Saturday, March 7, 2009

911 center budget crisis is resolved

County increases its contribution

Julia M. Dendinger News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jdendinger@news-bulletin.com

After nearly three hours of waiting, the regional 911 emergency call center found out how much money the county could contribute to the continued operations of the call center for the rest of this fiscal year.

With very little discussion, the commission authorized increasing its budget for the center by $86,000 to cover the shortfall center director Shirley Valdez had presented to them last month.

At the Feb. 18 commission meeting, Valdez informed the county commissioners that, because it had not budgeted an additional requested $172, 371 for the center, she would be forced to lay off six dispatchers.

The county, already under budget constraints, seemed doubtful as to whether it could find the money to make up the shortfall.

Through some digging, approximately half of the money was located in the sheriff's gross receipts tax revenues. The payment was sent on Thursday.

"We were able to identify a recurring revenue for the first half," Commissioner Ron Gentry said after he made the motion for the increased funding. "I'm not sure if we've identified a source for the rest."

The State Department of Finance and Administration requires counties and other government entities to identify recurring revenue streams for annual expenses before it will allow a budget increase request.

Valdez had good news for the commissioners - they wouldn't have to hunt for the second half of the $172,371. "After the last meeting, I went back to the Village of Los Lunas, our fiscal agency, and asked if there was a way for me to tighten up my budget," she said. "I found we could cut back on some planned operational and equipment expenditures, and I eliminated one vacant dispatch position.

"If you can authorize the payment for the $86,000, I won't be coming back for the other half; this will get me through June 30, the end of our fiscal year."

Commission Chair Pedro Rael noted that collection of the 911 gross receipts tax (GRT) passed last November would begin in July. "Will that reduce the county's contribution?" he asked. "Could it get us down to zero?"

Chair of the 911 board and Bosque Farms Police Chief Joe Stidham said he could not guarantee zero, but did confirm that the anticipated GRT would reduce contributions from the county as well as the Village of Los Lunas, City of Belen and Village of Bosque Farms.

"High estimates are showing that we could collect somewhere between $1.5 and $1.8 million from the GRT for the center," Stidham said. "I think we can say that the county could see a reduction of about $300,000 from what it paid this past fiscal year."

According to figures supplied by Valdez, the county budgeted and paid $364,614 to the call center during the 2007-08 fiscal year. Because the 911 center budget was not available before the county was required to send it to the state for approval, that same amount was budgeted for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Unfortunately, the 2008-09 budget from the regional center asked the county to contribute $536,985, and the shortfall of the $172,371 was the final result.

At the commission meeting Wednesday evening, Valdez said that since the center's budget had been reduced for the current fiscal year and the county would be allowed to pay less, the other entities would also see a reduction in their contributions.

Over the next four months, Bosque Farms will pay $3,559 instead of the anticipated $14,238; Belen will pay $16,004 instead of $64,019; and Los Lunas will pay $34,391 instead of the remaining $137,566. Those three entities make payments to the center on a monthly basis, while the county pays at the beginning of the fiscal year and then again at mid-year.

Emergency 911 board meeting

At an emergency meeting of the 911 Board Thursday afternoon that Stidham called after the February commission meeting, he and Valdez were able to announce the resolution to the shortfall and inform the three municipalities of their respective savings.

Valdez said that with the budget cuts she implemented and the $86,000 from the county, she and Los Lunas finance director Peter Fernandez felt comfortable the center can "hold its own" until the end of the fiscal year.

Stidham said he didn't feel it was fair to let the county reduce its portion without also reducing what the municipalities paid to the center. "I want to also publicly thank (County Fire) Chief Charles Eaton for all the work he put into helping us get this resolved with the county," he said. "Also thank you to Mr. Fernandez; the work he does for us in incredible."

While one vacant position will go unfilled, no dispatchers will be cut from staff, Stidham said. "There won't be an interruption to our current level of services," he said. "I know there are things to be addressed with the increased need for service, but we are not faced with the terrible dilemma of cutting six positions."

Looking to the future, the board members considered the approval of three preliminary budgets for the upcoming 2009-10 fiscal year to take back to their respective entities.

Valdez said there were three slightly different versions of the budget that were based on high, moderate and low estimates of the GRT revenue that will begin being generated on July 1.

"We were presented with three possible amounts the GRT will bring," she said. The high estimate was $1.1 million, the mid-range number was $900,000 and the lowest projection was $650,000 annual for the call center from the GRT.

The tax will be split between the call center and emergency medical services across the county - 60 percent of the revenues will go to the 911 center and the remainder to EMS in the county and three municipalities. While the tax will go into effect on July 1, monies won't be disbursed until September.

"My personal opinion is that there's not a lot to be upset about here, in comparison to what everyone has paid in the past," Stidham said. "This will be a tremendous impact on your budgets."

