OXNARD : City to Automate Its Phone System

In an effort to save money, Oxnard will replace its city switchboard with a computerized system, and it may lock the front doors of police headquarters after regular business hours.

Five employees work the 24-hour switchboard, directing calls from the general city number to specific departments. Once the system is automated, some or all of the employees will be transferred to other positions that would otherwise be filled by new employees.

Because no one would be staffing the switchboard, which is at police headquarters at 251 South C St., city officials are considering locking the front doors of the station after 5 p.m. instead of leaving them open 24 hours, Police Chief Robert Owens said.

The proposed changes are part of an overhaul of city operations designed to cut more than 60 jobs and $4.9 million from the operating budget this year, City Manager Vernon Hazen said. Hazen added that the phone system would be automated in the next couple of months, but officials have not yet decided whether to try to revamp the present system or buy a new one.

Also, there has been no final decision on how many of the five employees would be reassigned or whether to keep the police station open to the public at night.

Owens said there have been incidents of people running into the police station at night because they were, or thought they were, being followed. And one night, a man who had been stabbed came into the station bleeding profusely, he said.

But Hazen said these were isolated incidents. If the doors are locked, a phone will be placed outside the front door, providing immediate access to personnel in the building, he said.