‘Breakdown in Communication’: Tempers Flare Over Accusations of Mismanagement at 911 Center

Four months after a management change and an influx of cash at Lewis County’s 911 Communication Center, police and fire chiefs throughout the county say management and performance problems still have not improved. 

“I think it’s actually falling apart because of a lack of leadership over there,” said Chief Carl Nielsen, of the Centralia Police Department. 

Police and fire chiefs say dispatchers miss radio traffic and sometimes do not speak clearly or relay new information. They say a lengthy list of immediate and long-term needs is not being addressed. They worry about the state of equipment and the county’s ability to replace it.

However, county staff and the Board of Commissioners have a dramatically different view of the matter.

“That’s hogwash,” said interim dispatch Manager David Anderson.

Commissioner Bill Schulte was less diplomatic.

“Or, in Schulte language, bullshit,” he said. “… Their agenda is not fixing the problem. They have a different agenda, and I’m not quite sure what that is.”

Whatever their hidden agenda might be, Schulte said, it probably has to do with money.

“The minute you start talking to fire districts and city councils that they’re going to have to pay more money, they get their hackles up quick,” he said. 

Plenty of hackles are already up on both sides. 

While fire and police chiefs say ineffective leadership is fostering continued personnel and financial problems at the dispatch center,  Anderson and county Central Services Director Steve Walton both said they feel unfairly attacked in the increasingly contentious atmosphere.

“Let’s be a part of the solution instead of sitting back and taking shots,” Walton said.

While county staff, the Board of County Commissioners and fire and police chiefs plan to continue to meet in an effort to resolve the problems, neither side feels they are being heard.

“I think there’s a breakdown in communication,” Commissioner Edna Fund said.

The atmosphere between the Board of County Commissioners and area fire and police chiefs regarding 911 communications was not always so frosty.

Last fall, a group of fire and police chiefs — including Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza, Chief Nielsen, Chief Glenn Shaffer of the Chehalis Police Department, Chief Mike Kytta of the Riverside Fire Authority, Chief Ken Cardinale of the Chehalis Fire Department and representatives from agencies including Lewis County Fire Districts 5, 6 and 13 and the Napavine and Morton Police Departments, among others — began meeting to discuss problems they encountered with the Lewis County Communications Center. 

They met with former Central Services Director Mike Strozyk and former Communications Manager Craig Larson, and, when they felt they were not able to get their problems addressed, met with the county commissioners in January. 

Shortly after, Strozyk and Larson were fired. 

In February, the chiefs’ group began meeting with Walton and Anderson, both appointed in interim positions at the time. The chiefs outlined short-term needs, or changes that needed to be made within 30 days, mid-term “enhancements” and long-term “strategic issues.”

The short term needs are the most pressing, and chiefs say they still have not been addressed. 

“Honestly, since new management has taken over there’s probably other things we could add to that list,” Shaffer said. 

Some of the chiefs’ concerns include dispatchers who are difficult to understand.

“We could be in a loud or a noisy environment when we’re receiving the notification about the call for service or something to do with the call that we’re on … because fire trucks are loud, power tools are loud,” Kytta said. “We were looking for improvements and recognizing that that’s a need of ours and how important it is for people to be able to understand the communication. Undoubtedly, the other side of the equation, the dispatch center, I’m sure has things they would like the people in the field to do to make their job easier. It’s a two-way street.” 

In another instance, a Chehalis police officer reported a license plate number to a dispatcher and was asked to repeat himself. 

“The last thing a police officer wants to hear is ‘I’m sorry I didn’t hear that traffic,’” Shaffer said. 

He explained that, in tense situations, officers need to pay full attention to the situation, and shouldn’t have to repeat themselves.

“What has become a bigger issue for me is the way it was handled by the dispatch manager,” Schaffer said. 

Anderson has received 12 complaints in the last four months, during which time the center handled around 50,000 calls he said. He reviewed each of the complaints and determined half were unfounded. He said the center also received 13 compliments. 

Anderson said he remembered Shaffer’s specific complaint, and said the two dispatchers on duty were busy monitoring fire traffic on the radio and couldn’t hear the police officer on the radio. He resolved the complaint as unfounded. 

“These complaints are driven by something other than the facts,” he said. 

Shaffer and other chiefs said they don’t want to place too much blame on the dispatchers, or even Anderson and Walton. But they want to see change.

“Whether or not the management takes these complaints, and I don’t care what they do with it, what matters to me is the mistake isn’t made a second time,” Shaffer said. “What we need is the accountability on the part of the management to address the issue when it comes up.”

All of the chiefs said they want to voice appreciation for the quality work done every day by dispatchers, and say they understand Anderson has inherited many of the challenges the communications center faces from previous administrations.

“We have some of the finest men and women working in dispatch. They are really professionals,” Snaza said. 

The sheriff said those professionals need strong leadership.

“I don’t know if that’s occurring,” he said. 

The issue came to a head again Monday night at the Chehalis City Council meeting, when the council discussed a letter to the county commission from City Manager Merlin MacReynold expressing concerns about the 911 center and Anderson’s leadership.

“We have not seen any measurable improvements during the course of his time as interim manager,” MacReynold wrote.

