911 board meeting -- short and sweet

Friday, August 30, 2013

By Rusty Murry

Nevada Daily Mail

The Western Missouri 911 Dispatch Center board of directors met in the conference room of the Vernon County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday for their regularly scheduled monthly meeting.

Board chairman JD Kehrman, Sheriff Jason Mosher, Nevada Police Chief Graham Burnley and chief deputy Shayne Simmons, acting as proxy for Vernon County Presiding Commissioner Bonnie McCord, were present as was Executive Director Tonia Davis. Southern Commissioner Everett Wolfe was also present for the first time to get a feel for the meeting.

The meeting was short and sweet. The standard practice of calling the meeting to order, approving the agenda, requesting public participation and approving the minutes of the last meeting went very quickly.

In her report, Davis told the board she had purchased a hard drive for the computer assisted dispatching system and also a spare to have on hand. Davis said that even at $780, they were cheaper than anticipated. A 10 percent discount saved nearly $80 she said.

Davis said the newly formed operational board was going well and she was receiving a lot of good feed back from the city fire departments, rural fire departments, first responders and Vernon County Ambulance District personnel. Some that have been invited to participate have not and Kehrman said, they will "continue to reach out to them."

Davis said she had created a new schedule for employees that will reduce comp time from 128 hours per month to zero unless someone calls in sick or takes time off. She also told them about some training opportunities her employees had been taking advantage of at their own expense. Davis said she is also trying to get some Crisis Intervention Team training for her dispatchers.

Davis told the board about a charge for electronic Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement Services she had discovered that started out at $100 and was now more than $600. She said she would get to the bottom of the issue and report back. The board approved the payment of all outstanding invoices except the one for the MULES.

Davis told the board she was working on a projection of what the end-of-the-year budget might look like. Kehrman recommended Davis have the city treasurer take a look at the projection when she gets to that point.

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