Marietta City Council members discussed possibly consolidating Marietta Police dispatch with Washington County 911 Tuesday.

A draft resolution supporting the merger was the topic of a Police and Fire Committee meeting.

The resolution states Washington County is set to join the next generation 911 system as part of a pilot study Dec. 17. This will update 911 service infrastructure, offer exact geo-location of cellphones and allow the public to transmit text, video and data directly to a 911 center.

Marietta Police’s Public Safety Answering Point will be transferred to the Washington County 911 agency as part of this switch to the next generation 911 system and once that happens it would no longer be legal for non-emergency medical dispatch certified dispatchers to answer 911 calls in Marietta. The draft resolution also notes that Marietta Police dispatch does not have any emergency medical dispatch certified dispatchers and that the merger process will start on Dec. 17.

Marietta Police Chief Katherine Warden and Marietta Fire Chief C.W. Durham expressed concerns they have with the merger and its timeframe.

“The issues that I’ve had … this is the first time I’ve heard about you guys, the county, absorbing our dispatchers, in fact I literally found that out on the phone today … no one had consulted with me about our operations, how this is going to affect us,” Warden said.

Marietta Police dispatch staff who previously worked for the county have said they don’t want to go back and two others said they would probably quit if the merger takes place, according to Warden.

“To be told today over the phone … Not one person has spoke to me about that, at all, “ Warden said.

She also pointed out the effect the merger would have on the police department itself.

If there are no dispatchers, then the department would be closed after 4 p.m. everyday.

She said no one has talked about whether call boxes or other solutions would be practical or feasible, especially with a quick deadline or the cost of these things.

Incoming Sheriff Mark Warden, no relation, had not heard of the proposed merger either, the chief said.

“I’m not really sure why this is being rushed through so quickly without me being talked to, without the incoming sheriff having a consultation,” Warden said.

Washington County 911 Director Douglas Moore said the conversation in the last week had turned to absorbing three Marietta Police dispatchers in order to dispatch directly for the Marietta Police and the Marietta Fire Department.

“The county’s grand scheme intention is to have a county-wide consolidated dispatch center which answers all 911 calls from landlines, from cellphones, text messages from everybody in the county, including Marietta and Belpre,” Moore said.

Moore said the next generation 911 is going to be implemented in Washington County through the state on Dec. 17.

“As far as the rush of combining the dispatchers, I’m not sure that has to be a complete rush, but I think it’s something that everybody wants to get the ground moving on and the ball rolling so that way it doesn’t interfere with the compliance issue of the state,” Moore said. “So that way the best service can be moved forward and not lose the funding from the state if we don’t go in compliance with answering call times.”

Warden then said she doesn’t understand the dispatchers need to be combined by January if they have until October to be in compliance.

Police and Fire Committee Chairman and At-Large Councilman Jon Grimm also addressed some of Warden’s concerns.

“It is not this committee’s intention to cut the police department,” he said. “While I do think there is some economies with merging the 911 centers, I think City Council has worked quite well with the Police Department on their budget this year. There seems to be no objections on council … I spoke with Chief Warden about the budget, she did not express any concern, so it’s not our intention to cut the budget. However, there will be discussion about monetary savings which it is my hope can be used to, let’s just say, increase boots on the ground for heightened security in the community.”

The draft resolution indicates the merger would save the city’s general fund approximately $250,000 a year.

Grimm told Warden that he received short notice of the proposed merger as well and learned about it during a meeting with a county commissioner on Monday.

Warden said police dispatchers don’t just answer phones; they also monitor cameras systems, take bonds, enter and remove warrants, take walkups at the counter and more. She asked who will do these duties if there are no dispatchers in the building.

Warden said they also need to discuss the computer-aided dispatch systems, radio systems, report management systems, procedures and radio etiquette too. Moore responded that the consolidated 911 would operate on the same computer-aided dispatch systems.

“I also think it’s very dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket … when somebody’s PSAP goes down or somebody’s workstation goes down … we’re able to have redundancy and backups that (if) everything will be centralized, that we’re not going to have,” she said.

Durham also shared his concerns.

“With something of this magnitude I’m concerned about rushing into it as well,” Durham said.

Durham said his understanding from the last meeting about 911 was that the county wasn’t in a rush and they wouldn’t be ready until spring of 2025.

“We’re excited to have the ability to be dispatched with (emergency medial dispatch) and on a (computer-aided dispatch) system, things like that, but even as excited as we are we don’t want to rush into it and cause issues that are found to be long term detrimental to either immediate 911 services or long term for staffing, things like that,” Durham said.

He asked council if they could slow down and get to the best answer for the citizens of Marietta.

“I agree that it’s not a good idea to rush this … that said I was led to believe that there was more of a rush than there seems that there actually is,” Grimm said. “That said, I would like to look at this in the light of how can we get this done, rather than the light of why we can’t do it.”

Grimm pointed out that the dispatcher moves would be lateral and council is not talking about eliminating positions. He also said that the draft resolution is “not a measure to defund the police” but is instead an opportunity to increase community security and to become more efficient in how 911 is conducted.

Grimm said he sees that the date for dispatchers to be in compliance with needing to be emergency medical dispatcher certified is incorrect and with that he doesn’t see the purpose of accelerating the merger faster than it needs to be.

The draft resolution will not be presented at the next council meeting, Grimm said, but the discussion of the merger needs to continue.

Another council meeting to discuss the possible merging of Marietta Police dispatchers with county dispatchers has not yet been scheduled.

The next regular Marietta City Council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today in Room 10 of the Marietta Armory.