In an emergency situation, when anyone calls 911 in Tooele County, a trained dispatcher responds to the call.
Emergency dispatch is a vital piece of public safety in the county. It’s also costly, and the charges associated with the service will continue to rise, said Tooele County Sheriff Paul Wimmer.
“Dispatch is expensive,” he said. “It is a very expensive part of public safety.”
The county’s dispatch is run as a division of the sheriff’s office. In 2014, dispatch was budgeted $885,035 — a number that jumped to the $1,044,069 in the current budget year.
When he took office in January, Wimmer said he reviewed the dispatch budget, which is the third-largest public safety budget line.
“When I was elected, it was certainly something I wanted to look into — to see if this is the true expense,” Wimmer said. “Our budget is what it is. We run a very minimal budget.”
Dispatch fees have risen since the county stopped receiving funds from the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program three years ago. In 2012, the county collected $1.2 million from CSEPP, which helped subsidize dispatch and pay the salaries of some dispatchers.
When CSEPP funding stopped, the burden of funding the county’s dispatch shifted onto users, Wimmer said.
“We really don’t have an option,” he said. “We don’t really have a means of funding dispatch other than through dispatch fees and 911 funds.”
Communities such as Grantsville and Tooele cities pay a base fee based on population figures, as well as a usage fee based on a three-year average of calls per year.
The base fee is calculated as approximately 116 percent of a municipality’s population based on the most recent U.S. Census estimates. For example, Stockton had a population of 638 in 2014 and paid a base fee of $742.
The usage fee takes into account the average number of incidents and traffic stops in a three-year window. That average is then multiplied by a rate which balances the remainder of the current dispatch budget.
For the 2015 budget, the cost per call is $10.83 and is based on a county-wide, three-year average of 59,572 dispatch calls. Dispatch fees cover $645,083 of the county’s $1 million dispatch budget.
Grantsville City saw its dispatch fees jump up $22,364, or about 31 percent, to $95,139, prompting its city council to table signing an agreement with the county at its July 1 meeting. Councilmen were concerned by the consistently rising costs.
Personnel costs and technology upgrades are two factors in the rising budget figure for dispatch, Wimmer said.
Tooele County Sheriff Lt. Regina Nelson said the division hired two dispatchers for 2015, which contributed to the increased dispatch budget. One of the new dispatchers replaced a position left unfilled since 2013 and the other represented the first increase in staff since 2007.
Dispatch also recently upgraded its phone system for $293,000, but 90 percent of the cost will be reimbursed through a grant, Nelson said. The new system replaces outdated equipment and prepares the county when the state adds emergency text service, she said.
“When the state of Utah is ready for text-to-911 capability, Tooele will be as well,” she said.
Since the phones are used around the clock, the equipment is replaced about every five years due to the heavy usage, Nelson said.
Upgrading and maintaining technology is important to keeping dispatch viable, Wimmer said.
“Dispatch is one of those areas of public safety that we don’t wait for it to break down in order to replace it,” Wimmer said. “Breaking down isn’t much of a viable option.”
To help mitigate its rising costs, the county is applying an additional $50,000 of its 911 fees toward the budget in 2015, from $250,000 to $300,000. The state tax commission collects a 70 cent fee for every phone line in the county — with 9 cents staying with the state and 61 cents to local government.
Of the 61 cents that returns to the local government, 1.5 percent stays with the commission to cover the expense of billing, collecting and paying the fee.
Wimmer said the county is on pace to collect $380,000 total in 911 fees in 2015. The remaining $80,000 will go toward the phone bill for dispatch and the remainder will go into a reserve fund for the division, he said.
County dispatch maintains a reserve fund of around $500,000 for unexpected or emergency expenses, Wimmer said. It also provides funds for capital projects like the phone system, which had to be purchased upfront before it was reimbursed, he said.
While agencies and local governments are feeling the squeeze from rising dispatch fees, Wimmer said he believes the expenditures are justifiable and the formula for determining payment is fair to keep the county’s dispatch system operational.
“It’s imperative there’s always someone there to pick up the phone,” he said.