Above: Town Meeting voters will be asked to support Select Board efforts to regionalizing dispatch services. There’s a chance that could keep workers at the station. More likely that would mean outsourcing to a nearby RECC like the one planned in Westborough. (photos L-R from Southborough Access Media video and Westborough Town website)
At the upcoming, Special Town Meeting, the Select Board will take the unusual step of asking voters to cast a non-binding vote to advise them. The Article will ask voters to “recommend” the board pursue regionalizing public safety dispatch services.
The board is likely to pitch reentering a RECC (Regionalized Emergency Communication Center) agreement with Westborough and Grafton at a new site.
An alternative concept also being researched is a potential “virtual” RECC with nearby towns. But this week, the Select Board members who have been leading RECC research efforts indicated that’s unlikely to work out. They haven’t yet found an interested partner.
The board doesn’t expect agreement details for entering a RECC to be certain by the September 30th Town Meeting. Instead, they will focus on laying out the big picture issues and asking voters to support the board taking necessary steps to execute needed changes.
Below are more details on the latest status and the context based on past decisions.
RECC History & Context
At the Annual Town Meeting in 2023, voters used Citizen Petition Articles to demand that the Select Board exit the agreement it had signed to be a founding member of the MetroWest RECC.
The decision was the Select Board’s to make since the Article was non-binding. But at the election soon after, two outgoing board members who had voted in the majority of the 4-1 decision to join the RECC were replaced by members who agreed with the agreement opponents.
Select Board member Al Hamilton had been an outspoken opponent of the original agreement. He is now leading the board’s work to enter a RECC. Some of the board’s research efforts have been aided by John Butler, a co-sponsor of one of those 2023 opposition Articles.
The biggest development since the opposition votes is that the planned site for housing the Westborough-based center has been relocated from the former Hocomoco Pond “Superfund” site that had raised safety concerns.
But it wasn’t the only objection. Butler and Hamilton had been unhappy with terms of the original InterMunicipal Agreement (IMA). They pointed out that the IMA would allow other (larger) Towns to vote for large budget increases which Southborough would have been compelled to pay its share of even if our officials and voters disagreed with the operational/staffing decisions behind them.
And unlike the Article co-sponsored by Butler and Bonnie Phaneuf, another Article sought to tell the Board to stop pursuing any RECCs. That Article was co-sponsored by the president of the dispatchers’ union and a sergeant of the Southborough Police (both residents). Kyle DeVincent and Sgt. Kieth Widdis both argued for the need to have local dispatchers sited in Southborough’s Public Safety Station.
Although voters passed that Article, some Select Board members have highlighted that it was at the end of a long night when many regular meeting voters had gone home. They hope their Article, midway into the meeting Warrant, can be tackled with more voters in attendance. They also plan to conduct public outreach in advance, including public forums, to help educate voters about the planned approach.
Why a RECC is “Needed”
Some Town officials will tell you that regionalizing dispatch isn’t about saving money — it’s about improving public safety. It’s more accurate to say they are seeking a way to improve safety while avoiding expenses skyrocketing for Southborough taxpayers.
Expenses and State Funding
In the past, Town officials have spoke about a capital cost that was on the horizon for maintaining local dispatch. They had advocated that by entering a regional center they could avoid investing in upgrading dispatch technology in the Town’s public safety building.
They also described a trend that means if Southborough remains independent, it could see a decrease in state aid for dispatch infrastructure.
Unlike most states, Massachusetts towns have traditionally had individual responsibility for staffing their public safety departments, including answering 911 calls. To help, the state has provided some funding relief, including grants, for capital costs. But as the state has sought to save money by regionalizing 911 centers, they have been cutting back on supporting individual departments. And, to incentivize a shift, they have been offering some RECC grants. Grant recipients are reimbursed for initial costs in getting up and running. (This has generally been described as full funding for the first year and partial funding for the following few years.)
Dispatch Understaffing
At this spring’s Annual Town Meeting, Phaneuf again weighed in on dispatch operations. She and others advocated for beefing up staffing.
They described dangers posed by having only one dispatcher taking emergency calls at a time when multiple emergencies can come in. And even a single emergency can create a dispatcher’s need for simultaneous tasks — communicating with public safety staff to send out emergency responders with the information they need while also supporting the caller by giving them medical instructions.
Voters supported Phaneuf’s motion to increase the budget for the emergency communications team by over $175K. The intent was to fund two additional team members (and their benefits).
