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Date: 12/16/2020
HAMPDEN – On Dec. 8, the Hampden Board of Selectmen hosted a regional emergency dispatch public forum to hear from residents on the issue.
Chair Donald Davenport began the forum with a brief history of regional dispatch in Massachusetts, starting with the passage of a state law in 2009 allowing such inter-municipal agreements. A 911 fee is added to the monthly bills of mobile phone users. That fee funds the state’s E911 department and provides competitive grants for municipalities to set up regional systems.
Hampden has two main options for regionalizing it’s dispatch service. It could choose to join the Chicopee-based WESTCOMM, which already works dispatches for several of Hampden’s neighboring towns. Otherwise, it could join with Wilbraham in a two-town service.
Davenport broke down the costs associate with dispatch. In fiscal year 2021 (FY21), Hampden’s dispatch service costs the town $447,792. In a few slides, he explained that the five-year cost without any state grant funding would be $2,601,475 for Hampden, but if the town were to regionalize with WESTCOMM it would cost $1,104,150 over five years. If the town chose to join with Wilbraham instead, the five-year cost would be $1,330,347.
With state funding added to the equation, the savings become more dramatic. The five-year cost associated with WESTCOMM would come in at $725,150 and joining with Wilbraham would run $755,150 over the same period. Hampden would not be eligible for grants if it does not regionalize and therefore, the cost remains the same.
The savings result from Massachusetts 911 picking up the tab on municipal costs for the first three years. After that, they would pay 50 percent in year four and 25 percent in year five. From then on, Hampden would pay its full share of municipal costs at a range of $100,000 to $125,000.
After the presentation, the board took questions from the residents gathered via Zoom.
The main opposition to regionalization is the ad-hoc Regional Dispatch Committee. Jim Smith submitted questions to the board ahead of the meeting. The first question concerned the committee’s goal to put the option of regionalizing dispatch before voters at the Annual Town Meeting in the spring rather than allowing the select board to decide the issue.
“Legally, this is a decision for the Board of Selectmen, not Town Meeting,” said interim Town Administrator Bob Markel. He did acknowledge that a non-binding citizen’s petition was submitted with the required number of signatures and would therefore be heard at the Town Meeting.
Another way in which the committee is seeking to put the issue before the town is by asserting that it is a budgetary issue, but Markel explained that were the board to approve regionalization there would be no budget for dispatch in FY22 as the state would cover the first three years of service.
Smith said that the town has the option to receive the grants as reimbursement instead of allowing the state to pay the costs directly. He argued that the town should take the reimbursement option, specifically so that people can vote on it during Town Meeting as a budget issue. Smith asserted that the board was engaging in “sleight of hand” and “a shell game,” since there will be costs associated with dispatch in FY25 and the taxpayers will not have had a say in approving those costs.
Tina Albano, also on the Regional Dispatch Committee, said putting it to the town was “the right thing to do.”
Davenport asserted that the question of regionalization is no different than any other multi-year agreement. He pointed out that people elect the select board to make decisions and that if towns were run by referendum “nothing would be decided.” Voters have a right to elect other select board members if they are unhappy, he said.
When pressed about regionalization going before the town in 2017, Davenport noted that it was a budgetary issue at the time because the agreement would have cost money, rather than saved it.
Smith asked about the functions that the dispatchers perform aside from answering emergency calls, including monitoring detainees. Markel said he had spoken with Police Chief Jeff Farnsworth, who stated that dispatchers do not monitor detainees. Markel also reported that he had sent the list of dispatcher tasks drawn up by the committee to Farnsworth and Wilbraham Emergency Dispatch Director Anthony Gentile and was told nearly all the tasks would be handled by Wilbraham dispatchers or the Hampden Police Department’s administrative staff. He also said there would be someone stationed at the police department for 12 to 16 hours per day to deal with non-emergency in-person needs.
Finally, Smith referenced complaints from emergency personnel in towns that already contract with WESTCOMM. He said taking a town administrator or town manager’s word that the service is good “is like asking the warden if the inmates are happy.” Davenport told Smith that he had spoken to police officers in Longmeadow who said they were mostly satisfied beyond some initially “growing pains.”
Someone suggested that the town administrator sit in at WESTCOMM and the Wilbraham dispatch to see how they perform. Selectman Mary Ellen Glover told the other board members that she had received an invite from WESTCOMM for Markel and key government officials to do just that. When a member of the audience suggested a Hampden dispatcher with experience in the business sit in, Glover noted that such an individual would be biased against any regional service and therefore not give an objective report. Instead, Markel suggested that the dispatchers’ union president or their designee could sit in.
One person asked about the fiber optic line that would have to be run from the Hampden Police Department to make communication between dispatch and the town realistic. Markel explained that running fiber to Wilbraham will cost roughly $105,000. To join with WESTCOMM, a line would only need to be run to East Longmeadow, which is a member of the dispatch service. That would cost about $30,000. Markel reported, however, that the state 911 office had agreed to cover the cost of fiber installation provided an inter-municipal agreement is signed.
Another resident asked about the disadvantages to regionalizing. Davenport said that, in his understanding, residents are concerned that there will be a loss of knowledge about the area from the dispatchers if they no longer live or work in town. He argued that the police and fire personnel will not change and therefore will still have the knowledge of the town.
Kelsey Green, a Hampden dispatcher, objected to the argument that a single dispatcher violates state compliance because one person may have to be put on hold to answer a second call. After some back and forth Gloverand Davenport acknowledged that two or more dispatchers is a “best practice” rather than a compliance issue.
The final person to comment was resident Paul McNaughton. McNaughton has previously taken to social media to call Davenport “immoral” for even considering regionalization. During the forum, he said that every person in the town is against regionalization with WESTCOMM. He admitted that he would accept Wilbraham dispatch as a last resort, but hadn’t realized it was on the table.
Glover stated that people need to remain respectful “of their neighbors” and said it is “demeaning” for people to accuse the board of not considering what is in the best interest of the town.
The board will vote on regionalizing dispatch at an upcoming meeting.