911 center hits budget difficulties
Flathead County commissioners agreed Thursday to pay the county’s assessment to the Flathead Emergency Communications Center soon, because of a cash flow shortage in the new 911 center’s budget.
County Finance Director Sandy Carlson told commissioners the 911 center has been operating with a negative balance in its operations fund for months.
“There’s not enough cash to carry them through,” she said. The 911 center opened last June.
Scott Sampey, director of the county Office of Emergency Services, said the shortage exists because the agreement for operating the 911 center doesn’t specify when the county, Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Kalispell are to pay their assessments.
The operations fund needs to have a positive balance, County Administrative Officer Mike Pence said. Perhaps the easiest way to guarantee that, he said, is to assess more than 100 percent from each government entity one time to create a cushion.
“We should have done that when we opened,” Commissioner Jim Dupont said. “We’ll get that fixed.”
Pence said the 911 agreement needs to specify the months that assessments are due, and he recommended one come due either in January or February with the second in either July or August.
“We made a lot of guesses for the first year,” Sampey said. “Some were wrong.”
The 911 center didn’t budget enough to cover the actual unemployment insurance costs either, he said. Because it’s a new entity, it doesn’t qualify for the lower rate that Flathead County pays.
The center also spent money paying vacation benefits to some employees who quit, some of whom had accrued a lot of vacation when they worked for one of the cities before the merged 911 center came into existence.
“We took on everybody’s employees, their seniority and their vacation time,” Sampey said.
Another budget issue that’s arisen, he said, relates to costs to maintain the radio towers used for emergency communications.
Prior to the county and the three cities joining forces for the 911 center, the Sheriff’s Office paid all the costs for the towers and their maintenance, Sampey said. Now the cities are being asked to contribute to that cost, which is not an item they have budgeted for in the past.
Likewise, since it opened, the cities haven’t paid for training, Sampey said, and he thinks that should be a shared cost, too.
Dupont pointed out that the cities did have to buy new computer systems to adapt to the new center.
“Everyone thought the costs might go down after the first year,” Sampey said. “But they won’t.”
Dupont said the idea that consolidation of emergency services would result in decreased costs was flawed.
“Consolidation is not a money saver,” Dupont said. “You do it to improve services to the public, not to save money.”
Pence said he and city managers are reviewing the method of funding the center, which is now based on the population. The county and the three cities are assessed an amount based on their population.
He said that group is looking at an option to fund it through a property tax levy or an assessment, similar to the assessment in place that funds the solid waste district.
Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or by e-mail at sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.