The chief went on to say that it was his recommendation that the board approve the mid-range budget showing an estimated $900,000 in revenues from the GRT as its 2009-10 fiscal year budget.

Fernandez agreed with that logic. "In all my time being involved with budgets, forecasting GRT in New Mexico is difficult," he said. "Usually these estimates are based on historical figures. This is the first year we're doing this.

"When this tax was proposed, we were estimating it would bring in $2 million total. In the last nine months, the economy has declined. Four months from now, our numbers will be firmer, but keep in mind they could be lower. This is not an exact science. It is based on the best historical knowledge."

Los Lunas Village Administrator Phillip Jaramillo said if estimates of $900,000 turned out to be low, the excess GRT could be used to help the call center build a reserve account.

"DFA requires entities to have a three-twelfths reserve account," he said. "If we were about to establish a reserve, if we needed to increase expenses for things like replacing equipment, we could turn to the reserve instead of asking our entities to increase their contributions."

Going into this budget cycle with no historical data and an "economic monkey wrench" possibly skewing projections, Jaramillo said it could be two to four years before the board has a clear idea of just how much revenue the GRT could realistically generate.

"I feel the chief's suggestion is a good way to go," he said. "With the middle ground."

With the hopes of $900,000 coming in from the GRT, the call center's budget shows a 59.9 percent across-the-board drop to the four entities contributions to the center.

The amount requested from Bosque Farms dropped from $67,180 to $26,910, the county went from $536,985 to $215,102, Belen's amount will decrease from $371,153 to $148,674 and Los Lunas will be asked to pay $215,405 instead of $537,741.

Also paying in for services is Socorro County. Valdez said the dispatch center would be providing fire and EMS dispatch services to the northern Socorro County communities of Veguita, Abeytas and La Joya for $5,000 annually.

The board is still in negotiations with Living Cross Ambulance Service for payment for the services it receives from the dispatch center. Currently, while the ambulance service is being billed, it has not made payment to the center, Valdez informed the county commission last month.

The center also has funding from a USDA loan it received in 2006 after consolidation. The amount of the loan was $600,000 for the 2008-09 fiscal year and has been reduced to $450,000 for the coming fiscal year. Valdez said those funds were utilized for the remodeling and expansion of the dispatch center.

On the expenditure side of the balance sheet was a significant increase in the line item for professional services. "Is that for a medical director?" asked Gayle Jones, the clerk-administrator for Bosque Farms. Valdez said that was correct. Last year the center had budgeted $3,500 for professional services and increased that amount to $24,000 for the coming fiscal year.

Under its capital outlay expenditures, Valdez has allocated $75,000 for a new computer-aided dispatch system. "This is by no means strictly a law enforcement board," she said. "This will benefit both law enforcement and fire and EMS by freeing up dispatchers. It will also help us work towards a priority dispatch system."

Valdez also pointed out that she has budgeted for three new certified dispatchers. "Last year, we paid $70,500 in overtime. I've cut that back to $40,000 for this year," she said. "Hopefully, if we can get these three new dispatchers, we can cover those shifts."

The three new positions are budgeted at a base salary of $27,509 each for a total of $82,527.

After a motion from Jaramillo and a second by Belen Police Chief Mike Chavez, the board voted unanimously to approve the mid-range budget as the preliminary budget to present to the four entities.

Eaton asked if, with the three new dispatchers, the center would be able to have dedicated dispatchers for fire and EMS. Valdez said that, once the remodel is complete, the dispatchers would be physically split into groups of four - four for law enforcement and four for fire and EMS with a supervisor in the center to oversee both groups.

"We are looking at the dispatchers we have with the most fire and medical experience to make them our certified operators," Valdez said. "As soon as we get the room and can make that physical split, I think everybody will be happy with the results."

Eaton said that when he looked at the dispatch center, he didn't differentiate between law enforcement and fire and EMS or the county and the municipalities. "I'm not drawing a line between anyone," he said. "We're family. We are all here to protect our people and get some good responses out there."

Stidham said that, when the board members go back to their governing bodies, it was his hope that they would reiterate that the GRT revenues are just a forecast.

"It's an educated guess," he said. "I am going to recommend to my board that we budget a bit more right out of the gate. If we don't have to spend it, we won't. And we can always to do line item transfers to move it into other areas of need. But they need to know that if the GRT is lower than we are expecting and they don't budget enough, we may have to come back to them."

Jaramillo said if there were no changes to the budget as it was presented, he moved that the 911 board adopt it as the final budget to present to the four entities and that the representatives should carry it forward to their governing bodies. Eaton seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.

After the meeting adjourned, Valdez said it was her fervent hope that eventually the GRT would entirely replace the revenue the call center receives from the government entities.

"That is the ultimate goal so that this money can go back to these entities that so desperately need it," she said. "That is why I pushed so hard for the tax."

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