911 Board plans for next meeting

By Kelly Foreman
Register News Writer

March 14, 2008 12:02 pm

— An upcoming meeting between the consolidated 911 board and city of Richmond officials was the major topic of discussion Wednesday during a regular meeting of the consolidated 911 board.
At 1 p.m. Tuesday, the board and Richmond officials will be meeting at Richmond City Hall to discuss a list of questions the officials posed to the board about consolidation issues.
“We just talked about any anticipated questions Richmond might ask and kind of had a game plan,” said Berea Police Chief Dwayne Brumley, chairperson for the 911 board. “We anticipate a lot of questions related to specific personnel issues.”
Richmond City Manager David Evans sent the board a list of questions from the city commissioners and mayor, requesting answers to some of their concerns. Among them are questions such as, “What will it cost the city of Richmond?” “Will the citizens of Richmond be fairly represented?” “What kind of back-up system is in place?” and “Will all Richmond telecommunicators keep their jobs?”
In an effort to give Richmond officials something to review prior to the meeting, Brumley said a response was sent out with answers to the questions. A lot of mis-information has been floating around regarding the consolidated 911, Brumley said, and the meeting will be geared toward educating both the officials as well as citizens who may have questions about consolidation. The meeting is open to the public and all citizens are invited.
“The purpose of the meeting is to provide Richmond with enough information to make an informed decision on what’s best for them and their community,” Brumley said.
In other news Wednesday:
• New 911 Director Wendy Lynch was welcomed and introduced to the board members.
• An update was given on the new 911/Joint Information Center building, which Brumley said is coming along nicely.
“We still hope to be in there by the end of the current fiscal year,” he said. “We haven’t set a specific date yet, but so far no problems have come up that we haven’t been able to deal with.”
Kelly Foreman can be reached at kforeman@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.

Questions and answers
Below are abbreviated answers written by the consolidated 911 board to the city of Richmond. They have been shortened for space.

• What are the sources of revenue for the joint dispatch center? What will it cost the city of Richmond?
For the first part of the question, the answer is: from 911 telephone service charges on cell and land-lines.
The joint center receives a service charge from all cell phones billed to Madison County residences. The center has anticipated revenues of $160,000 per fiscal year from this funding source.
The center also receives a service charge of $3.50 per month from all land-line phones from all Madison County residents living outside the limits of Richmond. The center has anticipated revenues of $759,600 per fiscal year from this funding source.
The second part of the question; what will it cost the city of Richmond, would require additional information to answer, such as — what are the revenue sources for Richmond? What are the personnel costs, equipment/maintenance costs, telephone system costs and others?
• Will the citizens of Richmond be fairly represented?
Absolutely! The center is responsible to provide the best possible service to all citizens and agencies. The city of Richmond will have representatives on the 911 board and will have a say in all center functions. The original proposed makeup of the board would provide for two voting members from Richmond, Police Chief and Fire Chief, with one at-large, non-voting member appointed by the Richmond Mayor. The only restriction is the requirement by NCIC regulations that the board must be composed of at least 51 percent law enforcement.
• What kind of back-up system is in place and will that change if Richmond joins?
KSP Post 7 is the back-up for the consolidated center, due largely to their ability to accept 911 cell calls. If Richmond joins, this should not change, but it would need to be evaluated by the 911 board.
• What will be the cost of moving operations?
Until we have more specific information into the current operations of the Richmond center that question cannot be fully answered. The cost of combining the centers of Madison County and Berea was less than $50,000. We would anticipate the cost of moving equipment from the Richmond center to be similar.
• Will all Richmond telecommunicators keep their jobs by moving to the joint center?
This is a difficult question to answer without additional information. If Richmond should join, the board will be revised and the new board would need to make that determination. Although every effort will be made to provide a place for all Richmond employees, the board has a responsibility to act in a fiscally sound manor.