Commissioners Upset Over City Attitude

"As mentioned previously, the City of Sanford is not interested in controlling dispatch services for the Emergency Medical Services or rural fire departments."Hal Hagwar, Sanford City Manager

Letter to Lee County Commissioners, January 28, 2009



The Fayetteville Observer reported this morning that the Sanford "Refusal on 911 plan angers [Lee Board of Commisioners] members." That statement came in a letter (click here) from Sanford City Manager Hal Hagwar to commissioners 10 months after the city was sent a proposed written agreement for the operation of the county's 911 center. During that period, the county's request, started under the prior board, was largely ignored, and the city has never offered an alternative contract to the county's proposal. Also, during that period the city tried to get the county's PSA designation removed so it could operate completely independently.



The primary issues are money, control, and accountability. As one official put it, Sanford wants all the money and control but no accountability.



The letter was received as being belligerent, uncooperative, and disdainful of the needs of Lee County citizens not living within the city limits. This should come as no surprise. The 911 center operates under the exclusive control of Police Chief Ronnie Yarborough and is typical of his management style and the acquiescence to that style by what has too long been a majority of council members and the city manager. Yarborough has been chief for 36 years and established a reputation as an arrogant and vengeful manager, and few officials seem willing to take him on.



One exception has been Lee County Sheriff Tracy Carter. In a manner similar to the shared 911 operation, drug enforcement was in the handled in the county as well as the city by a Joint City-County Drug Task Force under Yarborough. Carter ran his campaign on disbanding the Task Force and the Sheriff's Office taking back direct responsibility for drug enforcement in rural areas felt neglected by Yarborough. The Sheriff's Office has proven much more successful in cracking down on drug dealers across the county than the former task force, including some busts in the city. Sheriff Carter has said, however, that he has no interest in operating the county 911 center and is hopeful that the city and county can come reach a workable and lasting agreement.



The statements made about rural fire departments and EMS dispatch were viewed as a threat by most of the commissioner's, except Commissioner Robert Reives who is part of Yarborough's network. Despite the impression reported in the Federal Observer, Commissioner Jamie Kelly was very muted in his response. Kelly is unlikely to take on Yarborough while Yarborough is protecting Police Detective Kevin Bryant during the State Board of Elections investigation of perjury in connection with signs Kelly acknowledges he had printed, and in which Bryant has been implicated by Steve Thomas.



Until the letter, there had been no interest whatsoever on the part of commissioners in terminating the arrangement with the city, only is establishing a vehicle for accountability and a means of resolving public concerns which have long been ignored by Yarborough. The letter's clear lack of interest of the citizens of the entire county and exclusive focus on its own citizens will undoubtedly anger rural county residents who may recognize that the narrow focus and arrogance of the city could leave them waiting for an EMS response to a heart attack or see their homes go up in flames.



The city may regret delaying the matter until the new commissioners were seated. The current board of county commissioners appears much more aggressive and supportive of the county manager. A number of citizens have approached commissioners about requiring that the city employ a new 911 center director who reports directly to the city manager rather than Yarborough. They argue that given that most calls are for Sanford police, he is likely to look at concerns and grievances of other users as coming from competitors, and note the impossibility of working with a city official known for his arrogant and intimidating style.Commissioners are likely to demand an oversight board made up of stakeholders to address performance standards and patterns of cooperation. The tone of the letter, they argue, simply reinforces the need for these measures.



These additional features are similar to a contract between Wake County and the City of Raleigh which current commissioners are studying closely. When the county initiated its 911 system, it created an emergency telephone system that is required by law to enable the user of a voice communications service connection to reach emergency help by dialing the digits 911 and provide enhanced 911 service. The local funds to pay for the system are collected by Lee County and the operating cost of the center is shared by the city and county on the basis of call volume. The first point of reception of a 911 call is called a public safety answering point (PSAP), and the state recognizes Lee County, not Sanford, as the single PSAP for Lee County. As such, the county agreed to a verbal contact with the City of Sanford approximately 20 years ago that the city would operate the actual call center.



At the center, a call for emergency assistance is processed up to the point that the call is ready for dispatch, including the use of equipment, call classification, location of a caller, and determination of the appropriate response level for emergency responders. The city directly dispatches calls from within the city to police and fire departments, EMS, and rural fire departments. Calls from county residents are transferred to the Sheriff's Office and Broadway Police department where they the actual dispatching is done.



According to the city, the cost of operation of the call center is approximately $940,000 a year and the county's portion is about $150,000 a year. This reflects that 83% of the call volume is generated by city residents.



The state of North Carolina 911 Board distributes money to the county to support local, enhanced 911 service. The money cannot be used for operation costs but is used for training, equipment, and similar items to support the continual upgrade of the 911 services. Since Lee County is the designated PSAP, the funds go to the county and are distributed to the city to support authorized expenses of the 911 center. On occasion, the county has elected to distribute some of the money to other agencies for training and equipment involved in the 911 system. (Note: The city rate is inflated to some degree because it has elected to use the call center for such purposes as reporting water outages and sewer problems, not what most people think of as traditional emergency 911 calls. Yes, your call with a genuine emergency could be delayed by an operator responding to someone with a leaking water pipe.)



For a number of years, rural fire departments have raised repeated and numerous complaints about the manner in which Chief Yarborough operated the call center but with no success. As noted earlier, Yarborough, after 36 years on the job and the center of the "good ol' boys network", recently refused to attend a meeting with the mayor and others (See post) to be briefed on newly discovered information related to the perjured election form filings. The chief is virtually inaccessible. A visit to the City of Sanford web site does not even disclose his name, he seldom, if ever, participates in activities like the Committee of 100, and it is well known uses the powers of his office to intimidate council members to concur with the level of independence with which he operates the police department.



Ronnie Yarborough's minions on the Sanford City Council balked when the county proposed that the 20 year old verbal agreement be put in writing, establishing standards of performance, procedures documenting the use of state 911 funds and other forms of accountability. According to Hegwer's letter to the commissioner's, "The agreement is simply asking the City to blindly hand over the keys to our communications center and all operations to Lee County." This reflects the Chief's position that he will not work under circumstances of accountability.



The city's real interest is having sole control of the state 911 funds. Due to the controversy, $173,768 in state 911 funds earmarked for Lee County have been held in Raleigh. The current fund balance on hand is $615,005. Two members each from the commission and the city council are expected to meet this week to see if common ground can be found on the issues.