VCAD opts for contract rather than a seat on new board

The Vernon County Ambulance District Board gathered together with Vernon County Northern Commissioner Neal Gerster, Southern Commissioner Kennon Shaw, Sheriff Ron Peckman, Nevada City Manager Harlan Moore and Police Chief Gary Herstein to discuss the combined dispatch center, named the Western Missouri 911 Dispatch Center, during the VCAD board meeting on Thursday.

The new center, to be located in the Vernon County jail facility now under construction, will be administered by a new board to be created for the sole purpose of operating the combined dispatch services. In a recent meeting, Nevada City Attorney Bill McCaffree explained that they are initially proposing to call the board the Western Missouri 911 Commission and to form it under RSMo Ch. 70.

McCaffree said at that time that the commission would be formed as a separate government entity that would hire a director to run the dispatch center independently of any of the member entities.

"This board will operate and pay for the facility," McCaffree said, noting that the board also will be able to issue bonds and pay for a building or a facility.

The original member agencies of the board will have two voting members on the board and any entity that joins later will only have one vote.

James McKenzie, VCAD executive director, began the discussion by telling the audience that the ambulance board had talked over the proposal and decided that instead of being a part of the governing board of the center the district would simply contract for services and pay a percentage of their operating budget.

"Instead of worrying whether we'd have one member or two on the board the consensus was we'd just do a contract for service and you would provide the same services you always have and we'll pay for them," McKenzie said. "We figured that two and a half percent of our operating budget would approximately equal the 5 percent of the budget for the dispatch center you were asking us to pay. We did that so that we would know how much we would have to budget for the next year."

Kendall Vickers, the attorney for the ambulance district, said, "We all have the same goal and that's good service. I think the only reason to have a contract is so that everyone knows what is expected of them and what to expect from the other parties."

Board president Mark Humphrey said that the board wanted to have some certainty for planning the upcoming budget.

"This is a way to lock in that figure, at least through 2010," Humphrey said. "We don't have the resources the city or the county has, or the funding flexibility."

Moore said that there was a possibility that other counties might seek to make use of the center to handle their 911 calls.

"It's possible that additional entities might wish to come in, St. Claire County has asked about handling their 911 calls," Moore said. "If that happened it's possible that it would reduce the amounts we will have to put in."

It will take some time before anyone knows how much the center will cost to run, or how much the combined operations will save the city and county Neal said.

"We have to run it a year or so to see what it's going to take to run it," Neal said.

Moore said that although there was no way to know what monies were available until the center began operating, but once it did opportunities to apply for grants would expand.

"When we begin combined operations our opportunity for grants would just skyrocket," Moore said.

One way funds for the center could be increased is if a tax on cell phones were passed. Missouri is the only state in the nation not to have such a tax.

"I think the key to this whole thing is to pass a cell phone tax," Vickers said. "Everyone in this room would benefit from a cell phone tax."

"This has been a dream for the past 30 years and this is the closest we've come to accomplishing it in that time," Herstein said.

The center will not have complete enhanced 911 service when it begins operations but it will be a better system after the GIS ( geographic information system) mapping is complete.

"When the mapping is complete we'll go from a call forwarding 911 system to a phase II system," Peckman said.