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About 1 in 4 La Crosse city workers carries a cell phone, compared with 1 in 8 La Crosse County workers, according to figures obtained by the Tribune.
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La Crosse County spent more than $81,000 in 2007 on wireless equipment and services, compared with more than $62,000 for the city of La Crosse. Much of that is for law enforcement.
Local schools are a different matter. The La Crosse School District spent just $5,100 on cell phones — one for each school building — in part to save costs.
City and county officials say cell phones and smart phones — personal digital assistants with e-mail access, calendar and Web-browsing capabilities — are a relatively inexpensive way to help workers do their jobs more efficiently, responsively and safely.
“Now we can get information to people quicker, we can get decisions made quicker. We can also access staff in off-hour times,” La Crosse Mayor Mark Johnsrud said.
“When we had the storm on Aug. 18 (2007) we were able to contact staff because they all carry their (smart phones) on weekends, and that allows us to be able to react quicker.”
The improved communication is helpful even in nonemergency situations, said David Montealegre, the city’s head of information services.
“When I came here, people were chasing each other down the hall with sticky notes (for messages). We couldn’t find people,” Montealegre said. “The mayor said he needed to be able to find people.”
Johnsrud pushed to equip the city’s top and middle managers with a Sprint Palm Treo smart phone as a way to increase productivity.
Montealegre said managers spend a lot of time in meetings, and having a smart phone lets them multitask by responding to e-mails at the same time.
The city’s wireless policy allows smart phone users to conduct personal business on the phones as long as it doesn’t constitute abuse or increase the cost to the city. He said the city gets a pool of cellular minutes each month and uses only about half of them.
In the city, department heads decide who gets cell phones and smart phones. The Finance Department keeps track of cell phones while Information Services monitors smart phones.
In La Crosse County, department head requests for cell phones have to be approved by the Finance Department. Smart phones also need the approval of the Information Technology director.
“Cell phones have gotten to be normal course of business for most people. And we really use them a lot for transacting county business,” said Gary Ingvalson, county finance director. “They’re very economical. We usually get them free with the service.”
State buying power
And the costs are coming down. Using the state of Wisconsin’s buying power, the city and county pay $3 a month per phone and 5 cents per minute. The phones cost a penny each.
La Crosse County has negotiated its own wireless deal with U.S. Cellular in the past, but by switching to the state’s plan this year, the county expects to save more than $11,000 annually, said Bryan Jostad, county purchasing manager.
When the city threatened to change providers, Sprint gave them 10 Palm Treo smart phones, available for $549 each online, for a total of $49, plus 35 more for free, Montealegre said. It restricts the 45 Palm Treos to top and middle management.
The sheriff’s staff and the Information Technology and Human Services departments are the biggest users. Many social workers carry them when they’re in the field, in part for safety reasons, Jostad said.
The county’s cell phone policy says the phones are not for personal use, except in emergencies, and any emergency personal use must be reimbursed to the county, Jostad said.
Because they’re becoming so inexpensive, Ingvalson said he rarely turns down a cell phone request, but he has turned down many requests for the Blackberry smart phone the county uses because they have cost about $600 a year for the phone and service. That price is coming down with the state’s contract to $76 for the smart phone and $32 per month for the service.
The county restricts Blackberries to 10 top managers — and that doesn’t include County Administrator Steve O’Malley, who still uses a regular county cell phone instead of a Blackberry because he likes his paper calendar.
Montealegre said his city staff is developing ways that, for example, will allow city building inspectors to enter inspection data directly onto the smart phones while still in the field, which will streamline record-keeping and make inspectors more efficient.
Johnsrud said people who would criticize the cost of wireless “don’t understand what we do as a city. ... When you’re a service organization, you have to be able to be interconnected to provide those services. ... The expectations from people anymore is we immediately respond to e-mails. We immediately address their concerns. And the only way to do that is to have this type of technology.”
Cops yes, courts no
Much of local government’s wireless bill is for law enforcement. Police and sheriff’s departments equip squad cars with cell phones and wireless modem cards so officers can connect laptop computers with central dispatch.
But those who prosecute and judge criminals are on their own when it comes to wireless technology.
La Crosse County’s eight prosecutors are not supplied with taxpayer-funded cell phones, said La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke. All use personal cell phones, despite regularly fielding late night and weekend calls from law enforcement officers seeking advice on an arrest or search warrant.
Prosecutors don’t mind that they have to use personal cell phones as part of their work, Gruenke said.
“They need to reach us 24 hours a day, and whether they call us on a land line or personal cell phone doesn’t matter to us,” he said.
