Although there were a few glitches along the way with the county’s transition to using Santa Cruz 9-1-1 for dispatch services, there is no reason for alarm.
County supervisors last week heard an update from Scotty Douglas, who runs the Santa Cruz 9-1-1 operation, on how the transition has gone in the past two months.
The Santa Cruz center took on the equivalent of seven full-time staff members from San Benito County. Before the transition, San Benito County had the equivalent of 12 full-time staff members.
The move – a wise one in these turbulent fiscal times with annual, multimillion-dollar deficits – is set to save $200,000 for the city and another $60,000 for the county starting in the third year of the agreement. For the city in particular, that amounts to about 1.4 percent of Hollister’s annual general fund budget. It is no small amount, especially considering the intense nature of negotiations among unions and local government administrators, and the likelihood for continued cuts for several years to come.
Prior to the arrangement when officials had been considering the contract, there was plenty of opposition, particularly from the local dispatch union. So it was a thoughtful approach by the county and Santa Cruz 9-1-1 to provide the public an update at this point early in the transition.
Douglas did point to the main glitch experienced along the way – a series of six unanswered calls from the San Juan Canyon area during a controlled burn in Monterey County – but emphasized that the dispatch operation and AT&T resolved the problem and rerouted those lines appropriately.
The sheriff’s office also has sent deputies to certain areas of the county with generally poor cell phone reception to ensure those homes’ landlines are working properly. It is a simple way of handling a high-tech concern, but should serve well to ease residents’ concerns on whether they would have a connection to 911.
Aside from such reception issues, the discussion actually underscored some major benefits from the contracted service. One of those was ending the practice of enacting a “Code 3” emergency alert for every response, as opposed to classifying the calls – as Santa Cruz 9-1-1 does – so that an ambulance and fire engines aren’t racing down the street every time someone needs assistance.
Douglas also noted again that the Santa Cruz staff’s training to give some medical assistance over the phone has come in handy quite a bit.
There were destined to be hiccups along the way, but the Santa Cruz operation has proven to meet the professional and safety standards that San Benito County residents have come to expect.
