After more than six months of negotiations and debate, the Town of Decatur will enter into a contract with Newton County to provide dispatching for the town police officers through the county’s 911 dispatch center.
In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Decatur Board of Aldermen agreed to sign the dispatching agreement, which would allow Decatur police officers to continue running car tags, licenses and checking for active warrants through the county for a fee of approximately $16,500 per year.
The vote comes after more than six months of negotiation between the Town of Decatur and Newton County supervisors, who proposed the interlocal agreements to all municipalities within the county last year. In October, the Board of Supervisors began invoicing the towns and cities for services provided through the 911 dispatch center at a rate of $12 per person per year. Newton and Hickory have already signed the agreement as well as East Central Community College, which received a rate of $9 per person per year due to the college only operating 9 months out of the year.
In Tuesday’s meeting, Decatur Mayor David Marshall told aldermen the town was being threatened with litigation due to holding payment on the dispatching invoices.
“We have EMA invoices that date back to October,” he said. “So what we’ve got is a threatened lawsuit/service being interrupted from the county regarding 911 and officer check-ins and driver’s license and tag searches being stopped on us.”
Marshall had made several visits to the Board of Supervisors since October attempting to negotiate a dispatching agreement that would be accepted by both the county and his town aldermen; however, he had been unsuccessful in finding a compromise that worked for both agencies.
Alderman Phil Sutphin, who made the motion to accept the agreement after a lengthy executive session, said he still had reservations about signing the contract but wanted to maintain a positive relationship with the county.
“[Motion to] In the light of maintaining a positive relationship with the county in all matters, other than this one where we feel we’re being taken advantage of, that we do pay,” Sutphin said.
The motion passed with Aldermen Sutphin, Danny Cherry and Max Anderson voting for and Aldermen Mark Buntyn and Michael Harris voting against.
“I do agree with Mark we are not getting our full service for our county taxes,” Sutphin said.
Aldermen Mark Buntyn has been vocal about his opposition to the agreement since the board received a copy of the proposed agreement. He previously said he considered paying for the dispatch service to be double taxation as residents of Decatur already pay millage earmarked for 911 operations.
Board Attorney Mitch Thomas said the dispatching agreement would lock the town into paying the $16,500 rate for three years. While the agreement was binding, he said a termination clause allowed either party to back out of the contract upon 90 days notice.
