Interesting and sad at the same time that the Chief didn't do any fact finding before writing his first blog on this topic. I respect that he may have been looking out for his staff but facts are facts and he should have done his homework before offering a perspective. AND he hasn't been to the PCSD in 18 years? Seriously?

...and one would think The Patch reporters would have maybe gotten some feedback from the PCSD. Isn't there some journalistic rule that says something about giving all the facts? Checking both sides of the story? The Gabber also didn't perform full due dilligence. Almost makes one wonder if the local press has a dog in this fight.....just sayin" ;-)

Evil Vice Mayor here, I asked for the meeting with our Chief and City Manager with Sheriff's dispatch and I have spent hours with the Chief discussing all elements of this issue. Chief above still says his holding cells will go but in our discussions he has told me that during normal business hours the holding cell video signal can be fed into another department, say Records, where it can be monitored. During other hours we discussed the possibility of sending that signal up to the Sheriff's complex and we even discussed that with Chief Deptuy Bob Gualtiera who didn't agree nor rule it out so I don't understand why the Chief is saying we will lose our holding cells? I will find out though.

Thank you Vice Mayor for sharing your comments on the post.

What happens in the other cities that have done this? What happens in cities like So. Pasadena that is policed by the Sheriff's Dept.

As I recall the CM earns $108K / yr + benes + car allownace; the Chief earns $96K/yr.+benes+car(?) and the Finance guru earns $78K/yr.+benes + car allowance. You'd think one of the three in that almost 1/2 million $ per year think tank might have thought to perform some due dilligence and provide all of the facts to their bosses and the community. This seems to happen with every project / critical change that is brought forth by the City staff. Why is this? Is it a matter of skill or will??

So the principals in this discussion can't agree on the details? And we have no written proposals? How much will it really cost as we add services like monitoring our cameras? And a verbal agreement is worth the paper it's written on. All jobs are not created equal, are those $18 hr dispatch jobs or $9 hr records clerk jobs.
There is nothing in writing and everyone has a different idea about how this will work and we have to have a budget in less than 30 days. Sounds like a decision will be made without enough info and far too quickly. We're not even going to have the first reading util after the 22d?, and then 2 special meetings in 9 days to approve the budget? The first vote should be Sept 6th. If everyone's so sure about this proposal let's vote on it.
Or better yet, take Mayor Yakes proposal; Raise the millage to 4.0 according to Councilman Hastings proposal, the raise the Water rates not by 20% as Hastings proposed but by 12% and take $250,000 from reserves. Then take another year and consider this properly.

Frank- 1st reading is Sept.8th.

oops hit enter too soon...

Frank - do you know if Councilmember Henderson has vivited the PCSP Comm Ctr.? If so, I'd like to know his perspective of that operation too.

Frank- where did you get those salary #'s? The average dipatcher salary is $22/hr. without benefits.

In response to my question to the Chief Deputy infront of myself, the CM, our Chief and one of our dispatchers, the Chief Deputy guaranteed that our displaced dispatchers would be given a similar job at the same rate (given their salary scale limits as I understand we may have a dispatcher that earns more than their highest pay scale). CM said their benefit package may even be better than ours. Chief Deputy also said he would put that in writing. I also asked about our IT person and they are considering that as well.
CM also has a written proposal that he is basing his savings estimates from.

Ah, divide and conquer Councilman Hastings. Don't worry dispatchers you'll have jobs, the sheriff promised. Only he didn't promise, he promised to promise in writing some time later. And when he promises there'll will be phrases like "as jobs becomome available" and "as soon as feasible". So, let's test the Councilman's faith in the Sheriffs promise. If all laid-off dispatchers aren't working within 30 days at comparable jobs with the SO will the Councilman surrender his accounting license? These people's livlihoods are on the line councilman, put your job there next to theirs.

And what of the non binding proposal? When will we negotiate the real contract? After we've defunded dispatch. That's a very weak bargaining position. No businessman whould put himself at that big a disadvantage. The S.O. will in exchange for an $85,000 contract accept our $300,000+ payroll liability, really? First rule of business, If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

First Council must decide to outsource or not based upon all reliable information it has at it's disposal. My reliable information includes talking to our CM; talking to our Police Chief; talking to Pinellas County cities that have actually done what we are proposing to do; visiting our police department, holding cells and dispatch office; visiting the Pinellas County Sheriff's dispatch division and talking to Lt Bordner, Communications Division Commander and Chief Deputy Gualtiera of the Pinellas County Sheriff's office.

Next step if we move forward would be to solicit and review proposals of all interested parties which now may include St Petersburg and to accept the best one.

The current budget proposal does not anticipate making a conversion until Jan 1, 2012.

But there are currently no negotiations with St. Pete and the conversion takes months to accomplish. Data transfer, Software Transfer, Hardware updates etc. So, to switch by Jan 1 we'd have to start in October and we'd have to know what agency we were dealing with then.

Excellent article....
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