County, Ventura Launch Joint Dispatching

After two years of contentious negotiations, the city of Ventura and Ventura County on Wednesday celebrated the start of a joint fire dispatch operation that promises to reduce response times.

In the 30-year deal, the city of Ventura agreed to let the county Fire Protection District handle all its fire and medical dispatch calls.

The actual transfer occurred last week without any problems, officials said. County operators are now expected to handle an additional 8,600 calls annually. Three new dispatchers have been hired to help with the load.

“The years of circling the wagons are over. This type of regional approach is something I think we are going to see a lot more of,” said Ventura Mayor Ray Di Guilio.

Two dozen fire officials and politicians involved in creating the deal gathered at the county’s fire training center at Camarillo Airport for a barbecue lunch to publicize the pact.

“The public really benefits from the efficiency of working together,” Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper said.

The deal also means the Camarillo dispatch center is the hub of nearly all fire and ambulance activity in the county. Officials say such centralized operations are rare because of high costs and loss of control for cities.

The holdout cities include Santa Paula, which has dispatchers handling its police and fire calls, and Oxnard, which recently spent $3 million on a new dispatch center at the city police station.

County Supervisor Steve Bennett, who spearheaded negotiations between the county and the city of Ventura, said he believes the “public doesn’t give a hoot” which agency is dispatching calls as long as help is on the way--fast.

Ventura City Fire Chief Dennis Downs said joining the county made sense because service will be faster and more efficient. “I don’t see this as a power issue. This is a relief,” Downs said.

Three vacant dispatch positions in Ventura’s police and fire operations were eliminated in the transfer. The city still has a dozen police dispatchers on staff who handle all emergency crime calls. If they receive a fire or medical call, they immediately transfer it to county dispatchers.

Several speakers told of the many benefits of forming a union with the county.

The city of Ventura will save more than $500,000 by eliminating three salaries and by not building a larger dispatch center.

The arrangement between Ventura and the county is the result of a fight over sales tax dollars. In 2000, the city balked at having to turn over to the county its annual $572,000 portion of county sales tax income. The county then threatened to eliminate the 1.25% tax altogether, which would have cost Ventura $15 million in revenue. The solution was to continue to share the tax in exchange for the joint dispatching operation.

Officials say the deal may help the city retain more dispatchers. Like many police agencies, Ventura’s has spent years watching high turnover and burnout among dispatchers because of stress, long hours and low pay.

The way it works in a city with its own emergency communications center is that 911 operators act as both fire and police dispatchers.

Now, Ventura’s dispatchers deal only with police calls, and automatically transfer all fire and medical callsto the Camarillo dispatch center.