Kokomo and Howard County officials have tried several times over the last decade to merge their dispatch centers.
Each time, they were met with failure, with the same stumbling blocks: how would costs be shared and who would oversee a combined dispatch center operations.
With the failed talks of 1998, 2001 and 2008 fresh in their minds, both sides have come back to the table to resume the discussion.
Those talks are happening via the Citizens’ Committee for Consolidation, established this year by the Howard County commissioners. The thought behind the committee, county attorney Larry Murrell said, was that public involvement would put pressure on both sides to move forward.
“Through the light of public pressure, it would force the government leaders to finally cross the finish line,” Murrell said.
“There has been a lot of work completed, just tweak the draft a little,” he said, referring to work done during the 2002 round of talks. “The 2002 draft agreement is a good starting point.”
Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight attended the most recent meeting of the committee to propose two new plans of action.
So, it seems officials on both sides believe consolidating the two centers can be accomplished and are again working toward that goal.
But, how’d we get here?
The first step toward consolidation was taken in 1998. Then, an interlocal agreement was signed by both sides when the new Howard County jail opened. It was agreed that all dispatch services would be located in the new jail facility. The county would supply the facilities and all necessary equipment would be purchased through E911 funds.
Murrell said that agreement was meant as a starting point, and efforts were made in 2002 to finalize the merger.
“The county has come halfway for 12 years,” Murrell said. “The 1998 agreement was considered a halfway step.”
Former Howard County Commissioner Brad Bagwell wanted to take it to the next level in 2001 and make dispatch a separate entity under a unified organization, he said.
“We had a tentative agreement in place, with an established budget,” Murrell said of the 2002 draft.
The executive board to oversee operations was to consist of the sheriff, chiefs of the Kokomo police and fire departments, the Emergency Management Agency director and a county commissioner.
Murrell said the Kokomo Common Council was not in support of the concept at the time.
“There were concerns about city dispatchers becoming county employees and control of the executive board,” he said.
Several years of contention on the matter followed, and in 2008, talks were meant to exhibit cooperation between Kokomo and Howard County to local residents, Murrell said.
“There was an understanding to try to implement the concept,” he said. “Again, we got very close, but couldn’t cross the finish line.”
Dick Miller, president of the Howard County Council, said everyone was optimistic an agreement could be reached in 2008.
“We were led to believe we could bring this under one set of management,” he said. “Everyone wanted to get it done.”
Murrell said a consensus wasn’t reached in 2008 on how much each government entity would pay toward the cost of operations.
Kokomo broke off the talks in 2008, maintaining the savings weren’t great enough to move forward, said Randy Morris, director of operations.
Morris said an agreeable solution for how to fairly deal with the city and county dispatch employees could not be reached.
Miller said either the city or county could terminate the discussions and he was informed the talks were ended by Kokomo.
“I thought we could come to an agreement and bring this to an end,” he said of the 2008 talks.
“There are still a lot of things to be done. Several times this has been discussed and nothing happened,” he said. “We can’t dwell on it. This should be done and easily could be done,” he said of merging the dispatch centers.
Kokomo Common Councilman Mike Karickhoff, who took part in the 2008 talks, said he thought both sides were close to the agreement.
“I have an opinion why it didn’t take place, but it would be counter-productive to the current talks,” he said. “The dialogue was open, frank and productive. For whatever reason, the mayor didn’t want to go forward.
“It didn’t happen, maybe now it will happen,” he said. “The good thing is they’re still talking. It is absolutely time to cross the finish line.”