Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Interlocal Agreement topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Lincoln County asks Lincolnton to accept one-year trial for dispatching interlocal agreement
Summary
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners voted to ask the City of Lincolnton to accept a one-year term for a renewed interlocal agreement covering county dispatch and communications services while staff continues cost accounting and negotiations over a longstanding $55,000 annual payment and a 2.5% escalation clause.
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners voted to ask the City of Lincolnton to accept a one-year trial term for a renewed interlocal agreement governing the county’s communications center and dispatching services.
County Attorney Megan Gilbert told the board the current interlocal arrangement nets the county $55,000 a year and centralizes emergency and some nonemergency dispatching. "Currently the city pays the county $55,000 per year for these services," Gilbert said, and the proposed draft includes a 2.5% annual escalation clause to reflect rising staffing and operating costs.
Commissioners pressed staff for details on how the $55,000 figure was derived and whether it covered the true cost of a full-time dispatcher. "How do we come up with $55,000? That’s not the cost of one dispatcher for a year," a commissioner said during the discussion. Gilbert and other county officials said the figure has been longstanding, was interwoven with earlier utility and service agreements, and that ongoing negotiations have attempted to separate and clarify each component of the exchange.
Several commissioners said a five-year commitment felt too long while the county continued to sort cost allocations. The board voted to request that the city accept a one-year term so county staff could complete an accounting of services and negotiate clearer, itemized terms. If the city agrees, county staff will finalize and the commission will sign the resulting agreement; if the city does not accept the shorter term, the county attorney said she would bring the matter back to the board.
The draft agreement also includes state-required DCI servicing provisions and covers some nonemergency services, animal control and billing collection work the county performs for the city. The county attorney said the parties are working toward separate, consolidated agreements for multiple service lines but wanted to finalize dispatch terms now.
Next steps: staff will present the county’s one-year request to the City of Lincolnton; the board directed staff to return the agreement for final approval if the city is unwilling to accept a one-year opening term.
