Webster Groves council pauses a resolution on East Central dispatch amid chiefs’ safety concerns and county options

The Webster Groves City Council on April 1 debated whether to notify the East Central Dispatch Center (ECDC) of the city’s intent to withdraw after years of rising costs and complaints about dispatch reliability for fire and emergency medical services. Council ultimately voted to table a resolution that would have placed ECDC on formal notice and directed staff to pursue alternate dispatch arrangements.

Background and cost concerns City Manager Dr. (name withheld in transcript) and city staff briefed council on a long-running series of issues; council materials show Webster Groves has been an ECDC founding member and that its annual charge has risen about 49% between fiscal years 2015 and 2025. The city’s FY25 charge to ECDC was cited in the staff presentation as about $545,000.

Operational and safety concerns Webster Groves Fire Chief Brett Ellis told council the principal current problems are linked to a 2022 rollout of a new computer-aided-dispatch (CAD) system (Premier One) and to provisioning and resource-typing decisions made during implementation. Chief Ellis and several other chiefs have repeatedly raised problems with the CAD’s fire/EMS provisioning that, he said, result in improper apparatus assignments, excessive mutual-aid dispatches and routing problems that can send units to dead ends or cause calls to be covered by more distant apparatus. The chief cited the resulting liability and loss of confidence as the primary safety issue.

Chief Ellis described three operational failures: (1) resource-typing and provisioning that dispatch incorrect apparatus for certain incident types; (2) immediate-life-threat call routing that has at times dispatched apparatus not owned by Webster Groves rather than Webster’s closest on-duty unit; and (3) CAD-to-CAD interoperability gaps between Premier One and other systems (Central Square), making it difficult to see and coordinate units coming from other agencies.

Options discussed Brad Wilson, ECDC executive director (in his role since November), told council that staff are working on multiple remediation steps, including freezing two open dispatcher positions to offset revenue losses after Rock Hill’s withdrawal, re-provisioning with each fire department, additional training and the possibility of contracting a third-party technical review (Mission Critical Partners) to audit CAD configuration and operational workflows. Wilson said he had reached out to consultants and would seek a scope and schedule.

Chief Ellis told council that Central County Dispatch (a fire/EMS-focused center used by many county departments) could absorb Webster Groves’ fire dispatch within roughly 60–90 days once equipment and mobile data terminals are provisioned; council members asked staff to verify timing and the budget. During the discussion the chief referenced two different preliminary cost estimates for a move to Central County that appeared in the transcript as $318,209 and roughly $242,000; the transcript does not reconcile those figures and staff indicated further cost reconciliation is required.

Council action Council member David (surname not specified in transcript) moved to table the resolution to notify ECDC pending further updates and a remediation plan. The motion to table carried unanimously. Council members directed ECDC’s director to report progress on a written remediation plan, including timelines for provisioning fixes, training and a proposed third-party assessment. Several council members said they would seek coordination with other ECDC member municipalities so a concerted effort can produce concrete operational improvements.

Ending Council did not send formal notice to ECDC on April 1. The council unanimously voted to table the resolution while asking for a written remediation plan and a short progress update from ECDC leadership and the city manager before the next round of budget decisions.