County Weighs 911 Dispatch Decision: Negaunee or Chippewa?
By Ryan Schlehuber

Negotiations are underway to decide whether Negaunee Regional Dispatch or Chippewa County Central Dispatch will provide 911 dispatch service to Mackinac County, with an April 1 deadline to reach a decision. The Mackinac County Dispatch board met Tuesday, March 4, with representatives of other counties and the Michigan State Police, which operates the Negaunee center, and voted 11-1 to continue negotiating with both Negaunee and Chippewa County.

The local dispatch board has demanded from both agencies more information about the actual costs of service and a complete description of services to be rendered.

Board member Mike Kasper, Mackinac County emergency services manager, voted not to negotiate with Negaunee until actual costs from the state are known, saying, "We've been handed all these different numbers so many times from the state. . . .We should've had the answers already." The delay puts more pressure on the board to make a hasty decision, he said.

A significant increase from the state in costs for 911 dispatch services and a breakdown in trust with Lansing has provoked Mackinac County Central Dispatch Board to weigh other options, said Mackinac County 911 Coordinator Bryce Tracy.

Cost is one consideration in the decision.

The state has cut part of its Michigan State Police funding that previously subsidized the Negaunee service, so the eight counties that currently use dispatch services there are being asked to shoulder an additional cost of $600,000, beyond the $425,000 each year they have collectively covered for the past 10 years. In light of the higher cost, Luce County has already parted ways with Negaunee and will join Chippewa County. The other six counties have verbally committed to continue a permanent agreement with Negaunee, and Mackinac County is still deliberating the issue.

The state is expecting the participating counties to cover all the costs of Negaunee center's 911 dispatch services, a total of $1.25 million by 2013. The annual cost to each county will depend upon how many counties participate. Mackinac County has asked for specific figures. Nineteen dispatchers work at the center, and counties will pay salaries and benefits for 12 of them, plus a technology and mapping administrator. Wages and benefits there range from $83,000 to $89,000.

Pam Matelski, communications manager for Michigan State Police in Lansing, and the former Mackinac County 911 coordinator, attended the March 4 meeting in St. Ignace to advocate for a continued partnership with Negaunee Regional Dispatch.

She believes that residents will see a change in services if Mackinac County switches to Chippewa County, owing to Chippewa having fewer dispatchers on hand. She warned that cost savings may not be as great as the board expects between the two dispatch centers, and pointed out that the Negaunee service has already cut its costs, where possible.

To offset costs at Negaunee, the state transferred most of its administrative authority to Lansing, eliminated the assistant post commander position, and replaced uniformed officer Lieutenant Anthony Benaglio, who managed Negaunee's 911 dispatch services from 2001 to 2006, with a civilian dispatch director, Brian McEachern, last April. Ms. Matelski said the managerial switch made a $20,000 difference.

Some board members believe this year's State Police budget cuts don't bode well for the sustainability of the Negaunee service.

Regional 911 dispatch centers in Pawpaw and Bridgeport, for example, moved to Rockford and Gaylord, respectively, last year, to eliminate managerial positions as one of several cost-cutting measures, and some Mackinac County dispatch board members feared the same fate would befall Negaunee.

Ms. Matelski disagreed.

"If most or all of the counties were to pull out of service agreements with Negaunee, then that is a possibility," she said. If Mackinac County, the third-highest user by call volume, pulls out, there is a much greater possibility the Negaunee operation would be moved to Gaylord, she said.

At Chippewa County Central Dispatch, Tim McKee, emergency manager and 9-1-1 coordinator, says the center, governed by the Chippewa County Board of Commissioners, is more sustainable.

"Our survivability doesn't depend on whether Mackinac County joins," he said. "My take is that if Mackinac County sticks with Negaunee, good for Mackinac County and its people, and if it joins Chippewa, good for Mackinac County and its people. It's their citizens that they're looking out for and that's what they should base their decision on; where they can get the most for their people's money."

