Vote No on Mason-Oceana 9-1-1 Millage. Here's Why...

[XLFD]

The headlines scream "Future looks bleak if 911 millage fails" in the Mason County Press, before it leads off with:  "Slower response times and the dispatch center’s eventual closing are on the horizon if next Tuesday’s 911 millage request fails."

The City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) also writes a one-sided article about how badly our 9-1-1 Center needs more money:  "This is our last resort. Further cuts will put the public and responders at risk.”

 

Police Chief Mark Barnett, Sheriff Kim Cole, County Commissioner Candidate Wally Taranko, local 9-1-1 Director Ray Hasil and others tell various anecdotes about what may happen if this effort does not pass, most are akin to apocalyptic tales of terror.

 

I have looked through the hyperbole to check the figures and I can clearly say that you should not vote for this tax levy.  Our 9-1-1 Center already has plenty of money tumbling in, in relation to similar sized counties throughout Michigan.  Two relatively poor county's taxpayers, funding their 9-1-1 Center at the highest level among ten other similar sized counties in Michigan.

Mason and Oceana County have about 55,000 people living residing therein.  Let's compare Mason/Oceana County's 9-1-1 operating expenses with counties that have similar population for their own 9-1-1 services using population data from the latest 2013 population figures.  We will consider all such counties that have populations from 50,000 to 70,000 as of 2013 which includes:

Barry County:         59,097

Cass County:           51,910

Ionia County:          64,703

Isabella County:      70,436

Marquette County:   67,700

Montcalm County:    63,105

St. Joseph County:   60,964

Shiawassee County:  68,900

Tuscola County:       54,263

Mecosta/Osceola:    66,367 and

Mason/Oceana:       54,850

 

Of the ten other counties that have such populations, only two have less population than Mason/Oceana.  One would figure that equivalent populations would have about equal volume of work, about equal expenses, about equal revenue coming in.  But this is not the case, look at the last column in this link from the State 9-1-1 Committee located at the MSP website included thereafter in a link for their 2013 report.

 

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/msp/2013_Annual_Report_429839_7.pdf

 

These are all of the counties between 50,000 and 70,000 population, and the number one on expenses is the third smallest:  Mason/Oceana County.  Not surprisingly, Cass County, the smallest in population has the smallest expenditures, but those expenditures are less than half of Mason/Oceana.  Which may surprise you since they only have about 6% less people than the two counties. 

 

Marquette County is bigger in area and 25% bigger in population, but spends nearly $700,000 (43%)less than Mason/Oceana on 9-1-1 in this 2013 report.  The 2012 report dealing with the same counties shows little difference in the figures for the most part, but check out the revenues:  it has gone from $1,518,118 in 2011 to $1,681,682 in 2012 in our counties.  That's more than a ten percent increase. 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/msp/2012_Annual_Report_to_the_Leg...

 

The figures for 2013 (which would be in the 2014 report) are not yet published, but there is obviously a problem here, even if Ray Hasil's worries about cell phone contracts and the number of vacant properties worsen and that money drops off about $50,000 each year until apparently it dries up to nothing, both of which are anecdotal and unproven. 

 

Our 9-1-1 services are already getting more money, often a lot more money, than other similar sized counties, who aren't claiming indigence and hardship and the need to raise taxes from a populace that is well bled already, but are scared about all this talk about their dispatch center closing if this millage is not passed.  If you believe these other counties are functioning well enough, which they seem to be doing, there is no reason to raise the people's tax rates so that ours can get even richer in comparison.

[XLFD]

Thanks for your graphic, it's too bad you have to go to the State Treasury website to get the information and then consolidate it like you did on your own spreadsheet, where you decided to go in anti-chronological order.  Your graphs leave off some of the information (such as the grant money and other non-operating revenue) that is salient, and I'm sure there will be plenty of grant money available when the radios need to be replaced in the near future.

Operating revenues are going down,but it does not change the fact that they were super high to begin with at $1,641,000 in 2009 in comparison to other counties of the same size.  I worry that if our dispatch center here cannot competently manage the large amount of money more wiser than they have, then maybe people will be 'potentially getting killed' by their mismanagement of critical incidents. 

How do you like that twist of your own logic played back at you, Thor?  It makes more sense than saying that someone voting "no" on an unnecessary tax will potentially lead to mayhem and the 911 Center closing, as Ray and you proffer in your defense.

[Thor]

Actually I didn't leave anything off the graph, the graph titled "total" includes the grant money and non-operating revenue which is mentioned below it at the tune of $300k for the year 2010. Did you bother to actually look at the data??? LOL

However since "non-operating revenue" seems to be a random variable I didn't add a graph of just those numbers, but rather them included in as the total.

 If you don't like the graph then maybe you should put one together while you do the research you should have conducted the first time before you posted this irresponsible, and ill informed post. 

