City, county discussing financial support of dispatch center

The city of Portales has asked Roosevelt County to contribute financial support towards the cost of operating its dispatch center, the Portales Police Communications Center.

The city and county have been discussing that request but have yet to come to an agreement.

“The call center is responsible for all E-911 and non-emergency dispatch calls,” said Sarah Austin, Portales city manager. “This includes all emergency medical calls, fire calls, lockouts, home alarms, law enforcement calls, animal control, civil disputes, (and) traffic crashes.”

“The total operating budget for our PSAP/Dispatch Center is $567,839 for last fiscal year,” Austin said. “This year it is projected to be $688,267.”

“The county has not contributed anything towards the costs associated with our center,” Austin wrote in an email this week. “The county has never contributed anything as long as Portales has had the center which dates back to sometime before the 80’s from what I have been able to gather so far.”

Roosevelt County Manager Amber Hamilton said in an email in response to Austin’s statement that the county has not contributed to the costs of the center: “Roosevelt County completed construction of the Law Enforcement Complex in 1987, which housed dispatch services up until May 2022. The complex was appraised at $193 per sq. ft. in 2020. Dispatch was housed in 822 sq. ft. of space at the time they vacated the complex. This has been a substantial annual amount of in-kind support directly provided by the county. The county paid for utilities to include electricity and gas as well as facility insurance. The city provided water and solid waste services while city departments were housed in this LE Complex. This was all according to a 1999 joint powers agreement between both governing bodies specific to these services.”

“Per state officials, the city receives state grant dollars allocated for the entire County to support essential 9-1-1 dispatch functions and to provide equipment upgrades,” Hamilton added. 

Austin said: “The city initially sent in an email around April stipulating if we cannot reach an agreement, we will have to discontinue the administrative services for dispatch for the Sheriff’s department but that would not affect the E-911 services. However, we had since met with city council and county commission regarding those services and at our last meeting city council announced that at this time no services would be discontinued. I would like to make it clear that the city council, the mayor, and myself do not want to discontinue any services, rather we want to work amicably with the county and continue to provide those essential services to all residents in Roosevelt County. The city is requesting financial support from the county for what the city has determined to be a justifiable portion of the costs necessary to provide these essential services.” 

Hamilton said: “The county is committed to continuing to support dispatch services, and is transitioning from in-kind contributions to a negotiated amount. Both entities provide essential services to our residents and it’s vital for both governments to continue to work together.”

“Representatives have met several times and continue to work toward a successfully negotiated resolution for dispatch services,” Hamilton said. “Discussions have been ongoing and there has been a need to request and share a substantial amount of data. This has taken several months. Reviewing prior agreements, state statutes and documents, and thousands of pages of call log data has proven very arduous and necessary. As Commissioner Savage explained in the July 11 joint public meeting with both entities, there is a fiduciary responsibility to all our taxpayers.”

Austin said in an interview that she had hoped to get the agreement decided in time for presentation of the city’s Fiscal Year 2022-2023 budget. “I think the negotiations have been delayed some” and the city had hoped to get something done by July 1.

She said the city did get an offer from the county this week but it was not in the city’s “best interests” and “we need a better agreement.”