Notes from recent 911 board meeting

911 budget 40% spending over first 5 months , so we well funded, and no reason to not be paying bills on time.

Recent article about past dues and disconnects,etc

I attended two meetings at JPH on local post office reduction in last year or so – there was information at that time with Fayetteville processing there could be an additional day  – bills will be received later and must be paid sooner.

Unlike AT&T who has a 30 day window on payments, Windstream has 21 days

Post office deliveries, both invoices and payments takes 8- 10 days coming and going since first of year and another 4- 6 days on weekends so actually we get maybe 7 days to turn payment around using current county procedure -  companies are encouraging use of their websites, paperless bills and online payments  to tighten dates and improve accounts receivable turnover ratio. We may have no more than 1 week for 911 and county to handle it through current procedures. Windstream   Wed, Mar 27^th invoice printing date (mailing date from Louisville,KY could have been at the earliest Mar 29^th – Good Friday  or after– Easter weekend and due two days after income filing date Wed, Apr 17^th 

Windstream sends us 7 statements monthly (charge us $3 for each paper bill - $21 and late fee 10% on first $30 and 2% thereafter on each bill , good reason for them to print 7 bills/invoices ) and we have asked them to come and see if there are any consolidations that would save us money. Been slow in responding, because it will cost them money, we’re still waiting. 

            

We currently get statement via mail and our process of handling is highly manual . We– need to set up paperless statements online and sent to e-mail address and handle PO’s over a terminal with paperless statement attached. Manual system is quickly becoming obsolete, if not already. Overall issue not just 911. We’re just dealing more with telecommunications type billing where they penalize if not paid in essentially in 7 days, and our system is not designed to handle it in 7 days without a lot of  rubber stamping.

By looking closer at invoices we got a sales tax refund they charged 9% instead of 8. Motorola & AT&T .Several hundred dollars involved. No penalty added on refunds, to correct their mistake. They called it reimbursement for overpayment, I would call it overcharging.

AT&T for their botched installation from November to March-could be in the thousands, prefer refund versus contract extension. One of the newest reasons for problem was rogue wireless tower with a virus making false calls, not a software poblem – unfortunate for At&T it was their tower

We set up a weekly purchase order procedure as a Band-Aid  in April

Arkansas, Mississippi top US in wireless only household 35% plus – economic not technical

90% of local 911 calls are cellular

Recent article HDT mentioned all the drop off in Winstream landlines – could be $75,000 reduction to city. Not sure on 911 fees? New Act that should transfer more revenue from cells.

Between 5 and 12% of monthly land line bill. For every cell phone $.65 – looking at $1 per cell phone.

More social media and texting. Skype like products – video streaming, better GPS

Let’s talk about efficiency since article hinted there must be a problem!

4 dispatchers working 40 hours = 160 hours and there’s 168 in a week.

Barebones operation – empowered  dispatchers–

Dispatching 9-1-1 calls costs in small communities nationally has been a topic of conversation the high average cost per call? Metrics of efficiency. Analytics

Any guesses on Boone County?

Some hints

Published: Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 6:00 AM     Updated: Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 7:29 AM

By Laura Johnston, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The tiny suburb of Walton Hills spends $319,000 a year to have its own emergency dispatchers answering phones – how much would you guess they spend for each 911 call? $510 for each 9-1-1 call. (625 calls)

The average cost per 911 call in Minnesota ranges dramatically from $18 to $138 with employee salaries, benefits, and related expenses accounting for 86 per cent of operating expenses, percentage Boone 911 is ? 62% - according to state figures. Economies of scale could theoretically bring down the average cost in many cases to about $20 per call.

Allegheny County received 1.024 million 911 calls, about 1.5 calls per dispatch worker per hour at a cost of $22 per call (based on total expenditures/calls).  There were 13 providers of 911 service that took more than 128,000 calls in 2010 and the cost per call for that group averaged $24, placing Allegheny just under.

We run about 62% employee salaries, benefits, and related expenses accounting. Or 28% less

Any guesses on Boone County?

Baxter County is $21.70 per call.

Have to be higher than NLR at $25 per call without address assignments – done by a planning commission.

  $20, 30, 40, 50, 100 avg per call?

