Ray County/Richmond 911: Deal or No Deal?
, Richmond News Staff
11-26-2009
Some members of the Richmond City Council lost an important battle in a fight for 911 consolidation Tuesday evening. That doesn’t mean the war is over.
After debate that broke down frequently into shouting matches and interruptions, city council members voted 5-3 in favor of transferring emergency 911 and Richmond police and fire dispatching services to the Ray County 911 Board. It was an exact reversal of a vote minutes early that struck down transferring only emergency 911 service to the county.
Following the decisive vote, Richmond Mayor Lance Green wasted no time informing the council he would exercise his veto power at the council’s lone December meeting on the 15th of that month. He told the council he would reveal his reasons for the veto at that point but did not hint at revealing them before.
The council needs six out of eight votes to override Green’s veto, meaning a turn-around hinges on a change of heart from council members Jason Berning, Tom Williams or Dave Powell – the three who voted against transferring both services to Ray County.
Powell suggested following Green’s veto announcement he wanted to revisit moving the city’s emergency 911 services and let the council reconsider moving dispatching services at a later date. It would take a new ordinance and motion, City Attorney Chris Williams said, and would have to wait until Green’s veto and a possible challenge had been resolved.
Those comments suggested the council could revisit Powell’s preferred proposal in January at the earliest.
A turning point in the debate appeared when Powell and Berning expressed increasingly vocal concerns the city had not had access to the Ray County 911 Board’s financial records and that the county hadn’t tied its contract to a cost calculation formula contained in black and white in the contract until late last week.
“I’m really suspicious that we’ve been asking . . . We’ve got financials from the city anybody can come up to ask for,” Powell said. “If somebody bases a decision on our budget of $7 million; it’s easy to do. Why can’t the county supply us?”
Finance Director Melanie Allwood spoke to council member Terrie Stanley late last week, when Ray County 911 Director Scott Enss submitted a revised contract containing the calculation formula. The calcuation formula was requested by Allwood during the Nov. 10 council meeting.
The document explained calculating an entity’s bill for 911 service follows this formula: In Richmond’s case, total calls for Richmond police and fire are counted, then divided by the total calls Ray County’s call center services monthly, resulting in a call-volume percentage; finally the formula multiplies the total expenses for Ray County 911 by that percentage to receive the amount an entity owes.
Allwood said late last week she was happy with the formula she received, Stanley said. However, Allwood added it wouldn’t be prudent to go forward without more concrete financial statements, giving a baseline as to how the formula was derived.
As he has numerous times over several months, Public Safety Committee chairman Bob Bond confronted financial questions from Green and other administrators and council members with a Sept. 21, 2005, Daily News quote from Green – then a councilman – regarding unanswered cost questions when Richmond debated splitting its emergency 911 services from Ray County’s facilities.
This time, Green came prepared. Yes, he told Bond, he said the cost was unknown. But by April, when the city officially moved into its Municipal Complex, things changed.
“If you’ll look in the records, we moved by April. We had a pretty good idea by April what the cost would be,” Green said, with Bond offering that it cost around $302,000 to make the transition.
Stanley engaged Missouri Fraternal Order of Police Vice President – and former Richmond police officer – Richard A. Inglima in a several-minute verbal brawl that eventually drew in involvement from Green and council member and consolidation-supporting council member Roger Kepple, who voted for moving dispatch and emergency 911 services. Inglima attacked the council with statements that “you (council) have disdain for the police department.”
As Berning questioned whether there were any further remarks from the audience, Inglima was already striding to the podium.
Earlier, Council Jim Dunwoodie had chastised Inglima for chuckling quietly and shaking his head as Stanley argued with Green and City Administrator Rick Childers over disclosure to the council of Richmond police possessing mapping software licensed to Ray County.
None of the eight council members appeared to disagree with transferring the 911 services. The sides seemed to clash almost solely over transferring dispatching services. Berning, Powell and Williams favored leaving dispatch as it stands for the time being.
