City Council: ChatComm Rollover Remains Set for Oct. 3

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of clients InterAct has ahead of Dunwoody for programming CAD-to-CAD

The Dunwoody City Council, in an informal vote Monday night, decided against staying with DeKalb County 911 on a monthly contract basis until ChatComm’s system for connecting fire calls to DeKalb County dispatchers is updated.

Each council member weighed in at Monday night’s meeting on the matter after Councilman Danny Ross told the council the option was on the table to go with DeKalb County on a monthly basis until the CAD-to-CAD system is in place at ChatComm, the emergency call center which currently serves Sandy Springs and Johns Creek.

Dunwoody is set to .

When those services start, the call center will answer all Dunwoody 911 calls, dispatching directly to the Dunwoody Police Department and transferring fire and EMS calls to DeKalb County (Police calls make up about 90 percent of all 911 calls in the city).

Ross' biggest concern is with call transfer time on potentially life-threatening fire and EMS calls.

Ross asked the council Monday to defer starting with ChatComm until the service has a CAD-to-CAD process for transferring the fire and EMS calls to DeKalb County.

CAD-to-CAD means that a call taker at ChatComm takes a fire call, inputs all the information from the call into a system and that system automatically is sent to DeKalb County fire dispatch.

In initial talks with ChatComm, Dunwoody was assured the CAD-to-CAD system would be in place by the time Dunwoody connected.

However, the CAD-to-CAD system will not be implemented until the second quarter of 2012, as the connection has taken much longer than anticipated. The call center said it would take around 380 hours of programming by vendors InterAct and OSSI/SunGard to make the system work (UPDATE - The city says that InterAct's updated numbers say it would take 220 hours of programming). The company that will do the programming, InterAct has other clients ahead of Dunwoody, said City Manager Warren Hutmacher.

In place of CAD-to-CAD, ChatComm will use one button transfer, meaning a fire or EMS emergency call would first go to ChatComm, then be transferred to a call taker in DeKalb County who would take down all the same information.

Ross has voiced his concern several times with the switch to ChatComm, focusing lately on the timeliness of one-button transfer versus CAD-to-CAD.

“Everything we’ve done in public safety has been about best practices,” he said Monday. “By using one button transfer, that’s not the best practice.”

Ross has several times since the city council . The last time he brought it up, in August, . Ross was chided by Mayor Ken Wright, who said he felt that a city council person on the losing end of a vote should have some limit on bringing up the issue again and again.

The tone was friendlier on Monday.

“I know you are tried of me preaching on this,” Ross said Monday, asking the council to defer.

Several city councilors said they respected Ross’s consistent work and dedication to the issue, but they ultimately sided with Police Chief Billy Grogan, who said he felt everything is ready for the Oct. 3 changeover.

Grogan pointed out that both Chamblee and Doraville use one button transfer systems (Chamblee has since the 1990s).

Ross said he understood the council's decision and will be watching closely to make sure everything rolls out smoothly with ChatComm.