The County Commissioners have an Agenda Item 9 for 9:30 am Monday, December 29th. It is entitled “Discussion and proposed action concerning approval of annual dispatch fee for Mayes 911 from Mayes Fire Departments”.
Could be the Commissioners didn’t really know what they were getting into when Darrell and Alva voted to take over the center from MESTA. Guess they thought that they were going to get rich over the tax money that comes in from our telephone bills. We think that may be decreasing because of loss of landlines in the County.
Still problems existing with the lack of training and experience of Ms. Pennywhatever’s dispatchers. We hear that they are still making a lot of fundamental mistakes. Wonder if she has sent any of them to the National Dispatcher Training and Certification Schools like Rich Langkamp did? Maybe she needs to tax the fire departments to get that done!
At the next MESTA Board Meeting, 5 pm Tuesday, January 13th, at the MESTA headquarters in the Industrial Park, the Board will consider moving their dispatchers out of the County 911 Building, into the MESTA building. A committee has been studying the problem for a couple of months. A number of dispatchers, and other MESTA employees have been interviewed, and their attorney Jim Orbison has been consulted. He initially recommended the study.
The Problem is, as I have been told is this: It is a very hostile work environment for the MESTA Dispatchers. It all started when Alva Martin came in the center, shortly after the County took it over, and was, as I am told, yelling, cussing, and screaming at everyone, including saying a few unkind words about me! The problem has continued with Ms. Pennywhatever giving bad instructions and advice to her dispatchers, and the MESTA folks having to keep their mouths shut. The County 911 Director has absolutely no experience as a 911 Dispatcher! Her experience is in preparing the 911 addresses. Wonder why the Commissioners hired a Director without a very necessary experience??
That’s about it for now. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and we wish you a Happy New Year.
On a side note, if you want to see some very beautiful pictures of international landmark sites, visit http://imgur.com/a/qtIIW?gallery . Just may be some places you want to place on your “Bucket List”.
As always, your can phone me anytime with questions or comments. My home phone is 918-825-1676, and my cell is 918-373-4055.
Be Safe!
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Today at the meeting, the Commissioner received a lot of “flack” from the County Fire Departments. Commissioner Ryan Ball got into a heated discussion with Darrell Yoder ove the issue. Ball said they should have never taken over the 911 Center from MESTA, and the financial figures they had were totally wrong.
There was a lot of objections from fire departments in attendance. Yoder said that 911 was losing $500 monthly. The proposed fee to departments was $300 per month to each fire department (there are 12) which would result in the County receiving $3,600 monthly from the “Dispatch Fee”. It doesn’t make sense, since Yoder said that 911 was losing $500 monthly, or $6,000 annually. You multiply $3,600 times 12 departments! That is a whole lot more than the $6,000 annual loss Yoder claimed.
The end result was that the matter was tabled, in order for the Commissioners to receive “input” from the fire departments.
Several rural fire departments asked MESTA Board Member Don Berger if MESTA would take back the County 911 Center. Berger said that would be up to their Board. Seems to me that this would be the best resolution to the County 911 Center’s financial problems. Please post your comments as to how you think this issue could be best resolved.
Ryan Ball got into a “heated discussion” with Yoder over the proposal Ball said they should have never separated 911 from MESTA, and that the financial info the Commissioners had was inaccurate. WE AGREE!
I videotaped the discussion and hope to post the tape to this site Tuesday. In the meantime, if you want to watch it, go to YouTube, search for Gary J Dean, and you should find it there.
FINALLY, if you are viewing this site on a desktop computer, on the right hand side there should be a link that says “Follow”. Select it, enter your email address, and you will receive notifications when anything is posted here. Can’t do this from a cellphone.
We are wishing all of you a Happy New Year. As always, call me if you want to discuss anything. My cell is 918-373-4055.