Hello, I read a while back that a new ordinance or law has gone into effect requiring all fire rescue agencies in PBC to have a common dispatch. I believe a few cities filed a lawsuit and lost. Can anyone confirm this? If so, does anyone know a time line of when we can expect to hear the rest of the cities on the PBC TRS (ex: Town of PB, Boynton, Delray, Boca)? Thanks for any info!
Palm Beach County Common Dispatch
- Thread starter tdichard
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There is no ordinance, nor has there ever been any law, requiring any municipality to become part of the County's County-Wide dispatch. It is strictly voluntary and to date PB Gardens FD, North Palm Beach FD, West Palm Beach FD and Greenacres FD are dispatched by the County at no cost.
The County did assemble, along with participation by other agencies, a minimum standards for response as it pertains to staffing and response time. This has been adopted by a number of agencies to assist property owners to reduce their private insurance by creating a couny-wide standard. This has been adopted by some, but not all municiplaities.
Countywide Fire Rescue Level of Service
The lawsuit your referencing, where the participating municipalities lost, is one where the County began using general fund dollars instead of MTSU dollars to fund County-Wide dispatch. The argument that the municipalities had is that they already had their own fire dispatch and they believed that this created a "double taxation" for those who also paid municipal taxes. The participating municipalities lost due to a number of items, such as "EMS Hospital communications", that is not supported by the municipalities at all and funded totally by the County.
Mark
The County did assemble, along with participation by other agencies, a minimum standards for response as it pertains to staffing and response time. This has been adopted by a number of agencies to assist property owners to reduce their private insurance by creating a couny-wide standard. This has been adopted by some, but not all municiplaities.
Countywide Fire Rescue Level of Service
The lawsuit your referencing, where the participating municipalities lost, is one where the County began using general fund dollars instead of MTSU dollars to fund County-Wide dispatch. The argument that the municipalities had is that they already had their own fire dispatch and they believed that this created a "double taxation" for those who also paid municipal taxes. The participating municipalities lost due to a number of items, such as "EMS Hospital communications", that is not supported by the municipalities at all and funded totally by the County.
Mark
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