June 8,2022
At the scheduled Monday night Commissioners meeting the Commissioners voted to move control of the 911 Operations Center to the County Manager, effective July 1st.
County Manager Steve Garrison brought this item before the commissioners as the last item on the agenda before going into closed session Monday night. You can watch the county commissioners full meeting here.
Over a year ago the NC Association of County Commissioners put together a peer review team from people in other counties, state officials and local representatives to review Rutherford County’s EMS/Rescue/Fire Marshall offices to see about the feasibility of combining them into a consolidated Emergency Services/Public Safety Division. The review showed that although the departments had done a good job consolidation was recommended with several options. This report was presented to the Commissioners in 2021
Consolidation however is not without significant costs therefore after working closely with the Sheriff over the past year the county decided that they would move the 911 Operations Center into a stand alone county department at this time until they can further discuss the cost and planning of a possible future consolidation with Emergency Services.
Commissioner Benfield asked if the 911 Center would keep its DCI certification as it works with other law enforcement offices in regards to warrants if it moves out from under the Sheriff’s Office umbrella. Garrison reassured him that it would be issued a new ORI number from the Sheriff so that it could continue to provide that service. They will look into how other departments want to handle “hot files” which are active warrants that the Center currently holds for those departments. Forest City currently holds their own. This will be part of the process that will be worked out with Director Capt. Scott Schiefelbein and County Manger Steve Garrison.
The Commissioners, after questions from Benfield, voted unanimously to move the operations effective July 1, 2022. We have asked for the peer review report and will report on that when it is received.
