HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-03-05-10:00AM-WORKSHOPBRAZOS COUNTY 4 _
BRYAN,TEXAS
NOTICE OF MEETING
AND AGENDA
BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT
WORKSHOP SESSION
THE COMMISSIONERS COURT OF BRAZOS COUNTY WILL MEET IN A
WORKSHOP SESSION ON MONDAY 5 MARCH 2007 AT 10:00 A.M. IN THE
COMMISSIONERS COURTROOM OF THE BRAZOS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 300
E. 26 T" STREET, SUITE 115, BRYAN, TEXAS.
1. Call to Order
2. Discussion regarding staffing needs for the Brazos County Emergency Services
District.
3. Adjourn
The Brazos County Courthouse is wheelchair accessible. Handicap parking spaces are available. Any request for sign
interpretive services must be made two business days before the meeting. To make arrangements, call (979) 361 -4102.
Office of the County Judge • 300 East 26'" St. • Suite 114 • Bryan, Texas 77803 . Fax: (979) 361 -4503
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COMMISSIONERS' COURT
WORKSHOP SESSION
March 5, 2007
The Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas met
in a Workshop Session in the Commissioners' Courtroom in
the Courthouse in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas, beginning at
10:00 a.m. on Monday March 5, 2007, with the following
members of the Court present:
Randy Sims, County Judge, Presiding;
Lloyd Wassermann, Commissioner of Precinct 1;
Duane Peters, Commissioner of Precinct 2;
Kenny Mallard, Commissioner of Precinct 3;
Carey Cauley, Commissioner of Precinct 4; absent
Karen McQueen, County Clerk. absent
Attached is a list of the citizens and officials in
attendance.
Attached is a transcript of the meeting.
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BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT
Brazos County Emergency Services District Staffing
March 5th, 2007
Tape starts mid - sentence.
Sims: ...this workshop into session Monday the 5`h of March 2007 at 10:00 a.m.
in the Commissioner's Courtroom, Brazos County Courthouse. I will call
this to order and the first item on the agenda, second item is discussion
regarding staffing needs for Brazos County Emergency Service District,
or the 911 district. Betsy, if you will.
Godwin: Yes sir. First of all, thank for taking the time to listen to what we have to
say. What we are gong to discuss today is the radio position and staffing
for the Brazos County 911. The first thing we would like to do is a brief
overview of the District, the District overview of the mandated service
that the 911 District is providing.
We provide enhanced 911 services to all areas of Brazos County, 911
system maintenance and upgrades, 911 data base and call routing
services. We also maintain wireless and third party data base service. We
maintain the required traditional E911 and voiceover IP circuit.
Additionally, we provide 911 public education and district wide training
and we also prepare for and incorporate new and emerging technologies.
Non mandated contractual services include call taking and dispatch
services for Bryan Police Department, Bryan Fire Department, Bryan
Animal Control, Brazos County Sheriffs Office, all of Brazos County
Volunteer Fire Departments and all of Brazos County Constable
Precincts.
The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the need for an additional
dispatch position and supporting personnel by reviewing the following
data. We would like to review the population growth. We are going to
analyze overall transfer calls for service. We're going to compare staffing
levels with the dispatch center staffing, and discuss the impact of
providing additional service. And, additionally, outline existing staffing
levels and equipment requirements.
As you can see by our graph here which we obtained from the Texas
Association of Counties and also the Texas State Data Center, you can
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see and accelerated growth rate; you can see that the blue is where we are
up to now and the red is where we are looking at in 2015. All of the
population growth affects the 911 calls for service for emergency and
non - emergency situations. So you can see that we are growing, which I'm
sure you knew that, but we thought we would kind of depict it out in
graph form.
We also provided a chart for the calls for service. The overall calls for
service have increased at a very steady pace for many years. In 2004, you
can see that we had 89,000 calls for service; in 2006, we're up to 112,000
calls for service.
Along with the calls for service for increasing, also the staffing is
increasing for those that we serve. Just a brief description here for the
Bryan Police Department you can see that their staffing has increase at a
steady incline. The fire department is pretty accelerated also. As the
staffing increases for those that we service, the more radio transmission
increase. The more self - initiated activity that they do, the more that the
dispatch center has to provide.
