Sumner County 911 board reviews possible $0.36 surcharge increase, training and tech costs

The Sumner County 911 Board on Wednesday discussed a preliminary plan to raise the 911 surcharge from $1.50 to $1.86 and heard updates on a new CAD/RMS implementation, radio maintenance and training costs.

The proposal, described in a board report, would add $0.36 to the current surcharge and — if adopted by the state legislature and if related rule changes are approved by the state telecom board — could generate roughly $36,000,000 in revenue. "This would generate about $36,000,000 of revenue," said Mike, a staff member reporting to the board. Under the preliminary split presented to the board, about 75% of the increase would be distributed to districts, 15% toward enterprise technology and the remainder for co-location or consolidated dispatch efforts. The county's current share, the presenter said, is roughly 1.742%, which would net the county about $160,000 if the increase and rule changes occur.

Why it matters: local 911 funding typically depends on state-level law and regulatory actions. Board members were told the numbers are preliminary and contingent on legislative approval and any rule-making by the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board (TECB), which the presenter identified as needing to change rules for the plan to take effect.

Board members asked whether the proposed increase would differentiate between commercial and noncommercial lines; the presenter said that question remained unresolved and the proposal so far referenced a single standard surcharge. The discussion made clear the plan was in early stages: "That bill was just a preliminary discussion that we had before Christmas," the staff member said.

Technology and training updates

Board staff reported progress on the county's Caliber/Central Square CAD and RMS project and training schedule. Staff said the first rounds of administrator and mobile training had been completed and a second round of RMS administrator training was planned for the first week of February. "Everything does seem to be moving very well as far as the Caliber project," the staff member said.

The board also reviewed equipment and subscription costs connected to the new system. Implementation costs cited included a request that the board consider approving up to $1,500,000 to pay for the package and implementation work (presentation language indicated the request would be based on departments' selections; the transcript did not record a board vote on that authorization). The presenter described subscription fees for volunteer fire departments and other agencies that would use the system: those fees were said to range from about $131 per year to about $2,200 per year depending on the number and type of licenses (Pocket Rescue interactive mobile licenses versus read-only browser access).

Radio channels, maintenance and costs

The board heard a report about creating a dedicated rapid intervention team (RIT) radio channel for firefighting crews. A July quote from Communications International put the cost to program and equip the system at about $64,000; that figure, the presenter said, included reprogramming portable radios for career and volunteer fire departments and buying two dedicated consoles/radios for the emergency communications center (ECC). "The price that was quoted by Communications International was about $64,000 and that was in July," the staff member said. The report noted no committee beyond an ISO committee had advanced the proposal and that funding decisions remain unresolved.

Radio maintenance for devices on the county's digital system is billed by EMA based on the number of radios assigned to each agency. The presenter said the ECC's share of maintenance for the county this year was $10,802 for 87 radios assigned to the center.

Staffing and other business

The ECC is hiring: the board was told a new dispatcher would start on Jan. 27 and that two hires from November remain in initial training. Staff estimated a dispatcher reaches independent duty in roughly two months from hire, although the presenter described training as not strictly linear and said there are intervals of supervised and independent work.

Votes at a glance

- Approve agenda — motion approved (vote not broken down by name in transcript). - Approve minutes — motion approved (vote not broken down by name in transcript). - Approve financial report / motion for approval — motion approved (vote not broken down by name in transcript). - Defer election of officers to next meeting — motion by David, second not specified; motion approved. - Budget adjustment: move $500 from insurance line 4014 to insurance line 4253 — motion seconded and approved.

The transcript recorded routine approvals but did not record a vote or formal approval for the $1,500,000 implementation authorization mentioned in the briefing.

What’s next

Board members were told the state-level surcharge discussions were ongoing and that the TECB and state legislature would need to act before any change could take effect. Staff said the GCB/TECB groups planned follow-up meetings in the next week or two. The board scheduled its next meeting for March 10 and planned to establish a budget committee in April.

All quotations and figures in this report are taken from the board's meeting record as read into the public record; where the record noted items as preliminary or contingent, this article reports them as described to the board.