Communication focus of meeting on Johnson County joint communications center

The irony was inescapable.

Communication concerns among officials connected to Johnson County's new joint emergency communications center were addressed Friday at a meeting of about two dozen government and public safety officials.

“Obviously, there's a major problem here with communication,” state Sen. Bob Dvorsky of Coralville told local officials.

Money also was a central subject. The meeting came after months of complaints from a majority of the county's Board of Supervisors over how the center is being run.

The joint emergency communications center, or JECC, is governed by a seven-member board with representatives appointed by the county and the cities of Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty.

JECC board members said they'd take into consideration some of the requests from the supervisors. For example, they'll discuss at a future meeting whether all their members should be elected officials. Currently, all but Johnson County Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Wilson are elected officials.

The JECC board also recently terminated two unfilled positions, which Supervisor Rod Sullivan, a vocal critic of the center's staffing, said pleased him.

The center will serve all the public safety departments and emergency medical personnel in the county. Currently, Iowa City and Johnson County operate separate systems.

Dispatchers will move into the center July 1, and it will be fully operational in the fall.

The budget for operating expenses for next fiscal year is about $2.8 million. The center is funded by a countywide levy that appears on county tax bills, which has always made the supervisors sensitive to its costs.

JECC board members disputed some of the claims made by supervisors.

For example, Supervisor Janelle Rettig criticized the JECC board for contracting out certain services, like human resources and accounting.

But JECC board members said Johnson County, Iowa City and Coralville did not want to assume those duties. Rettig, the newest supervisor, claimed that was not the case with the county, but longtime Supervisor Sally Stutsman said it was true that the county did not want to provide those services because there were too many questions.

JECC board members said they'd see if any member entity is now interested in handling some of those services in-house.

Pat Harney, a county supervisor and a member and strong supporter of the JECC board, noted that it has been said since the center was first proposed that it was being done for public safety reasons and was not necessarily going to be cheaper than the two existing systems.

John Lundell, a JECC board member and Coralville City Council member, said people needed to remember that the purpose of the center is to improve public safety.

“We're all learning, and in my opinion, we're getting hung up on numbers and we're forgetting our mission,” he said.