As you can see, from 2003 to 2007 we had a pretty steady, even staff
until last year when we added three additional call takers. But for the past
five years, we pretty much stayed at an even keel which is not good
considering the people that we are serving are increasing their staffing.
The impacts of additional services just recently are the Emergency
Medical Dispatch which we finally have all of our personnel trained. We
initiated that March I" and as of March I" to day's date at 8:30, we had
75 EMD calls that we received and provided pre - arrival instructions and
information to. So with the Emergency Medical Dispatch, we are still at
the flip card stage so we can't ... it's not computerized yet. We're hoping
that by the end of May that we will be able to computerize it. That way
when the calls come in, the dispatcher can click on the different icons and
we'll be able to track the EMD calls as far as how long it takes to pre -
arrival instructions. We'll be better able to have an analysis next year at
this time as to the time that's spent on EMD.
Also, technology with the Phase II Wireless has increased the workload
for the communication center. What this means is we get a 911 call and if
there is no voice on it, then we have to call back the number, look up
where the call is. Obviously, that takes times. Though technology is great
and we need technology, it also increases the workload in the dispatch
center.
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Furthermore, the comprehensive warrant checks that the communication
personnel do; they are checking Bryan Municipal Court, College Station
Municipal Court, TCIC which is Texas Crime Information Center, NCIC
which is the National Crime Information Center and DPS for every
warrant check. This is also time consuming but it's a necessary thing that
communication personnel do.
Additionally, we're looking at voice over IP and next generation 911
coming to our County. We're not sure exactly when we're going to have
to upgrade our equipment to provide video coming into the 911 center. So
with that upcoming technology, we have to make sure that we have staff
in order to provide the best quality service.
Sims: Let me ask a question.
Godwin: Yes sir.
Sims: The three staff members that we hired this last year...
Godwin: Yes sir.
Sims: ...they weren't just strictly for EMDs were they? We have all of our
people trained over there to handle EMD.
Godwin: Absolutely. We have trained 47 people in EMD; which is counting
College Station and A &M University.
Sims: Could I ask you a question?
Godwin: You sure can.
Sims: Who picked up the tab for those three?
Godwin: The district. Oh for the personnel?
Sims: Yes.
Godwin: For one of the dispatchers was covered by City of Bryan and the other
two were covered by...
Sims: By Brazos County.
Godwin: ...by Brazos County.
Sims: Ok.
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Mallard: You going to start doing video?
Godwin: What they are talking about for next generation 911 to upgrade the
services that they are looking at ... you know how you have a camera
phone and people take pictures of scenes ... of taking that video and
bringing it into the district.
Mallard: Hm, ok.
Godwin: As a matter of fact, the research project that we're working with A &M on
already has that. And we tested it out where in the 911 center, you're on
the phone with a caller and streaming video is coming in across the 911
screen. Now it's still...
Mallard: You could help with, obviously, a medical injury or some sort. They
can...
Godwin: Burglaries in progress, bank robberies. You'll be able to see exactly
what's going on as it's going on and be able to inform the personnel on
the other side of the radios. And the research that we're doing right now
with A &M and Virginia, they got the grant extended so it's going to get
even more fast paced because they want to test all this out of the next
generation 911. So I haven't heard anything since January about what
they're testing right now but we'll be gearing that back up again.
Mallard: They'll be beaming that to our wrist watch pretty soon.
Godwin: I wouldn't be surprised; you know Dick Tracy and all that. I wouldn't be
surprised if everybody's not going to have that kind of technology on
hand. I mean five years ago we would have never thought a cell phone
would be able to take pictures and send them through email. But that's
where we're at.
Mallard: Yeah.
Godwin: And it's only going to get better. Technology is only going to get better
and faster and we have to make sure we have the staff in order to
accommodate the (overtalking).
Sims: (inaudible) and we'll probably get sued for violation of somebody's
privacy.
