City searching to document 911 problems while it negotiates with the county

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Friday, Aug. 12, 2016, 6 p.m. — While discussions about the City of Bardstown’s continued participation in the joint 911 dispatch service were underway, city hall employees were filing open records requests in a search to apparently verify complaints about the dispatch center’s call-taking, radio quality, and dispatching protocols.

The Nelson County Gazette’s open records’ request revealed Friday that since April 28, 2016, the city clerk, the mayor’s executive assistant, and the city’s human resources director have filed approximately a dozen open records requests with Nelson County Dispatch seeking transcripts, recordings of 911 audio and/or radio transmissions about specific incidents, officers or time periods.

Half of the record requests were filed in the last month.

The first request was filed three days after Mayor John Royalty publicly confirmed at a city council safety committee that in February 2016 he formally requested a cost estimate from the Kentucky State Police for dispatching the city’s police and fire departments.

At that same April 25, 2016, committee meeting, Councilman Francis Lydian said he hadn’t heard of any problems, nor had he seen documentation of complaints or problems with dispatch.

The city’s first open records request was filed three days later by city HR Director Larry Green. In his request, Green asked for:

“complaints received by Nelson County Dispatch from any source, including all participating agencies, during 2013, 2014, 2015 and to this date this year. This includes, but is not limited to, complaints about the quality of radio transmissions, or complaints about individual dispatchers or about specific incidents dispatched by the Nelson County Dispatch.”

On Friday, the open records requests filed by the Gazette and other media outlets prompted Nelson County Dispatch Director Debbie Carter to alert members of Nelson Fiscal Court and others, including the dispatch board chairman and at least one member of the city council, of the inquiries by the media about the city’s records requests.

Larry Green, the city’s human resources director, points to figures on a flip chart at a May council meeting that documenting the savings possible by having city fire and police dispatched by Kentucky State Police.

Carter said she was forwarding the information to fiscal court members for their awareness in the event the information surfaced in the media or in discussions about the dispatch center.

MAKING THE CASE FOR KSP. Mayor John Royalty has argued in favor of using KSP for dispatching the city’s emergency services, citing costs savings and promises of higher quality communications and service. At the May 24 council meeting, flip charts and posters were placed in the council room to help make the case to the council for the switch to KSP.

Councilman Bill Buckman has been the most vocal council member in favor of the move, and has often cited an incident that took place when he was an officer as an example of what can go wrong. After answering a call for service, he found himself down on the ground in a fight with a subject and was unable to contact dispatchers to request assistance.

However, not all of the council members are ready to go along with a move to KSP. Several council members support keeping the city part of the local unified dispatch effort, and it has been pressure from the council that has led to the ongoing negotiations in hopes of reaching a compromise.

At a special fiscal court meeting Wednesday morning, Judge Executive Dean Watts and the members of fiscal court reviewed the latest draft of the 911 agreement with the city attorney present and were upbeat about the prospects of reaching an agreement.

So far the two sides still remain at odds over how much the city will contribute as its share of the dispatch center’s costs.

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