Leelanau County's 9-1-1 Advisory Board last week discussed possibilities for a new funding arrangement to pay for emergency dispatch services following the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners' rejection last month of a proposed $3.64 surcharge on all wireless and land line telephones.
The advisory board includes representatives from local fire and emergency medical service providers, the Michigan State Police, the county Sheriff’s Department, the Grand Traverse Band Tribal Police Department, the National Park Service, the county Road Commission, and other local agencies.
Tom Skowronski, the director of the Leelanau County Office of Emergency Management/9-1-1, told county commissioners last month that the 9-1-1 Advisory Board had recommended adoption of the $3.64 per phone line surcharge. But county commissioners said they didn’t have enough information about the proposal and expressed concern that the surcharge might cost some taxpayers far more than they are currently paying to support 9-1-1 operations.
The county 9-1-1 center’s $900,000 annual budget this year is being supported by what remains of a 1-mill property tax levy that voters narrowly approved in 2006 to support a variety of county functions including 9-1-1. Commissioners last year reduced the millage to .6-mills, and the levy will expire at the end of this year.
Officials have estimated that a property tax levy of .42-mill could fully support the county’s 9-1-1 dispatch center next year. At the county board’s executive committee meeting on Feb. 13, and at the regular monthly meeting of the county board on Feb. 19, Skowronski told commissioners they had only two alternatives for funding 9-1-1 next year: the surcharge or a millage.
At the 9-1-1 Advisory Board meeting on Feb. 29, however, Skowronski indicated that other possibilities also existed, such as a lower surcharge plus a smaller portion of the millage, or a combination of general fund money along with a lower surcharge or millage funding. A tight timeline imposed by the state Legislature to authorize the surcharge, however, gave county officials little time to come up with an alternate formula, however.
County board chairman and District No. 6 commissioner Robert Hawley, who also serves on the 9-1-1 Advisory Board, said it was clear that many of the county commissioners would endorse a "per-household fee" to support 9-1-1. The advantage of such a fee is that, unlike a $3.64 per phone surcharge, the "per household fee" would not penalize the many households in Leelanau County that have multiple phone lines and cellular phones. In addition, Hawley said, it’s not clear that phone service providers would add a Leelanau County surcharge to bills that are mailed to addresses either outside of, or appearing to be outside of Leelanau County, such as the many "Traverse City" addresses within the county.
Hawley added that most commissioners see the millage as unfair because the owners of larger properties such as farms often pay a far greater property tax for the same 9-1-1 service that the owners of smaller properties pay. He pointed out, however, that no legal authority currently exists to charge a "per household fee" for 9-1-1 service.
County information technology director Ron Plamondon noted that the county had successfully persuaded state legislators to enact a "per household fee" to support county recycling services, but that the legislation was flawed. Plamondon also noted that the creation of a new law to establish a "per household fee" to pay for 9-1-1 services was uncertain and could take years to accomplish.
Hawley said he believed county taxpayers are hoping that even more alternatives might be possible – notably, lower operating costs for 9-1-1, possibly through increased collaboration with neighboring counties.
"I don’t know if people will accept the idea that we can’t merge our 9-1-1 operations with another county to save money unless we can show them some hard facts," Hawley said. "My constituents are looking for more than a statement that ‘It just can’t be done,’ or ‘It’s just too difficult.’ A regional approach to most folks just makes a lot of sense."
Skowronski told the 9-1-1 Advisory Board last week that he believed a Feb. 28 Leelanau Enterprise article written by publisher Alan Campbell was "misleading" in the way it explained how other counties operating 9-1-1 dispatch centers appear to be doing so less expensively than Leelanau County through collaboration with neighboring counties.
"The article made it look like Leelanau County’s budget exceeded everyone else’s, but there were no reasons given as to why there’s a difference," Skowronski said. He added that he intended to send an email to members of the 9-1-1 Advisory Board detailing his concerns about the Enterprise article.Skowronski was asked by an
Enterprise reporter in attendance at the Feb. 29 meeting to let the newspaper know exactly what information contained in the Feb. 28 article was either misleading or inaccurate so that a correction could be published. As of presstime this week, Skowronski had not responded to that request.
County administrator David Gill was in attendance at the Feb. 29 meeting and noted that it was unlikely the state Legislature would enact legislation allowing a "per household fee" to support 9-1-1 anytime soon, but that he had remained in continuing contact with Benzie County about working together to make 9-1-1 operations in both counties more cost-effective.
Both Gill and Hawley suggested it was likely that voters could be asked to renew a "temporary" millage to support 9-1-1 through 2009 while other alternatives are pursued such as legislation authorizing a "per household fee" or arrangements with other neighboring municipalities.
Gill said that, from a technical standpoint, the integration of 9-1-1 operations with another municipality was possible but that, politically, the issue might be more challenging. Gill added that he believed a millage request of .4-mill to support 9-1-1operations in 2009, coupled with some general fund money or possible budget cuts, would be easier to sell to voters than a millage of .42 mill or higher.
The deadline for the county board to request that a millage renewal proposal be placed on the August Primary ballot is May 13. Gill added that if the millage request appeared on the November General Election ballot, the tax levy could also be collected in time to support 9-1-1 operations next year.
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