City, county talk through emergency dispatch problems
Megan Strickland
Ronan Chief of Police Valent Maxwell takes an oath of office administered by Mayor Kim Aipperspach.
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RONAN — Dead, six-year-old, off-brand radio batteries likely caused problems experienced recently by the Ronan Police Department in communicating with dispatch, Lake County Emergency Management coordinator Stephen Stanley told city council members on Oct. 28.
Stanley also said he received little communication from the police department about ongoing problems other than those caused by the batteries, and that he learned of the issues because of reports in the media.
“We’ve never had a complaint that they (the police department) couldn’t hear us (the county),” Stanley said.
The topic of malfunctioning radios became a critical point of discussion during the budgeting process that concluded Sept. 30. The city decided at its Sept. 30 meeting to cut the amount budgeted for emergency dispatch services to $20,000 from the $25,000 budgeted previously. The decision hinged on the argument that the city was not getting the services it paid for.
Officer Pat Noble told the council during the meeting of several instances where officers could not communicate with dispatch.
“If I’m screaming for help, it does no good,” Noble said at the Sept. 30 meeting.
Stanley said he made three calls since stories about the communication problems appeared in the newspaper to try to reach Noble to find out exactly what the problem was so they could be fixed. He received no response.
Stanley said as of the early part of October, police officers who experience radio dysfunction are supposed to call councilman Cal Hardy who will let Stanley know, so it can be fixed.
Hardy said he hoped the new strategy would help improve communication.
“This is our attempt to try to move forward and try to eliminate some of this ‘he said, she said,’” Hardy said.
According to Undersheriff Dan Yonkin the city owes more than $33,000 for emergency service dispatch fees since 2010. Yonkin said the city’s tally is likely higher, but he only included amounts from the past three years.
“A few years ago we worked out a solution that would help the city get caught up,” Lake County Commissioner Anne Brower said. “It hasn’t been followed through. I recognize budgets are tight, but I also recognize you can’t just not pay a bill because you don’t want to. It doesn’t work that way, nor will it be allowed to continue to work that way.”
Brower added that the county cannot be held responsible for making sure the city purchases equipment such as batteries to utilize the 911 dispatch services.
According to Stanley, the county has been generous in providing funds to help the city purchase equipment necessary to run its emergency services.
“There’s about $43,000 in radios we gave the city of Ronan’s police department from a Department of Homeland Security grant that the county got,” Stanley said. “We didn’t have to give them anything.”
That amount does not include $8,800 given to the Ronan fire department for radios, the $4,000 in free programming for the radios, or $5,000 given to sponsor the Ronan Walks Campaign.
“We provide the city at no charge the emergency operations plan that you are required to have by federal law,” Stanley said. “Because of that emergency operations plan when you lost your water system, the City of Ronan was able to enact a 2 mil levy worth about $3,000 and to receive over $200,000 to make repairs.”
Stanley said during his 15 years as emergency operations coordinator acting sheriffs have spared no expense to make sure the citizens of Lake County had the technology to be safe.
Stanley admitted that problems with the radio repeater in Ronan have been an issue and the repeater has been moved several times. Even if the Ronan repeater is down, officers should be able to use their radios, if the radios have fresh batteries, to hit other repeaters by clicking a button on the radio, Stanley said. It boils down to being properly trained on how to operate the radio.
“Believe me, the problems we’ve had over the past 15 years have been horrendous,” Stanley said. “I’ll be the first one to say it, but I want to get past it and I think we’re doing better.”
Although the council and county representatives agreed the communication at the meeting was necessary, some questions about how the city will pay off its debt to the county remained.
“We need to address the amount still owed,” Brower said.
“We have no money. If we have extra we will make sure to get you some,” Mayor Kim Aipperspach replied.
Aipperspach asked why the county doesn’t bill the ambulance service in Ronan $10,000 for dispatch fees.
Stanley, Brower, and Yonkin explained that the county has never billed an ambulance service in Lake County for dispatch. Fire departments also don’t pay dispatch fees.
“We’re mandated to dispatch for emergencies, and fire departments and ambulances just go in emergencies,” Stanley said.
Police departments create extra call volume for the dispatch center by conducting traffic stops and asking dispatch to run data on those stopped through electronic systems. Therefore, Stanley said the county bills each of the three cities that use the dispatch services for law enforcement purposes.
Brower said she would check back with the city in a couple of months to see if another method of payment for the dispatch services can be arranged.
In other business:
• Valent Maxwell was sworn in as chief of police.
• The council heard an update about the proposed 93 highway expansion from city planner Dan Miller.
• Resident April Godwin checked in to see if any progress had been made on the city’s dog ordinance. The council thanked Godwin for her persistence, but the exact status of the ordinance was unknown due to the absence of city attorney Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson, who was at the state crime lab, according to Aipperspach.
• The council denied a request to give Ronan Librarian Michelle Fenger a raise, because the request, which was approved by the library’s board two months earlier, did not make it to the council until after the budget was set.
• Miller asked the city to consider what it wanted done with vehicles confiscated by the police department. Currently, they sit in Miller’s yard. Unless county prosecutors decide to pursue further action, the vehicles cannot be sold at auction. No action was taken in the matter.
