The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners this week reversed a decision it made last week to impose a $3.64 per month surcharge on all wireless and land line telephones to pay for 9-1-1 dispatch center operations.

The board took the action at its regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening – the last one slated to be held in Leland before the move of the county seat to the new Government Center in Suttons Bay Township is completed later this month.

The board this week voted 5-0 against a motion to impose the phone surcharge, with District No. 1 commissioner Jean Watkoski and District No. 2 commissioner Will Bunek absent. The vote last week in favor of imposing the surcharge was 5-1, with District No. 5 Commissioner David “Chauncey” Shiflett opposed and District No. 7 commissioner Melinda Lautner absent.

This week’s reversal means the county board may need to ask voters to renew all or a portion of an extra millage that voters narrowly approved in 2006 to help pay for 9-1-1 and other county services. The one-mill, two-year levy was reduced to 0.6 mills by the county board last year and will expire at the end of this year. If the county board decides to seek a millage renewal, it will need to do so by May 13 to meet a deadline for the Aug. 5 primary ballot.

Prior to last year, county 9-1-1 operations were supported in part by a $2.12 monthly surcharge per landline telephone. Officials noted, however, that nearly half of all 9-1-1 calls came from cellular phones. Meanwhile, legislation enabling the $2.12 surcharge was set to expire at the end of 2006 – leading commissioners to seek alternate funding through the millage. New legislation enabling a surcharge to support county-based 9-1-1 dispatch centers statewide – a surcharge that included cell phones and all other communications devices capable of accessing 9-1-1 – was adopted late last year.

Embedded in the legislation was a requirement that counties adopt resolutions to impose the surcharge this month to meet state timelines for applying the surcharge beginning July 1.

Leelanau County emergency services director Tom Skowronski explained that the $3.64 per month figure was based on a formula imposed by the state. It was believed that the surcharge might have entirely funded operations of the county’s 9-1-1 dispatch center which, this year, was expected to cost some $900,000 to operate.

But Shiflett asserted last week – and reiterated this week – that there was no way to know exactly how much money the new surcharge would bring in, or whether the state’s formula for setting the surcharge reflected local realities.

“I said last week that we didn’t have enough information to make a decision,” Shiflett said, “and this week it’s still clear that we need a lot more education on what to do about this situation.”

Shiflett pointed out that cell phone users often have billing addresses that do not match their actual address. There would be no way for phone companies to know that Leelanau County’s $3.64 surcharge should be applied in many cases.

District No. 6 commissioner and county board chairman Robert Hawley noted that many residents of southeastern Leelanau County have Traverse City zip codes and their phone numbers have a Traverse City prefix. Hawley said, for example, that the Michigan Secretary of State’s office frequently mistakes Leelanau County residents for Grand Traverse County residents, and that phone companies would not likely include the surcharge on bills from those addresses – reducing revenues significantly and making the surcharge unfair.

“It’s clear to me, though, that a general property tax may be the worst way to fund 9-1-1,” Hawley added.

A property millage requires that larger landowners pay more for 9-1-1 services than smaller landowners even though both receive the same service.

Hawley opened up the board’s discussion to public comment and heard from Suttons Bay business owner Jackie Morrison of Bingham Township, who asserted that the property tax is “not worse than the surcharge.”

Morrison noted that families often have multiple cell phones – all of which would be subject to the surcharge. Morrison said that for her own properties, she currently pays about $75 per year in taxes to support the 9-1-1 center. If the surcharge were imposed on all cell phones and land lines, she said, she could be facing a $600 per year cost for the same 9-1-1 service.

Lautner said she believed that neither the surcharge nor the millage was a fair method of paying for 9-1-1 service, but that a “per household fee” would be more equitable.

Skowronski pointed out that there is currently no state law allowing for a “per-household fee” and that the county board currently had two choices – the surcharge or a millage.

Lautner noted that the current millage will remain in force until the end of the year and might be renewed by voters. She also noted that all or a portion of 9-1-1 expenses could be paid through the county’s general fund absent an extra-voted millage to support 9-1-1.

Lautner said Skowronski should be directed to investigate how the county might collaborate with other neighboring counties to provide 9-1-1 services and reduce costs. The rest of the county board agreed by consensus.

In other action related to emergency management communications, the board this week voted 3-2 in favor of a motion to award a $7,730 contract to Radio North to relocate county communications equipment from a tower on Gray Road just south of M-72 to two other towers in Elmwood Township. Voting “no” were Lautner and District No. 4 commissioner Mary Tonneberger.

Both of the commissioners who voted “no” – plus Shiflett who voted in favor of approving the contract – said they were “uncomfortable” with the bidding process for the contract. Commissioners noted that the way a Request for Proposals was written virtually assured that the county’s longtime contractor, Radio North, would win. Commissioners agreed by consensus that Skowronski should modify the bidding process for future contracts.