Dispatch board says organizing details of the new center is complex

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

"It's confusing," Nevada City Manager Harlan Moore said at Thursday's Western Missouri 911 Dispatch board meeting. At several points during the meeting an item on the agenda would lead to a general discussion touching on several points before getting back on track.

Moore said that the process of getting the combined operations up and running as a separate entity has been more complicated than he imagined and he wished they had pursued a different agenda from the start.

"April (Tarrant, director of the dispatch center) has been great at getting things sorted out," Moore said. "I wished we had hired a director from the first. I think we might be further along now."

Tarrant sought approval for the publication of a press release concerning the name of the center and its board of directors, which the directors approved.

"The board wants to assure all Vernon County residents that they will still receive the same services as in the past, however these services will be coming from one combined centralized dispatching center," the release states. "The board, along with the center will be working on bringing Enhanced 911 on line and wireless 911 in the year to come. The name has simply been adopted to reflect that these services are being provided for all citizens and public safety agencies within the city of Nevada and throughout Vernon County. This combination of services is a more efficient and effective way to provide the centralized dispatching services to the community and the agencies being served."

An example of what the board was hoping to alleviate was one law enforcement agency missing an important event because the dispatchers for that agency hadn't been informed themselves.

"In the past, unless a sheriff's deputy noticed all the police heading toward something and called in and asked their dispatcher, they might not know something was up until they were facing someone coming at them with a gun," Moore said.

While having a combined dispatch center has allowed better communications between departments it has had snags. One problem involves the retirement system for local governmental agencies, LAGERS.

Dispatchers from both the city and county are covered by LAGERS, however when the payroll is taken over by the dispatch center there is a question about how non-vested employees will be affected. The board asked Tarrant to talk to a representative from LAGERS to see what could be done so that those employees wouldn't lose any benefits.

"We need to get someone from LAGERS to come here and get with them," Moore said. "Whatever happens, we don't want them to be hurt by this move."

Two items on the agenda were postponed until the center approved a financial depository agreement and contracted with a bank to handle their account. During discussion about a legal consultant Moore said he thought it was an appropriate action, but worried about committing to pay for something before the board had money in the bank.

"I don't have a problem with this and I could approve it but I don't know that we can approve this until we have a bank account with something in it," Moore said.

In other action, the board agreed to work with all entities involved; Nevada police and fire departments, Vernon County Sheriff's Office, Vernon County Ambulance district and all county fire departments; to get service agreements in place by the end of the year.