Godwin: You know, it's funny you should mention that because the article that
Walt Magnusson from A &M said... someone brought that up; you're
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going to have video coming into a dispatch center and it's going to have
medical emergencies and people having babies and stuff ...what about the
privacy, what about HIPPA? And he pretty much said, "Well you know,
with technology, you can either use it and be enhanced by it or you can
shy away from it and be afraid of everybody's rights." So I think,
obviously just like all the telephone calls that are coming into our
dispatch center where we are recording those, and we're keeping those as
we're required to ... the same thing will happen with a video. We'll have
to...
Mallard: You can ask Karen McQueen about keeping up the numbers (inaudible).
Sims: Having to redact numbers.
Godwin: Yes. Yes.
Sims: I'm sorry; I didn't mean to interrupt you.
Godwin: Oh no, no, no, that's fine. So in summary, the increase in population, the
increase in calls for service, the increase of field personnel and the
complexity in the dispatch center ... we have do something now in order to
make sure that we have the personnel and the equipment needed to keep
up with everything.
I can think of just one instance not too long ago when we had the power
outage and the dispatch center was overwhelmed with calls for service.
People were calling, obviously, to tell us they had no power ... but we had
every dispatch station, every position was staffed with two people. One to
answer the phone and one to answer the radio. And that happened only
because our midnight crew came in when they saw there was an
emergency. They all came in early and were able to keep up with the
demand. Both the communication manager and myself were in there
answering telephone calls. We have to make sure that we have someone
there to answer the calls when they come in so we have to make sure
we're properly staffed.
What we did to prepare for this upcoming budget... there is a staffing
formula that APCO Association of Public- Safety Communications
Officials... it has a formula in order to figure out how many people you
really need to have in your center to take care of the positions. According
to formula, we have should have 37 communication specialist in there.
We have 27. So, obviously, we can't hire ten people at one time, we have
to gradually increase our staff.
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For several reasons... we have to have a place to put them. We have to
change up our radio positions in order to accommodate the extra
personnel. As you can see on this layout, this is how it's laid out right
now.
The S.O. and the Constable... both of their radios are on that far
left hand side, we have on dispatcher taking care of both the
Sheriff's Office and the constables.
We have a dispatcher taking care of the Bryan Fire Department
and the Volunteer Fire Department.
A call taker on the far right and a call taker on the far left and
Bryan P. D. position one is handling all of the radio traffic for the
Bryan Police Department.
On the far top left, that's the secondary Bryan Police Department
Radio Frequency. They generate a lot of radio traffic.
On the far top right is Call Taker 3 position. That's the one we
added last year to try to get some of the telephone calls answered
so we could keep the radio positions from answering telephones.
Obviously, we want to keep as much telephone traffic away from
the radio operators so they can focus and take care of emergency
calls coming.
And you can barely see it but beside the Call Taker 3 position,
that was a closet. We emptied the closet out for our tech. that we
hired in January. And Patrick is still training him and we had to
just kind of put forms in different place so we had a place to put
him.
And then, right beside his office is the communication
supervisor's office. We have four communication supervisors and
they all share that one little office there.
And on the far left is the computer room.
So that's the layout as it is now. Of course, you can't see the floor ... the
original floor is in there and it's torn up and all the carpeting is coming
out. We tried to depict that in the picture, but we couldn't demonstrate
that.
Mann: Betsy, before you go to the next slide...
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i e 8U,
Godwin: Yes?
Mann: ...maybe this might be a good point and review and clarify for the Court
your different funding sources and you dual function and the reason to
separate those out and how call takers fall under that.
Godwin: Yes, as a matter of fact, in the proposed eight position staffing, the Bryan
Police Department has four communication specialists that they are
paying for. In the secondary position they have another four dispatchers
that they're funding. The Bryan Fire Department radio... we're looking at
the Bryan Fire Department radio just being separate where they're not
being shared with the volunteers. So the City of Bryan would take care of
that also. The Sheriff's radio position... we're trying to separate that out
so Brazos County would pick up that fee. Call taker position one ... that
means four dispatchers... and .78% of that the City of Bryan will be
covering and .22 will be taken care of by Brazos County. Same thing with
the call taker position number two. And the non - emergency call taker
position would be split 50 -50. And the Volunteer Fire Department and
Constable radio position... that would also mean four people which is one
position and Brazos County would cover that.
