By Loretta Park
The Standard-Examiner
MORGAN, Utah — Morgan County Council is considering opting out of Weber Area Communication Center dispatch services, officials said.
Morgan County Councilman Ned Mecham said he proposed at the Sept. 6 council meeting to have Davis County Sheriff’s Office provide 911 services to Morgan County.
“This year, we’re getting bids from several other agencies to dispatch for us,” Mecham said.
Davis County Sheriff’s Todd Richardson confirmed he was approached by Mecham and asked to put together a proposal on how much his office would charge Morgan to dispatch emergency services.
“Entities dispatch for other law enforcement entities all the time,” Richardson said. “With today’s technology you can have dispatchers in Missouri dispatching for an ambulance service in Las Vegas”
The reason why Morgan County is considering changing its dispatch service is because Weber Area Dispatch 911 and Emergency Services District has proposed to levy a line item property tax fee to Morgan County residents the same as Weber County residents currently pay, Pleasant View Mayor Toby Mileski said.
Mileski also serves at the chairman of the Weber Area Dispatch 911 and Emergency Services District Board.
Currently Morgan County residents pay for the 911 service only through a cell phone tax, while Weber County residents pay for 911 services with the cell phone tax and the property tax line item.
“It would be an additional $285,580 (Morgan) would need to pay on top of the 911 fee they get from cell phone service,” Mileski said. “Weber County residents have for several years subsidized Morgan County.”
Mecham and Richardson both said nothing has been officially decided.
“We are taking bids right now and considering our options,” Mecham said.
Richardson said Davis County residents would not be be subsidizing Morgan residents for 911 services.
Richardson said his office receives 20 percent of its funds from Davis County funds, 20 percent from the cities it currently dispatches to and the remaining funds come from the phone tax.
Richardson said his proposal to Morgan County is the same amount it charges Davis County cities, such as West Point, that it provides services.
Davis County would charge Morgan County a flat fee service of $28 per emergency fire call, plus $2,155 for every deputy employed by Morgan County, according to a Morgan News article. The flat fee service totals abou $18,620 for 665 fire calls. And the total annual fee for the 12 Morgan County officers to be dispatched is about $25,851.
Richardson confirmed the numbers and said the flat fee is computed by totaling the number of fire calls the county or city receives over a five-year period.
Davis County’s total proposed amount for dispatch service costs is about $45,000 and it would also receive about $88,000 in the cell phone dispatch fees from Morgan residents, bringing the total to about $133,000, which is about half of what Weber County has proposed, Richardson said.
Morgan County Sheriff Blaine Breshears said he and his staff “are very happy with the services we get from Weber dispatch,” but it is the proposed increase cost that has county council members concerned, Breshears said.
“Weber County does a phenomenal job for us,” Breshears said.
Tina Mathieu, executive director of the Weber Area Dispatch 911 and Emergency Services District, expressed concerns about Morgan County’s possible decision to change dispatchers.
Mathieu said Morgan and Weber have a “great partnership” in law enforcement. The two counties have combined their narcotics strike force and also serve together on the SWAT team. Morgan County brings their inmates to Weber County Jail.
She is concerned that no one has considered how much it will cost Morgan County to have cell phone companies switch the towers so the 911 calls go to Davis County, instead of Weber County. She also wonders if anyone has looked at how much it will cost to put the Morgan address data in the Davis dispatch computer system, as well as transfer the records.
Mathieu also said the fire stations will need new alert systems that are compatible to Davis County’s.
Weber dispatchers also dispatch for Utah Highway Patrol troopers who serve in the Morgan County area, so Mathieu said 911 calls could easily get “misrouted” and cause major issues for Morgan residents and emergency personnel.
“My board has given Morgan County a really good deal for very long time,” Mathieu said.
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