The discussion about replacing the county’s outdated Emergency 911 systems continued at Monday’s Sunflower County Board of Supervisor’s meeting.
But still, no definite decision to purchase was reached even though County Administrator Gloria McIntosh verified that money had been allocated in the upcoming budget for the purchase.
Even though it appeared to be the consensus of the group to make the purchase, the issue was placed on hold at the September meeting in order for McIntosh to research and gather more information about possible funding sources since it was stated at the time that the item had been removed from the projected expenditures.
She said on Monday, “When I went back and looked at the budget, we did put money in 911 for purchasing of the system, and we put the $140,000 that is in the sheriff’s budget for dispatchers. We actually put that amount in the sheriff’s budget.”
It was previously noted that the amassed E-911 money was being used to pay the dispatchers instead of drawing their salaries from the general fund.
District 3 Supervisor Dennis Holmes made the observation.
“It should have been tax money and not E-911 funds,” he said.
He said even though the dispatchers were doing an E-911 job, they should have been paid with tax dollars. That way the money would have been in that account to buy the equipment.
Now that the funds are reportedly available, Monday’s session raised questions about the specifications on the equipment. And that initiated a discussion about whether the county’s provider is a sole-source supplier.
It was reported that Attorney Johnny McWilliams had shared a technology equipment list with the members that contained items that can be purchased similar to the state-contract method; so McIntosh is now tasked with checking to see if the equipment required by the E-911 service provider is on that list.
E-911 Director John Thompson had stated then that he had included the purchase of new equipment in his proposed budget, but it was removed. At that September meeting, President Glenn Donald said, “He asked for it, but we asked Dr. Mac to take it back. It wasn't her doing, it was our doing,” he said.
The supervisors established that in years past, the other emergency equipment lasted well beyond the suggested “best by” date, but stated that they were not opposed to getting the new technology. Holmes said, “I’m for getting one, but we need to budget some money for it or figure out how we can do it.”
On Monday, Donald raised another point. “Excuse me, I guess, I’ve just got a big mouth, but I just think our E-911 needs to be totally separate from the sheriff department’s dispatchers. I think it needs to be in a room like this by itself where you have no distractions.”
Donald added that the current setup needs some revamping. “E-911 needs to be E-911, sheriff dispatchers need to be Sunflower County Sheriff’s dispatchers,” he said. Donald maintained that the emergency operators should only handle emergency calls.
