Results of Grosse Pointe Park/City Public Safety Consolidation Study to be Shared Friday

City council members from Grosse Pointe Park and the City of Grosse Pointe will be holding a joint meeting Friday to hear the results of a multi-month study about potentially consolidating the public safety departments of both cities. 

The meeting was announced to Patch Tuesday and will begin at 8 a.m. Friday in the Lavins Center Movie Theater in Windmill Pointe Park in Grosse Pointe Park. 

Officials from the International City/County Management Association Center for Public Safety based out of Washington D.C. will present their findings to both councils. 

The study gained approval from both cities last summer and had originally been slated to be completed by the end of 2012. The pace of the study fell behind the schedule city officials had originally aimed for but the findings should give an idea of whether consolidation is feasible and beneficial to either or both cities. 

Funded through a state grant, the study is the result of the governor's push for municipalities to find ways to share services--an effort he linked to state funding each city receives. 

There has been discussion about consolidation related to public safety and dispatch in the Pointes for years, if not decades. In the last few years, smaller consolidations have happened with dispatch centers, including the Shore and Farms and most recently, the Park and the City. 

Those consolidations are the result of the Grosse Pointe Public Safety Ad Hoc committee, which has been working to determine where savings and efficiency can be achieved among the five departments.

A formal study revealed an all-Pointes dispatch was not financially feasible or beneficial to any of the Grosse Pointes but recommended making smaller consolidations in the meantime with a long-term goal of ultimately creating one dispatch for the five communities. 

The agenda for Friday includes the findings from the study, pubic comment and council comment but does not address any other topics.