Fairfield council supports levy to fund dispatch center

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield City Council voted Monday to approve a resolution that it hopes to alter the funding structure for 911 dispatchers at the Jefferson County Law Center.

The city and county have been in talks to make changes to the 28E agreement governing how the dispatch center is funded.

Under the agreement, the city pays for the dispatchers’ wages and benefits, while the county pays for most of the equipment. However, city officials are unsatisfied with this arrangement because it means Fairfield residents pay a disproportionately high share of the dispatch center’s costs.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, council member Doug Flournoy, one of the council’s two representatives on the emergency management commission along with Martha Rasmussen, said the city and county have not made any progress on amending the 28E agreement.

Flournoy said the city has proposed funding the dispatch center through a countywide emergency management levy where each town, and the unincorporated areas, paid based on its population. Flournoy said that the county has not made a counterproposal to this idea.

The Emergency Management Agency is scheduled to meet on Jan. 7, but Flournoy said he didn’t see a point in meeting if the county had not put together a counter-offer.

Council member Paul Gandy suggested making a motion to formally endorse the emergency management levy so it was clear the entire council was behind the idea, which is what the council did. The vote was 6-0 to give the council’s two representatives the authority to put the emergency management levy up for a vote at the next Emergency Management Agency meeting.

Council members voting in favor were Flournoy, Gandy, Rasmussen, Michael Halley, Tom Twohill and Judy Ham (via phone). Council member Katy Anderson was absent for the vote.

Fairfield City Attorney John Morrissey said that, though the city and county pay for different things at the dispatch center, the city bears the greatest expense in the form of personnel costs.

“Every town gets the same benefit under the 28E, but some people may not realize that not all taxpayers are treated alike,” Morrissey said. “The city is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to the dispatch center, and it’s time to talk about it.”

The dispatch center’s budget is about half a million dollars per year, and Flournoy estimated that the city was paying $140,000-$150,000 more than it should if the costs were divided equitably based on population.

City Administrator Aaron Kooiker said the city spends about $400,000 annually on dispatch expenses, while the county spends closer to $45,000. He said moving dispatch funding to the Emergency Management Agency would relieve budget constraints on the city and county’s general fund, which is where the money is coming from now. He said the emergency management levy proposed by the city would be about 54 cents per $1,000 valuation.

Morrissey said he hopes the two sides can come to an agreement on funding because it would be bad for everyone if the 28E agreement dissolved. He said the agreement saves money by allowing the dispatch center to get better deals on equipment like radios and other purchases, and avoids duplication.

“We don’t want this to go to the Iowa Supreme Court,” Morrissey said. “Please don’t blow us off.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com