Dispatcher accused of sleeping  at work suspended

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By Denise G. Callahan, Staff Writer Updated 5:36 AM Saturday, October 24, 2009

LEBANON — Amid controversy over allegations some Warren County dispatchers regularly slept on the job and the resignation of the department’s director, another dispatcher is accused of sleeping on duty.

County Administrator Dave Gully placed dispatcher Shawn Mason on administrative leave Thursday, Oct. 22, pending a pre-disciplinary hearing scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Warren County Commissioner Pat South said Mason allegedly was sleeping on duty about three weeks ago and again last weekend.

Mason’s suspension comes a week after Warren County Emergency Service Director Frank Young resigned following the release of a report from an internal investigation into improper conduct among late-night emergency dispatchers.

South said the commissioners are interviewing companies to do a complete review of the entire emergency services department, including the dispatch center.

“We really want to take a hard look at the agency, from the bottom up and the top down,” she said. “On policies, procedures, operational issues, what’s good, what’s bad, what’s broken and fixable and what’s not fixable.”

In the meantime, Gully is serving as interim EMS director, and surveillance cameras were ordered to be installed to monitor the dispatch center.

Commissioners on Thursday also agreed to hire Mark Lucas of the human resources firm Clemans-Nelson & Associates to investigate what happened the night of Aug. 11, 2008, when dispatcher Ron Kronenberger answered a 911 call from accused killer Ryan Widmer, who reported that he found his wife, Sarah, unresponsive and face-down in the bathtub of their Hamilton Twp. home.

Among findings in the county’s report released Oct. 14 is that Kronenberger, rumored to have been asleep just before answering Widmer’s call, is a habitual sleeper on duty.

In the 911 call, Kronenberger sounded as if he were confused and at one point asked Widmer if he was Sarah Widmer’s mother. In the investigative report, a dispatch manager said Kronenberger was probably sound asleep prior to answering Widmer’s call. However, county officials now say 911 records from the night of the Widmer call show Kronenberger took two calls 4 minutes and 3 minutes prior to Widmer’s.

Kronenberger, who started in his position in 2001, has not been disciplined and has no prior history of reprimands.

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