By Amy Batista, Special Writer
EAST WINDSOR – The township council unanimously passed a resolution dissolving its township communication dispatch services and awarded an agreement to IXP Corporation, despite pleas from dispatchers to keep their jobs during Tuesday night’s meeting.
Mayor Janice Mironov adjusted the format of the meeting and moved the one discussion item from its usual place due to the large number dispatchers, police officers, family, friends, union representative and supporters gathered at the back of the room during the March 8 meeting.
“It is the opinion of the Evaluation Committee that the IXP proposal offers long-term cost savings, improved operational efficiencies and financial predictability over the period of a five-year agreement. And it offers these benefits while bringing improved service levels and increased staffing to municipal services and the East Windsor community,” said Township Manager James Brady.
The Evaluation Committee unanimously recommended that the mayor and council award the contract to provide dispatch communication services to East Windsor Township and Hightstown Borough pursuant to the approved shared services agreement to IXP Corporation, he said.
“The committee further recommends that the award of this contract be for an initial two-year period with a renewal option for up to a maximum period of five years,” he said. “The total five-year pricing of $3,670,000 is broken down for $734,000 per year over the five-year period.”
Mayor Mironov said that one of the toughest jobs being in local office is putting together budgets year after year and trying to stay within the restraints while recognizing that prices and costs go up every year.
“We are always looking for possible opportunities whereby we can maintain high quality services while affecting savings for our taxpayers, whether those are shared service opportunities or those are other vehicles that would bring services,” she said. “We wanted to at least explore what opportunities might be available.”
On Oct. 7, 2015, the township issued a request for proposals for dispatching services, she said.
“We received one proposal back on the return date of Oct. 27, 2015, from IXP Corporation,” said the mayor. “Meanwhile, while the committee was evaluating the proposal the Township of East Windsor had engaged in dialogue in negotiations with the Hightstown Borough regarding the possibility of a shared service for dispatching services.”
She said it was clear during that time that agreement between the two towns was likely to be effectuated and in fact the shared services agreement with dispatch services was approved by Hightstown on Jan. 19, 2016, and by East Windsor Township on Jan. 26, 2016.
The mayor said with respect to both of the processes, an Evaluation Committee was appointed which consisted of herself, Deputy Mayor Peter Yeager, Council member Perry Shapiro, Township Manager James Brady, Chief of Police Harry Marshall, and Police Lieutenant Christopher Jackson.
The meeting was then turned over to Mr. Brady and Chief Marshall, who presented the process, findings and recommendations of the committee.
The Evaluation Committee met five times: Nov. 5, 2015; Nov. 9, 2015; Nov. 23, 2015; Jan. 21, 2016 and Feb. 8, 2016. In two of those meetings, the Evaluation Committee met directly with representatives of IXP Corporation.
“During Nov. 5 involved a conference call with Lawrence Township’s business administrator,” said Mr. Brady, adding the company has for a number of years been in agreement for dispatch services and utilizes IXP Corporation for police, fire and EMS.
Mr. Brady said that the administrator expressed a high regard and satisfaction with IXP Corporation. He said when asked if he was familiar with any complaints at all that were received during the two-plus years that they have been in the agreement, the administrator said he could not recall a single complaint relative to the dispatch services.
Chief Marshall presented results from other IXP clients including Lawrence Township; Hightstown Borough; Danbury City, Connecticut; Johns Creek, Georgia; and Sandy Springs, Georgia.
“The first of those interviews was conducted with Lawrence Township chief of police,” said Chief Marshall. “The chief had indicated that IXP does a great job and that the company’s training and orientation program at how well the employees integrate into the new communication center.”
He said the second interview of one of IXP’s clients was conducted and a call was made to Hightstown Borough Police Lieutenant Frank Gendron, who is in charge of the police department at this time.
“Hightstown had been using IXP dispatchers on a part-time basis since June of 2015. Since transition to using IXP dispatchers on a full-time basis in the beginning of January 2016, the lieutenant indicated that the services provided by IXP have been very good and the transition to IXP has been well received by everyone involved,” said Chief Marshall.