So what that would do, as I said, you take the Sheriff's Office and you
have one person monitoring all the radio traffic and dispatching all the
calls and they can focus on the calls coming in and dispatch the calls
coming out. And the same thing with the Bryan Fire Department;
breaking out the volunteers from that radio position. All of the increases
in calls for service being managed more expediently by breaking out the
two positions.
Sims: You don't have enough room for ten more.
Godwin: Well we have been pondering that. When Chuck and Michelle leave we
have a big office that we'll be able to expand out in. And also the training
room where we have all of our meetings and training, we could break part
of that out for call takers in the future. Or in the future, move to a bigger
building. So moving is something that I know we'll have to do
eventually. I'm not looking forward to moving all those radios and all
that computer stuff but I think within ten years we will perhaps outgrow
that.
Sims: Are we looking to move anyway?
Godwin: No. I know in staff meetings we have talked about it. We've discussed
the transition... as the need for more people is evident, how we can
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manage to hire them and train them and house them is what we're faced
with.
Sims: Bottom line, what are you asking for this next budget year as far as staff
is concerned from Brazos County. I don't know whether you have had
this conversation with the Police Department or not.
Godwin: We meet monthly with our PSAC committee who are here to support us
in our discussion. They are supporting this radio position which means
buying the radio position, buying the equipment which is $85,000.00 and
the furniture which we're projecting to be $12,000.00 and four
personnel... four communication specialists which is about a
$112,000.00. And breaking that out just for this project... that's not
talking about the office supplies and that sort of stuff ...it looks like abut
$62,500.00 that the City of Bryan is going to have increase and Brazos
County will have to increase about 168,000.00.
Sims: I knew that some way Bryan was going to do that to us.
Scheets: It's all Jim's idea.
Sims: Give me that one more time. Bryan will have to pay $65,000.00?
Wassermann: $62500.00
Godwin: About $63,000 and with the radio equipment furniture and personnel, it's
about $168,000.00 give or take. Like I said we haven't... that's just for
the personnel part.
Sims: And the County will...?
Godwin: Yeah, the County would have to fund the furniture and the radio
equipment and like I said, about $67,000.00 for the personnel.
Sims: For a total of what?
Godwin: Well, just for this project, it looks like it's about $167,000.00.
Sims: Oh. Ok. Is that $167,000.00 for both entities?
Godwin: No, just for Brazos County. The $62,000.00 is for Bryan.
Sims: Ok.
Godwin: That would increase Bryan's portion.
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Sims: Ok.
Godwin: Since we have to do the same presentation ... we don't have to ... we're
doing this for information so people know where we're going and kind of
get ahead of the curve ball. We're also doing a workshop for the City
Council next week. That's why we have all this data in one power point.
Obviously, in our five year plan, we had already talked about having
another radio position. We didn't want to wait until half way through the
year and say, "Oh, by the way, this is where we're going. ", since we
already knew that we had investigated it, we had researched it and our
PSAC Committee is supporting it because they know they need the
correct staffing in order to get the calls for service handled.
Mallard: I guess most of this is based on calls ... how many times the dispatcher is
making contact with the units.
Godwin: Right.
Mallard: On the computer screens in the cars you have, `Out of service. 10 -8. On
the scene.'... all of that. Do you utilize those buttons? Does that eliminate
a call?
Godwin: It reduces the radio transmission that the dispatcher is answering which
keeps the airwave clear for emergencies. But we did some research on
`Push To Talk' just for the Sheriff's office for five months. And from last
year to this year there were a thousand more radio transmissions a month.
So either ... well the calls for service for the Sheriff's office has gone up
10% in one year. Their self - initiated activity has also increased. Which
means that they're contacting more bad guys on the street and handling
more... checking more suspicious vehicles and that sort of stuff.
So the MDCs certainly help as far as reducing the radio traffic that the
dispatcher is listening to and keeping the airwave clear. But still, 1,000 a
calls a month increase is...
Mallard: Well I'm not saying it's going to get less if they did that...
