Clay County and city split 911 costs; commissioners assign surcharge funds for equipment

Clay County's 911 Communications director outlined the 2026 budget implications for the county and the joint dispatch center, telling the commission the 911 budget is shared between the county and the city and that the county will resume paying an annual radio-system maintenance agreement of about $29,000.

"That was $29,000 a year," Ryan Anderson said of the radio maintenance contract during his presentation. Anderson said the fee buys priority response, software updates and on-call service from the system vendor.

Anderson told the commission the dispatch budget is split between a dedicated 911 fund and the county general fund because surcharge revenue alone does not cover operations. He said the local 911 surcharge typically produces between $115,000 and $120,000 per year; staff later described county general-fund support amounting to roughly $263,000 (the county's half after fund splits presented at the meeting).

Commissioners approved a motion to assign part of the county's 10% portion of 911 surcharge revenue to an equipment reserve so the county can build toward future major purchases for the dispatch center. "Each year, whatever 10% of that 911 surcharge revenue is that we assign that, which essentially sets it aside for future equipment purchases so that it builds up over the course of however many years," a county official explained during the meeting.

The commission approved the assignment on a voice vote with all commissioners voting in favor. County staff explained that setting the funds aside will create a balance for future equipment replacement rather than asking for large one-time appropriations when equipment needs arise.

Anderson also described other modest budget changes: the county will assume responsibility for Internet service for the building (previously shared), will add a backup Internet feed to avoid outages, and will include a reintroduced professional services line for radio maintenance that had previously been purchased in advance. Anderson said there were no large equipment replacement requests because the new dispatch building will have most equipment new at move-in.

The commission's motions included assigning the 911-related funds and approving the provisional budget later in the meeting; staff noted the final budget will be adopted at the last meeting in September and may be adjusted before then.