SPOKANE, WA – Spokane spent nearly $40,000 on a feasibility study that told Mayor Lisa Brown it would cost $100 million to transition to an independent dispatch service, according to public records.
Reporting by The Center Square first uncovered the feasibility study in September, ahead of a January deadline for the city to transition to a new emergency dispatch service. The city has relied on Spokane Regional Emergency Communications for the last few years, but now wants more control over funding.
While state lawmakers brokered a compromise earlier this year that will position the city to do so, the feasibility study said it would take at least 14 months to stand up a new dispatch service. Both parties are still negotiating the details and may agree to temporarily reintegrate the city into SREC’s system.
“We would be very open to discussing how to take on the costs for the incorporation of [Spokane Fire Department] and Hexagon,” Deputy City Administrator Maggie Yates said during the last SREC Governing Board meeting on Oct. 31, referencing the organization’s new computer-aided-dispatch, or CAD, system.
Cost is a major issue for both parties. Spokane decided to pull out of the regional model to deliver the greatest value to city taxpayers, but it’s also grappling with a $13 million budget deficit. Meanwhile, SREC is saving up for a new facility and has set up its new CAD system under the assumption that the city would not participate moving forward. That new system goes live in March, so the clock is ticking.
After the state intervened in April, the city commissioned the feasibility study from Matrix Consulting Group to see what it could afford and how much it would cost residents. According to records obtained by The Center Square, Brown spent $39,625 on the study across three invoices from April to August.
Five consultants worked on the project for a total of 213 hours, with their rates ranging from $175 to $350 per hour. Brown proposed several mid-biennium budget adjustments last week that close the $13 million deficit. Still, the Spokane City Council has raised concerns over disparities between its own projections.
The council told the administration in recent budget meetings that the officials felt like Brown’s budget didn’t account for certain expenses. The Center Square asked the administration whether her proposal accounted for the CAD reintegration Yates alluded to, but didn’t receive a response before publishing.
“My takeaway was that we would reach out to Hexagon to sort of learn more about what that would look like and what it would cost,” Yates told the board, “and based on those cost estimates, figure out how to ensure that the city is built in, but we’re not adding additional financial burden on the organization.”
The SREC Governing Board expressed concerns about the deadline being less than two months away, as well as March 23, when the new CAD system will go live for the first time. Some board members are worried that bringing Spokane back into the system could delay that launch date for everyone.
Communications Manager Kelly Conley told The Center Square on Wednesday that SREC still isn’t sure how much it might cost. The SREC Governing Board is scheduled to meet again next week on Nov. 20.
If the city doesn’t hash that out before the January deadline, SREC will still answer 911 calls from the city; however, staff would then transfer the calls to the Spokane Police Department’s smaller dispatch center rather than SREC dispatching SFD directly. SPD dispatches its own calls for the most part, but the department doesn’t have the same resources as SREC to handle the influx from SFD’s call volume.
If the city and SREC reach a solution and the administration is willing to pay its part during the shift to a new independent dispatch service, SREC will continue dispatching for SFD during that interim period.
“Let’s say we are able to find a solution where city units could be input into a system that they have said they don’t want to participate in,” Spokane County CEO Scott Simmons said during the last SREC board meeting. “I would have the city critically evaluate if that can be done: what path are you taking to hire your fire dispatchers up and train them prior to the March 23 — I think that’s a reasonable ask.”
