LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
Members of the Edgar County ETSB board voted to table an intergovernmental agreement for proposed joint dispatch arrangements between themselves and the Edgar County Board on Monday, June 15.
To start the discussion, ETSB chairman Adam Webb opened the floor sharing that he knows “we’ve had a lot of conversation about this, so the floor is open to discuss it some more.”
“We have started the process, yet again, to discuss joint dispatch, and the ‘What that looks like, who will oversee it? And how is it going to be financed,’” ETSB board member Jesse Lewsader responded. “Personally, until it is presented to this board that we have tangible forward movement, I believe that we should table this vote and discussion on this agreement until we have constructive forward progress, and have some momentum again.”
“We’ve been at this stage, and it’s fallen through the cracks before,” Lewsader added. “We have all, at one time or another, agreed on what needs to happen and then it is stifled … whether that’s lack of participation from key individuals who need to be involved, or that it simply just gets lost in the shuffle. I think that everybody in this room agrees that this needs to happen.”
Lewsader’s comments were taken positively by members of the board and the matter went to a vote without any further comment. The motion passed unanimously and the agreement was tabled.
However, the board’s discussion surrounding combining 911 and Police Department dispatch did not end with the vote.
“I know that (joint dispatch) was an agenda item that was discussed at the county board’s study session two weeks ago, and not a whole lot was determined in that meeting,” Lewsader said. He then asked ETSB and County Board member Karl Franham if any further decisions had been made regarding meetings to discuss the project.
Farnham told Lewsader, and other members of the board, that despite having a meeting with other county board members scheduled for the next day, no progress had been made on scheduling joint gatherings.
“I think it basically should be two county board members, the police chief, Adam, and if Adam wants someone from this board to come too,” Farnham said. “We just don’t want 15 people there and involved in 15 different ideas, so we narrowed down the key players.”
“Those key players need to be there so that they can express their opinion on what needs to be done to try to move forward with this whole thing,” Farnham added. “There are no decisions going to be made, obviously, but we just want to get that core group to come up with how they foresee this working, and then go from there.”
When a board member asked Farnham if anyone from County Fire agencies would be included, Farnham was quick to answer “No.”
“Just the principal agencies on the joint dispatch,” Farnham said. “Just 911, the county and Paris police.”
Additional questions posed to Farnham included if the meetings would be public, or open to the public, as well as if they would be posted and carry the need for a quorum.
“I think if we just have those minimal people, we’ll be fine,” Farnham responded. And at some point, you know, it will all have to go back to like we had the meeting last week that was supposed to have all that and, of course, there were only two people who showed up at the meeting last week. No one else was there.”
Multiple members of the ETSB board expressed their confusion with what meeting was being referring to, but quick discussion revealed that the meeting was the June 8 County Board meeting, and that three members of the ETSB board had attended the meeting, but discussion was not held.
“I guess ultimately my biggest concern, and I think my intent for posting it in the first place, for our first negotiation was that if we had that fourth person show up, we wouldn’t be running the risk of an open meeting in that violation,” Lewsader commented.
“We will be all right,” Farnham responded.
During the same meeting, the ETSB board also discussed a revised staffing model for the potential unified dispatch operation between Paris Police Department dispatch services and 911 dispatchers. The updated model — the first comprehensive revision since 2021 — projects total annual operating costs of approximately $780,908.
The cost configuration was created by Lewsader, who noted the figure represents a 15 to 20 percent increase over the original 2021 estimate, driven primarily by wage increases and rising health insurance costs.
Discussion between board members touched on whether shifting to 12-hour shifts could reduce staffing needs from nine employees to eight, potentially lowering costs. Police Chief Terry Rogers of the Paris Police Department said the PPD’s current dispatch function is handled by four full-time and two part-time employees, who provide 24/7 coverage. He suggested eight staff members could adequately handle a consolidated center, if it were to happen.
Board members also discussed the possibility of staffing models under a 12-hour shift structure, though they acknowledged that transition would require an ongoing legal process with attorney involvement already underway.