By Steve Halverson, Telegraph Herald
Original publication date: March 16, 2011

Dyersville, Iowa — “One-Adam-12, One-Adam-12, We have a 2-1-1 in progress in Rampart Division at “X.”

Like the popular 1970s television series “Adam-12,” police dispatchers appear destined to become a thing of the past in Dyersville, where the City Council approved on a 3-2 vote Monday the proposed 2011-12 fiscal year budget, which includes pulling the plug on seven dispatchers serving as go-betweens for citizens and police.

The move was considered necessary to hold the city budget at a steady rate for a 13th straight year – $9.46 per $1,000 of property valuation. According to Councilman Bob Platz, Dyersville is one of few Iowa cities its size to maintain active dispatchers.

He noted that even referring to the Dyersville staff as “dispatchers” was something of a misnomer, as true dispatchers have to be appropriately certified as jailers, among other classifications. He said neighboring communities in Dubuque County continue to partner with county dispatch with successful results.

In response to the proposed service cut, Councilman Bob “Gar” Kramer asked rhetorically, “What about the people paying taxes – screw ’em?” He stressed that keeping an “artificially low” flat budget year after year should not necessarily be priority one for the council.

“What are we going to discontinue next year? You can’t keep operating under the same budget year after year and keep the same services,” he said.

 Mayor Jim Heavens countered that Dyersville has enjoyed a robust increase in business activity and property values over the years because of the city’s steady course of budgetary discipline. He added that raising the budget, through increased property taxes, will make Dyersville less attractive to prospective businesses.

Councilwoman Molly Evers sided with Kramer, emphasizing that “we cannot keep putting off (raising taxes) on future council members.” Evers also was against weighing the proposed fiscal budget without receiving the results of a pending fiscal evaluation of the entire police department.

Heavens said the study and cutting the dispatchers was akin to comparing apples and oranges, as the budget already had been set by the council and could not be altered.

 In closing his remarks, Kramer referred to a petition by those against the move. “The names on that sheet say they don’t mind paying for dispatchers “I firmly believe a town that’s 30 miles away from (the county hub) needs its own dispatch.” 

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