Harper Woods Questions All-Pointes Dispatch Grant

After reading about how and being repeatedly questioned about why Harper Woods is not a part of the grant, Harper Woods City Manager Randolph Skotarczyk wrote a letter to his residents Friday.

In a community alert, Skotarczyk questions why his community has been excluded from the potential unified dispatch/lockup project by the five Grosse Pointes, especially considering the decades-old mutual aid agreement.

Since 1956, Harper Woods police officers and firefighters have worked with public safety officers from the five Grosse Pointes under a mutual aid agreement, which allows for all of the departments to call on each other for back up when necessary.

The working relationship between the six departments has always been positive and is a benefit to all of the communities, Skotarczyk said Friday, emphasizing that it continues to be a positive relationship.

His frustration, however, lies in the fact that Harper Woods has been excluded from , which ultimately made the decision to apply for a grant through the state's Economic Vitality Incentive Grant for funding toward a unified dispatch/lockup center.

Skotarczyk, who was the Harper Woods Police Chief before becoming the city manager, said he was told when the ad hoc committee was formed that Harper Woods was not allowed to join because they were . He opposed not being included then and continues to oppose the exclusion of Harper Woods.

The current grant only recently accepted by all of the Grosse Pointe city councils would provide up to $300,000 toward a unified dispatch/lockup center for all five Grosse Pointes. The grant matches at a 50 percent rate, meaning to receive the full grant funding, the Pointes collectively would have to spend $600,000.

Skotarczyk said Friday that a dispatch and lockup center is not unique to public safety departments and is something that the six communities certainly have in common.

The six cities also share a variety of features, including schools, libraries, the mutual aid agreement and the radio system used by emergency responders, Skotarczyk said. Harper Woods is participating in a federal grant the six cities received to upgrade the radio system, he said, so joining the dispatch project only makes sense.

City Manager Pete Dame, who is the spokesman of the ad hoc committee, said Friday via email that adding yet another municipality to the mix in trying to achieve a project like the dispatch/lockup center would only add to the complexity.

"As has been evident over the last year and a half of discussions of that Committee and even the extent of debate necessary from Grosse Pointe municipal councils just to accept the possibility of a grant from the state for assisting with joint dispatch, it is difficult to obtain consensus on any public safety matter even when you just involve the five Grosse Pointe communities," Dame said via email. "Adding more players adds more complexity in the intergovernmental cooperation realm and decreases chances of success."

. Yet the resolution was intended simply to allow the Pointes to be eligible to use the grant monies should a project plan be reached and agreed to by all of the Pointes.

Another factor Dame pointed out was the call volume in Harper Woods. The call volume is double the number of calls of the five Grosse Pointes combined, he said. The size of the lockup center would need to be more than doubled as well because of the higher number of prisoners in Harper Woods, Dame said.

But Skotarczyk believes that is exactly why Harper Woods should be included. He said his department holds an average of seven prisoners at any given time—and sometimes as high as 25. Harper Woods lockup already has confinement officers, who are civilians trained to be jail guards.

Since they are not sworn police officers, the labor is likely less costly.

The confinement officers help book the prisoners when officers arrive with them after the arrest, Skotarczyk said, adding they also administer meals and watch over the prisoners 24 hours a day.

"Absorbing the prisoners of the Grosse Pointes would be very easy to do," Skotarczyk said, if Harper Woods were part of the plan and their lockup facility were considered as a location. He said the facility would still need to be expanded but not as much as the others because it is already set up for a higher volume.

Skotarczyk has written letters to several state agencies trying to find out why the grant was issued without Harper Woods being a part of the project but he has not heard back from anyone. He would still like to become a part of the project and is hopeful he will gain the attention of Lansing so Harper Woods is "not left on an island."

Dame said if the Pointes do reach consensus on a unified dispatch/lockup center, officials would likely consider adding other communities to the mix, such as Harper Woods. He also said Harper Woods is welcome to return to SERESSA, which is the joint dispatch of Roseville, St. Clair Shores and Eastpointe and which accepts additional cities to their organization.

Harper Woods was a part of that organization but backed out of it, which Dame said only further supports the actions of the Grosse Pointes.

"That experience alone demonstrates that the validity of the Grosse Pointes’ approach," Dame said via email.

City Manager Al Fincham said Friday he was not sure whether Harper Woods would be allowed to be added to the grant considering it's administered by the state and all the requirements were met in the application, which did not include Harper Woods.

Fincham has for years had a good relationship with Skotarczyk. They just had a meeting a few weeks ago, Fincham said, explaining each of their cities are the other's first back up under the mutual aid.

The working relationship has always been a benefit to the residents of both cities and continues to be, Fincham said, explaining he was unaware of Skotarczyk's letter to his residents.

Correction: Due to misinformation given to Patch, this story was edited Monday, March 19, 2012, at 6 a.m. to reflect the accurate title of Pete Dame as to his role with the ad hoc committee.