Published: March 19, 2008 08:00 am      

Still no 911 decision

City says it needs more information

Gathered around two folding tables in the crowded Richmond City Hall commission chambers, members of the commission, 911 consolidated dispatch board and other city and county officials met once again Tuesday for a 911 consolidation discussion that mirrored one from last spring.

After nearly two hours of discussion, Richmond City Commissioner Robert Blythe said he thought that in order to make a decision, the city needed more information.

“To come up with the kind of decision that we need, in order to make our decision, ultimately, I think we need to get information to be merged with the information of Berea and the county, and of course now the joint (911) to determine whether or not it can work,” Blythe said. “There may be a volume there that is unworkable. It may just not be a situation that can work.”

Richmond Mayor Connie Lawson asked Richmond Police Chief Larry Brock and Commissioners Blythe and Mike Brewer to gather that information to assist the 911 board in answering the city’s questions — particularly in reference to the cost of consolidation and the city’s current dispatchers’ future under consolidation.

Those questions had been posed to the board previously, but 911 board chairman and Berea Police Chief Dwayne Brumley said the board could not give the commission an educated answer without certain information provided by the city.

“I don’t really think that it’s going to be a lot of benefit just to give us facts and figures,” Brumley said. “That only tells one side. To get the human equation, we need to interact with members of your commission who will say, ‘This is where we stand, this is what we’re concerned about,’ things like that.”

Commission members expressed a multitude of concerns in addition to those they had sent to the board to answer prior to the meeting. Among them were issues about 911 center policies, raising 911 fees in Richmond, call volumes from land-line phones and cell phones, equipment and funding. There also was discussion concerning the safety of citizens as well as first responders.

Beyond deciding to get some information together, no decisions were made about whether or not to move forward, no positions were stated, no meetings were scheduled to discuss the information to be gathered and specific plans about exactly what information would be gathered individually by whom or by when were not decided.

It was April 3, 2007, that Richmond and Berea officials met last as a group to discuss consolidation and that meeting went much like Tuesday’s. At the end of the 2007 meeting, Berea Mayor Steve Connelly asked the Richmond officials to make a decision about their intended direction.

One year later, Connelly still was asking again for city officials to make a proposal.

“If you all don’t think that it is of benefit to the public and a good enterprise, don’t do it,” Connelly said. “But if you do, make a proposal on how you think the board should be reconstituted and why, whether it should be divided among call volumes or apportioned by population served or whatever. Make a proposal on how we might ought to go together to serve everybody’s best interest.”

Kelly Foreman can be reached at kforeman@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.