Disagreements stall 911 efficiency

By Ed Runyan

At issue is equipment to locate emergency calls from cell phones.

WARREN — Disagreements between Trumbull County officials who run the county 911 center and the independent dispatching centers elsewhere in the county have set back technology upgrades to dispatching operations all over the county by around two years.

In July, representatives of the 911 Planning Committee voted 3-2 to essentially renew the old agreement the centers operated under for many years. Agreeing on the plan would have meant all of the emergency dispatching centers for police and fire departments in the county could have begun using the $1.5 million now in escrow with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for technology upgrades.

The upgrades are designed to provide the dispatching centers with Global Positioning System information that tells a dispatcher where a wireless 911 caller is located geographically while making a call.

The information helps a dispatcher know where to send firetrucks, ambulances or police officers during an emergency in which a caller doesn’t know where he is or cannot speak.

The money for the upgrades comes from the 32-cents-per-month fee that all wireless phone users pay to their wireless phone company.

But the plan never went into effect because Warren Mayor Michael O’Brien, who voted for it, had a change of heart and decided not to sign the agreement. The PUCO said that without a signature, the vote was meaningless.

The county 911 director, Mike Dolhancryk, says the plan would have another effect that he and other county officials can’t accept.

The plan would have been open-ended, Dolhancryk said. For now, money from the PUCO is paying for new equipment. But if the PUCO decides to discontinue the 32-cents-per-month charge, the county would foot the bill for maintenance for noncounty dispatching centers, Dolhancryk said.

The noncounty operations are in Warren, Niles, Newton Falls, Girard, Liberty, Hubbard and Lordstown.

Niles Police chief Bruce Simeone, however, says the agreement also had a provision that would have allowed the agreement to be reopened if the PUCO discontinued the fees.

O’Brien said one reason he decided against signing the agreement is that he would like to discuss other options.

He said he is open to an idea suggested to him by Tony Paglia, vice president of governmental affairs for the Regional Chamber of Commerce. Paglia suggested that county and noncounty dispatching officials sit down with a body called the Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management, established by the state Legislature, and look at the matter again.

Paglia says he is hoping to get the meeting set up soon but doesn’t have a date yet.

Meanwhile, Richard F. Schwartz, law director for Newton Falls, has written a letter on behalf of some of the noncounty dispatching centers to the Ohio attorney general, Nancy H. Rogers.

The letter asks her office to intercede in the dispute so that “unnecessary and expensive litigation might be avoided.” The letter said it represented Newton Falls, Niles, Hubbard, Lordstown and Girard.

The majority of Ohio counties have given the PUCO a county plan and receive their money, Dolhancryk says.

Officials originally estimated the new technology would be in place by the summer of 2006. More than two years later, that hasn’t happened.

Paglia says the Regional Chamber is involved in the dispute because the chamber wants to see the parties reach an agreement that provides dispatching in the most cost-effective way possible. O’Brien says he wants the same thing.

O’Brien, a former county commissioner, said he sees himself as the swing vote in the conflict and is purposely avoiding conversations with the parties involved because the matter is so divisive.

Simeone says it appears O’Brien is listening to county officials and the regional Chamber, but not to him.

Though there is a Dec. 31 deadline set by the PUCO for the county to decide on a plan for the wireless 911 money, the parties involved don’t agree on whether the county will lose the money if it has no agreement in place by then.

Because the PUCO will not turn over any of the 32-cents-per-month until the county turns over a written countywide 911 plan, the heads of various dispatching operations say the public’s safety is being compromised.

Simeone, Warren Police Captain Tim Bowers and Dolhancryk agree that the dispute needs to be solved as soon as possible. ”

runyan@vindy.com