The majority of the Dunwoody City Council is ready to move forward with its switch in 911 service centers, even though one councilman thinks the change will put lives at risk.
Monday night Councilman Danny Ross pleaded with fellow council members to delay the decision to switch from DeKalb County E911 to the Chattahoochee River 911 Authority until a software patch that will electronically link the two systems can be developed. Ross said delays in processing fire- and EMS-related calls would likely occur.
“We’re dealing with people’s lives here,” he said at the meeting.
Tuesday, Mayor Ken Wright reaffirmed his position from Monday, there is no need to delay. He said there is no pubic safety risk in the switch and it would cost the city a “significant” amount of money to delay at this point. The Authority, known as ChatComm, has already hired and started training 10 additional staffers, he said.
“Nothing has changed since we signed the ChatComm agreement and there is no reason to delay implementation,” the mayor said Tuesday in an email to The Atlanta Jounral-Constitution.
The city council voted in March to join ChatComm, which handles emergency dispatch services for Sandy Springs and Johns Creek. That vote was 5-2, with objections from Councilman Denis Shortal, who was not at Monday's meeting, and Ross. The switch is set for October 3.
At the heart of the discussion is how 911 calls for fire and EMS services will be handled. Dunwoody must maintain a relationship with the county E911 service because it does not have its own fire and EMS services. When a Dunwoody resident dials 911, the call is answered by DeKalb County and emergency services are deployed. After the switch, when Dunwoody residents dial 911, the call will be answered by ChatComm. If fire or EMS services are needed, the call will be manually transferred to DeKalb County E911. It is possible the caller, or the ChatComm dispatcher, will have to repeat the need for emergency services once the call is transferred.
Wright said this manual method, called a 1-button transfer, is what the council voted on and expected.
“This is the same set up many municipalities utilize, including Chamblee and Doraville,” the mayor said Tuesday.
There is a way for the computer aided dispatch (CAD) systems to talk to each other, but that software patch will not be ready until early 2012, city manager Warren Hutmacher told the council. The patch will cost approximately $25,000 to develop, which is in addition to the three-year, $3.2 million contract the city has already agreed to.
The other three councilmen in attendance agreed with the mayor and said the missing CAD-to-CAD software link is not reason enough to delay the transfer. They also said ChatComm is superior to the county's E911 service.
Councilman Robert Wittenstein said the switch has to take place as soon as possible because, "DeKalb's system has been broken for years and it is still broken today."
"Everyday we stay with DeKalb, is another day of Russian roulette," he said.
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