Godwin: Right.
Mallard: ...but maybe it would reduce that so does that equate to saving cost or
saving calls so therefore you are saving cost? I don't know.
Godwin: Yes. Yes.
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Mallard: I mean that's why I was wondering is there a direct correlation if we
utilize the computer screen. I know some officers don't use it at all and
others use it. So I didn't know ... does it make a difference on the dollar
side so maybe they would want to request that more ... that the officers
utilize the MDTs, I guess, in stead of keying up the radio.
Godwin: Right. Right. Yes, if the calls for service were not increased at such a
rapid pace, I would say that the MDCs are already saving at least one
position because between the Bryan Police Department and the S.O.. As a
matter of fact, as we meet, we talk about having MDCs in animal control
vehicles so that takes that radio traffic off of the dispatcher and off of the
radios. I think we are utilizing our technology as best we can but we are
also talking to our staff ..I know Bryan Police Department had a couple
of different in- services so they could get their officers to use the MDCs
more. So absolutely, the more...
Mallard: I'm not saying ... I think the process is appropriate for where they're going
to have to go because we have to go up another level...
Godwin: Right.
Mallard: ...and this is the way to get it done. That may be one way to at least assist
the dispatcher. I mean it's coming up to their screen and they still have to
something on that screen to effect that ... I don't know, maybe it's just one
touch with a keystroke as opposed to having to talk.
Godwin: Yeah. The more the field unit does out in the field, the less work is being
done inside the dispatch office. Absolutely.
Mann: What she is saying, Commissioners, is correct but what you have to
remember is the graphs that she put up at the first of the
presentations ... all the things that drive her in or her role in all of this has
increased where her staff hasn't increased...
Mallard: Right. And I know this is...
Mann: ...increase of the officers out there and the population that's calling in out
there has been greater than what she has so we probably don't really see
the full benefit of the technologies savings there that you would if
everything was closer to what it should be.
Godwin: I think for comparison, what I tried to do in the research trying to
compare ourself to College Station because they're out sister city and
their population is similar to ours. They have a 182 that they are
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supporting. Fire Department personnel, EMS, Police personnel ... we have
406. And their budget is not that much different than our budget. And that
was last year when we started really digging deep into our budget and
pulling everything apart in the comparison part. Obviously, we aren't
College Station and our calls for service are different than theirs, but just
weighing each part...
Sims: Why such a discrepancy between the two?
Godwin: Well, Brazos County has for the Consolidated Dispatch Center, we're
dispatching for all the volunteer fire departments and all of the whole
County.
Sims: Ok.
Godwin: So, obviously, we have more space to cover than College Station but their
personnel... their number of dispatchers aren't that much less than ours.
Mallard: We need College Station to hurry up and annex on that territory out there.
Godwin: Well in 2005, College Station had about 16,000 for the year. 16,000 911
calls. Our Consolidated Dispatch Center had 77,000. So that's the
difference in call volume between the two entities. It's quite significant.
Like I said, we can't hire 10 people at one time ... we have no place to put
them for one thing ... but we do need to keep a steady growth because we
have to have someone there to answer the phones and take care of the
calls as they come in.
So this is how ... we're following our five year plan and we thought it
would behoove us to let everybody know where we're going and why
we're going there.
Sims: Our biggest problem as you all well know; you have seen these tax
freezes and tax revenue caps and appraisal caps and this type of thing.
Number one, I think for the most part the legislature sits over there in a
vacuum and they don't understand what we're faced with and this
gentleman that's running around with these slips of paper saying, "Hey
let's get it on the ballot. ", and all this good stuff. And I've always made
the comment, I said, "When you call 911 and there and nobody answers
and there is no dispatch up there... what are you going to do folks ?"
Godwin: Exactly.
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Sims: I said, you know, "It's gotta be paid for." Well they got other things they
want to cut. Everybody's got their own pet deal out there and it just really
gets ludicrous what these guys are doing.
