Here's a question: Who does Leelanau County call for emergency 9-1-1 funding?

The answer may be local property owners, who are presently footing the more than $900,000 bill to run the county’s 9-1-1 dispatch service. The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners last week reversed an earlier vote, deciding not to seek permission from the state to tap telephones — both land lines and cell phones — with a $3.64 monthly surcharge.

Commissioners were told immediate approval of the surcharge was needed to participate in changes approved by the state Legislature that allowed counties to collect more from cell phone users while charging less to “land line” telephones.

Should Leelanau continue not to collect a phone usage surcharge — and that now seems likely — it would become the only county among five represented in this story not to seek some compensation from phone users.

County Commission Jean Watkoski, whose district includes most of Elmwood Township, was frustrated by a lack of funding options provided the board leading up to the decision.

So she joined many of her constituents in opposing the surcharge. She was ill and did not attend the Feb. 19 meeting at which the County Board voted 5-0 to reject the new fee. But like five of her fellow commissioners, she voted for the fee one week earlier at a board “committee of the whole meeting.”

Commissioners reversed their stance last week after hearing an earful from constituents. Had Watkoski been present, she would have joined commissioners in changing her mind.

“I think that was based on the number of calls we received on this issue. People were not happy with the surcharge at all,” she said.

A review of funding for three other 9-1-1 centers in northern Michigan might explain why. All operate on a per-county budget smaller than the Leelanau 9-1-1 center — and consequently charge residents less to provide the service.

Leelanau County voters in 2006 approved a two-year, one-mill property tax increase largely to fund the 9-1-1 center. At the time, the center’s budget was $825,000. The property tax raised nearly $2 million in revenues.

The 2008 budget calls for $900,572 in expenditures. The property tax increase, needed at least partially because county commissioners allowed a $2.11 charge on land lines to expire rather than wait for the Legislature to decide on a replacement, was decreased to .6 mill this year.

But the property tax approved in the fall of 2006 won’t help the 2009 budget. For Watkoski, voting against the surcharge was also a way to put other 9-1-1 options on the table — including combining operations with neighboring counties.

“I think (consolidation is) worth sitting around the table and talking about,” said Watkoski. “I’m a big believer in the more you can go regional and save some dollars, the better off you are.”

Such an approach has worked well since the early 1990s for the Charlevoix-Cheboygan-Emmett Central Dispatch Center in Petoskey, according to operations manager Jack Messner. “The question became, do we really need a dispatch center in every fire department, in every police department? The answer is no. That would be wasteful.”

A formula based partly on population is used to fund the multi-county facility, with counties paying for operations out of their general funds. The total annual operation cost is $1.7 million.

A monthly surcharge placed on phone lines is reserved for capital
operations, and paid for a headquarters built in 1996. The surcharge will soon change to 61 cents on land and cell phones, Messner said.

Otsego County gets some help from the State Police post in Gaylord where its 9-1-1 center is based. State Police provide one worker to help on slower shifts, according to Otsego County Emergency Management Director Mike Thompson. That helps keep costs down; the center expects to operate on a 2008 budget of $436,935. The Otsego County Board two weeks ago approved a $1.72 per line monthly fee on cell phones and land lines to cover all county 911 costs.

Both dispatch centers are busy. Otsego County handled 11,554 “calls for service” last year, and about double that amount in total calls, Thompson said. The three-county center accepted about 100,000 “9-1-1 emergency calls,” Messner said. In a 2006 story, Leelanau County Emergency Services Director Tom Skowronski said the Leelanau dispatch center handled 6,345 emergency calls the previous year. Skowronski was not available earlier this week to discuss this story.

Benzie County, which has historically used a phone charge to pay for 9-1-1, plans to charge $2.27 per month on land and cell lines to cover its $543.343 budget for 911 services, according to Charles Clark, county administrator/controller.

“I’ve never liked the millage concept,” said Clark. He said the 9-1-1 dispatch center is housed with the county jail. It handled about 7,400 calls requiring “incidents dispatched” last year.

Benzie County Board chair Mark Roper, who represents the Lake Ann district bordering Leelanau County, said informal discussions have been held among Benzie officials about the possibility of combining 9-1-1 services with neighboring counties.

“There has been conversation in that area,” he said. “Not to the point where we’ve said let’s call in two counties and talk.”

Two problems inherent to a Leelanau-Benzie 9-1-1 marriage would be shared: What to do with incompatible equipment, and how to fund the purchase of new equipment?

“The problem is we’ve got a lot of money into our 9-1-1 system in equipment and training,” he said. “It’s a tough one, but it does make sense to combine services.”

Leelanau County administrator David M. Gill said Leelanau’s answer may
come out of a 9-1-1 advisory committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow. The committee supported the $3.64 surcharge option, and has yet to meet after its denial.

Gill said commissioners would prefer the Legislature approve a “per-household” fee option to fund 9-1-1, but acknowledges that option won’t work to make ends meet in 2009. One option commissioners want explored is paying for 9-1-1 out of the General Fund, but he’s doubtful funding is there.