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Although improving public safety is the key reason behind the move to combine city and county dispatch, money also plays a role.
Commissioner Nelson Peters said Monday that a joint dispatch could save taxpayer money by reducing salaries. Instead of two directors and two sets of supervisors, the center would have just one of each.
Both Peters and Mayor Tom Henry acknowledged that any savings would be minimal, however.
But by complying with a state law that requires counties to have no more than two 911 centers by 2014, the county would be allowed to increase the 911 fee charged to local telephone and most cell phone users.
That extra revenue could help pay the combined $7 million price tag to run the joint center, Peters said.
Property taxes cover $4.8 million and the 911 fee provides $2.2 million to run the centers today, Peters said.
The tentative 911 merger agreement released Monday says any increase in expenses in the joint department would be paid for by increasing 911 fees.
Sheriff Ken Fries criticized this clause as a tax increase on residents.
Currently, home phone customers pay 70 cents per month in 911 fees. Allen County’s fee is at the maximum allowed by state law.
Extra fee revenue could also enable the county and city to replace the radio system that connects police, firefighters and paramedics with dispatchers – a project that could cost $14 million and, Peters said.
Maintenance agreements with Motorola are slowly ending and replacement equipment is expected to be sparse on the current system.
The county is still repaying a bond that helped install the current radio system.
Shifting the funding for communications away from property taxes to 911 fees is an idea city officials have said they support as well.
New property tax caps are reducing local government revenue, and user fees are one option to make up for it, the commissioners’ director of government affairs, Beth Garber Lock, said previously.
County officials have suggested finding alternative funding solutions for communications in the past. But state lawmakers weren’t interested in helping draft legislation until the city and county could work together, Peters said.
During the upcoming General Assembly, which begins in January, the county plans to push to get its maximum 911 fee increased and to ensure that all cell phone and voice-over-Internet users are paying the fees as well.
Symbolism is also important.
By finally merging the two dispatch center, city and county officials can say to residents and other elected officials that the two sides can and do work together, Peters said.
Benjamin Lanka of The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.
