From The Indianapolis Star, July 21, 2008:
Radios cause static between agency chair, board
By Jeremy Herb
jeremy.herb@indystar.com
A clash between members of a board in charge of Marion County's emergency radio system has resulted in calls to oust the chairman.
Marion County's public safety director, Scott Newman, said he wants to remove Joe Wright as chairman of the Metropolitan Emergency Communications Agency board in a dispute stemming from potentially life-threatening problems in the county's new $37 million digital police and firefighter radio system.
Newman said the five-member board needs to meet to solve MECA's problems, and Wright's refusal to hold meetings, as well as his defense of the new system, have hindered progress.
"We have serious work to do on behalf of people whose lives are at stake," said Newman, also a MECA board member. "If he wants to mince around on the kind of issues dealing with life or death, he can stay home for all I care."
Wright, mayor of Beech Grove, said he is committed to solving MECA's problems.
"It's kind of interesting when you don't go their way; they just want to throw you aside," Wright said.
Newman said he once supported Wright, and he wasn't trying to remove him just because the two disagree.
Wright did not attend Tuesday's special meeting called by Newman.
"When you've shown no inclination to even meet, and the only way of dealing with problems is refusing to meet and criticizing employees, that's it," Newman said. "We move on."
Wright and Newman have sparred over how to solve two problems with the new MECA system. One is that the digital radios conflict with firefighters' personal alarms, garbling communication. The other is that dispatchers simultaneously receive communication through an external speaker and a headphone, creating the potential for a loud, hectic environment in the dispatch room.
Under the old system, all communication came through a headset.
Wright said he did not attend Tuesday's special meeting where the dispatch problem was discussed because, in his view, it was not a legal meeting. Wright said that under MECA's city-county ordinance, special meetings can only be called by the chairman.
Newman disagreed. He said that under open meeting laws, whenever a majority of the board is present, it's considered an official meeting.
The reason Newman called a meeting, he said, was because Wright would not hold one.
Wright said he canceled the last two board meetings because the board doesn't need to meet without business to address, and that he has talked regularly with safety officials about their concerns.
"The idea it would take a meeting for this communication to happen is simply not the case," Wright said. "We don't wait for one hour a month to hear about problems."
Board members said they were left in the dark about the reasons for the cancellations.
At Tuesday's meeting, Newman said he was dismayed by a letter Wright sent to Sheriff Frank Anderson that discounted complaints made by dispatchers about the new system, manufactured by Motorola.
"It's not for Motorola to say our system is wrong," Newman said at the meeting. "It's not for us to bend and fit with the cookie-cutter concept Motorola has of what a system should look like."
Wright's removal as chairman of the MECA board would require a majority vote by the board, which Newman said he will call for at the next meeting Aug. 6.
Two of the three other board members -- Sheriff's Deputy Chief Joe McAtee and Pike Township Fire Chief Gerald George -- said they did not know how they would vote. Health and Hospital representative Patty Hebenstreit could not be reached for comment.
Wright also could be removed from the board by a vote of the mayors of the four cities -- Speedway, Lawrence, Southport and his own -- that are not part of Marion County's city-county government. Wright represents that group.
Radios cause static between agency chair, board
By Jeremy Herb
jeremy.herb@indystar.com
A clash between members of a board in charge of Marion County's emergency radio system has resulted in calls to oust the chairman.
Marion County's public safety director, Scott Newman, said he wants to remove Joe Wright as chairman of the Metropolitan Emergency Communications Agency board in a dispute stemming from potentially life-threatening problems in the county's new $37 million digital police and firefighter radio system.
Newman said the five-member board needs to meet to solve MECA's problems, and Wright's refusal to hold meetings, as well as his defense of the new system, have hindered progress.
"We have serious work to do on behalf of people whose lives are at stake," said Newman, also a MECA board member. "If he wants to mince around on the kind of issues dealing with life or death, he can stay home for all I care."
Wright, mayor of Beech Grove, said he is committed to solving MECA's problems.
"It's kind of interesting when you don't go their way; they just want to throw you aside," Wright said.
Newman said he once supported Wright, and he wasn't trying to remove him just because the two disagree.
Wright did not attend Tuesday's special meeting called by Newman.
"When you've shown no inclination to even meet, and the only way of dealing with problems is refusing to meet and criticizing employees, that's it," Newman said. "We move on."
Wright and Newman have sparred over how to solve two problems with the new MECA system. One is that the digital radios conflict with firefighters' personal alarms, garbling communication. The other is that dispatchers simultaneously receive communication through an external speaker and a headphone, creating the potential for a loud, hectic environment in the dispatch room.
Under the old system, all communication came through a headset.
Wright said he did not attend Tuesday's special meeting where the dispatch problem was discussed because, in his view, it was not a legal meeting. Wright said that under MECA's city-county ordinance, special meetings can only be called by the chairman.
Newman disagreed. He said that under open meeting laws, whenever a majority of the board is present, it's considered an official meeting.
The reason Newman called a meeting, he said, was because Wright would not hold one.
Wright said he canceled the last two board meetings because the board doesn't need to meet without business to address, and that he has talked regularly with safety officials about their concerns.
"The idea it would take a meeting for this communication to happen is simply not the case," Wright said. "We don't wait for one hour a month to hear about problems."
Board members said they were left in the dark about the reasons for the cancellations.
At Tuesday's meeting, Newman said he was dismayed by a letter Wright sent to Sheriff Frank Anderson that discounted complaints made by dispatchers about the new system, manufactured by Motorola.
"It's not for Motorola to say our system is wrong," Newman said at the meeting. "It's not for us to bend and fit with the cookie-cutter concept Motorola has of what a system should look like."
Wright's removal as chairman of the MECA board would require a majority vote by the board, which Newman said he will call for at the next meeting Aug. 6.
Two of the three other board members -- Sheriff's Deputy Chief Joe McAtee and Pike Township Fire Chief Gerald George -- said they did not know how they would vote. Health and Hospital representative Patty Hebenstreit could not be reached for comment.
Wright also could be removed from the board by a vote of the mayors of the four cities -- Speedway, Lawrence, Southport and his own -- that are not part of Marion County's city-county government. Wright represents that group.