The city manager has named Kim Mesa to lead a new Mesa Public Safety Support department that will centralize 9-1-1 call-taking, forensics and shared administrative work while keeping police and fire dispatch operations under their current chains of command, city officials told the Mesa City Council on April 10.

The move is intended to deliver a single intake “one-caller” experience for residents, reduce handoffs between call-takers and dispatchers and consolidate duplicated administrative functions, Scott Butler, the assistant city manager, said. "The city manager has named Kim Mesa to oversee what we have now labeled our Mesa Public Safety Support department," Butler told the council.

Kim Mesa, who has been acting in communications oversight and has directed the city laboratory, described the new department’s mission as supporting the agencies it serves. "The Mesa Public Safety's, support department is just that a a department that's mission is to support the activities of the agencies that we serve," Mesa said in her presentation.

Why it matters: City officials and the consultants they hired found that callers sometimes must repeat information when calls are transferred between police and fire, and dispatchers often carry multiple responsibilities. The new model separates call-taking (the initial, comprehensive gathering of information from a caller) from operational dispatching (sending first responders). Under the plan, a single call-taker will collect and enter incident data, and that data will be available to both police and fire dispatch centers.

What the department will include: City managers described the new unit as more than a communications office. In addition to a universal call‑taking function and the laboratory/forensics work that has reported outside the police chain for years, the department will house shared clerical services, hiring and training, quality assurance, community engagement, purchasing and fiscal functions now duplicated across police and fire. Butler and Mesa said the police and fire chiefs will retain operational control over their respective dispatchers.

Consultant work and governance: The city said it contracted Winborne Consulting to review national best practices for public safety communications. Butler said a governance group made up of police and fire chiefs and assistant chiefs, plus city management, has guided the multi-year effort and will continue to oversee implementation decisions tied to communications, facilities and technology.

Pilot, timing and facilities: City staff said they will pilot the universal call-taker this fall to test workflows and data transfer before a wider rollout. Officials expect to officially launch the new department in 2026 and open a newly funded consolidated communications center in about 2028; design work and site selection are under way. Butler said the pilot will be thoroughly tested before going live so that the city does not “miss anything through that process.”

Budget and staffing questions: Council members pressed staff for budget and staffing details. Butler said budget planners have included the administrative costs to stand up a new department and that "long term, because of all those efficiencies...this will eventually be a cost neutral or a or a cost savings endeavor." He also told council that the city has set aside “a million a little over a million dollars” to stand up the department. Council members asked for more detail and asked that the subject be reviewed by the public safety committee before further commitments are made.

Operational design and labor concerns: Officials emphasized that the proposal is designed to preserve the close working relationship between dispatchers and the crews they support. Butler and Mesa said dispatchers will remain within police and fire operations for day-to-day dispatching so crews keep a direct relationship with the people who serve them in the field. At the same time, the dedicated call‑taking function will be consolidated for efficiency and improved caller experience. Council members asked about employee transitions, who will supervise particular staff, and how shared support positions will be funded; staff said they are still ironing out details.

Other details raised at the meeting: City management told the council that about 60 percent of calls to 9-1-1 are non‑emergency in nature, and officials framed the change as a way to free highly trained 9-1-1 personnel from routine, nonemergency transactions so they can focus on true emergencies. The administration also said the new department will include the city’s forensic science division, which staff said should remain independent from the police operations chain in keeping with national best practices.

Next steps: Staff said they will provide the consultant’s report, procurement and technology plans, and detailed budget impacts at follow-up briefings. Several council members asked for a public safety subcommittee meeting to review the Winborne report, staffing plans, and the projected long-term fiscal impact before the council is asked for further action.

What council members said: Council members across the dais expressed support for improving the 9-1-1 experience while asking for more financial detail and clearer plans for the employee and governance transitions. Vice Mayor Summers requested a public-safety-subcommittee briefing to “review this because I haven't seen the Winborne report,” and several members said they wanted the administration to return with more specifics about costs, staff movement and measurable performance goals.

The city’s next formal implementation milestones are a fall pilot of the universal call‑taker, the planned 2026 departmental launch and the future communications center ribbon‑cutting projected for around 2028. Until council and the administration adopt final staffing and budget decisions, the proposal remains an administrative reorganization rather than a formal ordinance or personnel appointment requiring council vote.