Farmington Dispatch Advocates Urge City Officials to Keep It Local

A proposal to consolidate and  dispatch and inmate housing services drew about 50 people to Monday night's meeting, even though the issue wasn't a scheduled agenda item.

City manager Vince Pastue at a 6 p.m. study session distributed draft copies of a report on the consolidation, which lays out the proposal, financial considerations and suggested alternatives. The finalized report will be posted on the city's website by Wednesday, he said. 

Currently, the City of Farmington budgets $360,000 for dispatch costs, including five full-time dispatchers, equipment and supplies. The anticipated cost in the first year of the interlocal agreement, the report indicates, would be $260,000, or a savings of $100,000. Pastue's report anticipates $125,000 in one-time costs associated with eliminating the five dispatch positions. In addition, he attached an annual "opportunity" cost of $15,000 to the 300 hours officers would likely spend in Farmington Hills processing arrestees. 

A public meeting on the dispatch proposal is scheduled at 7 p.m. on April 2, in the auditorium at . Officials are expected to vote on the agreement at their April 16 meeting. 

Those who attended the meeting told officials that the city would pay a much higher price if dispatch services are lost. Farmington resident Peter Haapaniemi said the consolidation would "change the character of this community", and he urged officials to take more time to consider it. Farmington resident Dan Graham called the move "a first step in a long series of steps that will totally combine" the two police departments. 

Jim Madigan, also of Farmington, pointed out that if the department has just two officers working who both have to book people in Farmington Hills, "there would be nobody in Farmington. Nobody." After the meeting, Public Safety Director Bob Schulz said when the department is short-handed, there are occasions when two officers are on between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. But he couldn't say whether Farmington would be left without patrol under the scenario Madigan described.

"That's something that would have to be discussed as part of the process," he said. 

Some residents said they expected to receive more information; Pastue said at a previous meeting that he would be presenting the report to officials at Monday's meeting. Statements that voters should decide the issue drew rounds of applause.

City attorney Thomas Schultz said after the meeting that putting the dispatch merger to a vote of the people is "theoretically possible", but said the difficulty would lie in how to word the question.

"It would be pretty unusual," he said. 

Council member Greg Cowley said he does not believe in solving budget issues with tax increases, but officials "can't raise taxes enough" to deal with the budget issues coming over the next five years. He has asked Pastue to provide a look at the budget projections as part of an April 2, 7 p.m., public hearing on the dispatch consolidation.

"There's more to this conversation than just jail or dispatch," he said. "If we want to remain an autonomous city, now is the time to act."

Correction: The first sentence of this article has been corrected to reflect that the consolidation proposal only affects dispatch and inmate housing services for Farmington Public Safety and Farmington Hills Police Dept.