Facing Dec. 31 deadline, mayor & judge still at odds over dispatch finances
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Judge-Executive Dean Watts speaks at a Friday press conference regarding the E-911 dispatch finances.
Friday, Dec. 18, 2015, 5:30 p.m. — In a press conference Friday morning, Nelson County Judge-Executive Dean Watts expressed disappointment over Mayor John Royalty’s rejection of his proposal to increase joint oversight of the E-911 board’s finances while asking the city to continue its role in handling the board’s payroll and finances.
After a city council finance committee meeting on Tuesday, Watts said he believed he and Royalty were going to reach an agreement that would at least allow the E-911 Dispatch Board to continue operation through the end of current fiscal year in June.
Watts was not aware of Royalty’s rejection letter until contacted by the media Thursday afternoon.
“It’s a shame we didn’t have enough respect for each other to sit down and continue the dialogue and discussion on a subject that we might have been able to find common ground,” he said. “That’s very disappointing.”
Watts compared the city’s role in handling the E-911 board finances to the county’s role managing the finances of the Joint City-County Planning Commission. The commission basically operates at a deficit all year until the participating cities pay their annual contribution to fund it.
The city offered to continue its role of handling the dispatch board’s budget and finances, but only on the condition dispatch employees become city employees subject to hiring, firing and discipline by the city — a condition that Watts rejected.
He also noted that the $300,000 figure the mayor mentioned in his rejection letter for purchase of a tower was inaccurate. County government paid the full $98,000 cost for the tower’s construction. The costs were not charged against the dispatch board’s line of credit with county government, and the city has not been asked to repay any of the tower’s costs, Watts explained. The tower is owned outright by Nelson Fiscal Court.
While the dispatch board’s budget deficit has been a matter of concern in the discussions between the two governments, city officials additionally questioned the validity of a line of credit the county extended to the dispatch board starting in 2011.
Mayor John Royalty, center, outlines the city’s position on the management of the E-911 dispatch board’s finances while Kathy Graham, left, and Public Works Director Larry Hamilton listen.
The dispatch board’s line of credit — which started out at $250,000 — has swelled at times to as much as $410,000, city officials said. The line of credit was created without input or approval of the City of Bardstown, Royalty said. Because the dispatch board is funded by city and county contributions, Larry Green, the city’s human resources manager, questioned the ethics of an arrangement that bypassed the budget process.
The line of credit was used for a number of projects that were never accounted for it the dispatch board’s budget, Green said.
“We’re going along writing checks and doing payroll for an organization with an approved budget, and they have a parallel, unauthorized, separate set of books they keep with the county,” Green said.
The dispatch budget includes a line item for repayment of the line of credit, Green said, noting that the city shouldn’t be expected to pay a 40 percent share of capital improvements it never had a chance to approve.
“I don’t even know if the line of credit or what it pays for were approved by the dispatch board,” Green said. “It may just be a county employee who says ‘we need more money for X, Y or Z’.”
Royalty restated that the city would only manage the dispatch finances and make dispatch workers city employees until a new inter-local agreement is created to replace the extension agreement signed in September.
Watts disagreed with the city’s proposal to make dispatch workers city employees, insisting the dispatch board should remain independent and not a part of city or county government where a mayor or judge-executive could fire employees at will.
“These should not be political positions,” Watts said of the dispatch jobs.
Magistrate Jeff Lear said suggestions the city had no input on dispatch spending were untrue. Two of the seven dispatch board members are city employees, he said — the chief of Bardstown police and the Bardstown fire chief, who are board members by virtue of their leadership positions.
“The implication there is no city oversight, I think is misleading,” Lear said.
MAYOR’S RESPONSE. In comments to WBRT Radio Tuesday afternoon, Royalty again pointed to a lack of fiscal responsibility by the dispatch board.
Royalty said he had sent another proposal to Watts regarding the dispatch board but had not received a written response.
“I don’t do things on a handshake and just because you say its OK,” he said of the negotiations. “Dealing with Dean Watts, I like to have things in writing, and that’s good business.”
The mayor said he has negotiated in good faith despite Watts’ statements to the media.
“Him saying I didn’t negotiate is totally false and I think is wrong, and perhaps go as far as say its delusional.”
Royalty said there’s also an issue of fairness in how the dispatch board is funded and the agencies who benefit from the dispatch service. The county’s volunteer fire departments as well as New Haven and Bloomfield fire departments both benefit from the E-911 system, but do not contribute directly to help fund the dispatch center.
Royalty said that since county taxes are used to help fund the dispatch service, city residents who also pay city taxes that help fund the dispatch service, wind up being taxed twice.
NEXT MOVE. Watts said he has recommended the dispatch board hire an outside agency to take over its payroll functions. He said the county will assist the board during the transition in an effort to keep the dispatch board an independent entity.
“The important thing is that we have to keep the dispatch center going,” he said. “We have to make sure the employees know we’re moving forward.”
Despite Royalty’s offer to continue negotiations, Watts said county government will help the dispatch board move forward to meet the Dec. 31 deadline.
Lear called the city’s Dec. 31 deadline “short and arbitrary.”
“I think its unfair to the employees at dispatch who expect to get paid and want to know who they’re going to work for,” he said.
“We have to have people to fill those chairs and take those calls” at E-911 Dispatch,” Watts said. “We will make that happen in some form or fashion.”
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