The Saline County Quorum Court will meet on Monday, August 21, at 6:30 P.M. in Courtroom #3. This will be immediately after the Human Resources Committee meeting at 6:00 p.m.
The Saline County 911 Board will meet Friday, September 15, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. at the Saline County Office of Emergency Management EOC. (102 South Main Street, Level B Benton, Arkansas 72015)
See below for the Agenda with documents, and the previous meeting’s Minutes after that.
AGENDA
Approval of Minutes from Prior Meeting (Scroll down to see previous minutes)
- Call with Southern for 9:10 am
- Cad to Cad discussion about Southern and Spillman
- Parties to be involved in the police merger:
- SC-IT
- Bryant – IT
- SEC Board
- Bryant Police
- SEC
- OEM
- Southern
- Spillman – Cad 2 Cad is a software vendor, obtaining the product through Spillman
- Discussion about CAD integration and associated cost with options and projected timelines.
- Addition of Bryant to SEC
- If we sign the contract tomorrow for the installation and programming of the radios for Bryant
- 2-3 weeks on obtaining equipment
- 1 week for installation
- Middle of October to cut-over and start dispatching Bryant Fire.
- Report on positions that the HR committee approved.
- Budget Draft Discussion
See previous meeting minutes below??
MINUTES FROM AUG 28, 2023 SALINE COUNTY 911 SPECIAL BOARD MEETING
The Saline County 911 Board met at the OEM Building on Monday, August 28, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. for a special meeting called by the Saline County Judge Matt Brumley.
Board Members Present: Saline County Judge Matt Brumley, Benton Mayor Tom Farmer , Benton Fire Chief Russ Evans, Benton Police Chief Scotty Hodges, Bryant Police Chief Carl Minden, Bryant Fire Chief JP Jordan, Bryant Mayor Allen Scott, Saline County Sheriff Rodney Wright, Pafford Ambulance Operations Manager David Chreene, Saline County OEM Director Jerry Cohen Others attending meeting: Communications Manager Staci Winberry, Assistant Communications Manager Deanne Owen, Saline County Comptroller Angie Drummond, Bryant Police Asst Chief JW Plouch, Bryant Fire Training Officer David Slack
Saline County Judge Matt Brumley called the special meeting of the Saline County 911 board to order at 9 am on August 28, 2023. He introduced 2 new members of the board: Saline County OEM Director Jerry Cohen and Pafford Ambulance Operations Manager David Chreene. Judge Brumley said that the board typically meets on the 1st Thursday of each month and that will continue to happen. He called the special meeting with anticipation that the board will be needing information for the next regular meeting.
Judge Brumley asked the City of Bryant Mayor Scott if there was an Ordinance passed by the Bryant City Council stating that the Saline County Emergency Communications Center will have full consolidation within Saline County and would bring on the City of Bryant by January 1, 2024, the Mayor Scott said that was correct. There are concerns from past meeting about how do you recruit and retain individuals at a dispatch center that’s expiration date is looming? This has become a challenge and Judge Brumley stated that we share the responsibility in Saline County that when residents call 911 that they get at or above their expectation when they call 911 for service. His concern is that if Bryant dispatch is unable to continue to dispatch their calls, how can Saline County step up in some manner. There will be financial consequence if it should happen that the Saline County Emergency Communications Center will incur. Judge stated we need to plan what this is going to look like.
CAD System: What is the answer on the two Cad systems? What are the pros and cons on both systems? How will the two systems come together? This needs to be decided before next Thursday’s meeting. Judge Brumley would like for there to be only one consolidated CAD system in the county not multiple. He is requesting names and phone numbers to both Spillman and Southern Software.
