Update given on 911 Communication

Part 2

After a report aired recently on Fox 23 titled “Records: Okmulgee Co. commissioners, jail leaders, DA worked behind-thescenes to help oust 911 leaders,” OCCJA Executive Director Shannon Clark and Tim Lawson, Chief of Law Enforcement, sat down with me to address some of the allegations made, and shed light on other issues brought up in the piece.

— 911 Communications was under Okmulgee County Emergency Management Clark stated the segment stated that 911 was under OC Emergency Management.

“It never was,” he said. “It was under the Board of County Commissioners. The 911 director served as the interim director.”

Clark stated that in 2016, after the departure of the former 911 director, Tim Craighton stepped in, since there was no one to take the role. He was paid a “stipend to be an interim director until they found a new director. They just never found a director. So it never was under Emergency Management.”

— The Commissioners broke from executive session to go to a retirement party Clark stated that the commissioners did take a break to attended a recognition ceremony for Assistant District Attorney Greg Stidham on 40 years service, (not a retirement party).

“So they’re claiming that the citizens were waiting for them to return from the party, and that’s not true,” Clark said. He stated the commissioners were in executive session, took a break to attend the reception, and then returned to their meeting. Upon return from executive session to the commissioners board room, “they adjourned,” Clark said. “There was no one there … The commission meetings are set for the commissioners. The citizens being able to participate it’s just the benefit. They don’t have to worry about the schedule of citizens. So they went back and reconvened and they did it it properly, it was properly minuted, and everything was by the Open Record Act.”

“As far as reaching out to me (the TV report) for comment, they never reached out to me,” Clark said. “He showed up here at the window demanding the Open Records. It wasn’t on us. It was served to the county commissioners … They never approached us for comment. We didn’t get any emails. We didn’t get any information. So him saying where he’s talking to Clark for comment. They never did. They never reached out to me for comment or my PIO (Public Information Officer). So that is absolutely false. And we probably still have the video showing that they just walked up and walked back out there asked him that open record.”

Clark stated he was hesitant at first about addressing the TV segment, but “they not only disparaged me, the commissioners, the sheriff, the district attorney, now they’ve disparaged two business owners by making false accusations that aren’t true and everybody is willing to stand up and say this is a lie … The reason the commissioners were wanting to do this in an open forum is they wanted something publicly that they can hold up to their constituents to say see, ‘We told the truth. This is all lie.’” The change of leadership of 911 Communications early this year was an emotionally charged time for employees and county leaders.

“Everyone was emotionally charged,” Clark said.

The director stated that there is over 150 years of experience with police work and emergency response among the leadership of OCCJA, which makes the it a win-win situation for 911 Communications.

-Tim Lawson shared the statistics for the service calls through 911 between June and the previous month.

Calls for Service Report Okmulgee Police: June – 1,324; May – 1,229 Okmulgee County Sheriff ’s Office: June – 1,336; May – 1,380 Okmulgee Fire Department: June – 120; May – 85 EMS: June – 674; May – 644 Nuyaka Fire: June – 1; May – 0 Twin Hills Fire: June – 6; May 1 Beggs Fire Department: June 10; May – 10 Preston Fire Department: June – 2; May – 1 Morris Fire Department: June 10; May – 15 OSU Police Department: June 4; May – 4 Clark stated that when OCCJA took over 911 Communications, there were 8-10 employees.

There are now 17 employees in 911 Communications.

“They all got over $2 an hour pay raises,” Clark and Lawson said. “They got better working conditions, better hours. Uniform shirts and jackets, uniform shirts and jackets. And we got their own patches. We’re professionalizing the organization.

“But there is all the ridicule coming back on us,” Clark said. “Six are still the original dispatchers, and but we’re training 10 new ones. So it’s going to take a minute to fix things.

“Well, how do you fix that?,” he said. “You got to hire new people. All right. Well, when you’re training new people, you know what? Sometimes they don’t get the right verbage out or they don’t get the right information in the right order or something … Well, you can’t fix something unless you’re 100% confident that you put all the resources and that’s what we’re trying to do. We put an ad out and got over 33 applications in one swipe for dispatch … But you gotta find the right ones … We’re trying to find people that have some experience, some talent, and this is gonna take a little bit time. It’s not a big pool to pick from. And if you were able to get the very best from that pool, there’s still a learning curve. It’s a learning curve.”

The new 911 Communication employees are able to take advantage of several resources and training.

“All that being said, a lot of these things are, are in the motion, and things are relatively and considerably better than what they were,” Clark said.

Every month in the board meeting, OCCJA presents a report to the trustees which allows them to get a better understanding of how things work.

Stacy Oglesby, who serves as co-supervisor of dispatch for 911 Communications, shared some items with the Times about the department since the takeover by OCCJA.

“Here is the list of improvements that Autumn Shepardson, my co-dispatch supervisor, and I believe our communications center has benefited from since switching over to Okmulgee County Criminal Justice Authority.”

Dispatch Improvements

• Pay Raise, which also had the added benefit of more applicants and a better pool of them to choose from.

• Actual supplies, without them being locked up and held from us due to the cost (whiteout is what was mostly monitored so closely)

• Training – We’ve had numerous opportunities for training since the end of March that we weren’t aware of or didn’t even bother applying due to the knowledge that we didn’t have the funding. We have 10 employees in a Basic Telecommunicator course now, half and half roughly between new hires and dispatchers that have been here for a while. That never would have happened with prior administration.

Visits to other departments to see the difference between how things are ran compared to ours – it was a whole different world and has given birth to numerous ideas and plans on how we would like to grow our agency and continue with it into the future.

• IT Department – If something breaks, we have someone knowledgeable to call on to fix it. -Administration that has our backs and doesn’t ‘feed us to the wolves.’

• Uniformity – something we are working towards, but it wasn’t there before.

• Direction – we know what is expected of us, that’s not something that was always the case before.

-Up to technological standards – We know that this is something that is currently in progress with grants and everything, but we are looking forward to it.

• Actually applying for grants that are available to our agency.

• Less drama and toxicity Nothing was ever done about it when it did occur and was brought to their attention. That’s not the case now.

— Editor’s Note: Be looking forward to an interview with some on the other side of the 911 issue and their take on the situation.