Conversations among local officials are ongoing regarding Fiscal Court potentially separating from the consolidated 911 dispatch office that serves both the City of Owensboro and Daviess County.
In June, Fiscal Court voted to give a termination notice for the agreement concerning the consolidated dispatch office, a document that outlines the funding mechanisms for the operations.
While the City and County originally intended to build a new 911 Emergency Operations Center, there were not enough funds at the time. Instead, they consolidated the operations at the Owensboro Police Department in 2009.
Under the current agreement, the center’s operations costs are split between the City and County based on each entity’s incident rate. According to the language of the 2019 agreement, the City covers 73% of the operating costs with the County paying for the other 23%.
Daviess County Treasurer Jordan Johnson previously said Fiscal Court decided to terminate the agreement to make way for a holistic review and potentially new agreement.
If there is a split, the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office and Daviess County Fire Department would run their own operations separate from the Owensboro Police and Fire departments.
911 Director Paul Nave spoke to City Commissioners during their Work Session on Tuesday, saying a split would lead to delayed response times.
He said dispatchers must obtain information about the severity of the situation, then learn which agency to pass the call to rather than being able immediately to notify a unit directly.
“If the caller is panicked and you can’t get any information out of them, it’s going to delay it even longer,” Nave said. “…Absolutely, [the response time] will be longer because it’s not going to one place.”
Nae said DCSO has responded to just over 13,000 calls so far this year — up 2,000 calls from this time last year — while OPD has again fielded almost 30,000 calls. As of July 1, the center had received 71,776 non-emergency calls, which Nave said is on track with 2022.
Daviess County Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen declined to comment specifically on why the county is considering splitting from the partnership. He did note that he and the City are negotiating what the decision will look like.
“We’re in negotiations with the City. We’re having dialogue with them. I think we’ve had at least two meetings with them to discuss concerns that we have laid out to them,” Castlen said.
When asked about those concerns, Castlen declined to detail them. He instead said that he and City Manager Nate Pagan would continue the conversation themselves before sharing anything publicly.
Pagan said a unified dispatch for city and county agencies is a typical structure in Kentucky.
“It’s a structure that’s worked well,” Pagan said. “It’s a structure that’s been adopted in many communities across the Commonwealth and across our country.”
