Indiana E-911 Funding Split Questioned
Amanda Gray, South Bend Tribune (Indiana)
Enhanced 911 fees were appropriated to various departments last week by the St. Joseph County Council – for hopefully the last time, according to commissioner Andy Kostielney.
These funds, which come from the state in the form of fees on telephone users, are an annual appropriation to various dispatch centers in the county. In the future, the fees will go to the consolidated dispatch center, Kostielney said.
However, County Council member Bob McCahill said he has a problem with Clay Fire Territory Dispatch getting the largest portion of the money – a problem he’s had for the last three years, he said.
“I’ve asked every year for the last three years,” McCahill explained. “I want clarification. I’ve asked and been told, ‘That’s just the way it’s been.’ To me, that’s unsatisfactory.”
McCahill said he would be OK with the appropriation if everyone got an equal share of the money, or if it were divided by call volume.
McCahill said South Bend’s fire and police dispatch gets about 60 to 65 percent of the calls in the county, but gets $25,000 less than Clay Fire.
“If someone’s going to get the largest chunk, it should be them,” he said.
Clay Fire Chief Timm Schabbel, however, said the fees are a combination for both fire and ambulance dispatching, which the Clay department took over for the county in 2001. The line items don’t break the dollars into these two categories, but Clay uses about $122,000 for the fire dispatch and $118,000 for ambulance dispatch, he said.
Kostielney said the distribution formula for E-911 funds was worked out years ago, before his time as a commissioner.
“We started to look into it last year, but then, if this year was going to be the last year for the appropriation, we realize it was going to be a moot point,” he said.
Next year, the state dollars will remain with the county and will be directed toward the consolidated dispatch center. Any extra costs beyond the state dollars will have to be worked out between the municipalities, he added.
Schabbel, for one, said he’s happy the county is moving toward the consolidation.
“We support the process 100 percent,” Schabbel said. “We think it’s the best option from an economic and operational standpoint.”
Copyright © 2013 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.