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5 <br />Operational procedures on the new consoles that have been <br />installed will not be fundamentally different from the <br />procedures used with existing consoles, but the equipment has <br />many automated features that will simplify dispatching and <br />reduce the likelihood of errors. During February and March, <br />all full -time and part -time dispatchers are receiving a hours <br />of formalised, hands -on training on the new consoles, <br />supplemented with any additional one -on -one training that <br />dispatchers may need to achieve proficiency. southern Sell <br />staff will also be presenting formalized training on use and <br />features of Enhanced 911 in anticipation of our planned April <br />cutover to E911. My goal as we initially implement our <br />new systems is to sustain our current level of service to <br />citizens. As our dispatchers gain more skill over the first <br />year or two, we will then expect to improve our service <br />level. <br />ORGANIZATION <br />In our discussions, comments were volunteered about the place <br />of emergency communications in the overall Orange County <br />organization. However, a number of participants in the <br />review process voiced their strong opinions that the status <br />quo, wherein orange Central coordinates all emergency service <br />dispatching throughout Orange County, should remain <br />unchanged. <br />Some participants indicated their views that Orange Central <br />lacked sufficient staff to deal with the volume of calls they <br />are handling. Indeed, the number of calls last year more <br />than doubled from the previous year to over 400,000. Others <br />suggested that the County employ designated "call takers" who <br />would handle incoming calls, leaving radio communications <br />with response agencies to designated dispatchers. In <br />recognition of our current fiscal constraints, our approach <br />on this issue now is to pursue methods that may reduce call <br />volume and duration and to configure our existing resources <br />to most efficiently deal with telephone calls and radio <br />transmissions. With our new facilities and equipment, I <br />believe we will be able to quickly transfer certain routine <br />administrative or informational calls to the appropriate <br />agencies. We are working towards reducing the administrative <br />calls that now are answered by dispatchers. We expect to <br />accomplish this through, installation of dedicated. <br />administrative lines and review of our existing commitments <br />to handle after hours calls. We may need to consider <br />additional staff in the future if we are to improve <br />responsiveness, but we will also examine whether any <br />economies can be realized as we implement new system elements <br />such as E911, CAD, and GIS. <br />4 <br />