Saline County must have people in the seats at the 911 center by October 1st, 2023 to be able to have them trained up to take on City of Bryant Police and Fire on January 1, 2024. Questions were asked: What the board is thinking about the best way to address the issues of staffing? Does Bryant Fire need to come over first and then the Bryant Police later? How will this affect both city and county financial? Judge Brumley would like to have answers by the next regular scheduled meeting next Thursday – 10 days from now. Bryant Fire Chief JP Jordan talked about streetwise, laptops and tablets for his department. The laptops that the City of Bryant have should be able to be used until the first of the year, then they will need to purchase new equipment and streetwise for fire department. Communications Manager Staci Winberry presented a current copy of the staffing model to the board.
There are 9 consoles ready to go but radios would need to be installed for Bryant.
Assistant Communications Manager Deanne Owen, stated that if Spillman CAD System is put in the 911 center the Pro QA licenses, there is a possibly that 9 more additional licenses might have to be purchased for City of Bryant for call taking purposes. They are currently waiting on a quote for that expense. Currently the county pays approximately $32,000.00 a year for the license the county currently has.
Judge Brumley asked Saline County Comptroller Angie Drummond about appropriating dollars for (9) more additional license October 1st to bring on Bryant Fire. This would need to be brought to the QC committee meeting on Tuesday night to discussion appropriating money. The amount will be an estimate and then it could be taken to the full QC meeting on the 3rd Monday after so it would be ready by Oct 1, 2023.
Staffing requirements: Communications Manager Staci Winberry said there will need to be 4 more full time dispatcher positions to bring on Bryant Fire. Then 4 more full time dispatcher positions would be added when Bryant Police is added. Frozen positions (2) this is the Benton positions. If you wait until January to bring the 4 additional dispatchers it would be April before those dispatchers would be fully trained. If the board wants all to be trained and ready to go by January 1st, 2024, the board needs to decide to hire all by October 1, 2023 to have them all fully trained. It is taking approximately about 3 months to train a dispatcher. The cost for 8 full time employees is $388,698.00 annually this does not include holiday pay or cola for 2024. This is the cost right now for a dispatcher. For the remainder of 2023, it would cost approximately $100,000.00 to bring on the dispatchers. Judge Brumley asked Mayor Scott how it would affect Bryant if we bring dispatchers over to Saline County in October rather than January. Mayor Scott stated they were not sure where the money would come from because they are in the whole now about $800,000.00, he did advise that they should know from the council how this would be addressed after this week. Judge Brumley asked the board how they wanted to handle the $100,000.00 to be able to go ahead on October 1, 2023 and have the dispatchers hired? Mayor Tom Farmer made a motion to split the $100,000.00 estimated cost three ways (Saline County, City of Benton, City of Bryant) to bring on 8 full time employees to allow Bryant to come on board early and be able to start the training process for the dispatchers for future consolidation. The motion was 2nd by Bryant Fire Chief JP Jordan. Motion carried. There was more discussion about how much training before employees would be ready. Communications Manager Staci Winberry and Deputy Manager Deanne Owens say dispatchers will have to learn Bryant Fire system. They are currently working on building polygons and CAD team working on getting landmarks put in the CAD system. The radios will have to be installed. They advised it can be done to have dispatchers ready by October 1st with a little work.
Saline County Comptroller Angie Drummond asked if any of the Bryant dispatchers plan to come over to the county or will we need to hired all new dispatchers. Chief Carl Minden advised none of them are coming over. Judge did ask him to please double check and let the county know if we need to send information to any Bryant dispatchers that may have changed their mind. Chief Carl Minden said he understood that the county was going to send something to each Bryant employee and it has not been done yet. The Judge asked Bryant Police Chief to send all contact information to Angie and the letters will be send to all Bryant employees. They can accept the position offered or decline it. The county has the letters ready to be sent as soon as they receive the information from Bryant.
Judge Brumley made the board aware that Saline County did received $200,000.00 reimbursement from the state. This was money that has already been spent.
Summary: Judge Brumley will get contact information for both Spillman and Southern. Bryant employees contact information so county can send out letters.
A motion was made to adjourn by Saline County Judge Matt Brumley and 2nd by Bryant Mayor Allen Scott. Meeting adjourned at 9:37 am.