Mayor rejects Watts’ proposal regarding E-911 board financial oversight

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, 4:30 p.m. — Mayor John Royalty has rejected a proposal from Judge-Executive Dean Watts to have the City of Bardstown continue its role of providing financial and payroll services to the E-911 Dispatch Board, claiming the proposal left the dispatch board’s spending without sufficient government oversight.

County officials met with Mayor John Royalty at the city council’s finance committee meeting Tuesday night. Larry Green, the city’s human resources director, listens as committee chairman Roland Williams speaks.

Watts proposed to have the dispatch board contract with the City of Bardstown to continue handling the board’s finances. He also proposed having the city’s chief financial officer and the county treasurer closely monitor the dispatch board’s budget and spending.

The proposal also would require purchase orders for all dispatch purchases and require their approval from county or city finance officials.

In a letter dated Wednesday, Dec. 16, Royalty made it clear Watt’s proposal was unacceptable because it maintains what he called “the status quo.”

“Unfortunately, the status quo is no longer an option,” Royalty wrote. “I cannot jeopardize the legal and financial status of the City of Bardstown by continuing to include an agency that we have no legal authority over.”

He called Watts’ suggestion that the city and council financial officers monitor the dispatch board spending “unrealistic.”

“The financial conditions of the last year which have allowed to exist by the Board and the Director cannot continue,’ Royalty wrote.

City proposal

In an emailed response Thursday evening, Watts called Royalty’s decision “disappointing.”

“When John and I talked yesterday, he seemed real open with an extension,” Watts wrote. “I only wish we could have talked more without (human resources manager) Larry Green`s input.”

In his letter, Royalty cited the dispatch center’s expenditure of $300,000 for an antenna tower as one reason he could not support continuing the city’s role in the dispatch center finances.

Royalty claims the dispatch board failed to follow existing budget processes when it asked Nelson Fiscal Court to build an antenna tower with county funds and then bill the dispatch board for reimbursement of those costs.

The city council never had a chance to approve the expenditure, Royalty wrote, adding that the tower project should have been part of a budget amendment to both city and county governments.

Watts’ proposal

In his response to media, Watts said the cost of the antenna project was $98,000, not the $300,000 figure Royalty gave.

“The County paid all the cost of the tower and none has been charged to the City or dispatch except for a few pieces of equipment needed at the center,” Watts said.

Unless an agreement is reached, the City of Bardstown will end providing the E-911 board with payroll and other administrative services on Dec. 31.

BACKGROUND. The city has handled the dispatch center’s payroll and accounting since the board was created in 2007 by an inter-local agreement between city and county governments. But after the dispatch board ended the 2015 fiscal year with a deficit, the city decided in November to no longer handle the E911 board’s financial services.

At a city council finance committee meeting Tuesday that included representatives of the dispatch board and county government, Royalty insisted there had to be more direct government oversight of dispatch board spending.

Mayor John Royalty’s response.

Royalty proposed that the city continue providing financial services but under certain conditions, which included making all dispatch center employees City of Bardstown employees, and giving the city the power over all hiring and firing decisions.

Watts objected to those conditions, but agreed in principle that the city and county governments both had a responsiblity to provide more oversight and guidance to the dispatch board and its budget. After additional discussion, Watts and Royalty agreed Tuesday to work together to quickly come up with an agreement acceptable to both parties.

In his letter, Royalty told Watts there are only three viable options for the dispatch board: the first is to have county government run E-911; the second for the City of Bardstown run E-911. The final option is for the Dispatch Board to run E-911 and the requirement that the board “live within the monies approved by the City and County.”

Royalty said the proposal for the city to take over management of the E911 dispatch would be a temporary move that would end once the city and county have completed a new inter-local agreement to replace the existing one that was extended in September.

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