By Jodie Jackson Jr., Columbia Daily Tribune (Missouri)

With an eye on improving public safety and efficiency at the 911 call center, the Boone County Commission is planning to ask Columbia City Manager Mike Matthes to pare down the list of extra duties that 911 operators perform for the Columbia Police Department.

That could provide a partial, short-term solution for the overextended Office of Joint Communications and help “avoid a catastrophe” from overburdening the understaffed 911 center, Presiding Commissioner Dan Atwill said.

The long-term solution would be a dedicated sales tax to fund local 911 and emergency management services, said Atwill, who has been working with the Public Safety Joint Communications committee to address the needs of the 911 center since former director Zim Schwartze was removed from that post in May.

Yesterday’s decision to send a formal request to the city manager was made during a work session between county commissioners and staff from the sheriff’s department, including Sheriff Dwayne Carey. The work session also was a strong signal that the county could take the lead in an effort to place a 911 and emergency management sales tax on the April ballot.

“I think some people might be surprised we’ve taken a position on it. We’ve been pretty quiet up until now,” said Atwill, who has frequently expressed frustration with the slow nature of government since taking over as presiding commissioner last October.

The extra duties and short-staffed 911 center have been regular topics of conversation at Public Safety Joint Communications committee meetings since Schwartze’s ouster, “but nothing’s been done about it,” Atwill said.

“We need to ramp up the effort and go full speed ahead,” he said.

A sales tax proposal likely would target staffing, space and equipment needs, including a new computer-aided dispatch system. Commissioners yesterday asked Carey to come up with dollar estimates to build and operate a new 911 center.

Carey also was asked to make written recommendations that the county will use in a formal request for Matthes to remove duties that have shifted from the police department to the 911 center. Matthes did not return a phone call to comment.

Those extra duties include entering data for Columbia police officers on the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System, which records stolen property and information about persons with arrest warrants. Other extra duties include monitoring the CPD “bait car,” electronic tracking of stolen money and more.

Even taking off extra duties, “they still need more help,” Carey said of the 911 center employees. “It gets pretty overwhelming.” He said 911 call-takers continue to receive an “astronomical” number of non-emergency calls.

“These problems didn’t crop up overnight,” he said.

In fact, Schwartze made presentations to the Columbia City Council and the county commission in June 2009 on a plan to improve the efficiency of the 911 center. She reported that 75 percent of calls were administrative or non-emergency calls, and she also asked for additional staff and made a plea to shift CPD-related duties back to the police department.

A new 911 and emergency management center could be run by a board appointed by the county commission or by an elected board to oversee 911 operations only.

Matthes has expressed interest in making the 911/emergency management center a stand-alone, rather than city-run, entity. The county currently contributes about 21 percent of the $2.8 million funding for the 911/emergency management center.

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