Newton County Board of Supervisors hosted Town of Decatur officials Monday who shared their board’s concerns about the new E911 dispatching agreement proposed by the county.
Under the dispatching agreement, all police and fire calls would be dispatched by the Newton County 911 call center, consolidating the county and municipal dispatch needs under one roof. To help finance the expense, the county would charge municipalities $12 per person per year, using figures from the 2010 census.
Currently, Newton, Hickory and East Central Community College have signed into agreements with the county for dispatching. Union and Decatur have not. After the Oct. 1 deadline, the county began invoicing the Town of Decatur for about $1,400 per month, the cost outlined under the agreement. The Decatur Board of Aldermen held paying the invoice until they had an opportunity to voice their concerns.
Decatur Mayor David Marshall told supervisors his Board of Aldermen had some concerns about the fairness of the proposed agreement due to the fact Decatur Police Department often assists the county with security and after-hours calls.
“The board is really concerned with the fact that, unlike the other communites, we’re the backup for the sheriff’s department,” he said.
DPD officers assist with security at Newton County Elementary, Middle and High schools, provide security for the Newton County Courthouse and respond to the Newton County Jail to assist sheriff’s deputies when needed.
Additionally, Aldermen Phil Sutphin said, the residents of Decatur already pay an E911 fee in their taxes. Adding another fee, he said, could be double taxation.
“We as citizens of the county pay county taxes, and we, as citizens of Decatur, pay city taxes,” he said. “For the county, those taxes go toward the sheriff’s department. We don’t necessarily get a lot of benefit for that. However, we do have our own police force, which we pay for with city taxes. We provide assistance where we can to the county, so there’s a double taxation going on.”
Marshall said instead of charging the municipalities for the service, it would be more fair to raise millage to pay for the E911 call center, distributing the cost equally across all county taxpayers. That move, County Administrator Steve Seale said, would be about a 2 mill increase.
“There’s about a $200,000 deficit for E911,” he said.
Board President Charles Godwin told Marshall and Sutphin their concerns would be carefully considered as the county watched the new E911 setup. The first few months, he said, would really help the county see if it was on the right track or if there was something else that could be done to offset the dispatching costs.
“We hear what you’re saying and appreciate the services you provide,” he said.
However, Godwin said he could not agree with the claim of double taxation. The county, he said, receives 911 calls to its calls center but is not required to dispatch officers. The county is taking away the need for each town to have its own dispatch staff and saving them the expense of having round-the-clock dispatchers to relay calls to their officers.
E911 Director Brian Taylor told the board the dispatching fees outlined in the agreements help but are not enough to fully offset the dispatching costs. However, he said, what could help would be a successful lobbying effort of the state legislature to change the way 911 service fees are directed.
Under the current law, 911 fees, which are set at $1 for cell phones and residences and $2 for businesses per month, are sent to the county where the phone was purchased. For Newton County, changing the law to send that fee to the county of residence would mean an additional $264,000 annually, more than enough to cover the current E911 deficit.
Should that happen, Godwin said the county would “certainly be open” to revisiting the dispatching fees imposed on Decatur and other municipalities.
