Marquette City Commission urges Marquette County to transfer dispatch services to Tyler Technologies CAD
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MARQUETTE -- The Marquette City Commission Monday addressed a recent controversy regarding Marquette County's 911 dispatch system by passing a resolution urging the the Marquette County Board of Commissioners to participate in the North Computer-Aided Dispatch Group Consortium and transition to the Tyler Technologies CAD system.
The background on the resolution reads as follows:
"In February, the Marquette County Board of Commissioners voted to enter discussions and ultimately develop contract language with Motorola Solutions to handle Marquette County's Computer Aided Dispatch operations.
"This decision stands to directly impact city of Marquette residents and public safety operations, would be in opposition to the preferences of local law enforcement professionals and would place Marquette County on a different CAD platform than the one utilized by the Michigan State Police and the other 14 counties of the Upper Peninsula."
The resolution claims that the county's decision to go with Motorola, at odds with the other 14 Upper Peninsula counties who are all using Tyler Technologies, would risk "unnecessarily isolating Marquette County from the regional public safety technology framework being implemented by neighboring counties, potentially reducing access to coordinated backup resources, regional operational support and the full benefits of interoperable emergency communications envisioned by the UP911 Authority, the North CAD Group and participating public safety agencies."
During its Aug. 18 meeting, the county board further underscored its commitment to transfer services to Motorola Solutions by voting 6-0 to confirm that it will cover the costs to provide continuity of CAD serviced while, to quote the meeting minutes, "Motorola Solutions CAD system completes development and implementation."
Public comment at that Aug. 18 meeting was dominated by those expressing concern over the transfer to Motorola Solutions.
During commissioner comment at the Aug. 18 session, county Chairperson Joe Derocha cited the "$500,000 difference" between systems and said that the commission would address the issue publicly at another date, "when we have all the information in front of everybody."
During Monday night's meeting of the city commission, Commissioner Cody Mayer, who is running unopposed on the November ballot for a seat on the county board, said,
"At this point we have a situation where all of the other U.P. communities and the U.P. state police have all moved forward and signed contracts with the same provider and there is a real scenario here where if we continue to go on our own with this, we lose backup.
"And what I mean by backup is, let's say we have three dispatchers. If you have a high traffic incident, like a business downtown is on fire or something, and you have a hundred people calling, but someone in North Marquette is having a heart attack, someone might not answer the phone when you call 911 because we only have 3 dispatchers, with no backup to answer the phone.
"…I also want to make note of this: we have three tribal nations, two of which are very active in Marquette County and have tribal police in Marquette County, who fall under and use the state police's dispatch system. They also have cross-deputized police in Marquette County. So we have a scenario where now tribal police will be operating under different dispatches depending on which agency they're associated with, and they can't communicate with each other through dispatches. So this just sounds like a logistical nightmare at this point. And for this reason I'm very happy to support our police and fire in supporting this (resolution)."
Commissioner Jessica Hanley, who is a previous member of the Central Dispatch Policy Board, also addressed the resolution, saying, "The biggest part that stood out to me with the choice they're trying to make to switch to this new thing is that they ... would not allow the Marquette County Central Dispatch Policy Board to give them the recommendation of what they believe would be the best situation for them. It seemed outrageous to me that you wouldn't look to your board, that is specialized in that exact thing, for a recommendation on a CAD system.
"The other thing is, it cannot be stressed (enough) how, in an emergency situation, seconds count."
Hanley further noted that the amount the county would be saving using the Motorola System, that $500,000 cited by Derocha, does not take into account what it would cost to create lines of communication between dispatches using different systems.
"We're going to end up losing money in this scenario," said Hanley. "And we're going to end up losing lives. And I don't think it's appropriate ... I hope the county board will reconsider this contract."
"What I see as the biggest problem here is the inoperability between agencies," said Marquette Police Department Chief Ryan Grim, also speaking at Monday night's meeting. "… If we have three dispatchers and we have a major incident ... they're going to be overwhelmed.
"Right now, all of our calls, if they don't get answered at our answering point, (go) to Chippewa County or another neighboring agency that utilizes the same system. We've all been on the same system since 2011 and it's worked seamlessly. And I’ve talked to dispatchers who worked prior to that and what happened is it's almost like a light came on, like this is how good things can be.
"If we take this step backwards, we're getting back to the old days of ... being on an island ... We can't have that, for the safety of our community, our officers, our firefighters, our EMTs."
Grim also stated that the county had hired a consulting firm to help them make a decision in selecting a CAD service and that by selecting Motorola, the county was going against the recommendation of that consultant.
The vote to adopt the resolution was unanimous.
Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.