Kittitas County 911 chief tells Ellensburg council staffing has improved; infrastructure upgrades to follow

Rich Elliott, director of Kittitas County 911 (referred to in the presentation as KITCOM), briefed the City Council on operations, staffing and infrastructure funding for the county 911 center that serves Ellensburg and the region.

Elliott told the council KITCOM handled roughly 49,000 calls last year, not counting non‑dispatch interactions, and that dispatchers manage a mix of emergency and nonemergency calls; he described a typical dispatcher workflow and safety checks used when dispatching law enforcement and fire resources. He said roughly 10% of 911 calls are time‑critical emergencies and that events such as valley brush fires can generate hundreds of incoming calls for a single incident.

Staffing and training: Elliott described a staffing shortage over the last year — the center had been down to five full‑time employees against a 16‑position authorization — and said recruitment and contracted help have increased the full‑time count to eight and that a new dispatcher academy would start the week after the meeting. He described the dispatcher training pipeline (six to nine months to fully qualify under the center’s current program) and said the center will shorten some training timelines by structuring classroom and floor training differently.

Infrastructure and funding: Elliott explained that a 0.2% sales tax authorized by the state legislature for 911 infrastructure will pay for radios, towers, phone systems and CAD (computer aided dispatch) equipment and will generate what KITCOM expects to be about $3 million annually in the near term. He emphasized that the sales tax may not be used to fund operations or dispatcher salaries; those remain part of KITCOM’s operating budget supported by member agency contracts and other revenue such as an excise tax that Elliott estimated yields about $1.2 million to the county 911 effort.

Operational practices and technology: Elliott described call‑gating (automatically diverting nonemergency business lines to an answering service during surges), redundancy measures (multiple telephone and radio routes, ARES/RACES amateur radio backup) and ongoing efforts to update CAD and consider AI cautiously for call triage. He said KITCOM replaced several critical systems, will pursue planned tower additions and will coordinate with State Patrol and DOT radio systems to address valley radio dead spots. The director also described a wellness program for dispatchers because of the emotional stresses of the job.

Elliott answered council questions on how wireless‑billing addresses affect county excise collections and encouraged residents to update billing addresses with their wireless providers to improve county excise tax allocation. He also explained that some calls on State Patrol‑jurisdiction highways are forwarded but are first received by KITCOM to evaluate whether local resources might be required.

No formal action was required or taken; the item was an informational update.