Sept. 08--With 911 revenues decreasing and needs increasing, an advisory committee received permission from Dothan and Houston County officials to explore major structural changes in how decisions are made and how the system is operated.
Currently, the Dothan/Houston County 911 board consists of the city's mayor and six commissioners along with one county commissioner and the county commission chairman. The board is guided by an advisory committee made up of officials in law enforcement, firefighters and other first responders.
The committee asked the current board Wednesday for permission to explore the idea of creating a separate E-911 board, consisting of appointed members with expertise in E-911 matters.
Interim E-911 systems coordinator Chris Etheredge said some current board members had expressed concern about making E-911 decisions without any "boots on the ground knowledge."
Etheredge suggested creating an autonomous E-911 board, capable of paying employees. The city and county would each be able to appoint a certain number of board members, and the board would have authority to oversee its employees.
That comes with its own set of challenges, however.
Currently, the 911 system does not have the authority to hire employees. Revenues generated from landline and cell phone fees allow the system to operate and to reimburse the city for two full-time employees. The system has no dispatchers, and uses the resources of about 20 City of Dothan dispatchers and 18 Houston County dispatchers. If the 911 system became autonomous, it would have to fund its own dispatchers, IT staff and other support personnel.
The advisory committee would also like to build a joint communication center. Currently, the city and county operate out of separate communication centers. A previous study on a joint communication center was done in 2008, estimating the cost of a communication center plus Emergency Management Operations Center at between $5 million and $6 million. Etheredge said the cost could be reduced by two-thirds by leaving the EMA center at its current location. City and county officials gave the committee permission to explore that option but also asked the committee to see if any current facilities could house a joint communication center.
However, revenues for the E-911 system continue to decrease at the rate of about $70,000 per year due to an increasing number of residences no longer having landlines. The E-911 system receives $.84 from each residential landline in the county as well as $2.21 for each commercial line. Cell phone fees produce less revenue and are not uniform.
Legislation could be offered in the upcoming legislative session to increase cell phone revenue for E-911, but would spread the revenue to all systems across the state according to population, and create a state E-911 board.
Houston County Emergency Management Agency Director Clark Matthews opposes a state E-911 board.
"If we have a state board, we lose local control and they are going to dictate to us what we are going to do and what we are not going to do," Matthews said, adding that he is skeptical the board would have any local representation.
Most advisory committee members appeared to believe a fee increase is inevitable.
"In three to four years we will be operating in the red and will need to increase rates if nothing changes in the way we are doing things. If we separate, then we are looking at having to raise rates sooner than that and more than you want," Etheredge said.
