Dispatch focus of Monday meeting

By Greg Little, Covington Leader
December 8, 2006

A state senator says he will begin looking into accountability issues when it comes to 911 operations across Tennessee.

And the same issue now has the attention of the state emergency communications board and the governor.

Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, who represents Tipton County, said this week he will ask about the situation during a meeting next week.

“I will raise the issue at that time,” said Norris.

Norris is a member of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. That group meets next week in Nashville.

Norris said that group has discussed several 911 issues during recent meetings. It has mainly dealt with funding and training.

However, in light of the controversy surrounding central dispatch in Tipton County, Norris said he thinks accountability needs to be examined.

“This is one issue we need to look at,” said Norris.

Several issues, including training, have been raised locally about central dispatch in Tipton County.

Some of those issues will be discussed during a meeting Monday night in Covington. That meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the Justice Center on South College Street. The meeting time has been moved up one-half hour by county officials.

The meeting is being conducted by the General Welfare Committee of the county. Members of the public are expected to be able to ask questions about the 911 situation.

The chairman of the 911 board, Mike Taylor, said recently he will be in attendance to field questions from commissioners.

Recently, the 911 board cut short a meeting attended by many members of the public. The board allowed some county commissioners to ask questions but abruptly adjourned the meeting with several citizens still wanting to ask questions.

That didn’t sit well with many county commissioners, who said they felt the public should be allowed to ask questions given the circumstances involved with 911.

The Covington Board of Mayor and Aldermen then passed a motion asking Mayor David Gordon to speak with District Attorney General Mike Dunavant about a possible criminal inquiry of central dispatch.

Gordon did that the next day and Dunavant immediately contacted the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.TBI officials agreed to to a preliminary investigation about the matter.

The investigation centers around director Judy Savard-Max and whether or not she abused her office by having on-duty dispatchers perform personal errands.

Former and current dispatchers have said she had them take her children to and from school and in one incident had an on-duty dispatcher go to her house to meet a concrete truck as her pool was being constructed.

County commissioners have said they want answers to these issues and many more.

One issue is training of dispatchers, the issue Norris said the statewide group is discussing.

Several former dispatchers have said workers are not given sufficient training before being allowed to sit behind the console and handle the emergency work.

In relation to that, how the rules are monitored has also been a matter of discussion.

Lynn Questell, director of the state 911 board, said Thursday morning her board is following the entire matter closely.

“I am looking at it already,” said Questell of the criminal investigation as well as other issues in Tipton County. “I am in discussions with (state) board members and I think you need to let the process work.”

Taylor is a member of the state board.

She also said accountability “is an issue the board will be reviewing.”

The state board next meets on Feb. 22.

Questell also said she has yet to hear from local officials about this issue.

“I have not received any written complaints from anyone in Tipton County to bring this officially to our attention,” said Questell.

She did say each 911 district in the state is audited on an annual basis.

“The activities undergo auditing every year and that’s one way they are being supervised,” said Questell.

Kelly Brockman, an assistant to Gov. Phil Bredesen, was with Questell during the phone interview on Thursday.

When Brockman was first contacted, she directed all of the questions to Questell.

One reason the governor’s office was involved in the issue is because Bredesen said recently during a budget hearing he was concerned about $14 million which is distributed to the 100 emergency communication districts across the state.

Questell said the governor was talking about funds other than what is already being distributed for the basic needs offered by the districts.

She said 25 percent of the funds gathered by the state board, which comes from wireless phone fees, is distributed to the districts based on population. Other funds are generated locally through fees charged through land-line phones.

Questell said the governor’s remarks were “in the context of budget hearings” and there have been no formal discussions about the concepts.

She did say those issues raised by the governor will be the topic of discussion for the state board.