VIENNA — The Maries County Commission and Sheriff Mark Morgan discussed future funding options for the county dispatch center during the March 13 commission meeting after the fund supporting dispatch went negative.

County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers informed the commission that with all expected deposits received, the 911 and Law Enforcement Training funds had negative balances. Law Enforcement Training was $937 below zero, and 911 was $473 below zero. The 911 had a payroll coming this week, so something needed to change to ensure that the five full-time employees paid through the 911 fund would receive their wages.

“It’s not sustaining itself,” Rodgers said about the 911 fund.

The county’s 911 fund has a few different revenue streams. In the past, a 15 percent tax on landline phones provided the bulk of the fund’s money. However, as landline use has decreased over the last couple of decades, so has the tax revenue. So far this year, the revenue totaled $14,150 with about $7,800 collected in January, about $3,500 collected in February and the rest collected in March.

The dispatch center also receives revenue from fees paid by the agencies that receive dispatching services from the county. The city of Vienna pays annually, and the city of Belle, which recently entered into an agreement with the county, pays quarterly. Belle will pay about $9,000 and Vienna will pay about $6,500 this year as part of the dispatching contract.

The last revenue source for the 911 fund is a small sum from the Missouri 911 Service Board for prepaid phone card sales. Last year the county received about $1,400 from the state.

Rodgers said the county’s recent financial struggles meant General Revenue and the county’s savings account were not solutions to the 911 fund’s depletion.

According to the county clerk’s office, the new sheriff’s administration is handling payroll for dispatchers and jailers differently than the previous administration. One of Morgan’s priorities as sheriff has been separating the responsibilities of jailers and dispatchers. The decision has affected payroll by having five full-time employees designated as jailers having their wages paid through the 911 fund. Part-time dispatchers have their wages paid through the Citizen Safety fund. In the past, the two funds split the payroll more evenly.

The commissioners began asking questions about how many dispatchers work at one time and if cutting hours could save on salary. They wanted to speak with Morgan, so they asked him to come to the meeting.

When Morgan arrived, he said four of the five full-time dispatchers were there to provide 24/7 coverage in the dispatch center. One of them is always on shift. The fifth person is a supervisor who handles administrative work and fills in on answering calls when needed. The dispatchers’ responsibilities are separate from those of the jailers.

“Their job is to be right there to take that 911 call,” Morgan said. “That’s all they do.”

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said he knew in the past dispatchers helped with the jail. He acknowledged that someone needed to be near the phone to answer calls, but he asked if the county could combine the responsibilities again.

Morgan said the liability of dispatchers also having jailers’ responsibilities concerned him. He gave an example of an inmate on suicide watch who would require check-ins every 15 minutes as something that would create a big liability risk because of how it splits the employee’s time.

“The money’s the problem,” Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel said. “You know it’s a problem.”

Morgan said he had scheduled a meeting for this week to discuss funding options with the state 911 board’s executive director. He said the county had three funding options for its 911 service.

The first option is the one the county already has: a landline phone tax. The already diminishing revenue from the tax is in danger of dropping to zero in the coming years. AT&T has announced its intention to discontinue copper phone lines by the end of the decade, so county officials no longer consider it a viable option.

The second option is to repeal the landline tax and replace it with a tax on mobile devices. A similar tax ran on the ballot in Maries County in 2019 but failed to pass. Morgan said he had gotten feedback about misleading campaign materials during previous tax propositions, so he believed having a clearer message would help a measure pass with voters.

The third option is to form a 911 board to oversee the county dispatching center. Morgan said it would have costs associated with it that could make it prohibitive to the county.

The commissioners favored the second option of running a tax on mobile devices to support the 911 fund. However, the April 8 municipal election is the only regular election scheduled for this year. August would be the earliest the county could run a proposition, and if it were the only political subdivision to run a special election, it would pay an estimated cost of $10,000 without a guarantee that voters would approve the tax.

“We have to come up with an immediate fix because some of the funds are getting right down there right now,” Drewel said.

Morgan said the only expenses paid by the 911 fund are the wages for the five full-time employees. Other sheriff’s office accounts pay for training.

Drewel asked how much money dispatchers make hourly.

Morgan said it varies based on experience, but rates start at $17.50 per hour. They work 42 hours. The approved 911 budget accounts for those wages. The revenue is just not there to cover them.

Drewel suggested if the money is not there to pay personnel, then the county would need to cut hours.

“How do you do that and run a 911 center?” Morgan asked. “It’s not something that we can just forward to a cell phone at someone’s house.”

Dispatchers do not overlap shifts other than the supervisor. One works at a time on a 12-hour shift from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. or 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. If the county were to cut a position, then the other dispatchers would work more hours and earn compensatory time, which would negate the savings.

Rodgers asked if it would be possible for the county to partner with another county’s dispatch center rather than run its own.

Morgan said it was probably a possibility, but it would come at a cost.

Drewel said he would lean toward that solution though he did not know how much it would cost. He asked Morgan for his suggestion.

Morgan said he wanted to meet with the state 911 board’s executive director to better understand the county’s options before making a decision.

At the March 17 commission meeting, Rodgers shared that the city of Belle had made a $2,200 payment for dispatching. Some shuffling had also occurred to pay part-time employees from different funds and reimburse the 911 fund from the beginning of this year. The account now has enough to cover the next payroll.