Even as Blaine County leaders declare that progress is being made at finding a solution to the dispatch funding disagreement, city officials are throwing up roadblocks.
Unlike the cities of Ketchum and Sun Valley, officials from Hailey and Bellevue have said they can only provide a quarter of the amount that each city had been asked to contribute to help fund dispatcher salaries.
In July, county officials agreed to a request from Hailey leaders to have county voters consider a property tax levy override in November to pay for dispatcher salaries. If approved by the necessary two-thirds majority, the override would begin paying dispatcher salaries in 2010. Until then, the county and local cities will have to fund the salaries out of their own budgets.
But within the past week, elected officials in Hailey and Bellevue have voiced concerns about signing an agreement that would provide temporary funding for emergency dispatcher salaries during 2009 because of fears they may lose some services.
While Hailey officials have defiantly refused to sign, Bellevue has simply tabled it for the time being.
The cities, however, have agreed to pay the fees set by the agreement—$13,600 for Bellevue and $64,700 for Hailey. These figures represent roughly a quarter of the amount a 911 users group originally specified as the cities' shares earlier this year. County leaders have said they will pick up the cities' remaining shares of the funding for 2009.
There has not yet been any statement from the county indicating whether they would accept the partial payments without the cities' having signed the agreement.
Hailey City Councilman Fritz Haemmerle contends the agreement singles out Hailey for possible reduced levels of dispatch services and implies that the city was not paying its "full share" for the service. Hailey leaders have repeatedly claimed dispatcher salaries are the county's sole responsibility, and not one shared by the cities.
"In our mind there has never been a consolidated agreement between the cities and the county over who should pay for dispatch," he said.
Joining in a similar chorus, Bellevue City Councilman Shaun Mahoney said the possibility of different levels of dispatch service is confusing.
"I don't like this gibberish about different levels of service between the county and the cities," he said.
Ketchum and Sun Valley agreed earlier this summer to pay their full share of the dispatch funding for fiscal 2009. That pencils out to $249,481 for Ketchum and $104,514 for Sun Valley—amounts that were identified by the 911 users group earlier this year.
Hailey and Bellevue's reluctance to sign the agreement stems from a provision that states the county will only provide them with initial emergency dispatch services. Administrative communications such as running license plate numbers would have to be handled by the two cities.
Ketchum and Sun Valley pledged their full share anticipating that the county would hire a full staff of 13 dispatchers. Under a compromise developed in recent weeks by county officials, 12 dispatchers would be hired during 2009. Earlier this month, Blaine County Administrator Mike McNees said the tentative agreement asked the cities of Hailey and Bellevue to come up with additional funds so the twelfth dispatcher can be hired.
Having 12 dispatchers would allow for a third dispatcher to be on shift during what's been called the "power shift" on Fridays and Saturdays when the highest call volumes typically take place, he said.
On the other side of the issue, at least one elected official from the northern Wood River Valley—Sun Valley City Councilman Nils Ribi—thinks the best chance of finding a solution is to have all sides enter into mediation as soon as possible.
Voicing comments similar to those made by Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich in July, Ribi said the levy override is being forced on the city.
"It's an unfortunate situation, especially for the taxpayers of Sun Valley," he said.
The levy override would mean an extra charge of $6.71 per $100,000 of assessed property value on annual property taxes. That would mean an extra $29.25 on the county's median home value of $436,000. Ribi noted that the levy override favors south valley residents and places the larger funding burden on Sun Valley homeowners.
Ribi would like to see all sides enter into talks with a mediator appointed by the Idaho Emergency Communications Commission before the levy override vote takes place Nov. 4.
A similar disagreement landed the cities of cities of Kimberly and Buhl in mediation with Twin Falls County after they refused to provide their own funds to help pay for dispatcher salaries. In the end, Kimberly and Buhl agreed to help fund the dispatcher salaries. Though it's unclear whether mediation in Blaine County could take place before November, Ribi thinks a similar outcome could happen locally.
"I think that's a real reasonable approach to solving this," he said.
Officials from the county and Hailey have each previously stated that mediation may be the answer, but only if the levy override vote fails. But Ribi believes that waiting until after the vote to begin talking doesn't make sense. He said he hopes to have the Sun Valley City Council discuss the mediation issue at a meeting soon.
"We need to come up with a fair solution," he said. "We don't want to alarm Hailey or Bellevue."
Express reporter Tony Evans contributed to this story.