[XLFD]

I'll admit the original post is not comprehensive by any means, but irresponsible and ill informed?  I have links to county comparisons of all Michigan counties prepared by the state, gathered together the same sized counties, and compared what they spent the last two year on record, and found that our county has the number one ranking in comparison of revenues/expenditures, while representing two counties that are poor and already overtaxed.

You, Ray, and the 911 Board have left several issues I have brought up as unanswered and/or difficult to find, which, since you guys are arguing for this new taxation, is irresponsible.  You, Ray, and the 911 Board have kept the voters ill- informed, and prefer to keep them ignorant by not showing us why you need more money than your golden revenues plan already gives our 911 in comparison with other dispatch centers.  With all of your posts, Thor, you still have not shown why we need even more money taken from our scant household incomes and placed in the 911 Boards hands. 

[Thor]

Included in a post below I found the expense budget for M/O 911 in 2013.

It adds up to a number that is higher than the income that is at the M/O 911 centers disposal. Thus putting their budget in the red. 

Past that I'm honestly not sure what you would like me to find that shows they need additional funds?

2013 total income: $1,518,500

2013 expenses: $1,548,733

Difference: -$30,233

[stump]

Help me and probably others understand what cost 1.6 million dollars per year to run the 911 system in mason / Oceana counties. Employee's, ? electric bill.? equipment ? It just doesn't seem right.

[Thor]

Wages are apparently the greatest cost to M/O 911, as it is with any organisation. The total payroll divided by the number of employees comes out to $39,500 per year. That doesn't account for part timers probably making less and the director and ops manager probably making more. Or the fact that 5 of the dispatchers have been there since 1995 and are probably making more than that... it's just a simple average.

Which according to This is right about the correct ball park for a dispatchers salary. They have also already taken a 2% pay cut to attempt to balance the budget before they went for a millage increase.

[AQUAMAN]

Right stump, what is it that costs so damn much to answer a phone? And pass the message/emergency on? And be a smarty on the phone too? Meaning that if you call 911 around Mason-Oceana you may just get someone on the receiving line that has an attitude and hearing problem, like I have many times in the past. Would you please repeat that? Asked over and over again to the caller! Thanks for the crap Gary Johnson, we now understand what lengths the 911 people will go to for saving their skin. I think this entire gov't. system could be better served with it being contracted to a private server that would be much more efficient and far less costly, not to mention more user-friendly. This 911 system started out as a great idea, and as of today, looks more like another gov't. operated "gravy train" to drain the taxpayers resources. After all, what did we all do before 911 service? We prospered and survived with simple methods of responding to emergencies, and didn't get bilked for millions of dollars for naught!  

[XLFD]

The town of Lawrence, NJ (population 29,000, more than half of Mason Oceana counties) decided to privatize their 911 Service with IXP Corp, and are scheduled to save them over $1 million in a 5 year period.  "The savings realized by moving to a Managed Services model returned approximately 6,000 police officer man-hours back to policing duties. " 

Saving lives and putting more emergency responders out there, simply because they're not paying the money to overpaid, overbenefitted government telephone operators.  Sounds like a cool plan:  http://www.ixpcorp.com/Clients/Case-Studies/Improve-services-and-sa...

[AQUAMAN]

Over $3/4Million dollars in salaries and wages? For how many people? And what's the average hours worked per person? Plus what's the service and contracts of over $150K for? That seems to be the bulk of the costs. Privatizing like Law., NJ did appears the best route to go imho. Great link again X. If anyone is willing to take a voluntary cut of 20% in pay without quitting, it must mean they would be able to take a 40-50% cut without hurting them. What's the hourly rate of wages, like $20/hr or more? 

[Thor]

Once again... please try reading a post before you comment and make a fool of your self. They took a 2% cut, not a 20% cut.... that equates to an average of $65 a month they gave up saving M/O 911 an average of $15,000 a year.

Once again we are only dealing with averages because all we have is a total number of employees and what the total salary and wages is for the center. 

On the average the employee's make about $18.92 an hour. However like I said i'm sure the director makes more than that, the 5 senior dispatchers make more than that, and the part timers make less than that. These are only averages!!!

[stump]

I'll be the first to admit that i don't know much about how things are run but it seems to me there are some questionable items on the list of operating expenses. Service contracts: $153,117? what's that for ? snow plowing and mowing the grass? Dues and subscriptions:$1335. Do the employees get to read their own personal news paper and the 911 gazette ? And the big one, Depreciation. OK, I can see that items get out dated and will need replacement but $248,467. per year? and when something does need up dating they always ask for milage to do that. Yea, right Looks like a lot of creative book keeping to me.

[Thor]

I'm taking a wild guess and that's all this is but I would think service contracts would be support on the radios, equipment, servers, computers, and software to support their operations. 

I know of service contracts that support only a single software program that are in excess of $50,000 per year.