MONTICELLO — A large crowd turned out at yesterday's full board of the legislature meeting to voice their opposition to a proposed resolution to consolidate the 911 Control Center under the purview of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office.

Members of local fire departments, EMS and past and present employees of the 911 Center all urged the legislators to spend more time reviewing the proposal and take facts into consideration.

The resolution was initially tabled at Tuesday's Public Safety and Law Enforcement Committee, however, the next day an emergency meeting was called in the afternoon.

It was un-tabled and voted in favor by legislators Nicholas Salomone, Michael Brooks and Rob Doherty. Legislator Ira Steingart voted against it and Alan Sorensen was absent.

But yesterday at the meeting of the full board, it was voted unanimously to table it and initiate a 90-day review process.

The proposal came about because Sullivan County Sheriff Michael Schiff and Undersheriff Eric Chaboty said that their office has heard from law enforcement about “serious issues” within 911.

“For several years some of our county law enforcement agencies have dealt with serious public safety issues concerning 911,” Chaboty said. “These issues involve the management of 911 and not the employees who work there. Our concerns have fallen on deaf ears, including with the previous legislature and former chairman Luis Alvarez.”

While he and others didn't quite name names, it was clear they were referring to E911 Coordinator Alex Rau.

However, Rau said he wasn't made aware of any issues concerning 911, and the few problems that were brought to his attention, he resolved them.

“I'm tired of hearing we have problems, because quite honestly I don't know that we have law enforcement problems,” Rau said. “Other than one or two emails… I believe Chief Kinne in 2014 had an issue with a tape release; I put out a memo to staff and it was addressed, we're to release tapes immediately to law enforcement.”

Poor communication?

New York State Police (NYSP) Troop F Zone One Commander Captain Chris Zaba also said that he and his staff have not heard of any issues. He said he had three dispatching issues and immediately consulted Rau, and it turned out two of the calls were actually handled correctly and the third one was a different agency.

Zaba said that the NYSP handle around 40 percent of 911 calls, the Sheriff's Office around 20 percent, and around 35 percent go to a combination of other agencies.

He also said he was not consulted regarding the resolution. “This is a big decision to make with long term effects,” he said, adding that the legislature should wait 12 months and hear from the agencies and do some research.

Zaba said he believes there is a communication issue, and Rau echoed that saying there used to be meetings twice a year with law enforcement and they would review 911 dispatch procedures.

But after former Public Safety Commissioner Dick Martinkovic retired, Rau said Sheriff Mike Schiff held meetings with law enforcement agencies but did not invite him or Public Safety Commissioner Rick Sauer.

What are the benefits of consolidation?

Chaboty said that 27 counties (outside of New York City) have a system where the Sheriff's Offices run 911. In addition, he said in 2017 government services consolidation studies were conducted by former Deputy County Manager Dan Depew that showed a potential savings of $487,000 a year by merging police dispatch with 911.

The issue of the Sheriff's Office taking control of the 911 Center is not exactly a new one. The same plan was proposed in 2011 and the legislature at that time voted in favor of it.

According to different reports, the plan was implemented unsuccessfully due to varying reasons, and after six months control was handed back to the 911 Center.

Rau said that when the Sheriff's Office came in, the call volume increased and there wasn't enough staff to handle it.

Sheriff Schiff said the problems stemmed from Rau claiming everything was fine when it wasn't.

“Alex was telling me all through the process… everything was working fine,” Schiff said. “I was not out at 911 on a daily basis, and my expectation from a 911 Coordinator is that when there's a problem you contact your supervisors and we fix it. I walk in one day to the legislature and I find out we're in the middle of a public safety crisis. That was nonsense.”

Public safety members respond

There was a large turnout for the Public Safety Committee meeting, as police chiefs, 911 dispatchers and others presented both sides.

Police Chiefs Robert Mir of Monticello, Scott Kinne of Liberty and Simmie Williams of Fallsburg all sided with the Sheriff, saying consolidation is needed.

Others spoke against it, saying operations at the 911 Center run smoothly, and change in management could cause some disturbances.

“It should not be a political decision or a power decision,” Rau said. “I am troubled at the tactics being used to drive this plan forward, including publicly calling into question my ability to manage the 911 Center, essentially defaming me and putting our first responders into some sort of a popularity contest. Public safety should not be a slew of press releases and Facebook banter, it seems like a divide and conquer strategy when the fact is we should all be working together for public safety.”