By Brennan David, Columbia Daily Tribune (Missouri)

A costly records management system is not included in a sales tax proposal the Boone County Commission placed on the April ballot Tuesday morning in an effort to improve local 911 and emergency management services.  

The commission voted unanimously to place the three-eighths-cent sales tax on the April 2 ballot. The tax will be limited to funding the annual cost of $8.66 million officials believe will be needed to upgrade 911 and emergency management services with a new facility, equipment and personnel increases.

Related article: County Faces Prospect of Larger Budget

The sales tax will collect about $9.3 million annually and would transfer 911 and emergency management services from the city of Columbia to Boone County government.

“This is an urgent need that has been around for some time and got to the point that something must be done,” Presiding Commissioner Dan Atwill said.

Over the summer, user agencies such as local law enforcement, hospitals and fire departments were divided over the idea of including an updated records management system into the proposed sales tax. An upgraded system has the potential for integrating systems operated by the user agencies throughout the county, which would allow them to better share information. The current system is early 1990s software that is not Windows-based and requires information to be submitted multiple times.

The county commission appointed a panel to advise on several matters involving the future of 911 and emergency services, including the potential inclusion of a new records management system. Inclusion of an updated system would have increased the amount the county plans to borrow to update 911 and emergency management facilities and equipment from an estimated $20 million to $26 million.

The panel of nine members advised that inclusion of a records management system was “outside of the scope” of 911 and emergency management services.

“There was fear it would both muddy the election and operation” of 911 services “over time,” said Barton Wechsler, panel chairman and University of Missouri Truman School of Public Affairs dean. “It needs to be separated.”

Without a sales tax to fund the project, user agencies will have to foot the bill through their collective budgets. Columbia has appropriated $1 million toward the project, and the Boone County Sheriff’s Department plans $350,000.

“We would rather see it in there,” City Manager Mike Matthes said. “At theof the day, it’s just a software package. From our interest, it makes a lot more sense to do it all together and do a countywide system. The” panel “felt it may be asking too much.”

Sheriff Dwayne Carey agreed that all agencies need a records management system but said an updated system is not urgent and has little to do with 911 services. The sales tax is limited to funding 911 and emergency management services, and the inclusion of the records management system would have been harder to sell to the public, he said.

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