The vote came during the commission’s monthly work session and followed a three-week period during which a committee of the various stakeholders that utilize the 911 call center reviewed the center’s operations to come up with ideas of how to make it run more effectively.
That committee — Public Safety Director Wesley Wells, Sheriff Reggie Rachals, Lt. Col. Chris Owens, Lewis Harris and Keith Houston of the sheriff’s office, interim county co-managers Mike Sistrunk and Christi Dockery, representatives of Motorola, the company that supplies the call center equipment, and Charlotte Floyd, a Lee County resident who is also a retired communications director with the city of Albany — discussed issues such as call center equipment, staffing, and employee training and was asked to report back to the commission with its findings.
Dockery told the board some of what the committee discussed in terms of the needs of the 911 center, and Sistrunk explained that the committee was trying to determine how the 911 center would be managed going forward.
“The biggest question that was put on hold for three weeks was to find out (if the 911 call center) was something you wanted to put up under public safety to run and operate, or do y’all want the sheriff to keep on operating and it be under him?” Sistrunk said.
Following Sistrunk’s comments, Rachals addressed the commission and presented a plan developed by his office to address what he perceived as the biggest issue of concern for the 911 center — overtime.
The sheriff’s plan outlined managing budget concerns by filling two open full-time positions with part-time positions to eliminate benefit costs, changing employee scheduling to reduce overtime, and reducing the number of 911 dispatchers. The proposal also called for not filling the director’s position previously held by Larry Hill, who recently retired, instead having Owens act as director. All told, the sheriff’s proposal showed a potential $120,648 annual reduction from the general fund.
“Y’all see where we have made some improvements, I know, since March or April on the overtime problem that we’ve had in the past,” said Rachals. “That’s being corrected as we speak. Up to this point, we’ve saved over $9,025 in that area. So, we’re trying to show you that we’re making a difference on our overtime and plan on making some more efforts to make some changes in the 911 communication. I believe there’s going to be more improvements as we go.”
In reaction to the proposal, commissioners Luke Singletary and Greg Frich asked Rachals if he could see any downside to shifting the 911 services under Public Safety. The sheriff replied, “It’s not broke, why fix it? And it’s not broke to the point where we can’t repair it.”
Although the sheriff asserted his office could not only manage, but improve, the 911 call center, Frich said moving management of 911 services would lead to enhancement of the services, while also lifting a burden from the sheriff’s office.
“If anything, I would think it would add additional resources to the sheriff and the restoration of 911 to the highest level of service that we can do,” said Frich. “I think the sheriff’s constitutional responsibility is very clear. I think it’s unfair of us to ask our sheriff to do everything he’s got to do within the county and on top of that, E911 at the same time.”
Frich also said his feelings about realigning 911 services were validated during the three-week period in which the committee was able to make progress and the sheriff’s office was able to come up with a cost-savings plan.
“It’s really gratifying that the motion the board approved three weeks ago to put a committee together has had such success thus far,” said Frich. “The benefit is clearly seen in the progress that’s been made in the last three weeks. That progress is a hallmark of the kind of progress that I believe we can continue to expect with a Public Safety approach of managing E911.
“(The) idea would not have come about without me talking to the Public Safety director. This is his identifying that the 911 center has got to be a collaboration between the whole county. And with that amount of insight, it demonstrates to me that the Public Safety director has a firm grip of what the 911 center has got to do for the county.”
Frich also said he believed if the change is made, it would provide greater support to the efforts put forth by the sheriff’s office, thus strengthening the entire service.
“I don’t see anything changing,” said Frich. “Really, what it comes down to — the application of how 911 works and how the sheriff’s office is involved in 911 — I see no change other than the sheriff being given much more resources. The Public Safety director can come alongside you and help you with that call center and find expertise, training and knowledge and bring with him a host of other experts within the county that can collaborate and work together to build the 911 center.”
The view that 911 services would improve under Public Safety was not shared by the entire commission, however, and Commissioner Billy Mathis said as much, while also acknowledging that additional improvements needed to be made.
What Mathis suggested as an alternative to realignment, was leaving 911 under the direction of the sheriff’s office while creating a permanent committee to guide the planning and decision-making. By doing so, he argued, all stakeholders would have input and the system would run much smoother.
