It was people power.
Since the Town of Huntersville gave Cornelius its requisite six-month notice in late December, allowing it to vacate its partnership between the two towns in the call center located at CPD's headquarters, Hoyle has been in a defensive posture. He will support whatever decision the town board makes on the future of the call center, he told them repeatedly, while at the same time warning the elected officials they may not like the consequences if they opt to close the center and contract dispatch services from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
He based his contention on the level of service Cornelius residents receive not only from dispatchers, who know the town and the officers in the field, but also the benefits of having the police station open on nights and weekends and, as a primary service area provider (PSAP), additional perks such as an on-site breathalyzer and more.
Just in case that wasn't enough, at Monday night's town board meeting, a strategic offensive was launched as seven speakers took to the podium, supported by dozens more in the audience, telling commissioners in no uncertain terms that they must keep the dispatch center open.
After making his case in favor of the dispatch center for the second straight meeting, resident Gene Ervin asked the audience members to, as a group, express their opinion with their applause. After a rousing ovation, he turned back toward the dais and told the board, "Your citizens have spoken."
And they continued to speak. Resident Gary Knight, referencing previous and ongoing issues with Charlotte and Mecklenburg to which the town's citizens are beholden but over which they have limited to no control, asked rhetorically, "How can we rely on a city that can't bill our water correctly and a county that can't appraise our homes?"
To drive the point home further, Hoyle displayed a chart that illustrated the costs of keeping the dispatch center open versus contracting with CMPD and closing the station nights and weekends, and contracting with CMPD and keeping the station open.
Hoyle estimates the cost to keep the call center open at $497,904 in fiscal year 2013, gradually escalating to $586,034 in FY 2018, assuming the loss of Huntersville as a partner or customer and two employees. Contracting with CMPD and closing the station after hours, he told commissioners, results in a savings of $80,296 in year one, and costs above and beyond current costs ranging from $105,412 in FY 2014 to $89,067 in FY 2018.
Under the current partnership with Huntersville, Cornelius pays 36 percent of total operating costs, in part from the general fund and in part from 911 dispatch funds provided by the state, about 40 percent of the funds each resident pays via $1 monthly fee on their phone bills, both land line and cellular. Responsibility for the remaining 64-percent share (including 911 funding from the state) — based on comparative sizes of the towns — is the reason Huntersville is likely taking its dispatch business to CMPD. Cornelius can seek other jurisdictions' law enforcement agencies as dispatch customers.
Ultimately, as Hoyle has told commissioners in the past, it comes down to control, financially and otherwise. Once with CMPD, he reiterated, the town will have no say as to what their dispatch costs will be, and with the state's trend toward consolidating dispatch centers and eliminating funding for individual towns to start and operate their own systems, the town can likely never go back.
"I'm fine being a part of it," Hoyle told the board about contracting with CMPD. "I'm telling you I don't think you want to lose that level of service to be a part of it."
Commissioner Dave Gilroy, the board's most vocal and seemingly only critic of police department spending growth, said "I don't think any of us is at all interested in the degradation of 911 service." But, he added, he was having a difficult time reconciling why Huntersville Police Chief Phil Potter has expressed no concerns about going to CMPD for dispatch services, citing a dozen benefits plus an anticipated savings of $1 million over 10 years.
Hoyle had told the board in the past he understands Potter's position since Huntersville was paying the majority of costs in its partnership with Cornelius but not enjoying the benefits of having the dispatch center in its own building. Hoyle said Huntersville's issues don't apply in Cornelius, adding that Potter has told him that if Huntersville had its own dispatch system, he would argue to keep it as well rather than contracting services with an outside agency. Potter confirmed Hoyle's point on Tuesday, adding that his town's large shared border with north Charlotte gives his department more in common with CMPD than it does CPD.
Potter added that Cornelius is somewhat isolated from Charlotte with the considerably large land mass of Huntersville between them.
Gilroy asked if other agencies are rushing toward consolidation of dispatch services, why not Cornelius?
"I can tell you the norm and the trend is not toward consolidation," Hoyle answered. "The state wants the norm to be consolidation. The new system (of providing funding for PSAP centers) is based on actual expenditures and not population. If they force us to consolidate with Charlotte, Charlotte may not get all that 911 money we are getting because Charlotte has to prove they are spending that money."
At that, Gilroy suggested the path the town needs to take is to keep the matter open and pursue other agencies to sign on for Cornelius-based dispatch services in an effort to defray the costs. Mayor Jeff Tarte and Hoyle both said those efforts are already under way.
"Starting with Huntersville," Gilroy said. "Tell them they're wrong."
That's unlikely to happen, just as it's unlikely the town's dispatchers would hang around waiting to find out if they will keep their jobs. Hoyle urged the commissioners to make a decision, sooner rather than later. That decision perhaps came faster than even he had anticipated.
Commissioner Chuck Travis said it would be more effective to recruit dispatch service customers if the town has already made a commitment to retain its 911 center indefinitely. Sensing momentum, that quickly led to approval — by a 5-0 vote — to keep the dispatch center open.
