.
2. Complete, unbiased study needed
Any study will be conducted by city employees who have friends and colleagues who will be affected if a green light is given to the combined dispatch service plan. We don’t know of any way around this, but we urge city council members to take every step possible to ensure that this study is complete and without bias, no matter what public pronouncements they’ve made in the past about the idea of changing the city’s system for dispatching emergency services.
It won’t save the city any money or accrue our community any benefit to conduct a study that is flawed or biased, or that even has that appearance. We need to understand clearly and accurately the cost savings and service tradeoffs associated with combining dispatch services so that we can make a sound decision.
3. Unpredictable, unprecedented times
We are in unprecedented economic times. We don’t know how long the downturn will last or how difficult it will get. It behooves the city to find ways to save money so that this community can increase its ability to ride out this economic storm, despite not knowing its severity or length.
If combining emergency dispatch services is a way to do that, elected officials and public employees owe making the combined services a reality as soon as possible.
