Richmond Council to vote on 911 Tuesday
, Richmond News Staff
11-24-2009
A vote will happen Tuesday evening that determines whether or not Richmond’s 911 service will consolidate with that of Ray County. That doesn’t mean every city official is on board as of now.
A memo from City Administrator Rick Childers in the council packet for tomorrow evening’s meeting recommends the council not to approve the $155,000-per-year contract.
“I heartily agree with Councilman (Bob) Bond in his assessment that far too much time has been devoted to this issue already, and strongly recommend that the Council vote to not approve the contract for services with Ray County Dispatch as presented and allow this issued to be revisited at a such time in coming years,” Childers wrote.
Childers cites two chief reasons for recommending the “no” vote.
First, the contract – effective Oct. 1, 2009, through Oct. 1, 2010 – includes no pro-rating definition to cut costs accordingly for services received after that date through Oct. 1, 2010.
“Approving the contract as written agrees for payment of services beginning Oct. 1, 2009, even though said services cannot be initiated for eight to twelve weeks following approval of the agreement,” he wrote.
Second, he said the contract exceeds operating costs set forth in the FiscalYear 2010 budget. He claims approving the contract flies in the face of the council’s resolve that the budget includes significant cash reserves at the end of the year.
“The only rationale for approving this contract has been that it ‘just makes sense.’” Childers wrote. “ It would, in fact, make sense to have one operation providing the services currently provided by two operations if such consolidation served to save funds for all concerned. This contract does not save the city money; it increases our expenses.”
Public Safety Chairman Bob Bond has repeatedly said the city’s dispatch budget hides many costs – such as its share of insurance, emergency 911 phone lines, background check fees and office supplies – and doesn’t accurately reflect he cost of dispatching. He’s also repeatedly quoted a remark in the Sept. 21, 2005 Daily News from then-Councilman Lance Green saying, “I don’t think anybody knows how much it (a separate Richmond 911 and dispatch) is going to cost us. I think that’s a fair statement that nobody truly knows.” The comment was used as a pull-out quote in large type in that edition’s newspaper.
Bond has claimed it actually has cost the city an additional $300,000 to $1 million to move the facilities. That has been the defense of the council when Green or Childers has recommended the city hold back to perform more cost analysis: That Green himself said the city didn’t know what it would cost the first time.
“It’s time to go ahead and vote tomorrow night. In the council packet, the attorneys had three contracts: the original, which they didn’t recommend. The second, they had the same information … but they cleaned up (the legal language),” Bond said. “The third one is the same as the second one, but they asked for some type of formula,” Bond said. He suggests taking the second contract – which includes a hold-harmless clause – and making an addendum to include the third contract’s cost calculation formula.
Bond said information from Allwood indicates the $167,310 dispatch budget doesn’t include $1,800 of $11,600 in ALERT costs or $6,936 in emergency 911 phone line costs included in the police budget, but relevant to dispatch.
By Bond’s calculation, $176,046 in eliminated expenses will offset the $155,000 yearly cost to contract with Ray County 911, allowing $21,000 in savings to the city, which Bonds says be should not be utilized anywhere but for the police department.
Bond recommends McWilliams use her 4,000 part-time hours to hire employees to handle clerical duties or utilize the left over savings to hire an additional officer.
“I’m not telling her how to run her department, but if she’s budgeted for 12 officers, she could take that money wherever she wants to,” Bond said. “She could hire a part-time dispatch person.”
Councilwoman Terrie Stanley said the city has smoothed one sticking point by including the Ray County 911 Board’s cost calculation formula in the contract: Combined calls for service from Richmond Fire and Richmond Police is divided by the number of service calls at the Ray County 911 dispatch center to determine call percentage. That percentage is multiplied by the 911 center’s total yearly expenses to determine the amount Richmond owes the county.
Those numbers are to be made available by the 15th of each month, as spelled out in the revised contract. Stanley said Richmond Finance Director Melanie Allwood has no problem moving forward with the contract, since the call volume has been included.
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