Town Meeting gives thumbs up for joining a Metrowest RECC (Updated)

Above: Voters asked questions and heard from Town officials (including the new Fire Chief) before giving the Select Board the show of support it requested for regionalizing dispatch communications. (images cropped from meeting video)

In 2023, Southborough’s Select Board entered an agreement with Westborough and Grafton. The plan was to form a “Metrowest RECC”. Instead of each town directly employing dispatchers who answer 911 calls, they would create a regional center to hire and oversee staff.

On Monday night, one of the voters whose public comments had helped successfully pressure the board to withdraw from the RECC made the board’s case for rejoining it. Voters supported the plan.

Old objections to entering a RECC

It’s worth highlighting that one of the biggest objections to the RECC (Regional Emergency Communications Center) that the public voiced at the ’23 Annual Town Meeting had been its planned location at a former hazardous waste superfund site in Westborough. Residents, dispatchers, and their supporters had not been reassured by officials’ promises that the site was safe. 

One of the Citizen’s Petitions that objected, co-led by John Butler and Bonnie Phaneuf, also opposed the IMA (Intramural Agreement) based on financial concerns. Butler argued against terms which gave the RECC board the ability to set budgets the Town would be compelled to pay. Butler argued that Town Meeting was being stripped of budget control for the service, and future tax spikes could result.

Hamilton was among the many voters who commented in agreement with Butler’s and Phaneuf’s Article. But, he opposed a separate petition that night to advise the Select Board to never regionalize dispatch.

The other Article was presented by Southborough Police Dept’s Sgt Heath Widdis (since retired) and Dispatch Union head Kyle DeVincent. They made several arguments on the benefits of local dispatch and the harms of joining a RECC. But their core concern appeared to be the impact on current dispatchers who would have to apply for a new job and lose earned seniority.

Hamilton had opined that it was possible joining a RECC could make sense in the future and the board has the authority to make that decision. Hamilton subsequently (and successfully) ran for the Select Board that year, He and other Select Board members publicly agreed to Butler’s request that they wouldn’t enter a new RECC without first reporting to Town Meeting to give voters a chance to weigh in. On Monday, they followed through.

The New Pitch

Under Article 10, the board asked Southborough voters to support their decision to negotiate a new RECC agreement. The Article was non-binding, but the board was seeking a public show of support for following the path.

Hamilton presented the Select Board’s research findings and their reasons for seeking to sign a new IMA for the MetroWest RECC. (It was the same presentation I previously covered here.)

Most importantly, the Metrowest project is back on the table because it was relocated to an historic municipal building in Westborough. (The Westborough Select Board had been forced to abandon its original plan due to safety concerns based on an odor in the building.)

Other than that, the details seemed to be very much the same. A new IMA wasn’t presented, since the board needs to renegotiate the terms. But the likely governing body and escape terms described were the same as in the original IMA. (Each member town would have a Town Manager/Administrator on the Executive Board and the Police and Fire Chiefs on an operations board.)

The Select Board’s pitch for regionalizing dispatch was, once again, to increase safety. Hamilton stressed that it wasn’t to save costs. But the board’s clear bottom line was managing the cost for providing the staffing levels truly needed for responding to emergencies around the clock. 

The board wants to leverage the economies of scale that a regional center provides.

Hamilton and the board advocate that joining the Metrowest RECC now, to get in on the ground floor, is key to making the best deal, including influencing “policies and procedures when they are initially put in place”. 

Hamilton’s presentation addressed claims made in 2023 that police departments that join RECCs usually regret it. He showed survey results stating that police chiefs who joined RECCs were overwhelmingly satisfied with the decision. 

It also noted that 6 of 13 police chiefs mentioned the difficulty for hiring dispatchers as one of their motivations for joining a RECC. That’s an issue that the Town has been experiencing for some time.

Southborough Police Chief Newell informed voters that he still hadn’t been able to fill both of the newly added dispatch positions that Town Meeting voters approved at Annual Town Meeting. One was recently filled. But another candidate who was offered the job backed out.

Newell told voters that he believed that RECCs can offer better salary and job growth opportunities for his current dispatchers. He indicated that it would help for them to get in on the ground floor.

Butler, who helped the Select Board research RECCs and tech alternatives over the past year, continued to remain skeptical. In general, Butler believes the state’s plan regional centers is the wrong direction, but that it is clearly where towns are being pushed. Still, he told the hall last night that he wasn’t convinced that the ground floor of a new RECC was a good place to be. 

Butler described about a third of RECCs being very successful and about a third failing. He didn’t have confidence in a group that made the initial “horrible” decision of selecting the superfund site. He recommended the Town should join a RECC that is already established as successful. 

Blair Sutherland served on the state 911 board for six years. He sided with the Select Board on the benefits of “having a seat at the original table” in founding a RECC. He stressed the “tremendous amount of governance” needed to run a RECC but lauded the Select Board as having gone above and beyond to ensure they avoid pitfalls. They had his confidence to continue their work. 

Robert Flynn wanted to know why the RECC wouldn’t be sited in Southborough’s new public safety building. Hamilton responded that it was too small, eliciting some laughter from the crowd. Hamilton explained that the dispatch room can only hold 3 or 4 dispatchers. A RECC should be formed with the idea for growth, requiring a larger space for more staff.

Fire Chief Andrew Puntini gave his full support. He described the simultaneous tasks dispatchers need to conduct when responding to a medical emergency or a fire as “easily the job of two plus people to be done efficiently.” Since, for fires, that often requires calling in Mutual Aid Partners, being in the same RECC would only enhance their response.

Currently, most shifts have only one dispatcher. And even if we fill the a vacant post, There wouldn’t be two dispatchers 24×7.

Upon questioning, Hamilton acknowledged that current dispatchers aren’t promised jobs, but that they would get preference as an employee of an original RECC member.  And given the staffing shortage, “if you’ve got a trained dispatcher who already knows the, community that makes them a very valuable asset to a RECC.”

One concern the public had previously worried about was the police station becoming a “dark building” once dispatchers aren’t on site. In his presentation, Hamilton claimed that was a “misnomer”. He said that if you respond to the station today, the dispatcher remains behind the glass window and “will not come out”. A member of a RECC on a video screen would have “pretty much the same” abilities as current dispatchers to “summon the required resources to deal with the crisis” and even lock and unlock the doors.

Referring to one of the duties that dispatchers traditionally had in the station, Phaneuf asked what would happen when juveniles are arrested. Chief Newell responded that juveniles aren’t held at the SPD anymore. Instead, a juvenile probation officer is called, arrangements are made at the station, and then they’re released. He surprised many with the news that, under the state’s bail reform bill, adults are also immediately released after being processed in the station.

Updated (10/3/9:19 am): Chief Newell commented below to clarify the situation under the new bail reform laws.