A good letter to the Editor talking about, "We just don't need a tax
freeze." Said, "These older people have got it made now with the
exemptions that we already provide." And I hope the cities vote that
down. We couldn't get it done but I hope you guys can get it voted down
because I'm gonna tell you what, that's bad policy. Bad policy.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get carried away, but I mean, you know,
we ... the administrative bodies, are looking at tax freezes and revenue
caps and appraisal caps and you name it.
Godwin: Right.
Sims: And again, as I say, I think the legislature tends to operate in a vacuum
out there. They are not real life yet.
Godwin: Yeah. And on that same line I know some of the bigger 911 centers have
an automated voice answering when they put calls on queue and say, "All
of the operators are busy, please hold. The next available operator will be
with... ", and I don't want to go there. I don't want to see Brazos County
having to be in a queue while a medical or fire or police emergency is
coming in because we don't have...
Sims: Doesn't give our citizens the warm fuzzies, does it?
Godwin: No. No. And I'm not wanting to go there.
Mallard: One phone you don't want a busy signal on.
Godwin: You don't want a busy signal on 911, no. No. So you have to keep up
with the times and keep up with the technology by being proactive and I
think that's where we're going.
Sims: Talk to me one more time. You know, budget time is not all that far
away.
Godwin: No, we're working...
Sims: What are you going to be requesting from us at budget time? How many
people and what expense for equipment?
Godwin: It's looking like we're going to ask for four more personnel and...
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Sims:
Godwin:
Sims:
Godwin:
Mallard:
Godwin:
Sims:
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Now that's just from Brazos County?
Well, Brazos County, yes.
Let's share that with the City of Bryan now.
Well we are sharing $62,000.00 increase for Bryan and $66,000.00, we'll
just $67,000.00 for Brazos County. And then the hundred...
It's $167,000.00.
Well, no, it's getting to that.
No a hundred thousand for...
Godwin: A hundred thousand for the radio and furniture. As a matter of fact I just
called on Thursday for Motorola and got the estimate. Obviously, it's not
written in stone but it's an estimate. And like I said, we haven't dug deep
into the other things that go along with hiring people, office supplies, and
training and that sort of stuff.
As a matter of fact, for the EMD project, I met with Chief Donaho and
kind of outlined the next couple of years what that is going to cost.
Because as you train people it's $270.00 per person to train for EMD and
that's at our discount rate because we train so many people at one time.
Every two years they have to be recertified. Of course, City of Bryan is
taking all...
Sims: Is that another $270.00?
Godwin: No. No.
Sims: Recertification?
Godwin: No. $45.00. Just $45.00.
Sims: No.Ok.
Godwin: But like I said, the City of Bryan is picking all that up because it's
directly related to medical. But as we hire more people we obviously
want to keep them trained and we decided that we're going to have a line
item just for Emergency Medial Dispatch so we can track what this
enhanced process is going to cost. Hopefully next year if we have it all
computerized, I'll be able to say, "Each call for service takes 4.5
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minutes... ", or ever how long it takes so we can have a better idea of the
impact it has in the center.
As it is now, I don't want to sit there with a stopwatch and say, "Ok, how
long is it taking to provide these instructions." So.
Mann: Fifty to a hundred thousand, for equipment, that's a one time cost?
Godwin: Yes.
Mann: No maintenance fees or anything?
Godwin: No, it's radio equipment and a call taking position. It's a one time deal.
It's not like a car, they don't have to keep servicing or anything. Thank
God. Any other questions?
You guys have anything you need to add?
Sims: Kenny?
Mann: I just want to let the court know that (inaudible) Safety Advisory
Committee Betsy Patrick; they keep us up to speed on what all is going
on and they all have done a very good job at maximizing the resources
that they have since she came to the position when Pat was interim, they
went in there and reworked everything on their staffing to try and get the
most that they can out of what they have. And I think that she's
maximized the resources that she has based on what I've seen and she's
done a really good job at it. Moral over there is better than it ever had
been. If College Station would just quit hiring her dispatchers.
Sims: Well for every dispatcher they hire away from us they got to take X
number of thousand square acres of ground out there. Annex it.
McCollum: Looks like we have that trend going too.
Sims: I believe that's right Scott.
Godwin: Yeah.
Sims: Goodjob.
