Funding Lauderdale County’s E-911 services has been a point of contention between the City of Meridian and the county for quite some time.

Now city officials want an audit of the E-911 budget, and the City Council could vote to approve money for the audit as early as next week.

Meridian Mayor Percy Bland, who confirmed the city’s desire for an audit, referred The Meridian Star to the city’s Chief Administrative Officer Richie McAlister for further comment. McAlister did not return phone calls on Thursday afternoon.

Ward 5 City Councilman Weston Lindemann, who also serves on the county’s E-911 Communications Board, said he hopes to vote on the audit soon.

“I’m intending to vote that we spend money on an audit so that we can see exactly what’s happening here, because there’s some inconsistencies,” Lindemann said.  “Not everything’s adding up, and I think it’s important that we get answers, and an audit would provide those answers.”

One of Lindemann’s issues with the E-911 budget is a “one-time” ambulatory reimbursement that appears “multiple times.”

McAlister also inquired about the reimbursement in a Dec. 12 email to Lauderdale County Administrator Chris Lafferty, calling it a $25,000 “stipend” paid to Metro Ambulance “every other month.”

“Calls for Metro go through E911 first, yet they are reimbursed for their services,” McAlister wrote. “Metro is a Lauderdale County Enterprise Fund that generates revenue for the County alone, not the City of Meridian.”

E-911 Director Jared Stanley said in a previous report that the so-called stipend was in fact a one-time payment, and its multiple appearances on the budget were the result of a clerical error that has since been fixed.

Lindemann also disagrees with what he calls “double taxation.”

While the city pays $225,000 per year to help cover cost overruns after E-911 fees from phone bills are exhausted, Lindemann said county taxes paid by city residents should be enough.

“I keep going back to the issue that has never really been talked about — double taxation with city residents,” Lindemann said in a previous report. “I do realize they get certain services with the sheriff’s department and judges… But that is working out to be two-thirds of all the costs.”

Lindemann said the audit is necessary at this point.

“As far as I’m concerned, I would wait on an audit to come back before we appropriate funds to E-911 from here on out,” Lindemann said. “While we’re always interested in doing city/county ventures, accountability and oversight are really important as well,” Lindemann said.

On Dec. 19, the City Council approved a budget amendment reducing expenditures by $200,000, including $100,000 for E-911 services.

The cut was made in response to a projected $200,000 reduction in revenues for fiscal year 2018.

The same amount was also cut from the city’s contribution to the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience.

Before the cut, the city’s contribution this year was $325,000, with $100,000 to help fund the computer-aided dispatch upgrade.

This move came one week after McAlister notified Lafferty and other county officials in his email that the city would be reducing its monthly contribution for E-911 services “due these unforeseen cost,” but it was not clear at the time how much that reduction would be.

The “unforeseen cost” is likely a $10,000 change order for the $1 million CAD upgrade for the E-911 system, which McAlister mentioned in the email.

Currently, no action has been taken on the change order, which would replace the interface of the fingerprinting machine at the Meridian police station, Stanley said.

The law McAlister cited is Senate Bill 2566, which states in Section 2, subsection 6: “In order to provide additional funding for the district, the board of commissioners may receive federal, state, county, or municipal funds, as well as funds from private sources, and may expend funds for the purposes of Section 19-5-301 et seq.”

“The key word is ‘may,’” McAlister wrote. “…Chris [Lafferty], if the County is unwilling to work with us, moving forward, we are more than willing to pull our funding in its entirety. By law, as stated in SB 2566, and verified by Governor Bryant’s Office yesterday, Lauderdale County must provide the service. No if, ands, or buts.”

Stanley disagreed.

“We perform two functions — answering 911 calls and dispatching Meridian emergency responders,” Stanley said. “As far as anybody is concerned as far as surcharges, that money is supposed to support 911 receiving, not the dispatching.

“Nothing says we have to dispatch for the City of Meridian’s self-established police department without compensation.”