Fiscal Court OKs moving 911 landline telephone fee to property tax bills

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Thursday, May 26, 2016, 7 p.m. — In response to questions regarding the City of Bardstown’s participation in the joint city-county 911 center, Nelson Fiscal Court approved first reading of an ordinance Thursday in a special meeting that will change part of how the 911 center is funded.

Magistrates Jeff Lear and Keith Metcalfe talk prior to the start of Thursday morning’s special Nelson Fiscal Court meeting.

The ordinance repeals the existing $1.71 per month 911 fee on landline telephone bills in the county and replaces it with what amounts to a $2 per month fee to be placed on county tax bills for all occupied properties.

The vote was 4-1 in favor, with Magistrate Jeff Lear casting a no vote. Lear said he supported moving the fee off the phone bill, but did not believe the fee should be raised higher than the original $1.71 rate.

The court also reviewed the history of the 911 system in Nelson County, including how the service developed and how Nelson County EMS evolved to handle county fire departments as well as its own runs.

Nelson County Judge Executive Dean Watts updated the court on the discussion he had with Mayor John Royalty at last Wednesday’s meeting to talk about the joint city-county 911 system.

Watts said the proposal her gave Royalty was designed to address the City of Bardstown’s concerns about the 911 board, including the makeup of its board.

As far as funding 911, Watts said he proposed repealing the existing landline 911 fee and putting a $2 fee on county garbage bills

Watts’ proposal included giving the city three seats on the seven seat board, including the fire chief, police chief and then a new board seat for a city police officer appointed by the chief. Two of the remaining four seats would go to the sheriff’s office (the sheriff and a deputy of his choice), and one each for the EMS director and a representative from the volunteer fire departments.

The proposal would also put each agency in charge of its own radios and communications equipment.

The proposal also sought to place the 911 fee on county garbage bills, but Watts said in the end he didn’t have faith in the mayor implementing the fee to support the dispatch center, and so the ordinance the court approved was to place the fee on property tax bills.

MAGISTRATE SAM HUTCHINS

“Its the only proposal I see that will insure the money is directed in the right spot and only used for that purpose,” Watts said.

Watts asked members of the dispatch board to speak on the merits of staying a part of the joint city-county dispatch center.

The new computer-aided dispatch software — which went online earlier in the day — is an improvement over the previous CAD software, Dispatch Director Debbie Carter told the court. The old Spillman Technologies CAD recognizes only address ranges, where the Zuercher dispatch software will pinpoint a given address and even create turn-by-turn directons for a responding fire, police or EMS crew.

Carter said she had initially selected InterAct’s latest software as its dispatch software of choice; however the new, cloud-based software was unable to deliver on some promised features in time for the dispatch center’s audits of the accuracy of the E-911 dispatching system.

The existing 911 dispatch service fills many roles in the community beyond just dispatching emergency runs, EMS Director Joe Prewitt told the court. “That’s about 30 percent of what the dispatchers do,” he said. “I was a dispatcher and I know what that is.

“We’re public service, we’re an answering service, we’re a tourist information center,” he said. “We’re all the things that people don’t realize we are as a dispatch center beyond taking a call and giving a call.”

Splitting the dispatch operation by having KSP handle city calls will introduce delays because calls will need to be transferred from the agency taking the calls to the proper agency who will handle the dispatching for the call, Carter said.

Roughly 80 percent of calls for EMS service originate in the city, she said. If those 911 calls go first to the KSP post in Elizabethtown, they will need to be transferred back to Nelson County to dispatch the ambulance to the proper location.

Another headache will be how to deal with cell calls in Bardstown. Unlike landline calls, there’s no way to predetermine where the call originates, Prewitt said.

Sheriff Ed Mattingly told the court he personally believed KSP will give its personnel priority over local agencies, and that the city agencies ultimately will not be happy with the quality of the KSP dispatching.

Mattingly was also critical of the misinformation being directed at the dispatch center, its board and employees, causing irreparable damage.

He said a City of Bloomfield police officer was led to believe if he went with the City of Bardstown and KSP for dispatching that he would get a new radio system.

“You aren’t going to get the service that you’re being told you’re going to get,” he said.

Dispatch board chairman Fred Dewitt also spoke critically of misinformation being spread about the joint E-911 dispatch board, naming specifically Larry Green, the City of Bardstown’s assistant city administrator.

“He has no clue what he’s talking about when it comes to 911 services or ISO,” Dewitt said. “He gets some bad information and then passes it along like he knows what’s going on. He doesn’t have a clue. I would love to set him down and educate him.”

The existing number of dispatch center employees may change depending on how 911 calls are handled if the City of Bardstown goes with KSP for dispatching.

If local 911 calls go first to the local dispatch, then it is likely dispatchers will keep their jobs, Carter explained. If 911 calls are answered at the KSP post in Elizabethtown, then there will be a need for fewer dispatch employees, she said.

Prewitt said if city residents realize that their 911 calls are being answered in Elizabethtown, they are likely to call the local dispatch director in order to talk to someone locally.

“We have a significant investment in our infrastructure” for the local dispatch center, Prewitt said. Since 2003, the dispatch board has received more than $900,000 in grants for infrastructure improvements.

“Do you simply walk away from that?” he asked.

Keith Metcalfe said many of his constituents didn’t like the idea of adding the 911 fee to tax bills because the bills arrive at a time of the year when families are trying to prepare of Christmas and the holidays.

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