Committee weighs AT&T FirstNet booster and adding a telecommunicator to reduce 911 overtime

County staff described an AT&T FirstNet-funded in‑building cell booster that would be installed in the administrative building at no charge and would use the office’s primary and backup Internet connections as a fallback.

Speaker 2 said the booster is provided through a grant tied to FirstNet phones used by first responders and noted the unit 'works off of the Internet' and could switch to the backup connection in the event of a fiber cut. Speaker 1 pressed for details on vendor lock-in and long-term costs, saying, “If they’re giving us something that’s free, but it’s only for their phones…what would be the cost of just doing that?” Speaker 2 estimated a commercially purchased equivalent booster could cost “from $500 to a couple of thousand” dollars and said any future fees would likely be brought to the ETSB first because the ETSB holds FirstNet cell phone lines.

On staffing, Speaker 2 sought authorization to hire an additional telecommunicator (a ninth position) after describing persistent overtime and accumulated comp and vacation hours among shift staff. Speaker 2 said there is approximately $100,000 budgeted for overtime that could partially cover new hires and outlined how adding one additional dispatcher operating a mirrored shift pattern could reduce some overtime for specific high-use days. Other committee members cautioned that a single hire may not resolve scheduling gaps and that full coverage could require multiple hires.

Next steps: the committee asked staff to provide a cost comparison of a commercial booster versus the AT&T/FirstNet offer, to clarify whether the AT&T installation would be locked to AT&T phones, and to provide more detailed staffing and scheduling calculations so the committee can evaluate whether hiring one or more telecommunicators will materially reduce overtime costs.