Coconut Creek taxes rising to pay for dispatchers

Coconut Creek residents are in line for a hefty tax increase designed to get emergency responders to their doors more quickly.

The city’s new budget calls for residents to pay about 10 percent more in taxes than last year so the city can raise $1.5 million to hire its own 911 dispatchers — separate from the regional 911 system. Part of that increase also will pay for eight new police officers, unrelated to the change in dispatch, said Mayor Becky Tooley.

“How much is a life worth? If we have to pay more, we have to pay more,” Tooley said. “Time is of the essence.”

City leaders say dispatchers at the controversial regional 911 system don’t appear to be familiar enough with their city. The number of glitches and delays residents are reporting is unacceptable, the city says.

Commissioner Sandra Welch said she has talked with hundreds of Coconut Creek residents as she’s introduced the idea of hiring 911 dispatchers to every homeowner’s association in her district. Just one person has suggested that the extra cost isn’t worth it, she said.

Coconut Creek residents pay a tax rate of $6.537 per $1,000 of taxable value for the fiscal year that just began. For the owner of an Coconut Creek home, assessed at $200,000 with the standard homestead protections, that means a tax bill of $87.50 more, or about 10 percent more than last year.

The city is collecting about 16 percent more in total taxes, with some of the new cost being carried by the 10.4 percent

growth in the city’s taxable value.

Welch recalled an incident in the past year when she tried to alert the regional 911 dispatchers about a suspicious car she saw in an area plagued with break-ins.

But even as she gave the names of the intersecting streets, the dispatcher could not locate quickly where she was calling from, Welch said.

“Fortunately the stories we’ve heard over the course of time did not end up in a loss of life, but one is too many,” Welch said. “But any delay in getting response where it needs to be is significant.”

By raising the tax rate in order to make the change, the commission has given City Manager Mary Blasi the authority to start pursuing this option, which they expect to be in place by October 2018, Tooley said.

A formal vote to back away from the regional 911 system has not been taken, however.

Only two of Broward’s 31 cities — Coral Springs and Plantation — aren’t part of the regional system and don’t use regional 911 dispatchers.

Coconut Creek joined the regional system in 2015 after having its own dispatch. Going down this path, Coconut Creek envisions remaining somewhat a part of the regional system, as it would continue to use the same equipment.

The city rents its space to the county for one of the county’s three regional call centers. In this plan, the city would have five dispatchers in the same room as the regional dispatchers, only they will be dedicated to Coconut Creek calls, Tooley said.

Broward County’s 911 operation has confronted glitches since the service was turned into a regional effort.

A consultant’s report in December 2016 found that the closest ambulance or firetruck to an emergency is not always the one that’s sent, even though that was a goal for regional 911.

The same subject has come up in Fort Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines, but Alphonso Jefferson Jr., assistant county administrator, said he is not aware of any other city that has taken steps at backing away from the regional dispatch as Coconut Creek is doing.

The Fort Lauderdale City Commission researched options earlier this year but decided not to opt out of the regional system,” said spokesman Matt Little.

The consultant’s report concluded that the 911 system was improving, but it did not altogether quell rumblings of dissatisfaction with the service in Pembroke Pines. One commissioner renewed his vow that move Pembroke Pines to its own dedicated dispatch.

But Ruben Troncoso, operations chief for the Pembroke Pines fire department, noted that call answering times are decreasing.

“Overall we are happy with what we’re seeing, and I’m sure we’ll continue to see improvement,” he said.

Richard Sievers, Deerfield district fire chief for Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue, said he has no complaints about the regional dispatch.

Of Coconut Creek’s hiring its own dispatchers, he said: “Good luck to them. It’s an expensive adventure.”

Lighthouse Point Fire Chief David Donzella said he sees room for improvement in the regional 911 system but is satisfied enough with how it’s working.

“It’s not cost-effective to have multiple dispatch systems in the county — it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money,” he said.

He also has doubts about how much of an improvement Coconut Creek will realize by having dispatchers dedicated to Coconut Creek calls, he said.

How calls are routed, he said, “is such a complex system I don’t know how that’s gong to work.”

But Coconut Creek’s mayor is convinced that given the city’s large senior population, particularly at Wynmoor, a mammoth senior housing community, the city has special needs.

“Our residents are used to good service,” Tooley said.

Vice Mayor Josh Rydell said he’s not completely sure the city should move away from its current setup, however.

“I’m not closed off to sitting down with the sheriff to remedy complaints that have been made,” he said.