Anderson, who was in attendance, said Monday night’s meeting was “very upsetting.”

While the county commissioners acted quickly to address police and fire agencies’ 911 concerns earlier this year, its response today is much different.

“They’re a day late and a dollar short,” Schulte said, standing behind Anderson and Walton.

Anderson said it’s not fair to say he hasn’t made progress as dispatch manager. He said he has addressed all of the chiefs’ short-term concerns and has drafted a long-term strategic plan for the dispatch center. He said he doesn’t understand why the police and fire agencies say their concerns haven’t been addressed.

“I really didn’t need their list to decide what needed to be done, what problems needed to be fixed,” he said. 

After removing Strozyk and Larson and appointing Walton and Anderson in a temporary capacity, the Lewis County commissioners put about $575,000 toward dispatch and radio technology, Schulte said. 

“We have made significant improvements since the beginning of February,” he said. 

Walton and Anderson noted that the county achieves 99.9 percent of the standards set forth by the National Fire Protection Agency for dispatch and has a 29-second call processing time. They handle 12,000 to 13,000 calls per month with 18 staff members. They have 20 positions, but are currently short-staffed. Anderson said he has hired two part-time staffers to decrease overtime costs.

“We’re not making excuses. We’re dealing with people. People make mistakes,” Walton said. “They are looking at every turn to find fault and tear it down.”

Anderson said the police and fire chiefs have some “legitimate complaints,” but unrealistic expectations.

Anderson, Walton and Schulte also took issue with the chiefs’ representation of their working relationship. They said the chiefs’ group has not been as willing to work with the county as they claim, and have canceled meetings with no notice. Anderson particularly took umbrage with the meetings not having set agendas, and started making his own agendas and running the meeting himself, he said. 

Schulte said he is confident in Walton’s and Anderson’s ability to do their jobs. Walton was once undersheriff and Anderson worked for LifeFlight after retiring from the U.S. Army. 

“Both of them have the background, have the experience,” Schulte said. 

Snaza and other chiefs said a manager with a take-charge, Type A personality does particularly well in a law-enforcement or emergency communications setting. 

Schulte acknowledged that Anderson does not have a Type A personality, but said a manager of the 911 center needs to take a softer approach, notably because up to 70 percent of dispatchers are women.

“You can’t go in and kick ass and take names,” he said. “That’s not the right person for that job.”

The Board of Lewis County Commissioners plans to advertise for a full-time dispatch manager position no later than June 1. 

Schulte said Tuesday he told Anderson in February that if he did a good job in his first six months, he’d automatically be the top candidate for the permanent position. 

Walton and Anderson plan to ask for increased dispatch rates starting in 2017 after years of undercharging agencies, Walton said. While the county doesn’t yet have a definite proposal, it has floated a 15 percent to 17 percent increase. The county charges agencies $12.50 per call. In comparison, Mason County’s MACECOM charges $28 and Thurston County’s TCOMM charges $34 per call for dispatch, Anderson said. 

“They haven’t been being charged enough over the years, over the last five years,” Walton said. “We’ve been eating through the fund balance to keep rates low.” 

Rate increases are essential to begin addressing the dispatch center’s problems, Walton said. He said the county will have a better idea of an exact increase when staff begins drafting next year’s budget. 

“We have to charge enough to pay the bills,” he said. 

The county is also considering asking for a 1-10th of 1 percent sales tax to subsidize 911 service. Snaza said the Sheriff’s Office already pays, under the current rate structure, about $400,000 per year to the county for communications. 

“That is a huge increase to us,” he said of a possible increase of 15 percent or more.

Snaza also said he is concerned the rate increases wouldn’t go toward equipment upgrades. Other chiefs also expressed concern about the county’s focus on a rate increase.

“Unfortunately the feeling, and I’ll speak solely for myself … they seem to be fixated on money and the fact that it was mismanaged before and funds were not utilized to the best of their abilities,” Nielsen said. 

Nielsen and other chiefs said they feel leadership and personnel issues trump any budgetary problems the dispatch center has. 

“Until we start seeing some service … I can’t in good conscience be spending our community members’ money on something we’re not getting quality service for,” Nielsen said. “If we saw any measurable improvements, we’d have a little bit different story. It’s not that we’re refusing to pay more money; we need to get our money’s worth.” 

While relations between the communication center and user agencies continues to be rocky, the chiefs are considering their options for the future. 

“I’m not ready to give up on plan A,” Snaza said. “I think we can all work together.”

At Monday night’s Chehalis City Council meeting, members discussed alternate dispatch services. 

“I don’t know that we would ever have a Chehalis Police Department dispatch center,” Shaffer said. “What you would end up with would be a regional effort. I don’t know if it’s an option or not.”

Shaffer said the department could choose to contract with another agency for dispatch, such as the Washington State Patrol, or with a private dispatch provider.

“I think the best fix is to see our current dispatch center start making progress and start getting on board with some of the things we need changed,” Schaffer said. 

Snaza said creating a new dispatch center from scratch or contracting with another agency would likely be very expensive.

Shulte agreed.

“They’re running off pure emotion,” he said. “… If they think they can get a better deal somewhere else, I’m all for it.”