Central 911 faces depleted funds

"When the economy gets bad, we get busy," said Dana Carder, supervisor at 911. "People fight over money. They try to solve their problems by drinking. They try to forget about their problems by drinking."

All that drinking and fighting leads to some sobering emergency calls to 911.

"The stress level is like a roller coaster," said Carder. "Your adrenaline tops as high as it can go, then the call’s over and you just crash. But you have to be there for the next call and that can be two minutes later or two hours later."

Nothing much may happen on one shift; the next shift may be bombarded with calls.

"You just can’t prepare for that," said Carder. "That’s why enough staffing is important."

But additional staffing takes money, and money is one thing Central 911 doesn’t have.

Declining revenue and what to do about it has been the subject of much of the discussion of the Daviess County Central 911 Board during its meetings over the past few months. If worse comes to worst, depleted funds could even lead to the eventual closure of Daviess County Central 911.

"Revenue for this month is less than $15,000," said Carder. "That won’t even cover payroll and the bills."

Less drastic future solutions include the possibility of a sales tax increase to be presented to the voters to cover operating expenses. There were several months last year when funds fell short and CDs were cashed in to pay those expenses.

Daviess County Central gets its revenue from the sales tax and also gets $2,500 a quarter from the county.

One of the expenses straining 911 is the hiring of one additional dispatcher to the staff. The extra worker was needed largely due to the extra workload that comes with Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System (MULES).

MULES is a statewide, computerized communications system provided by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The online system provides a vast pool of court information. Requests for the service are made by other county offices, including the sheriff’s office, the courts, and the prosecuting attorney. MULES keeps the 911 staff hopping, and they also answer the sheriff’s office phones on nights, weekends and holidays.

The county commissioners were recently asked by the 911 board to increase the $10,000 dispatch fees they currently budget 911 by another five to 10 thousand dollars. The additional funds would be used to supplement the new hire.

"We didn’t ask the county to supplement 911 revenue; that’s not the county’s responsibility," said Carder. "We were asking the county to help pay for most of a dispatcher position that we’ve had to add as a result of the additional workload from the sheriff’s phone and the MULES system."

Carder said the dispatcher’s salary would be around $18,720 a year.

"We certainly save the county a whole lot more than that," she said. "We’re saving the county a lot of money by taking this snowballing workload on. We’re in financial straits and we asked the county for a little bit of help to reimburse everything we provide them."

Nevertheless, that request was declined by the commissioners and the fees for 2012 will remain at $10,000.

The 911 board has tossed around the idea of making up funds by imposing a fee payment by the other county offices utilizing the MULES system. As yet it is only an idea and has not been worked through, Carder said.

There are six full time workers at 911 and one part-time. There are generally two on the day shift; two on the evening shift; and one on the night shift.

"When we do not have a full staff of seven, we don’t have enough employees to allow us to take vacations," said Carder. She said last year the 911 board paid out 80 vacation hours to every employee.

"Everyone at dispatch loves their job," Carder said. "We like helping people or we wouldn’t be doing it. But you’ve got to get away, decompress and not think about the family who lost a child, the one who just lost their spouse, or the other tragedies we handle. Vacations are important to get away from that. You just have to get away and step back."

Routine expenses at 911 include five phone company bills every month. This past month those five bills were for $1,441; $397; $50; $330; and $1,200; for a total of $3,418. Health insurance is $3,400 a month.

"The board found the most economical health plan they could find," Carder said. "But because of our small number of employees, our health insurance is high."

Other regular monthly bill averages are $400 for radio; and incidental bills that amount to $500 or $600 a month.

Another expense to come out of this month’s $15,000 allotment was the nearly $6,000 cost of an election that didn’t elect anyone to 911.

Two issues have arisen in regards to the April 2012 election. One was about the board quorum after three of the seven members on the board declined to rerun for a position on the board. Those three members were Larry Belshe, Jerry Urton, and Alan Bradford. The other issue was about the high cost of the election.

Supervisor Dana Carder said she had spoken with Todd Schuler of the state auditor’s office regarding board quorum. Schuler said that with four board members sitting on the board, three members present can satisfy the quorum requirement. If the board is attempting to pass an issue that is required by statute to have a quorum of the elected members, all four remaining members would have to vote and approve in order for the issue to pass, as four is a quorum of the entire elected board. Schuler added that with four board members, all 911 business can be conducted as usual.

Central’s portion of the April 2012 election was $5,875.62. The board discussed the fact that they were required to pay over one-half of the total election costs for an election where none of the 69 votes cast for a board member could result in the actual election of a board member. (The 69 were write-ins but were not registered with the county clerk’s office and so didn’t count.)

No citizens had signed up to run for a board member position during the candidacy period, and no one officially signed up as a write-in candidate in order to be elected to a position. With no official candidates, the extreme cost compared to the subsequent outcome of the election seems pointless and unwarranted.

In other business at the January through April meetings held this year, a temporary part-time employee will be hired for an undetermined length of time. Rate of pay would be dependent on experience.

Per federal mandate all radios and base stations must be converted to narrowband by Jan. 1, 2013. The board agreed to convert in July dependent on Motorola’s availability.

Daviess County Central has been earmarked to receive one of nine base stations in northern Missouri to be installed in the county by the Missouri Statewide Communication System. The base system will only be used in disaster situations. A bid for updating/replacing the base station was placed by Midwest Mobile Radio of $5,475.94.

A letter from Jamesport Fire Protection District was presented giving ownership of the radio repeater station at Jamesport to Daviess County Central 9-1-1 per the agreement when the repeater was installed. Ownership of the tower was to be transferred after one year.

StormLab, a storm tracking computer program will be purchased. The dispatch center had this program several years ago and the employees would like to have it again as it is very interactive and can assist with storm tracks and other storm information. It was developed and is maintained by an employee of the National Weather Service in Kansas City.

A maintenance agreement for the recorder was approved for $4,027.95 from Voice Products for 2012-2013.

An insurance quote was accepted which added terrorism coverage.

Davis Heating and Plumbing will install a new heating/air conditioning unit in the office for $1,250.

In further election business, Larry Belshe and Allen Bradford were removed as signatories on bank accounts. Todd Watson was assigned as a temporary signatory on the checking account. The April election results were certified.

The January treasurer’s report was accepted with bills of $8,440.31; revenue of $25,361.65; and a checkbook balance of $34,501.85 presented.

The February treasurer’s report was accepted with bills of $10,216.73; revenue of $22,163.69; and a checkbook balance of $30,166.89 presented.

The March treasurer’s report was accepted with bills of $9,429.94; revenue of $26,200.49; and a checkbook balance of $25,931.58.

The April treasurer’s report was accepted with bills of $11,600.55; revenue of $25,742.71; and a checkbook balance of $27,023.62.