A Saturday morning meeting of the city’s finance committee
became heated as councilmembers Marby Lee and Mark Grzan argued
over revenue-saving measures and then discussed Grzan’s desire to
further explore farming out police dispatch services.
Morgan Hill
A Saturday morning meeting of the city’s finance committee became heated as councilmembers Marby Lee and Mark Grzan argued over revenue-saving measures and then discussed Grzan’s desire to further explore farming out police dispatch services.
The committee was tasked with looking at ways to fund additional fire and police safety services, and Lee said she wanted to look at ways the city could save money while meeting this need.
One of the options city staff presented to the committee was closing the Aquatics Center during the winter months, a move that could save the city approximately $75,000 a year, but Grzan said he did not want to take some services away to provide others. Before he would consider that, he said, he would like to hear from the people who use the Aquatics Center during the winter.
“I don’t think we can just focus on police, we don’t want to have to go back to the voters a second time,” said Morgan Hill City Treasurer Mike Roorda.
Besides considering a general tax to fund additional services, the committee also discussed asking voters to make Morgan Hill a minimal charter city, which means that fees would be assessed on properties.
Committee members did not come up with a recommendation on the specific nature of the funding, however, but proposed the entire council have a workshop in January to further discuss the various public safety service options.
The committee, made up of Lee and Grzan and Roorda, also considered contracting out police dispatch services.
The police department has eight full-time dispatchers, two part-time positions and a supervisor, with more than 110 years of combined experience. Many of the dispatchers have come to the Morgan Hill Police Department from other agencies.
Advocates of the city’s dispatching services say having a local presence enhances response times and close cooperation with police officers.
Grzan told the committee he had contacted Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage and asked him how much it would cost to contract with the county for dispatch services, and he said Gage told him he would get back to him with a cost. When Grzan didn’t hear from Gage, he said, he sent him an e-mail, and Gage replied that he had talked to Steve Tate and Tate said the council was not interested.
Roorda asked what objection Tate might have had to obtaining the information, and Grzan said some of the council members might let the police department influence their decision-making process.
Before council members took a vote to drop the issue of contracting out for dispatch, the public safety committee presented a report to the council that indicated using county dispatchers would not save the city money.
Grzan described the public safety committee’s report to the council as “smoke and mirrors.”
Police Chief Bruce Cumming, who sits on the public safety committee, said the reports were prepared as directed by the council.
“Good thought went into those reports, and at the end of the day, the decision that the committee made was appropriate,” he said. “The council voted 4 to 1 to move on to other things. We clearly said it was not a comprehensive, detailed study of dispatching but that’s not the direction we were given. We were asked to provide a snapshot view without using too much of staff’s time. I think we did that work. And as I have said before, contracting with the county for dispatch services is not a good model to pursue. There’s good evidence out there to show it’s not a model to pursue.”
Councilman Greg Sellers, who does not sit on either the public safety committee or the finance committee, said he was dismayed by Grzan’s comments.
“If he has evidence that we can save money he should show it, but what is distressing to me is that more and more often I believe he is more interested in grandstanding than problem solving, and it is truly disheartening to those of us that are working hard to solve the problems in our community,” he said. “It is insulting of him to impugn the integrity of anyone on the council. It is insulting to think any of us on the council had been influenced to any degree by the police.”
