|

Copeland: City ‘lacks willingness’ in its 911 negotiations with county

 

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

aug23butler

City Attorney Tim Butler.

Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, 2 p.m. (Video of 911 discussion added, 7:30 p.m.) — Citing “a lot of ill will in the wind,” City Attorney Tim Butler did not express much optimism that the city will successfully negotiate a new 911 agreement with Nelson Fiscal Court.

At its meeting Tuesday evening, Butler updated the Bardstown City Council regarding negotiations on the agreement, noting that the sticking points have not changed.

“I don’t get the sense that there’s a mutual respect here,” he told the council, citing published quotes from the dispatch director, EMS director and members of fiscal court that were derogatory toward the city council.

Butler said the county rejected the city’s proposed contribution amount, and that they were still in disagreement over the city having a dominant role in the hiring of the dispatch director. The county also did not like the proposal that would give the city ownership of a portion of the dispatch equipment — a percentage based on the city’s financial contribution to the overall dispatch budget.

The current 911 agreement between the city and county expired last September but was extended an additional year to allow time to negotiate a new agreement. The city’s negotiations have been largely based on a cost estimate submitted earlier this year by the Kentucky State Police to take over dispatching for city fire and police departments.

aug24mayor

Mayor John Royalty weighs in on the 911 discussion.

Since earlier this year, Mayor John Royalty and his administration have been advocates for switching to KSP dispatching.

Royalty warned the council against consideration of another extension of the dispatch agreement. KSP has other agencies waiting in line to use their dispatching services, he said. If the city loses that spot, it will mean they have no other option than Nelson County Dispatch. He promised to contact KSP to see how long they will give the city to make a decision and hold their spot.

COMPLAINTS FILED — BOTH WAYS. At Tuesday’s council meeting, Royalty said city police officers have a procedure now for filing complaints regarding Nelson County Dispatch. Complaints that were filed under the previous police chief were apparently lost or destroyed, “or walked way,” he said. Past and current chiefs of the police and fire departments are on record for moving away from Nelson County Dispatch, he said.

He told the council that the dispatch center, in turn, is also filing complaints on city police officers who don’t respond to their calls on the radio.

Butler said the city is documenting problems with dispatch so they can get those issues addressed and resolved. However, he said he didn’t believe the city’s concerns weren’t being taken seriously by the dispatch board or the county, or treated with a sense of urgency.

As example, he cited an incident where the Bardstown Fire Department EMTs weren’t dispatched for a reported heart attack. The fire department responds on all emergency medical calls in the city limits, along with Nelson County EMS. The victim subsequently died.

The city firefighters’ response might or might not have made a difference in the outcome, he said.

“The chief would have liked to have had the opportunity to provide that service, and Bardstown Fire was not dispatched. If you have a fire department that says it can’t do its job because of dispatch, that’s a problem,” he said.

Royalty repeated the oft-cited claim that city taxpayers are being asked to pay twice — once through the 911 fees, and a second time through the city’s contributions to help fund what the 911 fees do not cover. However, county taxpayers also contribute in a like manner to fund the joint 911 center, and county government pays the majority of the dispatch operations’ expenses.

Royalty pointed out that the smaller police and fire departments in the county pay nothing for dispatch services they receive, including the Northeast Nelson Fire Department, Bloomfield Police, New Haven Police, Boston Fire, New Haven Fire and the Rolling Fork Fire departments.

This, according to Royalty, means city residents are paying for dispatch services for the other agencies in the county. “It’s just not fair,” he said.

BAIT & SWITCH? Royalty was critical of what he called a “bait & switch” tactic in regard to the police department’s licensing fee it must pay to get the in-car data terminals online with the recently updated dispatch software. The licensing fee the city was originally told was $52,000 he said. However, during he learned on a recent conference call, he learned the total is now $106,000.

aug24kecia

Councilwoman Kecia Copeland said she felt the city lacks the willingness to negotiate an agreement with Nelson Fiscal Court.

The original figure was based on 15 data terminals when they really have to have 28, he said.

Add the software license figure to the 911 fees collected in the city ($156,344 projected) to the total the county requests the city pay ($144,020), and you wind up with a total cost of $406,364 the city will pay the county for 911 dispatch, he said.

CITY LACKS “WILLINGNESS.” As the 911 discussion continued, Councilwoman Kecia Copeland observed that she did not hear a willingness on the city’s part to work to find an agreeable solution with county government.

“Clearly we have problems and issues, but no one has put a solution behind it — except to go to KSP. I just don’t hear us trying to solve anything,” she said. “If what you all want to do is go to KSP, why are you sitting here debating this?”

Copeland said she has had police officers and firefighters tell her they wanted to keep 911 dispatch local and not go to KSP.

Councilman Fred Hagan suggested that the best way to find a solution for dispatching problems is to have representatives from the city fire and police and Kentucky State Police attend a future meeting to better understand their problems and if KSP is the solution they need.

Royalty said he will get KSP representatives to attend a future council work session or meeting to discuss their proposal and how it will work.

-30-

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Please follow and like us:

Comments are closed

Subscribe to get new posts in your email!