Village Considers Consolidating Emergency Dispatch

Libertyville trustees gave the green light to proceed with negotiating an intergovernmental agreement with the village of Vernon Hills for consolidated dispatch, with a start-up goal of May 1, 2012.

If a consolidation agreement were approved, it would allow the village to avoid some $400,000 in capital expenditure to upgrade Libertyville’s communications equipment and about $1.3 million in operating costs over five years. For fiscal 2013, the cost to operate and maintain a dispatch center is budgeted at $1.26 million. If dispatch were consolidated, the cost would drop down to about $1 million, representing a $245,000 cost saving that year, according to village documents.

The downside to consolidation, however, is that dispatchers potentially could lose their jobs. The village hires six full-time dispatchers to handle all emergency calls for the village, the Libertyville Fire Protection District, all nonemergency police calls and calls received after hours for other village departments.

Consolidation: Cost-Saving Measure

“This has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of our dispatches -- we have tremendous dispatch services here in Libertyville. It has to do with dollars and cents and the fact that it would be a $1.7 million savings over five years,” Mayor Terry Weppler said during the board meeting.

Toni Brown, a Libertyville dispatcher for 15 years, urged the Village Board to consider alternatives.

“I find it confusing that in this time, when jobs are being lost and crime is on its way up, that we are trying to outsource our first contact with the public,” Brown said.

Brown says the village should be looking at updating its centers and bringing other villages into the building and not the other way around, especially when other towns are making a profit creating a multidispatch agency.

“Vernon Hills has a new facility that has all the bells and whistles right now,” Weppler said. “In order to bring people in Libertyville, we would have to build that new facility at a very large cost and there’s no guarantee that anybody’s going to come here.”

Impact of Consolidation:

Staffing

The consolidation would eliminate dispatch jobs in Libertyville but the village of Vernon Hills has indicated it would have to create three new dispatch positions if Libertyville consolidates with them.

Trustee Donna Johnson says it’s important for the village to have a supervisory role in the hiring process to ensure Vernon Hills “strongly considers our people.”

“Our hope is that no one loses their job through this consolidation,” Weppler said.

Libertyville Police Department’s Reception Window

Libertyville also is considering adding two full-time staff to help at the police department’s reception window. The move would help address a potential staffing shortage caused by consolidation.

Monitoring Prisoners

Dispatchers are located in the police department and can help monitor prisoners. Libertyville’s fire code requires that someone be in the building at all times if a prisoner is in custody. If the consolidation moves forward, village staff says it potentially could require an additional hire to be physically present in the facility. The village is looking at alternatives, such as sharing holding facilities with other agencies or entering into an agreement with the county to use its facility.

Same Service, Different Location

Mayor Weppler says consolidating dispatch services is not just happening in Libertyville, but also is a nationwide trend that helps cut costs.

“I don’t believe residents will notice any difference in service,” Weppler said. “I don’t believe our residents will notice between whether the calls are being dispatched two blocks to the east of here, or two miles south of here.”

Some people disagree. On the Keep Libertyville Dispatchers in Libertyville Facebook page, user Dan Kublank wrote: “I can't even imagine using dispatchers from another town to take care of our emergencies. The knowledge (dispatchers) have of our village and our emergency services is invaluable to our first responders. The cost savings in a move such as this is usually fleeting and ends up more expensive in the long run.”

As village officials move forward with negotiating and discussing the impact of consolidating dispatch with Vernon Hills, dispatcher Brown urged trustees not to change Libertyville’s motto from “Sprit of Independence” to “Sprit of Dependence.”

“We are now going to be dependent on Vernon Hills for such a critical service,” she said.