6 community leaders support 911 lawsuit

By John w. Goodwin jr.

Litigation may be filed as early as next week.

WARREN — Leaders in six communities unhappy with a new Trumbull County plan to handle 911 emergency calls may be seeking relief in court.

Representatives from Girard, Newton Falls, Niles, Hubbard, Lords- town, and Liberty Township met with attorneys from Harrington, Hoppe and Mitchell of Warren on Thursday night.

Newton Falls Mayor Patrick Layshock said litigation will likely be filed once each community has had the opportunity to pass legislation supporting the lawsuit.

At issue is a county plan that calls for the county 911 service to take over all emergency calls for Liberty Township, the village of Lordstown, and the cities of Newton Falls, Girard and Hubbard.

The plan says a county 911 dispatcher will enter all information from 911 calls into the system and transfer the information to the jurisdiction from which the call originated.

Liberty, Girard, Hubbard, Newton Falls and Lordstown would still answer all their own nonemergency calls.

Niles and Warren will be used as backup answering systems to the county.

The plan also calls for upgrades that will allow emergency dispatchers to pinpoint where 911 calls made from cellular phones originate.

The lawsuit, Layshock explained, would center on the contention that a committee, put in place to adjust the county’s plan to deal with cellular 911 calls, overstepped its authority by including all 911 calls for the participating communities.

Layshock said another issue is the use of the $1.5 million being held in escrow by the state. The funds, collected via cellular phone bill charges, will be distributed to the county upon approval of a plan for its use.

The county plan stipulates that the funds will be used to upgrade the county system to service the entire area.

Layshock and other representatives of areas affected by the plan say a portion of the money from the state was promised to each community — a promise that they say was broken with the advent of the new county plan.

This restructured the financial obligation of the public service answering points, the communities argue. “Under the old plan, the county is responsible for equipment and maintenance, but under the change, it shifted that financial burden to the PSAPs,” Layshock said.

Richard Tisone, Liberty’s acting police chief, said the township has been and is making improvements to its dispatching center and counted on the state funds to go toward those upgrades. He said the township’s law director is reviewing the potential litigation.

“I am totally in favor of this [lawsuit] and urging the law director and trustees to go forward with the firm’s recommendation,” he said.

According to Tisone, most police departments do not have a problem with a regional system for 911, but want to take a comprehensive look at a way to do that while saving money and ensuring the safety of the public.

Girard Mayor James Melfi also said his city has spent money on improving dispatching and now wants to recoup those funds as promised.

“The city made significant investments in dispatch expansion and to handle 911 calls. This is something we have spent good money on. Right now, I want the money due Girard, which I believe to be $50,000,” he said. “Those funds should be distributed properly to the PSAPs that started 2008 believing they were getting the money.”

jgoodwin@vindy.com