Citizens Email City Leaders about Budget, Dispatch, Parks

Gulfport Patch has taken a look at several emails sent from Gulfport residents to city leaders Aug. 9-29. Some of the emails are several paragraphs or more than one page. As a result, several of the following quotes are excerpts from longer letters.

In Favor of Outsourcing Police Dispatch 

“I spoke with Chief Deputy Bob Gualtieri, who assured me that joining the sheriff’s dispatch program would be a positive move, connecting the Gulfport police and the sheriff’s radio channels which would provide immediate improvement of our communications and sharing of information. ... After speaking with the deputy chief, I am positive that working with the sheriff's dispatch is the way to go.” - Rose-Marie Seawall, sent to council member Barbara Banno, Vice Mayor David Hastings and council member Jennifer Salmon on Aug. 29

"The City Council will not be breaking any promises to the electorate if they do no recognize that the Dispatch office is not a critical part of this community. They will, on the other hand be guilty of being dumber than a box of ricks if they don't fix this budget mess with real solutions, which includes removing redundancy from our City operations. $305,000 is a lot of redundancy built into this City's budget. ... I will continue to argue that the City can easily do without a service that can be duplicated for 25% of the cost that we are wasting now." - Mark, sent to Mayor Mike Yakes, council member Sam Henderson, council member Jennifer Salmon, Vice Mayor David Hastings and council member Barbara Banno on Aug. 25

“I chose NOT to speak at the last council meeting as there was too much emotion involved in the open discussion. I too would have been coming from an emotional stand point, but from the other side in support of eliminating dispatch. In the past 9 years of living in Gulfport, I have found that dispatch has been ineffectual as opposed to dialing 911. ... Dispatch seems to have the ability to determine if and when a call will be dispatched to the police dept, thus the need to call 3-4 times in order to get the police to respond. I am not saying that this happens every time, but when it involved issues as the beach, I have found more times than not, it takes multiple calls to get a response from the police – not a police problem, but a dispatch problem.” - Gina Burke, sent to council member Jennifer Salmon on Aug. 22

Against Outsourcing Police Dispatch

“I think the residents have spoken, will continue to speak and will grow in numbers – but that is just an educated guess. I implore the City Council to review the budget and look at other alternatives. Many of our citizens will be doing their homework and reviewing the items in the budget that could lead to a more educated decision.” – Jeri Reed, sent to council member Jennifer Salmon on Aug. 17

“I’m not in favor of the change.” - Art Padula, sent to City Manager James O’Reilly on Aug. 16

“This Council is proposing layoffs, elimination of services and rate and tax increases. But no one is watching how the money is being spent by the City Manager.” - Steve Karbowski, sent to council member Jennifer Salmon on Aug. 17

“You stated that dispatch has to be outsourced because police protection is the most expensive single item in the budget. You also stated that the police department will never go away. Well, next year the police department will still be the most expensive thing on the budget, and the only way to address it next year will be to eliminate the department. If you’re willing to eliminate dispatch this year by that logic, you’ll vote to eliminate the police department next year.” - Frank Verdino, sent to council member Jennifer Salmon on Aug. 18

“I strongly feel we should KEEP our Gulfport dispatchers. I like the personal responses/attention and familiarity they have with our city.” - Jude Bagatti, sent to council member Jennifer Salmon on Aug. 25

“When you call the Gulfport number to report suspicious activity or simply a need for a police presence – SOMETHING HAPPENS. They say, 'Thank you for calling.' And in minutes a police car is there to investigate. I guarantee you this will change if all dispatch is handed over to Pinellas County. ... Stop thinking about how we can find $200,000 and starting thinking about how we can make $1000 here and $1000 there. It will eventually add up.” - David J. Hastings, sent to council member Barbara Banno on Aug. 23

“I urge you to retain our Police Dispatch and Parks employees." - Nancy J. Robinson, sent to Mayor Mike Yakes, Vice Mayor David Hastings, council member Jennifer Salmon, council member Sam Henderson and council member Barbara Banno

Budget Questions and Concerns

“Who has seen the contract that the City has stated that they have regarding an agreement to mow our City parks and properties for the figure that was stated in the council meeting. If we are going to lay off our Parks dept. people I think that the public is entitled to see this contract and exactly what is in it.” - Dot Macdonald, sent to Vice Mayor David Hastings, council member Barbara Banno, council member Sam Henderson and council member Jennifer Salmon on Aug. 18

“There were also compelling reasons to keep the dispatch in Gulfport. There must be other areas that can be cut to cover these costs. Have we thought of giving the higher paid employees a 5% or 10% temporary cut in pay?” - Dot Macdonald, sent to Vice Mayor David Hastings, council member Barbara Banno, council member Sam Henderson and council member Jennifer Salmon on Aug. 18

“Are there reasonable alternatives to outsourcing on the table? ... For health reasons I have not been able to participate in the discussions, public meetings, ect. This doesn’t mean I don’t care or that my opinion should not matter.” - Elizabeth H. Fisher, sent to council member Sam Henderson on Aug. 28