This morning as I began the daily ritual of shaving I
noticed that the bottle of Aleve was upside-down. I asked my wife, Johanna, if I should get
more Aleve when I go grocery shopping.
(And yes, I do most of the shopping.)
She asked if I had a headache.
Given The Sun’s editorial that
I had just consumed I probably needed some sort of a restorative.
Last time I checked my pocket for coins and actually found
one, it still had two sides. That’s not
counting the edge, so we will just say two sides-- that will suffice.
I can’t stress the point enough that my line of
communication with the county is completely open on the subject of E-911, and
that I want what we all want-- to get the best service for all of us. There is a lot of conversation about regionalization
of service. Where is it said that only
KSP can wear that mantle of offering “regional service?” What if the city does such a superior job with
E-911 that others would like to join in a city-sponsored regional service
business model? Nothing like a little
good old American competition, is there?
Besides, with Frankfort in disarray, who is to say they will provide the
best solution? My head does throb at the
thought of reorganization of E-911 and only getting a two-year contract for
service from KSP. How might the terms
change after they have gotten us in? I
feel your local elected officials are far more reachable in managing our own
local E-911 than the KSP would be when we are merely a contract customer with
no representation on their board.
Now that I have brought up board members, I might point out
there are 11 members on the local E-911 board.
Three are from the city, and eight represent the county. If the city has about 60% of the call volume
and 60% of the expense, as a businessman I think for us to have 27% of the board
representation seems, well, unbalanced.
As my headache continues, I might point out that the current
inter-local agreement on E-911 expired in 2011.
Not a typo. We are required to
give six months notice to renegotiate the agreement, so we had to give notice
by December 31 or wait another year. Shouldn’t
the city make a business plan on how an E-911 department would look? With a plan, we might be able to go to the
county to offer them a “better deal” on staying together on E-911
services.
The KSP proposal is a very different one. You might say it is like comparing apples and
oranges. My personal “Aha!” moment of
the KSP proposal came when we learned that the addition of the city and county
to KSP would increase the call volume by 100%, and yet the number of call
answering people would only increase by 50%.
Fire Chief Steve Kyle, chair of the E-911 board, asked KSP for a new proposal
recognizing the differences, and we are still without that proposal. I’m not sure that exactly qualifies as the
city “walking away.”
Writing a blog post is a bit different to me than writing an
editorial. It’s not something to strike
from my “to do” list and move on to the next thing. I’ll keep this E-911 issue in the forefront every
day until we get the best solution for all of us, city and county.
Now, where is that shopping list? I really need that Aleve.
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