Wauconda trustees have questions about outsourcing dispatchers
Wauconda's trustees are in no rush to vote on a controversial proposal to outsource police dispatch service.
For the first time since Village Administrator Doug Maxeiner gave a detailed presentation about the plan a week ago, the trustees on Tuesday publicly said more questions need to be answered before they can settle the issue.
"We're not going to make any decision before these questions are answered," Trustee John Barbini said during the evening's board meeting at village hall. "No stones can be left unturned, and no questions can be left answered."
And make no mistake, there are plenty of questions. In an interview before the meeting, Maxeiner said residents raised more than 60 new questions about the proposal after his two-hour presentation last week at Wauconda High School.
"We still have some sharing of information to do and some more research to do," Maxeiner told the Daily Herald.
That also means another presentation to the board down the road, Maxeiner said.
But he knows people got antsy during his remarks last week and promised to make the next one shorter.
"Will it me another two-hour presentation? Absolutely not," Maxeiner said with a smile.
Maxeiner has proposed outsourcing 911 services to Lake Zurich. It could save Wauconda $2.1 million over five years, but it also would leave 10 full-time and two-part time dispatchers out of work.
Critics of the plan have raised concerns about the level of service out-of-town dispatchers would provide, among other issues.
Barbini wasn't the only trustee who talked about the outsourcing proposal Tuesday. The other three board members at the meeting - Lincoln Knight, Ken Arnswald and Chuck Black - addressed the issue at varying length, too.
Like Barbini, Knight said trustees have more research to do before they can vote.
"We're trying to do our homework as best we can," Knight said.
When it was his turn, Arnswald addressed the audience directly.
"You want what's right. We want what's right," he said.
Black thanked residents for the many emails he's received on the contentious issue.
"You have brought up some very good ideas," he told the crowd.
Trustees Teri Burke and Linda Starkey were absent.