Communications-Commission-Meeting-Packet-12162020At Monday’s Carroll City Council meeting, City Manager, Mike Pogge-Weaver, presented information received at a recent Carroll City/County Communications Center Commission meeting. The data he shared shows calls recorded are for more than just 911.
The packet did include a comparison of peer counties, the five above in population and the five below, that was prepared by the Comm Center and 911 Director, Jason Hoffman. Pogge-Weaver says going into Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22), the commission is talking about adding an employee now and possibly one later.
Fifty percent of the cost is covered by the City of Carroll and 50 percent by the county. Pogge-Weaver says when broken down, the city residents pay 68.5 percent of the total bill for the communications center through property taxes. He says the question is raised again as to whether or not this is equitable. The comparison shows three of cities pay no additional cost outside of property tax, it is covered in a countywide levee. Three pay a substantial contribution, ranging from $139,000 to $204,000, but some of these do their own dispatching and are saying they cannot continue to carry it in the General Fund, as the City of Carroll does.
He adds the allocation has been questioned at each of his five years of commission meetings and says his predecessor also questioned the allocations as well. Pogge-Weaver says the other county communities need the support of the communications center too, but at the onset this was just the city and the county. Now Manning and Coon Rapids are utilizing the call center at no charge. Pogge-Weaver is pushing for renegotiating on where they go from here. He has never said they should not contribute, but he would like to look at utilizing the Iowa State University (ISU) Fire Services Funding Method.
This, he says is not the only option, but one he feels the council could consider. No action was being taken on Monday night, but rather the discussion brought up for the council to research and review. Pogge-Weaver says future actions could include a call for a retraction of the 28E agreement, a change to how calls are allocated and a more equitable distribution of those that are not actual calls for service. Mike Kots says this is a topic that is raised every year.
Clay Haley agrees it needs to be equitable, but he would consider it a failure to exit the 28E agreement.
The data presented at Monday’s meeting can be found included below along with the full audio of the discussion—there were additional audio problems on Monday night at several different points. The next Carroll City/County Communications Commission meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 30.
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Full Audio of Communications Center discussion:
Links below–click on title of file to open:
Agenda and packet from Dec. 16 Communications Commission meeting: Communications-Commission-Meeting-Packet-12162020
Allocations: Com-Center-Info
Peer Cities Comparison: Peer-Cities-Updated-with-Jackson-Maquoketa