Phaneuf’s proposal was a compromise from her initially planned ask to fund the four new dispatchers that had been requested by Police Chief Ryan Newell. (Stay tuned for a separate update on the broader police/public safety staffing issues.)
Select Board members have long noted that one reason for pursuing a RECC is that it keeps getting harder to fill dispatcher positions. That was reinforced at their meeting on Tuesday night, when the board appointed a new full-time dispatcher.
Back in May the board approved hiring Marlo Taylor as a part-time dispatcher. Police Chief Ryan Newell told the board on Tuesday that she applied for the full-time spot as soon as it was created for this fiscal year. He confirmed that her part-time position is now vacant, along with the second full-time opening.
In recent meetings, members have reiterated that they don’t think that a RECC could reduce the dispatch operational budget in the long run. But they confirmed that if they increase dispatch staff without joining a RECC, they would see much higher long term costs.
Focus on Neighboring Towns
Former Fire Chief Stephen Achilles had long pushed the importance of RECCs being with Mutual Aid System partners. (Those are the partnering towns that cover each other’s emergency when their Fire dept vehicles and personnel are deployed to other emergencies.)
In the past, not all Select Board members were convinced of that need. Chair Kathy Cook had repeatedly discussed her interest in a Foxborough center. She had been impressed by their operations and the low cost assessed to members.
Last month, she noted surprise that the center’s assessed costs had spiked. Members posited that was related to a decline in state funding. At that meeting, Hamilton told the board that he worked with the new Fire Chief Andrew Putini to pull records. He was convinced that sharing dispatch with Mutual Aid towns is important for trimming emergency “response times”.
Despite most partners pulling out, Westborough and Grafton have continued working towards launching the Metrowest RECC. Hamilton noted that other towns have expressed interest in joining the RECC, so Southborough would likely need to sign a new IMA by mid-fall.
In January, Westborough approved using a historic municipal building (and former school), the Harvey Building at 20 Phillips Street in Westborough as the new site for the RECC.
A Virtual Solution Long Shot
Before entering an IMA that could be costly in the long term, Butler had publicly opined that the Town needed to do a deeper dive into whether they could keep staff local by using technology to provide better backup systems for dispatchers.
The board agreed to have Butler work with the Municipal Technology Committee to look into a virtual option.
In June, Butler and the MTC Chair reported that the Town’s technology could support a virtual setup. He described using technology and training to allow towns to better support each other when emergencies overlap. He envisioned dispatchers on screens together to build the sense of team.
That setup would also avoid one of the biggest challenges that using offsite dispatchers would create — addressing the “dark building” problem. One criticism of regionalizing has been the idea that residents would arrive at the station for help and discover no one is there. Butler also referenced that residents use the station as a safe meeting spot to avoid potential emergencies (like child custody exchanges).
Yet, Butler agreed with Hamilton that the system would only work if they could find Mutual Aid towns interested in partnering with them and get buy-in from the state.
Butler advocated for starting small with one partner (like Hopkinton), proving the concept, and then expanding with other towns to formalize a virtual RECC with its own oversight. He referenced that Hopkinton had been one of the towns that explored joining the Metrowest RECC but pulled out before signing an agreement when they heard similar objections to those raised in Southborough.
This week, Hamilton updated that so far the RECC working group had only managed to meet with representatives from Northborough, Ashland, and Westborough. They haven’t heard back any interest from them or other Towns. He also said the state contact he spoke with “was not encouraging”. Though, he did plan to try “another avenue” with the state.
Select Board member Sam Stivers, who has been working with Hamilton on the research said the virtual approach would work conceptually. But he described trying to push local public safety chiefs and the state to support the approach as spending time and money on “pushing on a string”.
Back in June, Butler indicated that if they can’t get support for creating a virtual RECC, joining an in person RECC would be needed. But he felt like the state’s current approach is moving backwards from the direction of the rest of the world has moved over the past 15 years.
Butler pointed to office building vacancies due to the rising virtual workplaces for “electronic workers. He followed:
virtualization of workplace for electronic workers. Dispatchers are electronic workers. their input is electronic, their output is electronic.
Here we go again for the third time! RECC is not needed in this town what we have now works perfectly well. This select board keeps pushing this issue saying it is a cure for increased tax rates in town! If the town officials stop wasting tax dollars on constant plan studies and projects then maybe there would be ample funds to bring on more dispatchers and needed equipment. These people are getting duped into state offers that will be a total joke! Time for folks in this town to wake up and tell the town officials NO MEANS NO! Get over it!
