City and County Move Toward Consolidated 9-1-1 Center; Council OKs Joint Meeting

Chief Freddie Johnson briefed the Davenport City Council on a task-force recommendation to fully consolidate four public-safety answering points (PSAPs) into a single joint emergency communications center that would serve city and county residents.

Johnson said the proposal grew from multiple earlier attempts, citing governance and control disagreements as prior obstacles, and noted that public-safety agency heads who participated in the task force voted unanimously in favor of consolidation. He recommended a 50/50 cost model — equal operational and capital contributions from the city and county — and proposed naming an operational director to lead the consolidated center, recommending Lisa Reed for that role. "We guarantee no job losses during the consolidation process," Johnson said, adding that salary parity would be established between jurisdictions.

The plan also calls for embedding licensed mental-health clinicians in the PSAP during peak hours and an eventual expansion to mobile crisis teams and school-based crisis response. Heather Skeen, who described a model with clinicians supporting telecommunicators, framed the change as a way to reduce unnecessary emergency dispatches and improve outcomes for behavioral-health calls.

Council members pressed staff on costs, taxes and governance. Councilmember Thompson and others asked whether a 50/50 split would change how residents pay ad valorem taxes; staff said, initially, costs would be allocated across both budgets and discussed later if one jurisdiction assumed full control. City staff estimated current city spending on 9-1-1 communications at about $6.2 million, while county figures were described as roughly $4–5 million.

The council also debated whether elected officials should sit on a governance board. Johnson and staff said the governance model is open for leaders to design but emphasized that operational decisions should be made by professionals. "Managers can interact and work together," Johnson said when asked about elected involvement in day-to-day governance.

Councilman Majano moved to receive the task-force report and to schedule a joint city–county meeting in November to work through governance, budgeting and implementation details; the motion was seconded and carried unanimously. Staff said that, if the concept is approved at the joint meeting, the next steps would include hiring an integrator to guide the process, appointing a joint oversight committee and developing a timeline.

Next steps: Council scheduled a joint city–county meeting in November to further negotiate governance, funding and scope for the proposed consolidated 9-1-1 center.