Why is this an issue ? Dispatch doesn't have to be in the town to be effective. If this reduces costs, it's just the world we live in. Just because you're union represented doesn't mean you have a job for life.

DS not sure what you mean by reducing cost but ask your township council if the residents of Millburn SHort Hills will be seeing a cut in their taxes. The answer is No. For a town that has so much overhead to purchase wasteful property, i.e. Papermill Playhouse, common sense would tell you that their would be a tax relief. Not for the residents of Millburn Short Hills.
DS dispatch doesnt havent to be in town to be effective, i.e. county dispatch, but when a town is going to be covered by another town with no additional man power residents SAFETY is at question...

DS I think you are mistaken and don’t understand the entire process or anything about emergency/crisis communication. I hazard to make the assumption you neither have the formal education, nor the field experience to make such a comment, or you wouldn’t have. I recommend you read the past comments in the past article: http://millburn.patch.com/articles/x-dispatch.
Furthermore a government (local, state, or federal) that has the arrogance to work in shadows is dangerous. This is an incredibly important issue concerning the public safety of the entire Township, a community of 20,000 souls, one that’s population could have an additional 20,000 people in the Mall at Short Hills on a busy day, 10-square miles, many busy highways and roads – including an interstate highway, and many high profile residences. Millburn deserves better. Millburn needs better.
This issue might have conflicting opinions, but one that should be discussed in the sunlight of a public hearing, with real experts giving their opinions and not being decided by people who are misinformed, or just recklessly trying to save money.
This is the most important issue to effect overall public safety of Millburn since the 1980’s when the issue was debated to close Fire Station 2. Thank God, our elected officials had the wisdom to retreat from that disastrous mistake then, hopefully history will repeat itself.

Obviously the town administrator has planned this out assuming that when presented to the township committee is will be rubber-stamped. With our current committee that most likely will happen. The only thing that can be done at this point is for our concerned residents to attend the next meeting and speak to the committee and the public against this proposal. Hopefully, the committee will make the right decision. As of yesterday the agenda for the next meeting had not been posted. The public must take a stand.

The residents may need to know ahead the changes after Livington "take over." A proposal should be in place. The residents are long stand for silence. Not even be seen at Memorial Parade. Remember the no vote is needed if tax is under 2% cap. Cost saving is one area to secure. What changes and impact will make to the users?

Ive read some of these articles and am confused about something. There are so many people who are okay with sending dispatch to Livingston due to "saving money". What money will WE as residents be saving? Are our taxes going to go down? I doubt it. To me, its not about how much money I will be saving. It is about the safety of my family.

Would I feel confident knowing that if I have an emergency in my home, and I were to call LPD asking them to send help to Fairfield Drive, that they would send them to Fairfield Drive, and not Fairfield Terrace? Im not sure. If I were to have an incident happen at Macys, would I feel confident that in the emergency call that the dispatcher would send someone to Short Hills Mall, and not Livingston Mall? I know this may sound like petty stuff, but when it comes to me and my family, I want to feel safe knowing Im in good hands with people who know my area. Luckily, Ive only had the instance to call MPD twice in my life. Once was a minor fender bender, and the other time was during Hurricane Irene. During such a time when power lines were down, streets and homes were flooded, and people were truly scared, the Millburn dispatcher was very professional and gave me any updates they had. Im sure I wasnt the only frantic call they received, but they took my call and handled it as professionally as they possibly could have. I felt a bit calmer after that phone call. I cant say that Id feel the same dealing with LPD. I dont mean to put them down without having any knowledge of their dispatching, but I cant help but wonder if there was another emergency like that if Millburn residents would be treated as well, or if we would be put on the back burner to Livingston residents. Just my thoughts.

Update: Mayor Sandra Haimoff has said there will be a public hearing on the issue with a full presentation during the September Township Committee Meeting.

Its just wrong. people must go to the meeting and represent. Just like in Morris County, losing dispatch may mean a locked Police Department after 5pm and lets see, for my 37k in taxes, I get a shared health department, privatized garbage, a paid FD with delayed response, and when I call 9-1-1 I get a Livingston dispatcher? WFT? I might as well buy twice the house in in another town and get double the services for less taxes. Doest it mean anything anymore to live in Short Hills? Doesn't seem like it......

I'm fine with the change in privatized garbage; my recycling gets picked up much later in the day but no biggee. On the other hand, Mr Gordon has admitted Police response will be slower if the police dispatch outsourcing happens. Crime is way up in town. There have been numerous break ins while residents are home. There was even discussion on Patch a few months ago of a Mother home with many young children who had to wait over an hour in the middle of the night for police to respond when she feared a break in was in progress. If you are home alone and you fear someone is breaking into your house do you want to be calling a local dispatch or an out of town dispatch? This is an area where I think I am more comfortable staying local but then I don't have any factual info on how much will be saved, how much longer dispatch will take from Livingston than from MB and how much my taxes will go down as a result. If you don't want to go to a meeting (which I totally understand because its most likely to be on a work night) call. or email, the Township Committee members and voice your opinion.

http://www.twp.millburn.nj.us/town-govt/committee-members.html

This link brings you to the township committee member page of the township web-site. If you click on the committee persons name, you can email them at town hall.

Patch....how about doing a survery on how residents feel about whether the police dispatcher function should be retained or transferred to Livingston? I think this would be far more meaningful than the surverys on favorite nail salons, coffee houses, sandwich shops, etc.

As a dispatcher in a neighboring town who has been this doing this job for over 10 years, there are many things we do and the public should be aware of just how important our job is.

On any given day, during any shift, dispatchers handle a large variety of calls ranging from simple questions about parking, various reports and filing them or picking one up, asking of advice, MVA’s, medical aids, power outages, lines down, public assists, lock outs, thefts, criminal mischief, burglaries, alarms and the list is endless right down to the elderly resident who calls because she is lonely and would just like to talk. Is a dispatcher’s job important, yes it is! The dispatcher is the first point of contact you will have when you call the police, whether it is a 911 call, a regular line call, a transfer from another department or just walking in. We are the people you come to see or call when you have a problem and need the help of the police. We are the people you call when you see that suspicious person, vehicle or act taking place. We are the people that you call when a solicitor comes to your door and we can verify if they have permission or not. We are the people you call when you need an officer, the fire department, the first aid squad or medics.

There seems to be some negativity surrounding these stories and people are not getting the “true facts”. Residents of Millburn need to start asking questions and demanding answers. These are your tax dollars at work, do you want to pay another town your tax money for services you deserve from your local dispatchers. Has anyone even stopped to think about how Livingston dispatchers feel taking on another town, while doubling their call volume, not knowing anything about the town, about its residents or officers. All this and not even increasing their manpower for the desk.

In the end, a dispatcher’s major concern is for the safety of town residents and its officers.

I feel that the milburn spatchers are getting a raw deal. Times are bad getting rid ofw them won't solve anything just put 6 more people on unemployment.The dispatchers know the area and residents very well I'm sure Livingston doesn't. I vote to keep our dispatchers,the neck