OUR VIEW | EMS dispatch: Take the risk

Businesses constantly face this decision: the devil you know versus the devil you don’t.

For years, let’s say, a business purchases services from a reliable, trusted vendor. And then, suddenly, there is change. The vendor changes course, and it changes the relationship. Or, another vendor comes along and offers an attractive alternative — a service that is billed to save money and still be as adequate or better than the existing vendor’s service.

What do you do? Pay the additional cost with your trusted existing vendor to stay up with technology, or go with the untested vendor who assures adequate service at a more affordable cost?

The devil you know versus the one you don’t. 

This is the dilemma the town of Longboat Key faces with its police, fire and emergency dispatch services. 

For more than two years, Town Manager Dave Bullock, Police Chief Pete Cummings, Fire Chief Paul Dezzi and other town staff members have been researching the best option for the town:

• Stay with the town’s current provider, Manatee County, which is investing in a new digital dispatch technology, one that would cost the town an estimated $250,000 more a year over 10 years than its present service.

• Or go with Sarasota County’s less expensive dispatch services.

Either way, there are tradeoffs.

In March, after much debate over the pros and cons of the choices, a majority of town commissioners opted for Sarasota County’s dispatch services. 

Last week, the issue bubbled up again, with Commissioners Pat Zunz and Irwin Pastor wanting to reopen discussions. But the majority opted to proceed with signing on to Sarasota County’s services.

One of the curious aspects in this saga is that after signing on to Sarasota County’s less expensive system, commissioners agreed to eliminate about $290,000 of the savings to be gained with Sarasota County. They did so by agreeing to allow the police department to hire five employees to man the police station 24/7, essentially refilling the five positions that were to be eliminated.

To be sure, dispatch services are a touchy subject. They affect emergency response times — crucial to the Key’s residents. And it makes commissioners nervous about the unknown: whether changing to Sarasota’s dispatch will result in the same service, better or worse.

This can be debated ad infinitum.

But rather than prolong the debate and angst, commissioners should proceed as they voted. Go with it. Don’t squelch change for fear of the unknown. We’d never get anywhere. Take the risk. Devil be damned. 

If it doesn’t work, change. Surely there’s an “out clause.”

Good call on town center

Last week provided good news on the development front. The city of Sarasota appears to be heading toward constructing a parking garage on St. Armands Circle. And the town of Longboat Key has pulled back — at least temporarily — on its efforts to lead the creation of a town center near Publix.

The parking garage is long overdue. Financing, as always, will be the challenge. But now that there is the will, there will be a way. 

Thinking ahead, you can expect there will be some type of bond issue. And if you are realistic, you also can predict the city of Sarasota will have to resurrect parking meters and paid-parking garages to create revenue — not just for St. Armands Circle, but also for Southside Village, Burns Court and downtown. Nothing is free.

Meantime, Longboat Key Town Manager Dave Bullock made a smart call when he recommended the Town Commission cancel a public workshop on a town center. Bullock said he would like to have two months to work with surrounding property owners.

We have always been skeptical of the town serving as the developer and land broker on the town center concept. That’s never a government’s forte. 

In this case, whoever is doing the brokering and developing would need to confer and negotiate with as many as eight property owners and leaseholders. 

No easy feat. And certainly time- consuming.

At some point, commissioners will realize they will need third-party experts to aggregate all of the property and search for an experienced developer who can deliver what commissioners envision.

But first things first: No developer of any smarts will consider taking on a town-center concept until he knows 1) whether the Longboat Key Club and Resort has the town’s approval to expand; 2) what’s in store for the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort; and 3) whether the empty storefronts at the Shoppes at Bay Isles will fill up and the businesses will succeed.