Public Safety Committee backs pursuing standalone CAD for fire, EMS and EMA with $450,000 initial cost

The Rutherford County Public Safety Committee voted July 27 to send a positive recommendation to the county budget office and full commission to pursue a standalone, cloud-based computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system for fire, EMS and emergency management.

Cody York, invited to present by the fire chief, told the committee the proposed system would be “a $450,000 initial year investment with a $250,000 ongoing commitment.” York and other presenters said a cloud-hosted CAD would improve interoperability with neighboring jurisdictions, provide better routing and incident information to crews, and reduce the county’s need to maintain on-prem servers and frequent patching.

Commissioners asked detailed questions about redundancy with the sheriff’s CAD, procurement timing and who would pay ongoing costs. York said the sheriff’s office will continue to operate its CAD and that the proposed system is specialized for fire/EMS/EMA operational needs. He estimated a 14–15 month implementation timeline and noted some vendor quotes for hardware have limited validity periods, meaning later procurement could be more expensive.

Several commissioners expressed concern about adding a recurring $250,000 expense immediately after the recent budget process and asked staff to return with funding options during the formal budget review. Commissioner James voted no on the recommendation; the roll call recorded the motion passing with six yes votes and one no vote. The committee’s action was a recommendation to the budget process; any contract or funding decision will be made later in the budget and commission procedures.