After years of on-and-off discussion, numerous meetings, emotional pleas, presentations, failed motions and an endless stream of facts and figures, it all came down to a special meeting Monday afternoon.

Members of the Oxford Village Council voted 3-2 to “begin the process” of transitioning police dispatch services to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and “eliminate” the village police dispatch center effective July 1, 2017 “or sooner.”

The decision was motivated solely by a desire to save money for the cash-strapped municipality. There was no dissatisfaction expressed by officials regarding the way the local center operates or its personnel.

“I think it’s important to keep in mind that while there is the belief that this is an easy decision, that’s not the case,” said Councilman Erik Dolan, an officer with the Oak Park Public Safety Department since 1996.

“In today’s public safety environment, consolidation is the wave of the future. It’s the only way municipalities, financially, can survive in many instances.”

Dolan is the one who made the motion.

“Is it the optimal situation? Absolutely not,” he explained. “I work in a police department that has its own dispatch center and I prefer that. However, my organization is in a completely different financial place. This organization is not in a healthy financial place in order to continue to sustain these (dispatch) costs that continue to rise, and there is no way of preventing them from increasing exponentially.

“In a perfect world, this would not be my choice. But in this current situation, it is.”

Voting in favor of the motion were village President Sue Bossardet, Councilman Tom Kennis and Dolan.

Voting against it were councilwomen Maureen Helmuth and Rose Bejma.

Although she voted to go with the county, Bossardet, a lifelong village resident who’s served on council and numerous other boards over the years, got choked up as she explained and justified her choice.

“I want everybody to know that this was not an easy decision on my part,” she said. “I sought counsel from a lot of individuals and while I would have liked to have made the decision with my heart, I had to make it with my head. To say that I’m happy about this decision, I’m not. But again, I had to make it with my head. I had to think financially, what is the best thing for this village and not what I would like it to be.”

The sheriff’s office told the village it could provide police dispatch services for $23,246 from July 1 through March 31, 2017 and $31,115 from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018.

This is a far cry from the $338,300 dispatch budget village officials recently approved for the 2016-17 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Of that amount, $300,000 is coming from the village’s general fund budget, which is directly supported by taxpayers; $30,000 is derived from the contract with Lake Orion to provide it with police dispatch services; and the remaining $8,500 consists of “reimbursements” and training funds from the state.

After going over all the figures supplied by village Manager Joe Young, it was determined, under a contract with county, the village would save approximately $200,000 annually beginning in the second year.

“There are some onetime payments that we will have to make in the first year, which don’t have to be made in the second year, to address personnel (union) contract issues,” explained village attorney Bob Davis.

The estimated $200,000 in annual savings from the second year forward comes after paying for the county’s services and all the fixed costs associated with the village police station such as custodial services, postage, telephone service, utilities, operating supplies, trash collection, insurance, etc.

Also deducted from the savings is the estimated $15,000 to $50,000 to hire part-time clerical staff for the police department. Dispatchers currently handle clerical duties and assist citizens who visit the station.

Without adding any clerical staff, the savings is estimated to be $233,000 annually, according to Young.

It should be noted that at the meeting, Young estimated the aforementioned fixed costs to be $70,000, but this reporter went over those numbers and found them to be approximately $50,000. Young concurred and admitted the $70,000 figure was an error.

That projected $200,000 in annual savings does not include all the costs the village dispatch center was facing for necessary technology/equipment upgrades.

“Keeping a dispatch center is going to get more costly in the future,” noted Patricia Coates, a representative from Oakland County’s Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System (CLEMIS), which is completely separate from the sheriff’s office.

“We have a situation in which there is no financial upside to retaining our (local dispatch) service,” Dolan said. “It only can be, potentially, a detriment, financially . . . There is no possibility of that situation changing.”

Coates noted the village is still eligible to receive $50,000 from CLEMIS because of its decision to contract with the sheriff’s dispatch. CLEMIS has been offering a $50,000 incentive to any community that closes its 9-1-1 center and contracts with another agency, be it county or anyone else. How this money is spent is entirely up to the community to decide.

There was some concern over potential unemployment costs associated with the three full-time dispatchers and six part-timers that currently staff the village center.

Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe assured council there are potential job opportunities at the county center for former Oxford dispatchers.

“We have openings. We’re going to have openings. We always have openings,” he said. “We can take on full-time personnel that pass the test and pass the background investigation and a drug screening. They’d be offered a full-time position, provided nothing comes up in the background (check) that would disqualify them.”

“There’s a rumor out there that we hire people and then we fire them – that’s not true,” McCabe later added.

It was noted during the meeting there is the potential for village dispatchers to earn higher wages working for the county.

As for Oxford’s part-time dispatchers who may not wish to work full-time, McCabe said they “could be offered other part-time jobs within county government.”

“We don’t have any part-time dispatchers, but we have all kinds of part-time jobs in Oakland County that we’re looking to fill all the time,” he said.

“There are other police departments within (Oakland) county looking for dispatchers all the time,” Coates added.

“Theoretically, all of our employees should be able to pass a drug screen and a background check anyways,” Dolan noted.

