City attorney updates council on progress of 911 interlocal agreement

NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT

Thursday, July 14, 2016, 11 p.m. — City Attorney Tim Butler told the Bardstown City Council Tuesday he is working on a draft agreement that will address the city’s participation in the joint city-county E-911 dispatch center.

Councilman Francis Lydian expresses his disappointment over the lack of information the council has been getting about the work on a new 911 agreement with Nelson Fiscal Court.

As Tuesday’s council meeting was about to end, Councilwoman Kecia Copeland asked Butler for an update on the 911 issue. The current agreement expired last September but was extended one year to allow time for additional negotiation.

At the council’s June 7 meeting, the council asked Butler to work on a new interlocal agreement with County Attorney Matthew Hite.

Butler told Copeland he had not yet contacted Hite, and would not do so until he has a draft that he believes correctly represents the city’s position.

He has forwarded the drafts he has created to Larry Green, the city’s assistant administrator, for his review.

“He and I haven’t gotten back together,” Butler said. “What I would like to do is for all of us be on board with it. I don’t want to negotiate with anybody outside the City of Bardstown until the City of Bardstown is collectively on board.”

Butler said since Green has been “intimately involved” in the 911 issue, he believed it important to get Green’s review of a draft agreement.

Councilman Francis Lydian expressed disappointment that Butler had not yet contacted the county attorney to discuss the E-911 agreement — as the council had requested at its June 7 meeting.

Butler said he didn’t want to meet with the county attorney without first knowing what the council would approve.

“That process has been sidetracked a little bit on the county side too,” Butler said. “The judge (Judge Executive Dean Watts) has made a proposal that according to him is not Matthew Hite’s but his proposal.”

Butler said he would speak to Hite and give him a progress report on the city’s draft proposal.

Mayor John Royalty provided the council members with a copy of a draft 911 agreement Watts presented to Nelson Fiscal Court at the court’s July 5 meeting. He said Watts had “gone astray” from the agreement to let the city and county attorneys work on a new agreement by proposing his own draft 911 agreement.

Royalty said there are still issues he and his administration are closely examining in regard to an agreement. Royalty said he never received a copy of Watts proposal until hours before the council meeting.

“We still want what’s best for the citizens of Bardstown, not just the county total,” he said.

Butler confirmed he will only contact the county attorney when he is clear what the city and the council’s wishes are and he has their blessing to move forward.

Lydian expressed his disappointment about the lack of updates to the council members about the progress on the agreement.

“I’m reading more information in the news — and I’m a council member,” he said. “I’m reading that the mayor had to change some language in it — and we council members should know everything up front. Why in the hell do we have to learn everything from the news?”

Royalty denied giving the news media any information about the city’s draft 911 agreement.

“The news media doesn’t have any idea what’s going on in my head because there’s not been any information disseminated to the news media about the current interlocal agreement, what we are proposing or what we want to propose,” he said. “The allegations are false and its totally ridiculous.”

Lydian said the 911 issue is important that can be a matter of life or death. He asked the council to keep this fact in mind as the city moves forward.

The council took no action.

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