All remaining council members advocated moving both, with Bond claiming the $155,000 annual contract could save the city $21,000 by eliminating dispatch. Bond’s equation also included $1,800 of the $11,600 in costs for the ALERT system as well as over $6,000 in emergency 911 phone line fees that are used by dispatch, but are listed in the police budget.
Inglima warned the council eliminating dispatch services risked leaving walk-ups needing service unaware of where to go for emergency help.
“You’re saying for $21,000 a year savings – basically, that equates to around $2.50 an hour – you would rather not have a place for your citizens to go if they have an immediate need for police service,” he said.
Williams reminded Inglima the county’s dispatch center sat only three blocks away, to which Inglima reminded Williams, “I know where it is. I worked here for several years.”
“There are times people know one place to go, and that’s the police department,” Inglima said, before Stanley began interrupting him to make her own point.
“We will have people (at the department),” Stanley said. Both Stanley’s and Inglima’s comments echoed former Richmond Mayor Ed Lee Swafford’s in the meeting’s opening minutes, reminding Green and the Council they “work for the people. The people are the boss.” Inglima claimed the council was putting citizens at risk with reduced service, in the name of saving money.
Stanley claimed the council’s actions responded to the voice of the people.
“The people voted for 911,” Stanley said over Inglima. “They didn’t vote to take it from 911 and bring it over here. There was never a vote. You say the people don’t matter; that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re putting it back what the people voted for.” She added the city moved its 911 center “because they wanted to” and Inglima said Stanley’s tone was “ridiculous.”
Stanley vowed to mail Inglima a copy of phone survey results, conducted by herself and two others, of “about 150” Ward IV voters, of which 62 out of 75 contacted support consolidated 911 services and dispatch from the county.
Council member Jim Dunwoodie eventually questioned why Green allowed the meeting to continue in an uncivil manner, specifically saying Inglima was attempted to intimidate the council. Bond, Dunwoodie and Kepple all questioned why Inglima, who now resides and works in law enforcement in Lee’s Summit, was telling the council its business.
It marked the second time in a year the council had sparred with Inglima over police personnel issues.
“We were hired by the citizens of this town to do what we think is right,” Dunwoodie said.
Stanley’s husband, Kevin, rose from his seat and yelled at Green to get the meeting under control, and end a series of back-and-forth interruptions between the council and Inglima. Two Richmond police officers then closed distance between themselves and Kevin as he continued berating Green.
“He’s been here a couple of times, and now he’s accusing her and everybody else of stuff he doesn’t even know about!” Kevin yelled.
“We’re going to have order at this meeting,” said Green, after rising from his seat to calm Kevin. Terrie quipped, “Oh, now we are?”
Swafford, seated near Kevin, cautioned him to sit down. His wife warned him the officers could arrest him if he continued further. “He [Inglima] does not know me. He does not know anybody in these seats . . . He [Inglima] says he’s a professional? That is the least professional thing to do,” Terrie added.
Green asked, “Would that be the same thing as people accusing me of running the meeting incorrectly?” He referred to previous remarks by Swafford at that night’s meeting, chastising him for calling city employees’ roll before the council. Stanley argued Swafford maintained a civil tone.
Jim Rippy, former city council member, rose from his feet at one point and said, “Point of order: Call for a vote.” Green calmly told Rippy a call for a vote had to come from a sitting council member. Rippy argued Green had to honor his request, because he raised a point of order.
Powell himself acknowledged moving emergency 911 service would save the city funds in the future it would otherwise spend on Phase II compatibility and keeping pace with other future 911 technology advances.
Police Chief Terri McWilliams and Communications Director Tim Ray said there aren’t guaranteed increased risks of dropped calls because of other electronic means of dispatching including instant messaging services and radio frequency.
Allwood brought the issue full-circle back to a financial question of full disclosure. Powell concurred. Ray corrected that previous assessments by R.D. Porter was for a typical 911 call, not a call for service, such as running vehicle tags or criminal histories.
“We want to make decisions on good business. I just can’t in good faith make a decision based on numbers that look awful suspicious,” Powell said. “We’re spending the taxpayers money. We should spend it on facts.”
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