Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Emergency Communications topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Emergency communications seeks county share, new communication center and CAD upgrade; requests one full-time dispatcher, prepared-live upgrade
Summary
Jessica George Rethwisch, director of Emergency Communications, presented the FY26 budget April 10 and requested continued city/county funding, detailed progress on a new communications center and asked for one full-time dispatcher, a training laptop and a paid Prepared Live subscription.
Jessica George Rethwisch, director of Emergency Communications, presented the department’s FY26 budget and improvement requests April 10, outlining staffing, technology and the new communications center that the department plans to occupy in late 2025.
“Ensure the appropriate response is dispatched that meets or exceeds the expectations and needs of the public,” George Rethwisch said, summarizing the department mission as she reviewed staffing additions made in 2024 and a leadership vacancy the department expects to fill internally once training completes.
She described progress on the new communications center: construction is on schedule, walls and painting in progress, and Raycom will handle radios with IT and vendor work targeted for July–August ahead of a hoped-for November move-in. The center will include up to eight operational consoles on the floor with room for expansion and a backup center housing five of the six consoles from the current council space.
George Rethwisch briefed the council on call-volume and performance metrics: for fiscal year 2024 the center handled 25,735 9-1-1 calls and 100,335 nonemergency calls, with 97% of 9-1-1 calls answered within 0–9 seconds and 96% of all calls answered in 0–9 seconds. She said the department now logs and uses the “Prepared Live” platform for text/video from callers; the free tier is in use but a paid tier would add automatic translation (up to 19 spoken languages, 140 text languages) and live transcript features.
Improvement packages requested in FY26 include a full-time dispatcher to cover busier weekday day shifts (in exchange for returning two part-time positions), a laptop to allow dispatchers to complete required online training off the floor, and a paid Prepared Live (Prepared Assist) subscription for enhanced translation, storage and transcription. George Rethwisch said the paid Prepared Live version stores media and can provide requested call records quickly; she said some counties in Iowa already use the paid service.
Council members praised the center project and asked about details of the prepared-live subscription, storage and call-handling; George Rethwisch said media are stored by the vendor and can be requested. No public comment was recorded during the department hearing.
