LACK OF FINANCING, COMMUNICATION & TURF WARS KILLING COUNTYWIDE 9-1-1? SHOULD THE EFFORT BE SCRAPPED AND THE REMAINING $2.51 MILLION FOR 9-1-1 PUT INTO THE COUNTY GENERAL FUND?

It is becoming clearer and clearer to the SCPR that Stark County's attempt to rebuild 9-1-1 from being on life support according to a 2008 GenCom report, is now in jeopardy.

The Report attended a meeting of the Stark County Council of Governments [Governing Board] (SCOG) meeting of March 15th and comes away with the impression that rebuild effort is falling apart.

Until the 15th, the board had not met for some months.

Rehabbing Stark's emergency call receiving and dispatching system started out being troubled.

The Report believes it continues in that mode and it is appearing more and more that a fully state-of-the-art system that encompasses all of Stark County as originally envisioned will never be realized.

So what are the problems with getting 9-1-1 to where the shakers and movers of Stark County government leadership say they want to take it?

The funding problem.

At great political cost to himself, former Stark County Commissioner Todd Bosley persuaded his fellow commissioners to impose a 0.5% sales tax in December, 2008 which collected the necessary money to get the project underway.  However, Stark voters reacted to having the tax "imposed" by repealing it in November, 2009 which had the effect of limiting the original goal of the 9-1-1 portion of the tax (the remainder being for the county general fund) of providing the service "free" to Stark County's political subdivision.

A lingering problem continues to be?  Yes, you have it funding.

Although some $2.51 million remains set aside by county commissioners to be spent on the capital side putting together countywide 9-1-1, there is not enough of it.

Not enough of it because not all of the political subdivisons which would make up a countywide system have state-of-the-art radios (800 mhz).  So officials are scrambling to get federal grants to supplement some money available from the $2.51 million in order to get everyone equipped with appropriate communications gear.

North Canton has broken ranks with a Stark County's 800 mhz radio plan by signing up with the state of Ohio MARCS system.

Another aspect of funding revolves around the question of maintaining the system.

Since a continuing dedicated sales tax for maintaining 9-1-1 is gone, how will - assuming that a true countywide system is put in place - it be maintained from a continuing financial operations standpoint?

The apparent answer is user fees.

However, it seems that Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II does not believe such is a proper and, perhaps, realistic financial structure for maintaining Stark's 9-1-1 system. And, apparently, he worries that the entity itself (Stark County Council of Governments - SCOG) which would own and operate the system, with 2012-13 severe cuts in state of Ohio local government funding, will have it own financial problems in terms of its own survival.

As things stand now, SCOG is struggling to fund, going into 2013 and beyond, the Stark County crime lab.

The word is that the state of Ohio may totally eliminate local government funding going forward.

The Report uses the terms "seems" and "apparently" in discussing Healy's position because it is unclear to yours truly that financial viability concerns are his "real" concern.

Yours truly is more apt to believe that it is more an issue of ultimate Canton control of countywide 9-1-1 (i.e. a turf problem) for Healy than his suggestions of financial integrity concerns.

Beyond funding concerns, then there is a communications problem between Healy and his safety director Tom Ream (who is president of SCOG) and SCOG governing board Chairman Randy Gonzalez and Project Manager Joe Concatto.

It is really weird that Healy, Ream, Gonzalez and Concatto, who undoubtedly cross one another's paths in multiple forums on a regular basis, just shake their heads in a "I don't know" fashion when asked why they cannot get together and resolve the differences they have and moving forward with rehabbing countywide 9-1-1 with Canton being a key player.

Communications on this topic are so nonexistent that  Gonzalez and Concatto with the apparent acquiescence of the Stark County commissioners (Commissioner Tom Bernabei is the lead commissioner on the 9-1-1 project) no longer talk optimistically that Canton will be part of a countywide system.  Rather that it will be narrowed to include the RED Center (mainly Jackson Township and Massillon) and the Stark County sheriff and a few other political subdivisions.

Even the sheriff's participation is problematical (Sheriff Swanson has been back and forth on the issue) and a "real" answer awaits the outcome of November's election to determine who - among Republican candidate Larry Dordea and Democratic candidate Mike McDonald (currently a chief deputy in charge of the jail division) - will succeed Sheriff Tim Swanson.

Anyone who knows anything about the 9-1-1 consolidation project knows already that Nimishillen Township's CenCom will not be part of a countywide system.

The SCPR has written frequently that The Report believes that Nimishillen opted out for two reasons.

First, Nimishillen Fire Chief Rich Peterson was not chosen to be the project manager for the rehab and his pride and joy CenCom will not be the hub of a countywide system.  Another manifestation of a turf problem?