He said the Hightstown Borough Business Administrator Henry Underhill was also contacted and interviewed regarding the service level of IXP Corporation.
“He has received no complaints from the Hightstown Police Department leadership, emergency services leadership, residents, or any members of the community concerning the services being provided by IXP dispatchers,” he said. “He described IXP as bring reliable, responsive, knowledgeable, professional and that they worked well with the police department and other fire and emergency services during the transition.”
Another part of the evaluation process consisted of having three meetings with existing East Windsor dispatchers and their appointed union representation.
“The purpose of these meetings was to seek input, identify concerns and points of interest, provide an opportunity for current dispatchers to ask questions,” said Mr. Brady.
He concluded by summarizing the recommendations for the council and public by noting that all dispatch communications services will continue to be performed out of the existing East Windsor Communications Center located at the Police/Court Building on One Mile Road.
“No additional equipment needs or updates will be necessary or required throughout the term of the proposed contract, barring unforeseen current equipment malfunctions,” he said.
Mr. Brady said that the agreement with IXP would afford to East Windsor opportunities to enter into other shared services agreements for additional savings and revenue generation to East Windsor taxpayers.
“We still believe that over a five and a half year period those proposals that we laid out that we do believe that we are actually over $300,000 cheaper than the IXP proposal,” said Tom Lyon, Teamsters Local Union No. 676 representative.
He said they have dispatchers who go above and beyond.
“These people are really dedicated, hard-working people in this town,” he said. “We just want the opportunity to sit down at the table with what we laid out and let us show that we are a better value.”
Mr. Lyon asked the elected officials to table the matter until further discussions could be scheduled.
“These are your employees and you’re the responsible employer to provide a decent wage and they are barely keeping their heads above water with that wage,” he said.
East Windsor Township Communications Supervisor Tristan Torres said the township is still showing a savings of more than $800,000 over a period of five years.
Resident Christina Rothman-Iliff attended the meeting and also started a petition against outsourcing the East Windsor Police dispatch services. She said she has almost 260 signatures on the petition.
“You just can’t put a price tag on public safety,” said Ms. Rothman-Iliff. “I know firsthand from 20-some-plus years working in emergency services as a public safety dispatcher for a variety of agencies how important it is to really know what you are doing on that phone and behind that microphone and the safety that is in your hands,” she said. “There are people’s lives at stake.”
A private company is the wrong way to go, she added.
“I strongly encourage you to reconsider this whole thing because it is really something that you want to keep in house and have control over the whole thing,” she said.
Mayor Mironov said that she did go through the petition and wanted to clarify and note with respect to the petition that there were 10 people who were from East Windsor so she took a look at Hightstown and there were a total of 60 from the two combined communities.
Dave Handelman, of Monroe, said that as he addressed at a previous meeting if they wanted to get the truth they have to talk to the police officers. He said that was because they are the ones who directly communicate with the dispatchers, not the township manager, not the chief of police.
His wife and a dispatcher for East Windsor, Susan Handelman, said she has never seen a company so perfect.
“I just want you to think about it,” she said. “I still communicate with the officers who work there and I have not heard one who is happy with the services.”
She said that is a casualty of IXP and worked for Lawrence Township for 12 years and was let go. She was never approached by IXP to come and work for the company.
Jessica Russo, of Morganville, said this would be one of the worse decisions that the township would make.
“I ask that you seriously consider the choices that you are about to make,” she said. “Do you understand the repercussions of privatizing?”
Former resident and part-time dispatcher Victor Raczka said the dispatchers have always been budget-conscious.
“There is really no reason for us to be without a job and the bottom line is my parents taxes aren’t going to go down if you $500,000 or $300,000 or $1.3 million,” he said. “They never go down. They’ve always gone up. What I am saying is that the residents are not going to benefit from any kind of savings if there is any.”
Deputy Mayor Yeager said as a member of the committee wanted to echo that the committee did deliberate quite a lot.
“I feel comfortable given the information we did review and did receive back,” he said. “The committee made the right decision and these kinds of decisions where you have people involved are never easy. I appreciate that and I appreciate the members of the public and the dispatchers coming out here to talk to us. I’m comfortable with our decision.”