“We can do the same thing with the committee without upending the apple cart,” said Mathis. “If you put it under a Public Safety committee, which we don’t currently have, you’ve got more actors. You can have somebody from the city of Leesburg, you can have the Public Safety director, you can have a representative of the County Commission, you can have a representative of the sheriff’s department, however many people we felt necessary to sit down at a table. And not just one person, that group, could say, ‘What are our goals, what are our objectives, what are our problems, what can we fix?’ That’s my feeling.
“That would not only help the 911 center, it could help the EMS, it could help the fire department, it could help us stay more involved. My feeling is if we just put together a committee with all the stakeholders … just maybe try a committee for a number of months, it could do more than just help the 911 center. It could really give us a cohesive group of people that could talk, debate and come up with solutions to problems and to come up with goals for us.”
Additionally, Mathis said he felt creating a Public Safety committee would help avoid any conflict that might arise from the commission essentially removing the 911 center from the sheriff’s direction.
“(By creating a committee) there’s no conflict between the sheriff’s office and the commission,” said Mathis. “Nobody ever wants to talk about it, but it’s reality. So my only feeling is you take that baby step, and I hate to characterize it that way because I think it’s a really big step. To help decide on this, you’re taking one big issue out of the equation. There’s no friction between the sheriff’s office and the County Commission, and nobody ever wants to talk about that issue, but it’s an issue throughout the state of Georgia. We all know it.
“If you form the committee first, leave the 911 center under the sheriff, for six months, three months, however long we need to do it, and we come back six months from now and everything’s running smoothly, everybody’s happy. If you do it the other way, you’re going to start from the first day with some hard feelings. We’ve already seen progress.”
Agreeing with Mathis’ committee idea, Rachals said he too felt that all of the various stakeholders who utilize 911 services should be involved in the decision-making process and cooperate with each other.
“We always work close together out there on any scene that we work,” the sheriff said. “What I’m trying to say is we work closely together now, why not keep it the way it is and set up this committee like commissioner Mathis is talking about?”
Following Rachals’ pleas for a committee commission, Chairman Rick Muggridge weighed in, saying he was in favor of the change and felt as though the move needed to be made in the best interest of the county.
“There is friction sometimes in our communications, and especially where it concerns the budget,” said Muggridge. “And you’re not wrong, the board’s not wrong, the county managers aren’t wrong. We just see things from a different perspective. And so I’ll tell you that I support this ordinance. I hope that you don’t see any difference.
“I mean you’re still going to have input, but with this ordinance, this resolution, what happens is E911 is more directly controlled and we (commissioners) have move communication and more involvement than we currently do. But I hope that you still engage and direct as part of this committee. As I said three weeks ago, I want all the stakeholders to have input.”
Rachals made one more attempt to convince the board that his office should continue managing the 911 call center, saying he didn’t think he’d been given enough opportunity to address the issues that had come to the fore in recent months.
“You haven’t given me a fair chance to do it like I’m asking to do it here,” said Rachals. “It was all dumped in my lap a couple of months ago even; though I should have been keeping a close eye on it, I’ll give you that. But I’m not totally at fault. I’m just going to speak from the heart. We need that opportunity to keep it like it is, just like Mr. Mathis came up with. Six months down the road, if it looks bad, by God, I’ll be the first one to say ‘we need a change.’”
Despite Rachals’ protests, Frich proposed a motion to place 911 under the direction of Public Safety, which was seconded by Singletary. Frich, Singletary and Muggridge voted in favor of the change, while Mathis and Dennis Roland voted against it.
In other matters, the commission unanimously approved the nomination of Frich as the voting delegate to adopt the 2017-18 ACCG County Platform and approved the issuance of an engagement letter to CRI CPAs & Advisors to perform the county audit for FY 2016.
Commissioners also voted unanimously to approve a revenue-neutral budget amendment to transfer funds from the public safety budget to the utility services budget due to an associate transfer.
The commission also held a public hearing concerning a rezoning application from Charles L. Daniell. Daniell has applied to rezone 5.93 acres of property on the east side of Hugh Road, near the intersection of Hugh Road and Ledo Road, from split zoning of C-1 neighborhood business and R-1 single-family residential to R-1 residential for the purpose of building a home on the site.
Additionally, the county heard updates on several capital projects and held a discussion about ongoing SPLOST and LOST collections and upcoming projects.
The board also convened in executive session to discuss personnel matters and pending litigation, but took no action following that session.
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