Second, Nimishillen is so saddled with debt for the fire station that houses CenCom that in order to generate revenue to pay the mortgage, its only choice is to compete with a countywide system.

Today, there is a media report that North Canton is considering joining up with CenCom.  Recently, Lake Township signed on.

Canton, North Canton, Lake et cetera not in a countywide system.   Does it make any sense to proceed with spending the remaining $2.51 million being held by county commissioners on a fragmented (countywide?) 9-1-1 system?

During 2012 county budget considerations, the Stark County Common Pleas Court judges proposed "lending" the $2.51 to 2012 appropriations.

Perhaps the time has come for the commissioners to square up with the realities of:

• financial problems,
• communication problems,
• and turf wars,

that plague the effort to get to a true "state of the art" countywide 9-1-1 system and defund it entirely?

Stark County general fund operations sure could use that $2.51 million, no?

NIMISHILLEN'S CENCOM BEING DISINVITED FROM THE 9-1-1 GAME PLAN?

UPDATE: 06/16/2009 (09:20 AM)

COMMENT: NIMISHILLEN FIRE CHIEF RICH PETERSON

Martin: Some points of order to your article:

* CenCom is currently providing the level of emergency dispatching services that Director Concatto is proposing and for substancially (sic) less than the 12 million dollar price tag and the 5.5 million dollar annual operating fee.

* CenCom will remain an alternative for those communities seeking professional emergency dispatching services tailored to their individual dispatching needs.

* CenCom was constructed in a secure, below grade, concrete reinforced facility designed from the ground up (not renovated as an after thought) with technological and redundant qualities not found in the sites selected by Director Concatto as the county dispatching centers.

* Chief Peterson did not convince then Trustee now Commissioner Bosley to get behind fixing Stark County's 911 system, Mr. Bosley took that cause as his own because of a mishandled 911 call within Nimishillen Township.

* I do not need nor did I seek a "reward" from Commissioner Bosley. Successfully constructing and operating a regional communication center that is instrumental in saving lives and property is reward enough. (Isn't that what it's all about...saving lives?)

* Anyone can "say" they are going to design, construct, and implement a successfull (sic) 911 / emergency dispatching operation. Delivering on the promise is much more difficult.

* Please don't confuse being proud of our operation with "boasting".

* I would appreciate not being the focal point of the SCOG dispatching initiative. By removing myself and CenCom from the process, I hoped to allow the SCOG to succeed or fail on its own merit. I find it odd that folks still want to drag me back into the SCOG arena. I respect Mr. Loudiana's opinions but I suggest he concentrate his energy on following thru with his promise of providing high quality emergency dispatching services to Stark County agencies for "free" and not chastising a small, unimportant operation such as CenCom.

ORIGINAL POST

Mike Loudiana was speaking only for himself; not the Stark County Council on Governments (SCOG). However, Rich Peterson (Fire Chief/Nimishillen & CenCom head) ought to be a bit worried that his cat and mouse game with SCOG will end up with SCOG being the cat that catches and eats the mouse.

Loudiana told the SCPR he is pleased with the direction in which the SCOG Governance Committee is heading and that he is satisfied that the countywide 9-1-1 reconfiguration is proceeding in a manner promised to the Stark County public.

Moreover, he seem unconcerned with the Nimishillen Township antics even to the point of suggesting that CenCom can do whatever it pleases for now, but in the long run he is convinced that CenCom will be absorbed into the reworked countywide system.

His rationale? Once the new 9-1-1 gets up and running and Stark County's villages, cities and townships see how well it is working; any malcontents outside the system (including CenCom) will tuck tail and make their way into the centralized countywide system.

Loudiana firmly believes that Stark centralized dispatch will be a reality on a schedule promised to Stark Countians in the context of one dispatch center and a backup.

The last time the SCPR talked with Peterson, he was boasting about the number of non-Nimishillen communities CenCom is serving.

But what he did not address is this question that Loudiana raised anew.

Why would community residents want to pay twice? Pay the imposed 0.5 per cent sales/use tax imposed by commissioners in January, 2009 and then pay CenCom to provide the same but disconnected (to the rest of the county, in a fully integrated sense) services.

Loudiana make another good point. Stark Countians provide a lot of emergency services to out-of-towners (non-Stark Countians). How better to have them share in the cost of those services, but through a sales/use tax.

It is more than touch ironic that Rich Peterson and his "lone wolf" strategy could hurt Commissioner Todd Bosley in his re-election chances. If for some reason Peterson's foot dragging causes delays in moving the reconfigured 9-1-1 along, it could come back to haunt Bosley in the 2010 election cycle.

And this would be ironic.

Peterson convinced Bosley in the first place (back in the days that Bosley was a Nimishillen Township trustee) to get squarely behind fixing Stark's 9-1-1 system. So much so that Bosley made it the centerpiece of his campaign when he ran against and defeated incumbent Republican commissioner Richard Regula.

