This sounds like normal local politics as usual. One agency wants to be top dog and not work
things out with the rest.
It is not uncommon for a dispatch center to bill small agencies for radio dispatch services based
on a per call basis. This has been used in all parts of the country for years. Just how much is
assessed per dispatched call is variable. It will depend on the operating costs for the region
of the country and what the dispatcher cost is. Many times this cost is not enough to cover
what the true expense of that dispatcher and overhead are for that facility.
A small agency like a volunteer fire department in a small rural setting may have a hard time
understanding what it cost to run a dispatch center. They have to be manned on a 24 / 7 time
frame no matter if there is a call or not. Someone has to pay for the operating cost. To charge
a part time department say $30 to$50 a call is not out of the question. Many small departments
have gone to charging insurance companies for services rendered for auto accidents. Truck
wrecks are a big expense for materials used that can wreck a small department budget. Start
billing the insurance companies for your services and materials used. Same thing for medical
calls. You can't support the medical calls and the materials used for very long. Collect the
patient information and make sure you get the insurance info. Keep detailed records of
who, what where, when and what materials were used on the call.
Sit down with all parties on the dispatch issue of expenses. Come to some sort of understanding
of what it cost to provide the dispatch service and what the different agencies can afford. In some
cases, you might be able to obtain some help from the county as well as from your local community.
If you all don't get together at the same time, it will never work itself out. Many times it comes
back to a control issue of who is in control. Try to diffuse this at all cost. Work out a joint
control structure no matter what it takes to make it happen.
Bottom line, your smaller agencies can't afford to provide a dispatch center by them selves.
Only a shared and jointly operated dispatch system will work. You need to find a way to
work together and share the expenses. This is not a work together, pray together issue,
but a work together, share together the operations. Form a joint controlling body that has
operational control of what goes on, how it goes on and who has the say in the way your
dispatch center functions.
Jim
PORT HURON, Mich. -- Lynn and Mussey townships have followed Berlin in adopting resolutions voicing their non-support of Central Dispatch funding. They join several other municipalities in letting St. Clair County authorities know they won't pay their annual fee.
More opt out of dispatch funding
