911 board ponders administrator move to Floyd County staff

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

It has been decided for some time that the Communications Center dispatchers, currently located at Charles City Hall, will relocate to the new Floyd County Law Enforcement Center after that building is completed.

The question came up last week whether a new 911 administrator should go along as well.

Kathy Herrick, the current 911 administrator, has announced she will be retiring May 31. She is a full-time employee of the city of Charles City, and has her job duties divided 40% as the 911 administrator and 60% as secretary for the Police Department.

At a Floyd County 911 Service Board meeting held last Thursday, Floyd County Supervisor Roy Schwickerath suggested that board should consider whether the 911 administrator should move to the law enforcement center along with the dispatchers.

The service board took no action on the suggestion, but directed members to come up with a proposal to be considered at a future special meeting.

“I think one of the reasons the system has worked so well is because the person in charge of 911, in Kathy’s position, they’ve been 20 steps away from the Communications Center,” Schwickerath said.

He said 911 is a countywide service, paid for with funds generated by the whole county, and it would be appropriate to at least consider if that person should be located at the county facility and become a county employee.

Although Herrick is a city employee, the 911 part of her pay and expenses are paid through an operating agreement with the Floyd County 911 Services Board, a board required by state law in every county to implement 911 emergency phone service.

The expenses of the board are paid primarily through a $1 per month surcharge on land-line and cellular phone numbers in the county service area.

Schwickerath said if the board is going to entertain the idea of the 911 administrator becoming a county employee, the city would need to take that into consideration before looking for a replacement for Herrick.

But Police Chief Hugh Anderson came out strongly against the idea of moving the position, saying the current system is working very well and here is no need to change it.

He said having the 911 administrator located physically near the dispatchers is not an important consideration, and a bigger advantage is having the administrator and the Police Department secretary be the same person, because that person then has access to the police SHIELD computer information system.

“Our SHIELD network is where she catches a lot of (911 addressing) mistakes that are either in the system or come through the system,” Anderson said. “It’s a very good mesh there with our secretary who gets to read the reports, reads the calls for service, and being the 911 coordinator.”

He said the plan has been to hire a new employee in advance of Herrick’s retirement, so Herrick can train the new person on the 911 and the secretarial aspects of the job.

“It just would be a seamless transition without trying to move this person to another location when we have the equipment here, we have the knowledge here, and she’ll be training another person to take her position,” Anderson said. “I don’t see at this time any reason to even consider the move.”

Herrick said there have been times when it’s been convenient to have the dispatchers close by, but it’s not a necessity for the job. In fact, she said, during the past year because of COVID-19 restrictions there has been very little interpersonal contact between the departments and almost everything has been done electronically.

Keith Starr, a Charles City Council member who is chair of the 911 Services Board, said the 40%-60% split between Herrick’s time with 911 and the Police Department isn’t exact.

“There are times when 911 requires many more hours during the week than the 40% of that time would allow, and with the city position that allows that flexibility to be made up at different times,” Starr said.

Board member Randy Hassman, the Nora Springs mayor, said it sounds logical to move the position to the law enforcement center, but he wondered whether a county 911 administrator position would be expanded from a 40% position to a full-time position, and if the city would have to go from a 60% secretarial position to full time.

“Clearly the city of Charles City benefits because one person can do both jobs,” Hassman said.

Chief Anderson said he had the same concern.

“We have the position covered here,” Anderson said. “The position’s been handled well since 1992, and I feel we as a city have done a very good job at keeping the cost down. I would struggle as a taxpayer to just create a position so that the 40% would go over to the county and then we have 60% more we’re hiring another person.”

Schwickerath said the 911 administration would likely remain only a part of a full-time position, and the person could do others things working with other departments that need help and that the county is considering hiring for.

Since the topic wasn’t on the meeting agenda as an action item, Schwickerath asked if it would be appropriate to put together a plan that could come back before the board at a special meeting.

“I think that’d be just fine,” said Starr. “Right now you guys really don’t have a plan. … So let’s see from both sides. Because in the end this is taxpayer money, and whatever serves the taxpayers the best is what this needs to roll with.”