Mike
As you know, I was not in favor of the last RECC agreement. One of my big objections has been addressed, the location is no long on a Super Fund site. I still have some concerns regarding the funding formula and it’s bypassing the Town Meeting appropriation process.
Over the past 15 months I along with Mr. Stivers, the Chiefs, and the Town Admin have been conducting a due diligence campaign to look at the possibility of joining a RECC. We have visited 3 current RECC’s, and 2 RECC’s that are being stood up, Westborough and Framingham. We have had conversations with Sudbury, Northborough, Marlborough, and Ashland. We have surveyed Mass Police Chiefs, and existing RECC’s met with 5 retired Fire Chiefs and had several discussions with the State. We are evaluating the possibility of developing a “Virtual RECC” that would tie multiple communities together electronically in a single system. We will be holding several public forums prior to the Fall town meeting on this subject. Here is what I have learned so far:
1. Satisfaction with RECC’s is high. Chief Newell polled Mass Chiefs and those that were part of a RECC’s were overwhelmingly satisfied (85%) and would join again (80%). Only 5% said they would not join again, the other 15% were on the fence.
2. There is a strong movement to RECC’s. Nearly every town west of Worcester is part of a RECC. In the last 10 years 23 towns in the Greater Boston area have joined RECC’s. In the Police Chief’s survey 68% of the communities that are not part of RECC’s are considering joining a RECC. Massachusetts is late to the game. RECC’s are common in the rest of the country.
3. Staffing – One of the most common reasons cited for joining a RECC is the difficulty in recruiting Town level dispatch staffing. Our town still has 1 full time and one part time dispatch positions that are not filled. This is a common problem in municipalities and it is likely to get worse. We can fund the positions but we can’t make people apply.
4. Depth of Coverage is critical. Having a single dispatcher is not safe. The role of dispatchers has become more complex. They are expected to provide emergency support to the person on the other end of the phone (eg. how to do CPR) while at the same time finding the resources needed to respond the crisis. Those resources may have to come from our mutual aide network. Having 2 or more dispatchers working the call will improve response times. Even if we can fill the positions funded by Town Meeting, we will still have substantial periods with only one dispatcher on duty. This is not safe.
5. 10,000 is an Important Number – The RECC’s we surveyed had staffing ratio of between 1 dispatcher per 10,000 population and 1:13,000 during their busy shifts. Because they are covering a large population they can provide the critical depth of coverage on a more cost effective way that we, as a town of 10,450 can ever do. Typical calls per dispatcher in a shift are on the order of 3 or 4. Multiple dispatchers may be involved in a single call.
6. Integration with Mutual Aid is very important. Having substantial overlap between a RECC and a mutual aid network is very important, particularly on the Fire and Ambulance side. A RECC that has visibility into the status of every crew and piece of equipment in their area can dispatch mutual aid faster and more efficiently. Recent review of our mutual aid performance suggests that such a system can reduce 5-10 minutes from responses that require mutual aid responses. In life threatening situations this critical. For ambulance calls the “golden hour” is critical and fires double every 90 seconds. Faster response is critical to public safety.
7. We are not going to save much money. The Commonwealth is offering an attractive financing package to pay for all or some of the operating costs of a new community joining a RECC for 5 years. After that we can expect that our operating costs will be about we have been paying for our existing single dispatcher system on an ongoing basis. There is some opportunity for the Commonwealth to pay for ongoing capital costs such as radio networks and Computer Aided Dispatch system which we would have to pay for. Cost savings is not a factor in this decision.
8. Dark Station is a misnomer. Today if someone arrives at the Public Safety building with an emergency situation, they will be greeted by a dispatcher behind the glass wall. That dispatcher cannot leave their post to assist they will summon the required resources. The communities that we surveyed that are part of a RECC operate a mix of fully staffed stations partially staffed stations and “Dark Stations”. In the dark station scenario, a person arriving at the station will deal with a dispatch team via an electronic link (typically video). They will locate the required resources in the same fashion as the dispatcher behind the glass would do. RECC dispatcher have the ability to lock and unlock doors or provide access to safe spaces in an emergency.
My conclusion is that joining a RECC is inevitable. Southborough is a small town, we do not have the scale to operate a system with deep coverage in a cost-effective fashion and the Commonwealth will strip away our support over time. Integration with our mutual aid partners will offer the opportunity to substantially improve response times. I am in favor of providing 24/7 staffing of the station during the first year of operation and evaluating the results after that. I would like to address the funding issues but based on my investigation I believe that we should begin the process seriously considering joining the Westborough RECC as it appears to be in the best interest of our town and in the interest of improving public safety.