Chippewa County's center has two dispatchers on duty at all times and, with the addition of possibly two counties, a third dispatcher will be placed on duty during peak hours during the day, Mr. McKee said. Salaries and benefits there cost around $60,000 per dispatcher.

"Residents will not see a change in services if Mackinac County switches to Chippewa County," said Mr. McKee. "I'm not going to say we're better, but we have a dedicated staff that will meet the needs of the citizens of Mackinac County."

Mark Wilk, Mackinac County dispatch board member, police officer and ambulance administrator, believes the only change will be in who answers the telephones.

"Instead of Negaunee Regional, you'll hear Chippewa County Dispatch," he said. "There will still be someone to help you and direct emergency services to you in a time of need."

Mr. Wilk believes Chippewa County Dispatch is able to take the volume of emergency calls with three dispatchers for Luce, Mackinac, and Chippewa counties just as well as Negaunee's 19 dispatchers handle the number of calls from eight counties.

Being neighboring counties has advantages, said Mr. McKee.

"There are a lot of incidents that are cross-jurisdictional between these two counties," he said, "and dealing with an incident that involves both counties makes it easier when dealing with just one dispatch center."

As far as cost savings between the two centers, "It would be irresponsible for us as a board to not go with Chippewa County," said Mr. Wilk, "because the costs are significantly lower, based on what information we've been given. We can't afford what the state is saying that it's going to cost us" at Negaunee.

The state's figures could change favorably after Negaunee's board meets March 27, he said, especially if one dispatcher is eliminated, owing to Luce County leaving, which Ms. Matelski said the state would likely do.

One fewer dispatcher in Negaunee would mean lessening the counties' expected shared overall costs by at least $83,700, said Ms. Matelski.

If Mackinac County joins Chippewa County's system next year, it could cost about $40,000 for technology transfer, such as for routing calls and radio communication links, as well as its first-year payment, and dispatching services could be about $120,000, Mr. Tracy believes.

That would mean $143,000 less than what Negaunee projected Mackinac County would have to pay in 2009, although that figure was based on all the counties, including Luce, participating with Negaunee's center.

With Luce County departing, Mackinac County does know what it will be expected to pay, thus the county's dispatch board has hesitated to give a verbal commitment to the state, because cost projections are not concrete enough, especially beyond this year, said Mr. Tracy.

"They're asking us to negotiate up to 2009 and we feel like we'd be locked in up until then," Mr. Tracy told The St. Ignace News. "They want us to commit when we don't know what the price is. It's like buying a car, are you going to sign something when you don't know how much it's going to cost?

"We want the cold, hard facts," he added. "We want to know what our control is [with 911 operations], what the financing is, and we want to know where our money is going. Is it staying in the Upper Peninsula or is it is going down to Lansing?"

Ms. Matelski, who was not aware that Mackinac County was seeking other options until it was announced in a February 7 article in The St. Ignace News, said a verbal commitment would not bind Mackinac County into any written agreement, but would mean that it is working to stay with Negaunee.

"If Mackinac County comes to the table and finds that it cannot afford it, then they'd be allowed to exercise other options," said Ms. Matelski.

She also stated that counties have a say in dispatch operation policies and procedures, but not any administrative decisions.

With the existing and new agreements, the state and the counties have an opt-out clause, where one side can give a 30-day notice of departure. That county would then have 120 days before Negaunee Regional Dispatch would end its 911 dispatch services. She said the state has the right to depart from any county just as any county has the right to depart from the state-operated 911 center.

"We have been trying to negotiate a new agreement for the past two years," she said in a telephone interview with the News Wednesday, March 5. "Maybe they thought we brought this upon them with a heavy hand, but we allowed them a two-year adjustment. We're just asking them to pay additional costs, which are just the costs to operate the 911 center at Negaunee."

Although Ms. Matelski would like to see Mackinac County continue with Negaunee's 911 dispatch center, she knows it must do what is best for its residents.

"I just want to make sure that they are making their decisions based on the right information," she said.

The Mackinac County dispatch board is likely to make a decision as to what service provider it will choose after the Negaunee Regional Dispatch board's meeting Thursday, March 27.