By Scott Smith
Tribune staff writer
— Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight threw his support behind a cost-saving plan to combine city and county dispatch services Monday evening, and urged the Kokomo Common Council to do the same.
The long-debated but never consummated merger could save city taxpayers more than $500,000 a year, according to a proposed plan outline adopted last week by the Citizen’s Committee for Consolidation.
It didn’t appear last week that Goodnight’s support would be automatic, however, after he objected to the committee’s recommendation on splitting dispatch costs between city and county.
Monday, Goodnight admitted the proposed 70-30 cost split “gave me grief,” but focused the rest of his remarks on what he liked about the proposal.
The committee recommended the sheriff have oversight of a combined service with a $1.4 million annual budget; cost sharing would be determined based on where emergency calls originate.
The recommendation is a compromise between what city and county officials proposed. Kokomo proposed a $1.4 million budget, to have the county oversee operations and cost-sharing based on population. Howard County wanted a $1.7 million budget, a board be appointed to oversee operations and cost-sharing based on calls.
Basing the cost split on population could have saved city taxpayers up to $1 million a year, Goodnight said.
But the committee members, the majority of whom live outside the city, thought basing it on actual calls was more fair.
“I think we should accept their recommendation,” Goodnight said Monday. “I think we all could have done a little better job representing city taxpayers.”
Now it will be up to elected officials to hammer out the details
“The committee provided a recommendation and outline for both entities to work out a deal,” Howard County Commissioner Tyler Moore said last week. “I think it is a workable outline.”
Goodnight said the proposal will end the county’s practice of funneling some E911 funding to items not related to dispatch.
City residents and businesses pay the majority of the $640,000 in E911 fees collected annually from phone bills, Goodnight said. He has long contended that fact, combined with the fact the county has control over the E911 pot of money, has resulted in a kind of double taxation for city residents.
Monday, he said his support of the committee’s plan “shows this has never been about me.”
“We all have a responsibility to represent, to the best of our ability, the taxpayers, residents and businesses of Kokomo,” he said. “We have that obligation. I want to make sure we get the best deal for the people we represent.”
Goodnight said he expects to have a draft ordinance to the council within the next few weeks, and said he hoped to have the new system in place by the end of the year. The Howard County Council will also have to pass the same plan.
• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at 765-454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com
