Kokomo — Why haven’t the city and county dispatch center operations been merged?
That’s what the Citizen’s Committee for Consolidation wants to know.
For more than two decades, the consolidation of the Howard County and Kokomo services has been discussed but an agreement has never been reached.
Tuesday, at the second meeting of the consolidation meeting, Pat Crittendon, who represents the city of Kokomo on the committee, asked why an agreement proposed in 2008 was rejected.
Nick Capozzoli, communications coordinator for the county dispatch center, said he didn’t know why an agreement was not finalized.
“It would be helpful to know,” Crittendon responded.
Howard County Councilman Paul Wyman, who took part in the latest round of merger talks, said the discussions never made it to the appropriate level.
Council President Dick Miller said the sticking point was the division of the costs between the city and county. He said Kokomo has twice as many employees as the county.
“The city wanted to split the cost 50/50,” Miller said. “The county wanted the costs shared based on the number of calls and employees.”
Information that was provided to the committee showed that in 2009, the Kokomo Police Department received 63,618 calls as compared to 27,337 for the county.
Capozzoli said Kokomo dispatch has 18 employees, all paid for from the general fund. The county has 12 full-time employees: eight are paid from the county’s general fund and four from the E-911 fund.
The equipment used by the city and county dispatchers are purchased with E911 funds, he said.
The city uses different CAD, or computer aided dispatch, software than the county.
“It would be a huge step if we used the same software,” Capozzoli said.
Committee member John Floyd, who is a representative of Kokomo, said the dispatch centers, which are housed in the same room of the same building, could save money by using the same equipment.
Capozzoli said there are employee concerns, such as seniority, vacation days and pay levels.
Commissioner Dave Trine said the discussions go beyond dollars and cents. He said either the sheriff or police chief would have to give up power if a merger were to happen.
He said liability was also an issue.
“This should have been worked out years ago,” Trine said. “There needs to be a third party.”
Gary Bates, assistant county administrator, said separate entities have been established in Miami, Tipton and Cass counties to oversee dispatch services. Those changes resulted in savings to taxpayers, he said.
Trine said any consolidation of the dispatch centers will impact the police departments in Greentown and Russiaville, all of the township fire departments and the ambulance service.
Randy Morris, director of operations for Kokomo, said the city was not opposed to an independent board being created to oversee dispatch center policies and operations.
Morris said the sticking point continues to be the distribution of funding and control between the city and county.