Hailey to offer conditional sum for dispatch center<br>
By JASMINE LINABARY<br><i>Wood River Journal</i>

Hailey will continue negotiating funding of the countywide emergency communications system, even though city council members say they never entered into an agreement with the county about the system.
Council members agreed at their July 28 meeting to propose that Hailey offer a conditional &#8220;good will&#8221; sum to assist the county with the system until the county can pursue a permanent funding solution through an override levy.
Hailey woud contribute an amount related to what the county will accept from Bellevue, which faces a similar budget situation, council members said.
Council members encouraged Mayor Rick Davis to meet with the other Valley cities&#039; mayors to discuss how they could put pressure on Blaine County Commissioners to pursue alternative funding.
Hailey held two meetings with county officials last week to discuss alternatives to the &#036;258,000 being asked of the city for the emergency communication system managed by the county. The city&#039;s contribution was calculated based on the percentage of calls received to the dispatcher last year.
The city has already cut its budget by 10 percent and did not budget for the system in its 2009 draft budget. Funding the system would require a significant portion of the budget and unreasonable cuts, city officials said.
The emergency communications system receives and dispatches all 911 calls made in the county as well as administrative and non-emergency calls made to any of the county&#039;s emergency services after hours.
Council members said they had never had a discussion as a council and had never entered into an agreement with the county about the service. The county has provided dispatch service to Hailey and most other cities in the county for many years with at least one dispatcher per shift, City Attorney Ned Williamson said.
&#8220;The city of Hailey has never provided dispatch and never paid extra for it,&#8221; he said. 
If Hailey does not contribute, the city will have to figure out an alternative dispatch plan. The system would no longer cover the city&#039;s non-emergency calls after hours or have access to information from the reporting system, County Administrator Michael McNees wrote to the city.
Police Chief Jeff Gunter told council members that losing access to the dispatch system would hinder his ability to operate and threaten his officers&#039; safety. The department would no longer receive calls checking up on dispatched officers, would be delayed in response to emergency situations, and would not be able to check criminal histories or run driver&#039;s license numbers. 
&#8220;Dispatch to us is essential,&#8221; Gunter said. &#8220;If this were to happen, we are going to see officer turnover. When they don&#039;t feel safe, they&#039;ll leave.&#8221;
Fire Chief Mike Chapman said the fire department would be in a less critical situation than the police department because their programs and frequencies are separate or shared with other cities in ways that would likely not be turned off.
Council members agreed that the only equitable way to fund the system would be through a countywide levy, where every citizen would be asked to contribute the same amount. They also said they wanted to put in a good faith effort to show they are concerned about their citizens&#039; safety, especially with the majority of the schools and the airport located in Hailey.
&#8220;I could not in good conscious allow our officers to be unsafe, and our citizens to be unsafe,&#8221; council member Carol Brown said.
Hailey has also proposed that the county fund a base level of service of one dispatcher like it has in the past and any agency wanting a higher level of service could pay to support additional dispatchers and services.
Council members expressed concerns that through this request for funds from teh cities that city residents who pay taxes both to the city and the county are being asked to pay more for the service than county residents. 
The amount being asked of Hailey is 15.1 percent of the city&#039;s total tax budget base, compared to the amount being asked of Ketchum, which is only 7.7 percent of its tax budget base.
When Blaine County came before the Hailey City Council in May to talk about the service and funding requests, the council suggested that funding for this project would be a better matter for voters, similar to the ambulance levy override that passed in May, rather than for the cities to fund.
&#8220;You could have floored me in May,&#8221; Brown said. &#8220;They essentially present us with a done deal and say here&#039;s your bill.&#8221;
Council members said they had anticipated that the user group, which formed to discuss the system and its funding, would bring in alternatives and ideas that they could hold as a public hearing rather than the presentation they received. 




<span style="display: none">journal, newspaper, article, story, paper the journal, wood river journal, ketchum, hailey, bellevue, sun valley, Hailey to offer conditional sum for dispatch center</span>