Dispatch center savings fall short for Schenectady City projections well below county’s $246K estimate Friday, October 10, 2014 By Kathleen Moore (Contact) Gazette Reporter
SCHENECTADY — The county dispatch system is saving the city less than predicted, confusing and disappointing City Council members.
The system was billed for years as a cost-savings consolidation, but at best Schenectady will save $177,000 next year. In April, the county said the city would save at least $246,000, although city officials had expected more.
The new figure is based on internal projections for 2015 fringe benefits — retirement and health insurance costs — the city might have paid if it still employed its 24 dispatchers. Finance Commissioner Deborah DeGenova said the city would have paid $639,000 in such costs, although she also said she had to determine that figure by modeling it herself, since the city’s retirement and health insurance estimates were based on data that did not include those employees.
The savings isn’t clearly stated in the budget, and council members were clearly surprised as they read through that portion of the budget this week.
“We didn’t get what we were promised,” said Councilman Vince Riggi.
Several council members have been crunching the numbers themselves, trying to find the promised savings. They couldn’t find it.
“How are we saving money?” Councilwoman Leesa Perazzo asked at a budget session this week.
She said Friday she still wanted to know more before criticizing the situation.
“I have more questions,” she said. “Maybe I’m reading it wrong.”
But she added she had expected savings — and was surprised by what she was seeing in the budget.
“I’m concerned about it,” she said.
The city was able to eliminate about $1.3 million from the budget that had been assigned for running the dispatch center, DeGenova said. But the city is paying $1.7 million to the county for its share of the dispatch costs, about $462,000 more, DeGenova said. She then subtracted her modeled $639,000 in 2015 benefits costs to determine the city was saving $177,000.
Councilman Ed Kosiur also noted the city wasn’t able to eliminate every expense related to dispatching.
The city will keep five workers to maintain records, at a cost of $163,000, and continue $91,000 in contracts for software used to let police see what information dispatch is collecting as they type it into their computers, while officers are speeding to the scene.
The software is also used for records management, Police Chief Brian Kilcullen said.
Perazzo wasn’t impressed.
“But we’re making a payment of $1.7 [million] and we’re still holding software maintenance contracts,” she said.
DeGenova assured her at a recent budget session there was some savings, although she could not quantify it during the budget sessions.
“It’s pretty much in the benefits lines,” she said
The city had 24 dispatchers, but only 20 took city insurance, DeGenova said. She said Friday she had to estimate the cost of fringe benefits for the dispatchers next year.
“I modeled those people based on the new rates,” she said. “The value of what they were getting [in benefits] is $639,000.”
Concerns about the cost of countywide dispatching delayed the project for years, but the concerns were mainly voiced by leaders in the surrounding towns.
Mayor Gary McCarthy consistently supported the plan, saying it would be a savings and that consolidation would lead to a better dispatch center.
But in addition to questions about the cost, Riggi said he has been unimpressed with the service residents are getting from the countywide dispatch center, which opened in May.
“I’m getting a lot of complaints it’s not working so well,” he said.
When residents call about main roads in the Bellevue neighborhood, which continue into the town of Rotterdam, dispatchers seemed confused, he said.
“They’ll say, ‘Is that in Rotterdam?’ ” Riggi said. “There you go. There’s the ‘working together works.’ ”
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
what was the big rush to implement the system if not ready? working the bugs out of a system this important should not have been an on the go type thing
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Very simple. Eliminate the municipal lines by consolidating into ONE City-County and then there would be no confusion as to what municipality the streets were located in.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Actually there was no rush to do this - it is behind schedule.
One would expect some problems with a venture as large as this.
The savings issue might be the most important part of the article. You have to be tenacious and ensure you are getting the accurate numbers. People can exaggerate, minimize, or innocently get things wrong during the pitching of these ideas. I was always a bit concerned regarding what the final numbers would look like. And, these numbers are based on the formula for each municipality's contribution. Ultimately, city agreed to contract in which formula can be adjusted based on a majority vote of the participants. Initially, city had a weighted vote but that changed.
Consolidation can and has worked but nothing is risk free, and , the city has less control in the post-consolidation era.
Very simple. Eliminate the municipal lines by consolidating into ONE City-County and then there would be no confusion as to what municipality the streets were located in.
Yup...simple...there is an emergency on 4th street. Is it 4th Street Rotterdam, or 4th Street Bellview?
So you are saying the dispatcher would not be smart enough to identify what street/location? YUP...simple....
No, I'm saying in an emergency, a person may say 4th Street in a panic, and the county dispatcher may make a mistake and dispatch to the wrong 4th street. Are you saying dispatchers are perfect and couldn't make that mistake? Riggi was quoted stating that dispatchers were asking for clarification of where municipal lines begin and end and who to dispatch. Having the same named streets can cause the same confusion.
The funny thing is, the argument DVOR used to keep REMS as the town EMS provider, was that Mohawk showed up to an accident late because they did not know the area they were dispatched to. Now with centralized county dispatch, and dispatchers having to take extra time to figure out which municipal service to dispatch, that isn't a concern.
No, I'm saying in an emergency, a person may say 4th Street in a panic, and the county dispatcher may make a mistake and dispatch to the wrong 4th street. Are you saying dispatchers are perfect and couldn't make that mistake?
Are you saying that can't happen today without being centralized?
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
Are you saying that can't happen today without being centralized?
I'm pretty sure there is only one 4th Street in Rotterdam. If you called a Rotterdam emergency dispatcher about an emergency on 4th Street, they pretty much know it's 4th street in Rotterdam and not Belleview. That would reduce the chances of dispatching to the wrong location.
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