PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — For the second time, Charlotte County commissioners postponed a vote on a resolution that would shift 911 call-taking responsibilities from the City of Punta Gorda’s dispatch center to the county’s.
City officials and residents voiced their opposition to the resolution at Tuesday’s commission meeting, arguing the move could increase response times for the city’s emergency services.
Watch Fox 4's Alex Orenczuk report on Charlotte County Commissioners delaying a vote on taking over 911 calls from Punta Gorda:
"If the commissioners vote for this option, the city can technically keep its 911 call center, but all emergency calls will first go to the county and then be transferred to the city,” said Melissa Lockhart, Punta Gorda’s city council member for District 5. “This extra step will create critical delays and put lives at risk.”
The city’s fire and police chiefs have denounced the plan and spoke against the resolution again on Tuesday.
“A vote to reroute city 911 calls to the sheriff's office will cause a delay in getting advanced life saving personnel and equipment to the residents of Punta Gorda when they need it,” said Captain Dylan Renz with the Punta Gorda Police Department.
Commissioners delayed voting on the resolution at the April 8 meeting, to allow Sheriff Bill Prummell to speak with city leaders about the plan. He spoke to council at the city’s April 16 meeting, where city leaders again spoke out against the potential partial consolidation.
Instead of voting on the resolution on Tuesday, commissioners postponed the vote for 60 days and opted to form a joint task force with city and county leaders to review the proposal. The group is tasked with studying the potential impacts of the change and where similar consolidations have happened elsewhere.
“Do a review of where this has worked, where it isn't, bring back not just the pros but the cons so we can have data and have a mutual team that looks at this in a way that is objective and unbiased,” said board Chairman Joe Tiseo.
Punta Gorda officials told Fox 4 that the city will participate in the task force, but Vice-Mayor Greg Julian said his position won’t change if the task force determines the city’s response times will still increase.
“It now falls on the task force to work out the details that are lacking form the resolution that they had on the table today, and then once we hear that we can communicate that with our residents and see if it’s an agreeable situation,” said Julian. “
The details of the task force including who will be included and scope of their work will be finalized at the commissioners next meeting on May 13.