Something I’m still not clear on when a Town moves to a RECC — How do non-emergency calls get handled?
Most of the times I have called the police it has been their business line for something I didn’t consider an emergency but thought they should be alerted to or had a question about, so I called their main numbers. (For example, the flashing lights at the train track are still going and causing a jam long after the train went by or there is big pile of junk that flew off a truck onto Rte 9 that could cause an issue.)
Would a RECC also answer the calls that go to SPD instead of 911, just with lower priority? Or would the regular line be answered by a different person during the day and go to voicemail at night with instructions to call 911 if something was more time sensitive?
Beth
911 Calls would be routed to the RECC just as they are routed to the local dispatcher today.
Business Calls (non 911 calls) would go to the individual departments just as they are to other town departments. So if you need a burning permit or an inspection you would call the Fire Dept business line that would ring at the Fire Department as an example. If you call during non business hours I think your description is accurate.
Al I appreciate your response and all the facts you have covered but why not just allocate the funds to provide what is required. Presently we have had no issues and things have been handled well considering the shortages we have. As I stated in my past post if this town didn’t waste dollars on project studies that should be done by staff we have hired as town employees there would be ample money to provide what we need. Also to get sucked in. to a program that this state is dangling in. front of it’s town is foolish. Once you go with the RECC there is no going back! Again it was voted NO twice already what don’t you people understand. Put the money into what we need not a bunch of wasteful unneeded projects!
Mike
It is not a question of “allocating” funds. Those funds must come in the form of increased taxes.
The reality is that a town our size will require, on a regular basis, outside expertise to advise us on a variety of issues. A few of the “studies” that I am aware of include:
1. Public Safety Staffing – We spent $25k on a staffing study that suggests we spend expand our Police staff by a substantial amount. $25k enough to fund ¼ to 1/3 of a dispatcher for a year.
2. Atwood Clean Up – We have spent a little under $100k to do a large number of test borings to assess the extent of lead contamination from an old water tank.
3. Breakneck Hill Clean Up – We have spent a substantial sum (I don’t have the numbers in front of me but it is 7 figures) to clean up the old dump on Breakneck hill.
4. Neary Feasibility Study – We have spent just under $1 million on planning and feasibility assessment relating to the renovation/replacement of Neary and the configuration of our K-8 system. Yes, it is a lot of money but it is between 1% and 2% of the overall project cost and is in line. We made the mistake years ago of not doing this sort of assessment when we tried to build the Fayville Senior Center. We spent a lot of money and got through with the architectural plans only to find out the site would not support the septic requirements. We should not make that mistake again. It is a lot of money but it is well worth it.
These are a few. You have mentioned this several times. Can you name “studies” we should not have done and suggest how many dispatchers could be funded from that savings. Please be specific. Tell us what you would cut and which town staff would have to pick up the slack.
You are correct that if we move to a RECC it is a one-way street, it would be very difficult to return to a town level dispatch. That is why we are trying to assess all the benefits and cost in a very systematic way.
Finally, Town Meeting in 2 separate motions at one meeting advised the Select Board not to join the proposed RECC. Town Meeting has no formal authority in this area. As you know the responsibility for this decision lies with the Select Board. The Select Board committed to holding a second advisory debate and vote at the Fall Town Meeting but the reality it is the Select Board that will make the decision.
The other issue I forgot to mention and is really bad is any present dispatcher has to reapply for the position and if hired start form square one! All seniority and benefits are lost and start all over and that’s if they get hired! Where is your conscience to do that to a dedicated employee! This is a known fact and was brought up last time but none of you seemed to care!
Mike
In my career I have had to lay people off and have been laid off. Neither is a pleasant experience. I know that people work for the public sector because it offers better job security than the private sector. But that security is not a guarantee of permanent employment. Sorry, but we need to speak the truth here. Town employees are, for the most part, employees at will. That means that their employment will continue as long as it meets the needs of the town and, as importantly, meets their needs. Over time those needs change for both parties. We have seen several police officers leave our employ in the last few years. Should we view them as deserting their posts? No, the job on offer here did not meet their needs and the moved to greener pastures and I wish them well. The needs on both sides of the equation change.
As far as compassion is concerned, discussions regarding fair treatment is a matter that I am sure will be addressed in the upcoming union negotiations and it is not appropriate for me to comment further in this forum. I would be happy to discuss this entire subject in more detail in person. You can find my town email on the town web site.