Spokane mayor says current model for regional 911 services doesn't work for the city, city could go it alone

SPOKANE, WASH - Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown said the current model of the Spokane Regional Emergency Communications system doesn't serve the city well and if the current model is not fixed, the city will go it alone.

Mayor Brown outlined concerns to the SREC board in a letter sent Saturday, which was the city's deadline to respond about its future in the current configuration.

Brown highlighted concerns brought forth by a third-party consulting group, which said if the current structure stays the same, it would not recommend the City of Spokane be a part of it.

SREC is a regional approach to 911 services created in 2018. The relationship with the City of Spokane has been tenuous since its inception.

SCREC provides emergency and non-emergency response to calls and provides fire and law enforcement dispatch to agencies across Spokane County.

Right now, it provides 911 dispatching for the Spokane Fire Department; dispatchers for city police are in the same building, but city employees handle the calls.

Earlier this year, SREC set a deadline to decide if it was all in or all out; either include city law enforcement dispatch under SREC or pull Spokane Fire out and create a city public safety agency to handle all the city calls.

The SREC board gave the city until Saturday, August 24th to decide how it planned to move forward.

In the letter sent by Mayor Brown Saturday, she said the city would move forward with the regional approach, but only "if we can satisfactorily address the critical recommendations" outlined in the consultant's report.

Included in those recommendations would be adjusting the board structure so that representation reflects the use and needs of the jurisdictions. Essentially, the report says that since the City of Spokane contributes the most money and is responsible for the most calls, it should have more seats or additional voting weight on the SREC board.

The report also criticizes the financial operation of the SREC board, saying that the tax revenues alone are enough to cover SREC's expenditures. The mayor recommends eliminating user fees charged to the jurisdictions as they are "unnecessary and excessive."

The report says the large surplus of funds carried by the SREC "raises concern."

"While revenue exceeding expenses is not normally a cause for concern, especially within the private sector," it does raise concern for a governmental organization, the report asserts.

"There is an appearance that SREC is operating with a private sector mindset of making money," the report says. "Acquiring a $30M surplus without a clear understanding of the intention of that surplus by its member agencies may not be in-line with the mindset a government agency should have when it is responsible for the financial stewardship of public funds."

The SREC board has stated in previous meetings that the organization is planning for a new facility and at least one board member bristled at the implication SREC was "hoarding money."

Mayor Brown quotes the consultant's report, which says there is a need for "enhanced transparency, accountability and collaboration across all facets of emergency communications."

She concludes that if the board is willing to adopt the group's recommendations that she is "confident we will enhance public safety delivery across the regional and properly steward precious taxpayer resources."

If the city does decide to go it alone, the report indicates that costs for the Spokane Police side would be manageable "but will be significant for the Spokane Fire, call handling and report writing (Crime Check)."

The report estimates that cost could be around $8,600,000 or more based on what's currently in the SREC budget.

It also details the pros and cons of continuing the fire services with SREC. Pros include no disruption in current services, no capital start-up calls and a coordinated response with other fire and law services.

Cons, though, include a disruption in current service by adding call handling time, capital start-up costs and the creation of an entirely new staff.

On the police side, pros of transitioning to SREC include a reduction in the transfer of emergency calls, enhanced coordination of resources, enhanced coordination between Spokane Police and Spokane Fire and an opportunity to improve relationships between those agencies.

The cons of transitioning police dispatch to SREC, according to the report, include policy/protocol changes and potential decrease in service "if SREC does not or is not able to meet [agreements] due to staffing, funding or other unknown issue."

It's now up to the SREC board to determine next steps and if the City of Spokane will continue with the organization or move forward with its own dispatch services for police and fire.

SREC responded to the report, saying in part "We have approached the many investments required for the future of the agency by saving in advance of expenditures, versus taking on large amounts of debt -- an approach the Board feels is not only wise today, but also provides an overall savings to taxpayers for the long-term."

The SREC has a board meeting scheduled for August 29th. It will be reviewing the report and discussing what to do about it at that meeting.

This article has been updated to include a statement from SREC about the report.

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