Trend nationally we would be on the high end

26,000 calls per year or 3 per hour (around the clock)

In Pittsburgh an operator takes 1 ½ 911 calls per hour ½ of what we take

90% are from cells.

$379,385 budget – cost per 911 call is $14.59 – some national averages run in $20 range – similar communities with comparable budgets are running over a hundred and as high as $510 per call

The efficiency rates very high probably near top of list in 99 percentile

Boone County 911 update

       

1.      Dial 9, 1 … Developing a plan with FedEx Freight to handle bogus 911 calls through warnings and penalties. Vetting a plan

Gone down from 20-30 month to virtually none

15% bogus calls could cost 26,000 X .15 = 3,900 call @ 14.59 = $56,901

2.    Placing a higher priority on 911 address assignments for individuals, banks, utilities, property transactions, realtors, insurance, title companies, and mortgages – most ignore any 10 day delays and want it express with good financial reasons. Changed overnight from bulk prices to express - Cost $30-50 for individual SUV rolls. When 911 assumed expenses for address assignments for Harrison, Diamond City, Lead Hill, Alpena, Omaha, and Valley Springs / Everton,etc. there were no allowance for those costs being paid. Letters were in fall of 2011 and early 2012 . Costs could easily exceed $30,000 annually. Must be paid on a fee per application or funded prorata by municipalities, towns, or county. My concern is we are faced with additional expenses that are ongoing but we put a person in a temporary position. There is a person and software needed to do on-line applications.

      Should be a revenue item where we can budget a permanent position.

3.    Reviewing local dispatch consolidation options with city and sheriff’s office

4.    Texting and video streamingwill be implemented in 2014. Also needs to improve speed of finding location of cell phones – online entry of address change request – tracking of progress and conclusion

5.    Smart 911 allows individuals to have similar information available that was available at Pace – locations, chemicals Kiwanis, Lions, and Rotary, Area Aging

6.    Address verification Connect Arkansas / Arkansas Geographic Information Office $8900 grant – part of Connect Arkansas – Commerce Department $7.2 Billion – telecommunications – public or private money involved, local debate between Cox using private money and Windstream getting public money ? Although 90% finished in city only 10% in county or 40% overall in Boone County. We will finish project but not by July. Priority required by 911 and address assignments can’t justify raising priority for $8900 grant.

Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Besides meeting the needs of the NTIA, Administered by Commerce Department, not Homeland Security, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included $7.2 billion to expand access to high-speed Internet services to close the digital divide, drive economic growth, and build the technology infrastructure and skills that America needs to compete in the 21st century. Roughly $4 billion of that total supports the Broadband Technology Opportunities Programs investing in roughly 230 projects to increase broadband access and adoption around the country

All the news whether fair or balanced

http://harrisondaily.com/news/late-fees-fixed-at-boone-county-warned-of-shut-off/article_37a8d578-cfb4-11e2-a6ac-001a4bcf887a.html

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  Posted: Sunday, June 9, 2013 1:30 am

  By JAMES L. WHITE jamesw@harrisondaily.com | 5 comments

  
  

  Records in the Boone County Clerk’s Office indicate that the first few months of 2013 have seen several late payments on phone bills, including two that were paid in April after the county received shut-off notices for service at Boone County E911.

  
  

  But County Judge James Norton’s office said the problem has been cleared up after new administration took over at the 911 office

  Some bills include late payment fees totaling about $50 in April alone.

  More than 10 bills received — mainly for service at 911 — included past due amounts on the bills, although the outstanding balance was paid within days of receipt.

  For instance, a Windstream bill from February 15 showed a past due balance of $946.12, and that balance was paid by Feb. 20.

  Lucretia Richardson, Norton’s secretary, said that there was a change in 911 administration earlier this year.

  Herb Lair was appointed 911 director in early February.

  Richardson said the outgoing administration put the bills in a different place and the new administration didn’t know where they were or that they were due.

  She said that began a series of late payments and charges. The bills might include the past due amount even though it had been paid.

  There are six separate Windstream accounts for 911, and each one of them could have had a late payment on it, she said.

  Both Windstream and NATCO sent shut-off notices to the county in April for service at 911 in March, but those were paid within days, records show.

  Richardson said she has a folder for 911 bills alone and it has taken several months to straighten out the entire problem.

  “As of May, everything was caught up,” Richardson said. “We finally got it squared.”