EMS: City could save money with joint 911

Richmond spends $709,000 a year on dispatch center

Ronica Shannon

Consolidating the Richmond 911 emergency dispatch with the Berea/Madison County consolidated dispatch system has been a sore subject in the past for some Richmond city commissioners.

However, the city’s dire financial situation calls for any and all means of cost cutting, which is what would be the result of the trio’s merge, according to Carlos Coyle, Madison County EMS supervisor and chair of the consolidated 911 board of directors.

“I feel strongly that you could operate one large center more efficiently and cost effectively than you can two separate centers,” Coyle said.

It costs $1,048,000 a year to operate the consolidated 911 dispatch center, according to budget numbers from Coyle.

The dispatch center handles calls from all local emergency response entities, including Berea and Richmond police departments, county EMS, Madison County Rescue Squad, county coroner’s office, the Madison County Sheriff’s Department and the county emergency management agency.

Richmond’s separate 911 dispatch center costs $709,802 a year to operate.

In 2005, revenue for the center was $101,480. With the decrease in landline use, that amount has dwindled each year and was $82,942 as of June 30, according to information from city finance director Mike Broyles.

Having all three governments consolidated into one dispatch center could help avoid confusion and cut down on transfer time, Coyle said.

“I think it streamlines the entire call process, we would eliminate call transfers between answering points,” Coyle said.

The consolidated 911 center gets all cell phone calls in the county, including Richmond and Berea. If a land line is used to dial 911, it will go to the Richmond dispatch center, he said.

During 2008, 121,904 calls went through the consolidated 911 dispatch system, said Wendy Lynch, director of the joint 911 dispatch. Out of these, 8,809 were 911 land line calls and 33,277 were cell phone calls.

Berea/Madison County dispatchers had to transfer 64,819 calls to the Richmond dispatch system, she said.

For the calendar year 2008, the Richmond 911 dispatch center fielded a total of 101,863 telephone calls, according to information from Brock.

Of those calls, 13,293 were received on the 911 lines.

In addition, Richmond dispatchers handled 64,302 police and fire radio calls for service for the calendar year 2008. These include both dispatched calls to the two departments, as well as self-initiated calls coming from the officers in the two departments. The vast majority of calls, 63,233, were police related.

To be part of consolidated 911, both Berea and the county are not required to pay an annual fee, however, the entities are asked to earmark $30,000 a year to serve as a safety net in case the center is not self-sufficient.

The center has always been able to pay for itself, Coyle said.

“It’s (the consolidated center) a robust dispatching center,” Coyle said. “It is self-sufficient.”

The Madison County EMS also pays $12,500 toward annual operation because ambulance calls are the majority of what comes into the dispatch center, Coyle said.

In Berea and Richmond, the land line phone tax is $3.50 and the cell phone tax for 911 dispatch is regulated by the state, Coyle said.

Cell phone fees are set by the CMRS (Commercial Mobile Radio Services) Board, and 70 cents per month is collected from every resident who has a cell phone “based on the billing address of the subscriber,” the statute reads.

All collected funds go to the CMRS board, then half of those fees are returned to the county on a quarterly basis.

The remaining funding goes toward statewide 911 improvement projects, Lynch said.

The joint 911 center’s annual costs come mostly from paying employee salaries, maintaining computer software and the tele-networking data base and employee retirement.

Revenue estimated for the joint center for the 2009-10 fiscal year includes: E-911 telephone tax, $685,000; cell phone receipts, $215,000; E-911 reimbursement, $72,500; E-911 interest, $500; surplus from the prior fiscal year, $75,000.

The city of Richmond gets an 83-cent 911 levy on city land lines, said Richmond police chief Larry Brock.

“Cellular phones are assessed a small 911 fee (the state mandate of 70 cents) but all of that money goes to the county 911 center, none to the city,” Brock said.

The nationwide issue of the decreasing amount of land line phones is a concern for all 911 dispatch centers, Brock said.

“The cell phone assessments are way lower than the land line assessments,” Brock said.

Another aspect of 911 consolidation that has been a past concern of the Richmond City Commission’s is Richmond’s representation on the board of directors.

The consolidated 911 board consists of seven voting members that include the Berea police and fire chiefs, Madison County Sheriff, county coroner, county EMS director, county fire chief and a representative from the Kentucky State Police Post 7 in Richmond.

The board also has two non-voting advisors, one being appointed by the county and the other appointed by Berea.

“The way the board is composed is actually addressed by the (memorandum of agreement) that formed the consolidation,” Lynch said. “This (memorandum of agreement) would need to be revised and resubmitted to the state attorney general’s office for approval (if Richmond joined). The (memorandum of agreement) is between Madison County, the city of Berea, the (Madison County) ambulance board, coroner’s office, sheriff’s office and the state police.”

Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 624-6608.