Godwin: Thanks.
Sims: Ok. Any other questions?
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Godwin: Thank you for your time.
Sims: Well that prepares us; gives us an idea of what is going to be requested of
us at budget time. We'll put this in the file and, of course, as we get
closer, we'll have you over to present that case again.
Godwin: Yes.
Sims: You know, really and truly, I would certainly have liked to have news
media but the news media tends to not show up when we've got things
that are important to the citizens of Brazos County. And we certainly, at
budget time want to make sure that we have them in hand when we're
talking about this because this is a very important service that we provide
the citizens of this county. And again, as I said, so many of them, out of
sight, out of mind.
Godwin: Right.
Sims: They just don't get it.
Godwin: We had sent out press releases about Emergency Medical Dispatch for
two reasons; we wanted the callers to know that they were going to be
questioned more, there are going to be more questions...
Sims: Right.
Godwin: ...but it's...
Sims: I saw that. That was a good article.
Godwin: Was it ok?
Sims: Yeah. It was real good. If people would read it and understand what it is
and I think it was very well put together and described that, "Hey, stay on
the phone."
Godwin: Stay on the phone.
Sims: We've got people that can help you until something gets there.
Godwin: Right.
Sims: And try and solve some problems that might have killed a family
member.
Vol gi9\ Page �%
17 of 19
Godwin: Right. When they threw the camera in my face ... I never like that but ... I,
tried to emphasize the fact that they're not calm when they call, they're in
crisis and we understand that.
Sims: Right.
Godwin: But we need the questions answered so we can provide the people that are
responding to the call with as much information as possible. So I ended
up on two different television stations but only one of them told exactly
what I wanted them to say. But we'll just keep plugging away and
keep ... we're going to put it on our website this week about Emergency
Medical Dispatch and we're going to keep letting people know that its
here and start giving them statistics. Like I said, 75 EMD calls since the
first. That's a lot. That's a lot. So.
Sims: Well if you need some help Kenny and I are not bashful. We'll stand up
in front of those TV cameras.
Godwin: Ok. Ok.
Mallard: But you're going to the City of Bryan and then to College Station next?
Godwin: Well just the City of Bryan because they are the ones that...
Mallard: From that other... that's right, the other console. They're live anyway and
so that'll help get that out and maybe the news media will be there at that
time too. Do you know what day you're going to go?
Godwin: The 14th. I'll send you an email.
Mallard: Ok.
Godwin: It's going to be the same presentation as we just did.
Male: It's the 13th
Godwin: 13th
Male: 13th at 3:00 o'clock.
Godwin: 3:00 o'clock.
Mallard: 13th . That their workshop?
Godwin: Yes.
Vol 01,P\ Page l K
18 of 19
Mallard: Yeah. City gets a little better media that we do so that'll be a better
opportunity to get the word on it.
Godwin: I won't wear red.
Mallard: Is red a bad color on TV?
Godwin: They're more conservative, I think.
Mallard: Oh.
Godwin: So, I'll wear my dark black.
Sims: There ya go. There ya go. Don't wear stripes because that's not good
either.
Godwin:
Sims:
Godwin:
Mallard:
Godwin:
Sims:
End of tape.
Vol
Right. Right.
Brenda told me that.
Yes. No stripes.
It messes with the camera.
So. Well thank you very much.
Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you guys for coming. I appreciate that.
a A Page / q
19 of 19
The foregoing minutes of the Commissioners Court
Workshop held March 5th , 2007 have been examined and
approved in open Court this the /6 � /�(R
day of &)t-' 2047,
in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas.
Randy S
County/
dge
Duane Peters
Commissioner,
Precinct No. 2
ca,ce't, cti-11VO" t
Carey Ca ley, Jr. TF
Commi ssi ner,
Precinct 4
Attest:
a LnMcQueeen
County Clerk
Vol Page a �%
Lloyd Wassermann
Commissioner,
Precinct No. 1
Kenny Mal a d
Commissioner,
Precinct No. 3
r'd
BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT
MEETING ON 1=�4(� %p7 2007 AT 10 fil3l
Name
Organization /Dep ment
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