The following article was written by Chelcey Adami for the The Californian. Click here to read the The Californian article in its entirety.

Salinas public safety gets a boost

Salinas public safety got a boost during Tuesday night’s city council meeting in the form of 10 new police patrol vehicles as well as approval for planning a new 911 dispatch Joint Powers Agreement.

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The council also unanimously voted in favor of adopting a resolution approving a roughly $70,000 professional services agreement with Citygate Associates LLC to perform a fiscal analysis and transition planning for a prospective 911 Emergency Communications Joint Powers Agreement.

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This is one of the first steps to forming the JPA, which would replace a previous agreement entered by the City of Salinas in 2011 with Monterey County and other local agencies and fire districts for 911 dispatch services.

A JPA allows all cooperating agencies an equal say in decision-making. Emergency Communications is currently operated by Monterey County which has final say in governmental and policy decisions — a fact that frustrated Salinas, as well as Pacific Grove, Seaside and Del Rey Oaks, whose leaders said they wanted more control over rising 911 costs.