The county’s five circuit court judges are in the same boat, said La Crosse County Circuit Judge Todd Bjerke. They, too, take calls on personal cell phones from law enforcement officers who might need a judge to sign a search or arrest warrant, review a detention or any other number of legal issues.
On-call judges are reached by cell phone as well, though most calls go to the home first, Bjerke said.
Schools cut costs in ’04
The La Crosse School District paid $5,154 for 28 district-issued cell phones in the 2006-07, said Janet Rosseter, executive director of business services for the district. The phones are funded through local taxpayer, state and federal dollars, she said.
Rosseter called them “safety phones,” explaining they are in each of the district’s 15 buildings for teachers to take during field trips with students.
Seven phones are with student services employees, who make home visits or locate absent students.
The district’s six nurses also each have a cell phone. They roam between schools, Rosseter said, and the phones ensure they can be reached in an emergency.
None of the phones are taken home at night. All are for business purposes only; call logs are checked at the end of each month, she said.
District and school administrators have not had district-issued cell phones since 2004, when the contract for them was allowed to expire as the district faced $3 million in budget cuts.
“The reality is, do we all use our (personal) phones a lot for business? We all do. But we don’t have district-issued phones,” Rosseter said.
Wireless by the numbers
LA cROSSE COUNTY
1,417: Total number of employees
174: Total number of cell phones
10: Total number of smart phones
59: Number of cell phones issued to Human Services Department/Family Care Department employees, including those who make house calls and work in the field, in part for safety reasons.
27: Number of cell phones issued to the sheriff’s department, including phones in squad cars.
23: Number of cell phones issued to the Health Department.
9: Number of cell phones issued to the Highway Department
7: Number of cell phones issued to the Facilities Department.
7: Number of cell phones issued to the Information Technology Department
- The remaining cell phones are issued to Land Conservation, Medical Examiner, Hillview, Lakeview, corporation counsel, Solid Waste, UW-Extension, Zoning, administrator, Child Support, district attorney, Emergency Management, Finance, MEG unit and Metropolitan Planning Organization.
CITY OF LA CROSSE
540: Total number of full-time employees
148: Total number or cell phones
58: Number of cell phones issued to the police department. This includes 10 to investigators, seven to school resource officers, five to administrators, three to Domestic Abuse Reduction Team members and one each to the administrative lieutenant, training lieutenant, police spokesman, Emergency Response Team commander and traffic investigator. The cell phones allow personnel to be contacted during emergencies, investigations or off-duty hours. They also are used to communicate with victims, witnesses and suspects and when confidential information cannot be broadcasted over radios. Twenty-eight cell phones are used in squad cars and other department vehicles for officers to contact dispatchers, supervisors, prosecutors, judges, victims and witnesses. The phones are also necessary if the radio system goes down. They are also used when officers share critical or confidential information that cannot be broadcasted over radios. Additionally, the department has 12 smart phones.
45: Total number of smart phones
17: Number of cell phones city clerk’s office has, which are used just for elections — one for each polling place; service can be suspended for up to 90 days to save money between elections. (These 17 were not included in the calculation that 1 in 4 city workers carries a cell phone.)
11: Number of cell phones issued to the Engineering Department
11: Number of cell phones issued to the Sewer Department
10: Number of cell phones issued to the fire department; department also has four smart phones.
9: Number of cell phones issued to La Crosse Municipal Airport employees; airport also has one smart phone.
8: Number of cell phones issued to La Crosse Public Library
6: Number of cell phones issued to the Inspections Department; department also has one smart phone
3: Number of cell phones and smart phones issued to the La Crosse Center
- Other departments with cell phones include: Grounds/Buildings (3), Streets (5), Parks/Recreation (5), Public Works (2), Water (3)
- Other departments with smart phones include Assessor, Attorney, Finance, Human Resources, Information Services (2), Parks (3), Planning (4), Public Works (2), Safety, Streets, Wastewater (2), Water (4).
LA CROSSE SCHOOL DISTRICT
1,050: Total number of full-time employees
28: Total number of cell phones
15: Cell phones issued to each of the district’s buildings and carried by teachers when taking students on field trips.
6: Number of cell phones issued to the district’s nurses so they can be reached in an emergency.
3: Number of cell phones issued to student services employees who make home visits, locate absent students or transfer kids to school for student and staff safety.
Reid Magney can be reached at (608) 791-8211 or rmagney@lacrossetribune.com. Anne Jungen can be reached at (608) 791-8224 or ajungen@lacrossetribune.com.
