November 30, 2020
Monday PM

It’s no secret that Rodney Dial and Dan Ortiz have not been on the “same page” politically over the past six years. However, after Mayor Dial and I just finished up serving as representatives on the 911 Dispatch Consolidation Working Group Committee, I feel compelled to tell the community of Ketchikan about the outstanding professional work and representation that Mayor Dial provided our community.

The task put before the 911 Consolidation Committee was to “conduct a thorough analysis and make recommendations related to 9-1-1 and Alaska State Troopers Dispatch Consolidation Plan” that had been put forward by the Dunleavy Administration. The committee was appointed after the Department of Public Safety had announced back in 2019 that they intended to consolidate 911 dispatch services to primarily two dispatch centers, one being in the South-Central region and the other being in Fairbanks. If that plan comes to fruition it would mean that the Ketchikan State Trooper office would see the elimination of all dispatch services taking place out of the Ketchikan office. Historically the dispatch services provided by the Ketchikan office included 6 full time dispatch positions and one dispatch supervisor.

Once the original “consolidation plan” was made clear to the members of the Alaska State Legislature, the plan received significant push back particularly from members of the Legislature that represented communities that would be negatively impacted by the plan. For example, the House Finance Committee of which I am a member, voted to withhold the DPS funding request that was specific to the proposed plan.

In response to the concerns raised by the Legislature, on June 2nd 2020, Governor Dunleavy, issued Administrative Order 31. The order called for the formation of the 9-1-1 Dispatch Consolidation Working Group that consisted of 10 members and 2 ex officio Legislative members. Mayor Dial was appointed as one of the members. The group met on numerous occasions and I was able to listen and later serve as an “ex officio” member of the committee. In each case, I was able to witness Mayor Dial’s exceptional level of preparation for each meeting and for his role in presenting the arguments as to why the DPS and Administration’s Consolidation plan was not likely to accomplish either goal of improving access to 9-1-1 services nor would it save the State of Alaska any money. Mayor Dial had previously served as the Commander of the Ketchikan State Trooper office and was very well schooled with on the ins and outs of what 9-1-1 services looked like in Southern Southeast Alaska. With his background and with his meeting preparation it was clear to me that no one on the committee even came close to being able to match what Mayor Dial brought to each meeting. He was also able to work in cooperation and collaboration with other like-minded members of the committee in order to advance the interests of the Ketchikan community on this important issue.

As things have progressed to date it is still unclear whether or not the community will be able to retain dispatch services out of the Ketchikan Trooper Office in the future. However, if we are unable to keep these positions within the community, it won’t be because we didn’t have excellent representation at the “table”. It was a pleasure serving and working with Mayor Dial on this committee where we certainly were on the “same page” of advocating for the interests of the Ketchikan community.

Rep. Dan Ortiz
Ketchikan, Alaska

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Received November 28, 2020 - Published November 30, 2020

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