After 10 members of the Dane County Board of Supervisors voted to postpone the county’s bonding resolution, County Executive Joe Parisi is calling upon the members to rethink their actions in order to allow for the implementation of a new emergency communications system.
During a press conference Tuesday, Parisi said the board’s actions were unforeseen and have critical implications on the people of Dane County.
“We are here today urging swift action after an unprecedented political bump in the road at the last County Board meeting,” he said. “This delay puts critical public safety projects at risk, and these ten supervisors are standing in the way of ten years of work.”
The projects, according to Parisi, include a new countywide emergency communications network for police, fire and emergency medical services.
The system would include a new computer system to help 911 operators dispatch responders to an emergency more quickly and a new siren system to better warn citizens of severe weather danger.
“If this bonding resolution is not approved, I will take action to protect the county and its tax payers from financial harm, including the possibility that the county may have to suspend the county’s contract with Harris Corporation, the company responsible for building the countywide emergency communication system,” Parisi said.
Parisi said the emergency system needs to be active by Jan. 1, 2013, if it is going to comply with federal guidelines. If the system is not in place by then, the county will be charged $10,000 for every day the system is not active.
Dane County sheriff Dave Mahoney said he was “amazed” by how a few county supervisors took the measure to potentially place Dane County at risk of unsafe conditions and economic sanctions by postponing a decision that is founded on a crucial deadline.
“I am further amazed that a few supervisors would place politics ahead of public safety,” Mahoney added.
To prevent the county taxpayers from bearing more costs, which include fines, penalties and forfeitures incurred, the county executive will ask Dane County 911 Center Director John Dejung to submit a waiver to the Federal Communications Commission. The waiver will request a postponement of the emergency communications system project deadline.
“Not only are we speeding as fast as we can to implement this system before the FCC deadline, but frankly there is another reason that supersedes that,” Dejung said. “The new radio system potentially saves lives. It’s a system that has been demanded by the public safety responders, and it’s recognized as one that will improve the operability, will improve coverage around the county and will provide needed extra capacity.”
Dejung said the project is one that has been considered for a decade and that the county now has to act quickly to avoid fines and to implement the improved public safety measures that he said most county officials agree are needed.
Parisi said he was surprised by the ten supervisors’ decisions and did not know what their intention was.
“When I talked to various members of the ten, the target changes each time. There is not a specific goal that they’ve come around,” Parisi said. “Unfortunately the message that I am getting is that they did it because they can. And to me that is not acceptable. It’s regrettable and it’s reckless.”
The County Board will meet again Oct. 6.
