Council tones down 911 stance

The Kalispell City Council’s initial bluster about voting down a small budget increase for the consolidated 911 center seems to be subsiding.

Council members are looking for other ways to work through their concerns about the fledgling center’s finances and operations — and realizing they might need to improve their own hand in its oversight.

“I don’t want the 911 center to feel like they’re getting a lot of flak,” council member Phil Guiffrida III said during a work session last week.

But Guiffrida has concerns about the center and an interlocal agreement among Kalispell, Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Flathead County.

One is the budget that shrank from a 5 percent increase in the cities’ contributions to a modest 2 percent increase. The fear is that budget amendments could be on the way.

“That is an instant red flag for me,” Guiffrida said. “Because how can they come and say we want 5 percent and then in a matter of weeks or however long it was say they were able to scale it down 3 percent?”

Other concerns include the seemingly stalled push to forge a long-term funding solution for the 911 center and the need for an independent operations audit to determine if the center is running efficiently.

Those concerns and any others council members share will be sent to the 911 center administrative board in an open letter in coming weeks.

“It’s not something where we need to club anyone over the head just yet, but I think it’s important we have a timeline and expect something,” Guiffrida said.

An earlier push to split a $446,037 contribution to the 911 center from the rest of Kalispell’s budget for a separate up or down vote appears to be fizzling.

Kalispell was the only city in the interlocal agreement to oppose the center’s $2.8 million budget.

“I feel a little heartache because it is part of our budget and I think staff has done a wonderful job on our budget this year,” Guiffrida said.

“To throw a protest vote out because of the 911 center I guess is fine if only four of us do it. If five of us do, then we’re in breach of the interlocal agreement and that’s something to think about.”

GUIFFRIDA’S concerns touch on the Kalispell City Council’s own involvement with 911 center oversight. That involvement and the amount of information flowing back to the rest of the City Council appear to have been spotty at best.

Mayor Tammi Fisher represents Kalispell on the 911 center administrative board. Fisher attended only five of the 13 meetings it held last year and none of the first three in 2013, according to meeting records.

Kalispell’s empty seat at the table has repeatedly been questioned by other members of the 911 center administrative board.

Meeting minutes from February show Columbia Falls City Council member Mike Shepard said: “Kalispell needs to appoint an alternate member for the 911 board to ensure adequate representation.”

Kalispell apparently noticed even though its representative wasn’t there.

The city appointed council member Jeff Zauner to serve as Fisher’s alternate and Kalispell has had representation at every other 911 center administrative board meeting since then.

Determining how much information Fisher or Zauner should report back for other city council members needs to be part of the discussion, Guiffrida said.

Fisher voted against a capital improvements funding request for the 911 center and Zauner voted against its proposed budget when the other jurisdictions refused to proceed with an independent operational review.

Such decisions seem to have been made without any prior deliberation by other City Council members.

“I think more communication will ease some of these potential concerns we have,” Guiffrida said. He stressed that Kalispell’s representatives on such boards need to share information about important financial decisions.

“There’s a flow chart here for how this works. But if we don’t have the opportunity to comment to our representatives and give them suggestions, maybe something gets overlooked that could possibly help.”

Council member Tim Kluesner seemed to agree that council members need “a little more connectivity” to the 911 center administrative board.

The sentiment was not lost on Fisher. “There are several concerns Mr. Guiffrida has raised that I think, frankly, fall on my shoulders,” she said.

“There are a number of meetings I am unable to attend because they fall at one o’clock on a Wednesday, which is a terrible time for me. So I have not been able to attend, so there is disjointed communication between myself and this council and the 911 center.”

SHEPARD SAID he’s glad to see Kalispell City Council members attending more 911 center administrative board meetings and trying to address concerns through the board, rather that just making comments at their own meetings that other board members must read about in the newspaper.

“We’ve brought it up repeatedly, the question of when is somebody going to be a co-designee from Kalispell and come to the meetings,” Shepard said.

Shepard added that the board’s job doesn’t grind to a halt if Kalispell doesn’t show up.

Kalispell’s push for an independent operational review was voted down. But it’s something the 911 center administrative board has talked about in the past and is something it will be receptive to in the future. The problem is the timing. There’s no point initiating a review during a transition period when there’s not even a director, Shepard said.

“Part of their frustration is their lack of information about what we’ve done, but it’s their own doing,” Shepard said. “You have to have a representative at the meeting or how they hell do you know what’s going on?”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.