By Laura London, Alamogordo Daily News

Local public safety answering points are still not getting their funding from the state, and one Otero County commissioner gave a briefing on the PSAP issue near the end of the county’s work session last Wednesday.

Commission chairman and District 3 Commissioner Ronny Rardin suggested the county try meeting with Gov. Susana Martinez directly to resolve the issue at last.

A PSAP is where emergency calls for fire, police or ambulance are taken by dispatchers. A surcharge placed on all customers’ phone bills pays for this service, and these funds go to the state Enhanced 911 fund administered by the state Department of Finance and Administration. Alamogordo and Otero County haven’t received any of these funds since their dispute with the DFA began a decade ago.

After the state Legislature passed the Enhanced 911 Act in 2001 and began collecting for its Enhanced 911 fund to improve emergency communications, the DFA adopted its own rule limiting PSAPs to one per county. Alamogordo and Otero County wanted to maintain their own separate PSAPs to ensure they would always have a backup system in case one went down, but the DFA would not release PSAP funding unless the city and county would consolidate.

The city and county have proposed a number of compromises to DFA over the years with no success, as well as signed various agreements between each other to get the issue resolved. Former DFA Secretary Richard May proposed last summer that the city and county each keep its PSAP — as an exception to the DFA’s rule — and the city and county would share the money that would go to fund one PSAP facility. The county approved the proposal, as did the city — eventually, in August.

“We all felt that was the best deal,” Rardin said Wednesday. “We agreed to it, then this new guy come in — (Ryan) Gleason — and he says no, that deal’s fallen through, which is no surprise because every deal we’ve sent up there since ’05 has fallen through. We’re pretty used to it.”

Tom Clifford is now the cabinet secretary for DFA and was appointed by the governor in August 2011, according to the DFA website. Ryan Gleason is the current director of DFA’s Local Government Division.

Rardin said the city of Alamogordo wanted to try to put another deal together, but Sheriff Benny House told the city he wasn’t interested in having a nine-member board controlling the PSAP.

“He wouldn’t have any oversight of that,” Rardin said. “He made it clear he wouldn’t be a part of it, and I have to agree with him on some part of that.”

Rardin said he suggested that rather than sign another memorandum of understanding with the city of Alamogordo, the county should meet with the governor to try to resolve the PSAP issue.

“And hold the governor to the fire, so to speak,” Rardin said. “She campaigned that we need to be a smarter government, more efficient.”

He said last summer’s agreement to keep both city and county PSAPs and receive one PSAP’s worth of funding is “smart government.” But now Gleason wants the city and county to get rid of one PSAP, expand the building for the remaining PSAP, buy new software and hire two more people to run it — two staff members over and above the total amount both PSAPs employ now.

“So, in other words, it’s government at its worst and very inefficient,” Rardin said.

Rardin said he wanted to talk to the governor and Gleason, and the governor has power with the stroke of a pen to allow the county and city to keep their two PSAPs. Rardin said other counties in the state have two PSAPs within their borders and still get E911 funding — full funding for each PSAP.

“We’re asking for half of that and leave us alone,” Rardin said, “but they’re saying, ‘no, we won’t.'”

County manager Pamela Heltner said the meeting with Gleason and Martinez is being arranged and will probably happen in a few weeks.

District 1 Commissioner Tommie Herrell said when May was secretary of DFA and made his proposal last summer, the DFA told the county they needed legislative approval for the deal.

Rardin said he disagreed with that. He said he believes there are two counties in the state with two PSAPs now. He said there is flexibility in the rules, but the DFA is “not willing to flex.” He said the DFA thought Otero County and Alamogordo’s PSAPs were also too geographically close together.

Rardin said the PSAPs in Otero County are on opposite sides of the railroad tracks now that the county PSAP is in the old Pepsi plant at Alamotero Lane and Eddy Drive. He said it’s a good system — if the power goes down to one PSAP, the other is still operational. That would be lost if the city and county consolidate their PSAPs — but if they don’t consolidate, there may be consequences.

“If we don’t, let me tell you what they’re threatening us with,” Rardin said. “They’ll shut it all down, and they’ll start doing our PSAP out of Farmington, N.M., or somewhere. And that’s where your 911 calls will go.

“How good of government is that? Governor Martinez — whom I have great respect for … says we need good, smart government. I think this is a good, smart thing to ask.”

Herrell asked if the city is willing to give up its PSAP facility. County emergency services coordinator Paul Quairoli said the city may be willing to combine PSAPs if the city and county have joint control over the facility.

Rardin said the sheriff has a problem with a nine-member board running the PSAP since that would preclude the sheriff from running his dispatch.

E911 funding comes to about $1.2 million per year, according to discussion at a December 2009 County Commission meeting. If the state would release E911 funding according to May’s 2011 proposal, Alamogordo and Otero County would each get about $600,000 per year to fund their PSAPs.

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