CRESTVIEW — City officials are disputing a letter from County Commissioner Nathan Boyles, who states the city could save "hundreds of thousands of dollars annually" by moving fire department dispatch services to the county dispatch center.

City officials quickly disputed several assertions in Boyles' letter to Mayor David Cadle, including his claim that 911 calls to the Crestview Fire Department dispatch center are first routed through the county dispatch system.

"This duplication actually increases dispatch times," Boyles stated.

Cadle and Fire Chief Joe Traylor said that because of technology limitations, only cellphone calls are routed through the county dispatch center, where they are "instantaneously" sent to Crestview's center.

The only time there is a delay is when call volume exceeds the county dispatchers' ability to keep up, Traylor said.

However, upgrading Crestview's center to accept cellphone calls is "right around the corner," Traylor said, adding calls forwarded by the county system exclude valuable GPS data.

"What they didn't point out is 70 percent of the call volume is from cell phones," Boyles said. "You have a situation now where 70 percent of the calls go in one direction and 30 percent go in another direction."

Cadle also rebutted Boyles' assertion that Crestview was "proposing an additional assessment on residents to fund fire service."

"It was merely presented to you as an alternative to receive more funds to the city," Cadle told council members.

Traylor said the city would face an upfront expense of $179,000 to convert to the county system, which he said uses the State Law Enforcement Radio System, commonly called SLERS.

SLERS radios often fail when used inside buildings, putting firefighters at risk, Traylor said.

The system is so unreliable, Ocean City-Wright firefighters have resorted to purchasing their own commercial walkie-talkies at Wal-Mart to assure communications when inside buildings, Traylor said.

"I don't want my guys trying to communicate with a $50 set of walkie-talkies when their life depends on it," he said.

"They don't have to convert entirely over to the county system," Boyles said. "They could have a hybrid system. There would be an upfront cost but it would be substantially less than operating their system for one year."

The Crestview dispatch system, which services the fire and police departments, includes redundancy to assure service if one of the centers is out of operation, Traylor said.

"If SLERS goes down, we are still operational," he said. "If one of our two repeater stations goes down, we are still operating."

Also, Traylor said, because it handles 16 of the county's 17 fire companies and county EMS, the county dispatch center has been occasionally overloaded, resulting in a delay of dispatch.

During last week's overturned gas tanker accident, the Crestview Fire Department's dispatch center alerted firefighters ahead of the county system, he said.

"My communications center not only handled that call but 11 other calls at the same time," Traylor said. "Okaloosa County was handling calls for 16 other organizations."

"I'm not trying to tell the city what to do," Boyles said. "I know they're looking at alternate revenue sources and as a tax payer myself, I wanted to make sure they're looking at all their options."

Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: City officials dispute commissioner's consolidation savings claim

CRESTVIEW — City officials are gathering information about a fire services assessment as a means of providing supplemental funding for the Crestview Fire Department.

"The purpose of bringing forward this information is to give the City Council options," Crestview Fire Chief Joe Traylor said, noting the assessment would provide "extra funding by not raising property tax."

Camille Tharpe, senior vice president of the Tallahassee-based Government Services Group consultants, said Monday that "an assessment is not a tax," but some council members expressed concern about the idea.

"I have mixed feelings about this right now," Councilman Mickey Rytman said. "'Assessment' seems to me like another word for 'tax.'"

"As of this moment, until I know something better, I am against assessing my constituents in Crestview, Fla., 1 cent," Councilman Joe Blocker said.

Councilman Tom Gordon said the assessment could lower the city's ad valorem tax rate and spread the cost of providing fire protection more equitably.

"People who are paying property taxes will pay a little less; the people who are not paying will pay a little bit more," Gordon said. "There's no such thing as a free lunch."

Council President Robyn Helt expressed concern when Tharpe suggested the assessment was a way to circumvent homestead exemption property tax reductions.

"We have these things in place that prevent us from gouging for our services excessively, but now we have a mechanism to skirt around it," Helt said, referring to the idea. "I just think it's my job to not do that every time an opportunity presents itself. I think government has to live within its means."

If the city implemented a fire district assessment, the fee would likely be collected with residents' utility bills rather than through separate billing.

Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview council discusses fire department assessment fee

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 'Relay For Life Days' in Crestview begin April 18

CRESTVIEW — City Council members and city attorney Jerry Miller were "overly cautious" when the council recused itself during a March 24 presentation, according to Florida First Amendment Foundation President Barbara Petersen.

At the council meeting, Miller cautioned Dr. Jean Mitchell against presenting information from private conversations she had with individual council members. Miller said he was concerned that Mitchell would disclose council members' private remarks before the full board.

Miller said Friday that his first duty is to assure the council is not exposed to potential legal liabilities. "Every time I have perceived opportunity to protect my clients, I will do my best," he said.

That opportunity arose during Mitchell's presentation, Miller said. "I didn't know what she was going to say," he said. "She was on an unpredictable course."

Council President Robyn Helt, sensitive to a potential Sunshine Law violation, asked the board to wait in the hallway to allow Mitchell to conclude her comments.

"It’s perfectly okay for a citizen such as Dr. Mitchell … to discuss an issue with various commissioners individually and then to relay the fact and gist of those conversations," Petersen said."The fact that Dr. Mitchell was making her comments at a public meeting makes it, I think, doubly okay." 

Miller shrugged off criticism of his advice as second-guessing his and the council's actions after the fact.

"I know what facts I was dealing with first hand at the time," Miller said.

Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: First Amendment Foundation: Council, attorney were 'overly cautious' in recusal

CRESTVIEW — The City Council has a number of ideas for inclusion in the 2014-15 fiscal budget.

Councilman Shannon Hayes has recommended 1 to 3 percent city employee raises.

Councilman Tom Gordon has suggested implementing a system to stream and store live video feeds from council meetings.

However, another of Gordon's suggestions — hiring a council administrative assistant — has generated the most discussion.

The support position is not new; an Administrative Services director previously filled the position, he said. Upon that employee's 2012 retirement, the city clerk's office assumed his responsibilities, forcing Betsy Roy to handle responsibilities not delegated by city charter.

"That's been on my mind since day one," Councilman Joe Blocker said during a council workshop on Monday. "I don't believe the clerk has the time or people to run this city."

The position's salary could be offset by a full-time assistant monitoring financial matters to eliminate wasteful spending, Gordon said.

Council President Robyn Helt, who has supported the idea of having a city administrator oversee all departments, said a council administrative assistant would be helpful.

"We have a structure that is deficient to meet the needs of our citizens," she said. "It's proven on a daily basis, it's proven on a monthly basis and proven on a yearly basis."

Creating a city administrator would require a change in the city charter, which voters have defeated at least five times since the idea was first presented in the 1960s.

Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Council mulls potential administrative assistant to solve 'deficient' structure