Davis estimated the transition process to switch from local to county dispatch should take “about four to six months.” There are issues that must be dealt with such as terminating the contract with Lake Orion, handling labor contract issues and disposing of the dispatch center’s equipment.

“All this has to come back to you for further decisions along the way,” the attorney told council.

Dolan noted he spoke with the city manager for Auburn Hills, which approved contracting with the county for dispatch services in late May. By the time the county takes over July 11, that municipality’s transition process will have taken a total of four months from the first inquiry.

“They experienced what he describes as an extremely smooth transition,” he said. “Almost troublingly smooth, he said, in that they did not proceed with that earlier.”

When Auburn Hills comes aboard, a total of 30 townships, villages and cities will be receiving 9-1-1 emergency dispatch services from the county.

In addition to saving money, Coates noted from “a 9-1-1 perspective,” it makes sense for the village to have the county receive and dispatch its police calls because all of the fire and emergency medical calls in both the township and village are already being handled by the county and have been since April 2014.

“There is a lot of merit to having your police and fire dispatched at the same place,” she told council.

During the meeting, Police Chief Mike Neymanowski mentioned the possibility of receiving proposals for dispatch services from other agencies, specifically the police departments in Waterford Township and the City of Rochester.

Village resident Dennis Moser told council it’s doing a “disservice” to the taxpayers by “taking a huge step” without looking at dispatch proposals from other agencies.

He called it “irresponsible” and said, “There could be substantial savings that you’re overlooking.”

Helmuth was of the same mind.

“I did think we were getting additional proposals from other communities,” she said. “I don’t know why we wouldn’t get those proposals before making a final decision since we have plenty of time.”

Bejma said “the only reason” she voted against the motion to go with county was she wanted to see proposals from other agencies that “may save or may not save” more money.

Bossardet said, “We have asked for additional bids and we have yet to see any.”

Young noted he “personally contacted” the Waterford and Rochester police departments and “I have not received anything except an interest.”

The day after the meeting this reporter contacted the Waterford and Rochester chiefs.

“I’ve had actually only one contact, one phone call from the chief of police there (in Oxford),” said Waterford Police Chief Scott Underwood, who noted that call took place about 10 to 14 days ago.

Underwood said he was asked by Neymanowski if Waterford might be interested in providing dispatch services to Oxford.

“We don’t currently do that for anybody else,” he explained. “My response (to Neymanowski) was we may be able to provide that, but that would be something that I would have to study and look into in terms of compatible technology, what would it take in terms of personnel, if we would need any additional personnel, what the cost factors would be.

“So, we’re not in a position, at least at this point, to make any kind of proposal. And the way it was laid out to me (by Neymanowski) was that even if that was to happen, or (Oxford) were to look to go with somebody else, that it wouldn’t be until probably a year down the road or so. That’s where we left it. It was just one phone call.”

Rochester Police Chief Steven Schettenhelm said he was contacted by Neymanowski “late last week.”

“I received a call from the police chief (during which he) asked if there was a request for proposals, would we be interested in reviewing that?” he said.

Schettenhelm’s reply was, “If they were interested and they wanted that service provided by the City of Rochester, we would evaluate it and determine number one, could we do it and what the cost would be.”

“It was merely (an) inquiry as to whether we would be interested in looking at that proposal,” he noted.

The City of Rochester currently dispatches its own police, fire and emergency medical calls, but it does not provide these services for any other agencies or communities.

“We have explored this possibility one other time (with the Rochester Hills Fire Department), but it’s not something (where) we would have (a proposal) right on the shelf,” Schettenhelm said. “It’s something that we would evaluate based on the needs of the department and then, make a decision as to whether it’s something that’s feasible for us, that works for both parties.”

Despite its decision to contract with county for dispatch services, council members made it very clear they have absolutely no desire to get rid of the village police department. They were quite adamant about it.

“For me, personally, the police department has never been on the table,” Bossardet said. “It will not be on the table till I’m done and gone because I will fight that tooth-and-nail.

“I think very highly of our police department. I fought for it before several years ago and I will fight for it again. I am totally supportive of our police department.”

“As a council member, I have made it a point to articulate in the council comments section (at the end of) every meeting I’ve attended, except for one, that I support the police department,” Dolan said. “I’ve articulated to the chief, I’ve articulated to the (village) manager and I’ve articulated to the sergeant (Mike Solwold) in private conversations that the reason, to me, that it is so important to financially secure this village is to be able to reinvest in the police department directly.”

Dolan explained that reinvestment could take the form of potentially adding more full-time officers, ensuring equipment is of the highest standard and providing access to all the available training officers’ find necessary.

“I would step down from this position before ever making a vote to seek police services from the county,” he said. “That stands today. It will stand, period. As a village . . . I think it’s critical that we have our own police department. I think the officers need to know that we stand behind them. Dispatch is a completely different ball of wax. Again, in a perfect world, I would like to keep our dispatch, (but) it’s not financially viable. It’s not something that can be done.”

Bejma and Kennis also expressed their support for the police department.

Helmuth walked out of the meeting before it ended, so she didn’t get to state her support for the police department, but her comments and votes over the years indicate she’s always been squarely in the local agency’s corner.