Undoubtedly, Bosley appreciates Peterson's winning idea and has tried to reward him

What he and Peterson didn't calculate was Bosley's inability to deliver the 9-1-1 chief job to him. Bosley argued vehemently for Peterson, but Stark County Democratic Party chairman Randy Gonzalez has proved in the selection process that he has more political clout than Bosley does.

Being the spoil sports they are turning into, the SCPR believes that Peterson and the Nimishillen Township trustees are primary factors in undermining Bosley's 2010 reelection effort.

In the end, however; the Nimishillen folks will not win this battle and Bosley should be unaffected by their pot stirring.

The more serious political threat to Bosley remains the Stark County Citizens for the Right to Vote.

If these folks get the repeal of the imposed sales/use tax on the ballot, then it's anybody's guess whether or not the imposed tax will stand.

In tough economic times, the advantage is clearly with the would-be repealers; notwithstanding the huge political effort (manpower wise, money wise) the pro 9-1-1 forces will muster.

IT'S THE SHERIFF'S 800 MEGAHERTZ, IT'S CONCATTO, IT'S CENCOM - ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER CONSPIRING TO UNDO STARK COUNTY CENTRALIZED 9-1-1 DISPATCH?

The word on the street that Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson and Nimishillen Township Fire Chief Rich Peterson recently got into a huge argument about the utility of Swanson's baby: the 800 megahertz communication system.

Swanson went out a got grants to put this system together. Now get this. In Swanson's mind the system was "free" to Stark County because the money came from government grants. "Free," heh?

On with the story.

Swanson has been pushing the "free" equipment and system on all of first responders in Stark County. The mission? To vastly improve communication among first responders throughout the county.

What wrong with that?

Nothing, other that passing around the fiction that is "free."

And except to Fire Chief Peterson. He objects because he thinks that a better system called MARCS (see graphic for definition). In shorthand, it is a state of Ohio system to get all of Ohio's first responders in instant contact with one another.

A source says that there is one simple problem with the MARCS system: it is not up and running. The SCPR has a call into MARCS and when the exact status is available, yours truly will update this blog reporting same.

The SCPR believes Peterson is pushing to ultimately make Nimishillen's CenCom the prime unit in the centralized 9-1-1 Stark County dispatch system.

But he has a problem in that quest.

Randy Gonzales and, perhaps, Peterson's long time political pal Stark County Commissioner Todd Bosley.

In political reality, Gonzales (and Stark County Democratic Party chair Johnnie A. Maier, Jr.) and Bosley are big time foes. The SCPR believes that over the longer haul this internal Stark County Democratic competition will escalate into a battle over who controls the local Democratic party.

Back to the main point.

So you have Gonzales and Bosley doing a "strange bedfellows" political operation to defeat the Peterson effort to shape 9-1-1 his way.

Another qualm that Peterson and his highly supportive Nimshillen Township trustees have with the direction in which centralized 9-1-1 dispatch is heading (note: Nimshillen has pulled out of the effort, maybe?), is Joseph Concatto's unpreparedness to be project manager for the Stark Council of Governments (SCOG) shepherded centralization.

Peterson points out that Concatto (sponsored by Gonzales who also happens to be Executive Vice President of the Stark County Democratic Party) himself has said that he wasn't specifically prepared to be 9-1-1 project manager and that it will take time for him to get up and running as leader. Peterson snipes at Concatto for going on boondoggle-esque trips at taxpayer expense in his drive "to become prepared."

Now why did the SCPR write above that Nimishillen pulled out of the 9-1-1 project "maybe?"

Because in the background are negotiations for SCOG to buy the console at CenCom. Additionally, there is talk of SCOG buying all of CenCom's equipment eventually. Now does that sound like Nimishillen is really puling out?

It sounds more like "we (Nimishillen Township) know we are going out of business and are not going to be the central 9-1-1 dispatch unit and therefore we are going to do the best we can to be made whole" out of Stark County taxpayer money (the money dedicated to 9-1-1 from the commissioner imposed 1/2% imposed sales/use tax).

The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT has been a supporter of a re-worked, centralized 9-1-1 dispatch operation.

But one has to wonder, with all the political machinations taking place in the construction, whether or not Stark County is going to end up with a politically gerrymandered system that is no better - perhaps worse - than the current system.

It seems to make no difference to Stark County's politicians that lives may hang in the balance.

What does appear to be the priority is: "protect my political turf."

The SCPR has been told that SCOG will iron out all of these differences and that Stark County will achieve a unified, streamlined and much more efficient and effective centralized 9-1-1.

The SCPR's response.

It's a miracle! - if it happens - given all the turfism alive and well among Stark County's political leaders.