By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
At 6 p.m. on Dec. 31 the 911 dispatch center in Hays and it's employees officially transitioned from the city of Hays to a new department within the Ellis County government.
It's a move that likely not a single member of the public noticed, one that has been in the works for years.
In August, in a joint meeting with the Hays City Commission, the Ellis County Commission voted unanimously to take over the emergency dispatch operations inside the Law Enforcement Center, 105 W. 12th in Hays and transfer 14 employees from the city of Hays to Ellis County.
Ellis County owns all of the dispatch equipment while the city of Hays paid for the salaries and benefits of employees.
County Administrator Darin Myers said the move had been a topic of discussion for several years, but those talks escalated in the spring with budget planning for 2024 and beyond.
Myers said they met with dispatch employees early on in the process. They wanted to make sure they knew that they would not lose pay or years of service during the transfer from the city to the county.
He said one of the most reassuring things, for both dispatch employees and the county, was that Hays Police Lt. Jeff Ridgway agreed to transfer to the Ellis County Sheriff’s Department and become the new director of the 911 Communications Center while also serving as a detective for the sheriff’s department.
“They like working for Jeff. They believe that he's a good leader and the right choice to be the director for the new department,” Myers said. “I think that relived a lot of that anxiety of how would that look like so as a whole.”
Myers also said for the county it was the, “best case scenario.”
“He's very talented, tech-savvy. He knows our computer-aided dispatch system, or as we call it CAD, inside and out,” Myers said. “(He) has made vast improvements over the last couple of years since he's been with the city as the communications lieutenant.”
Ridgway began working as a patrolman in 2002 and starting working with the communications center three years ago.
After meeting with employees in the spring, Ridgway said they began the transition process, which has been made easier because of how intertwined the two entities are.
“When the city and the county made their vote formal between the city commission and the county commission, I've already been started with the process of getting all the necessary agreements updated and replaced,” Ridgway said. “All the requirements that we have to have in place according to the KBI and the Kansas Highway Patrol, we've taken care of all that.”
He said in the final days of December everything was switched over other than the payroll and that will happen on Dec. 31.
“The staff that's working the day shift will clock out on the system that the city uses, and the staff coming in that night will clock in on the county system,” Ridgway.
Both Myers and Ridgway celebrated the two entities' abilities to work together and said that is the reason the transition went so smoothly.
The Ellis County Dispatch Center and communications devices that are connected to the emergency dispatch center have undergone several changes in just a short amount of time.
The county, with the help of Federal COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Act funding and Nex-Gen 911 funding, has emphasized improving the dispatch center.
In just the last couple of years, the center has added the new computer-aided dispatch system and mobile data terminals to each emergency vehicle in the county, installed a new tower north of Hays to help with outages, and the commission has approved a backup dispatch site at the Emergency Services Building in Hays.
Myers said Ridgway has been a big reason why they are able to implement the new technology.
“All the different technology upgrades that we've brought to dispatch center up to the most modern technology, it wouldn't have been able to be done without him, and I think Jeff likes that technology aspect,” Myers said.
Ridgway says he believes the Ellis County 911 system is among the best in Kansas and comparable to any dispatch center in the state.
A recent legislative audit of the Kansas 911 system found several offices, around the state were understaffed and underfunded, but according to Ridgway, that is not the case in Ellis County.
“The city over the past years has recognized the need to increase its staffing. We've done that. They recognize the need to invest in our salaries, and they've done that," Ridgway said.
"When you look at the staffing challenges that are going across the state, let's listen to other 911 administrators. There are centers out there that are struggling to keep their one-seat center filled,” he said.
Ellis County has just one opening for a full-time dispatcher.
“I feel here in Ellis County with the city Hays and the investment we've put in our team and to our members, we're able to do a better job of retention,” Ridgway said.
“We've demonstrated that we're willing to invest in our team and not just with salary but through training, through continuing education and through mental health resources in all the needs of an employee.”