Lanier, agencies try to steer Whitcom in right direction

A budget shortfall, staffing vacancies and management issues have plagued the Whitcom Regional Dispatch Center in recent years, but Whitcom Interim Director Roger Lanier and company are in the process of addressing all three.

“I really feel like the core of Whitcom is very, very good at this point,” Lanier said. “We just need to incrementally get the staffing up and work on some internal efficiencies, and I think the future will be bright.”

Lanier is a captain with the Moscow Police Department and has served as Whitcom’s interim director since early April after director Tara Murker resigned.

“During that time, he’s done an admirable job of assessing the facility, assessing the dynamics over there and has worked with the financial officers from each of the entities to try and determine if there is a sustainable funding model going forward,” Moscow City Supervisor Gary Riedner said at Monday’s city council meeting.

Lanier said the goal is for the Whitcom Executive Board to announce the hiring of an executive director at its board meeting Thursday.

The new executive director will be the third — not including interim directors — since January 2018.

While Whitcom could find its leader next week, Lanier and officials have discussed over the past couple of months how to develop a sustainable funding model to avoid future budget shortfalls. Whitcom has a roughly $3.2 million budget this year and has a nearly $400,000 shortfall.

He said the dispatch center has had “notoriously low staffing” the past couple of years and the money saved on wages and benefits as well as general fund reserves has offset the deficit.

But Lanier said relying on open positions and reserves is unsustainable.

“Whitcom’s not going broke, but they will go broke if we don’t address this going forward,” Lanier said.

To address the budget woes, Whitcom has explored a new funding model that includes proposed increases to the agencies Whitcom serves — Pullman, Whitman County, Washington State University, Asotin County and Moscow.

Riedner said the three original members of Whitcom — Pullman, Whitman County and WSU — would pay 57.5 percent of Whitcom’s operating cost while Moscow and Asotin County would contribute 21.25 percent each.

“That is a sustainable model going forward,” Riedner said.

Lanier said the financial proposal factors in the resident population and call loads of each agency. It also considers the contributions each agency makes to Whitcom. For example, Lanier said WSU performs Whitcom’s payroll and Pullman provides human resource services for the dispatch center.

Riedner said Pullman, Whitman County and WSU would experience more than $100,000 in budget increases next year while Moscow would pay about $60,000 more than its budget this year.

Moscow pays the highest amount at $578,000, but Lanier said in April that Moscow gains about $250,000 in revenue from 911 fees and taxes.

Whitcom’s Whitman County agencies would experience the largest increases because their user fees have remained the same over the years while Moscow’s user fee has increased.

Lanier said while a Whitman County agency pays a lower user fee than Moscow, it brings in a few hundred thousand dollars in state grant money to Whitcom. Moscow pays a higher user fee but it does not bring in state of Idaho grant money to the dispatch center.

“One of the things that we’ve really tried to do going forward is give everybody credit for the money that they bring to the table,” Lanier said.

As for dispatchers, Lanier said most of the 20 positions will be filled by July.

He said 11 are currently filled, three people are in training and four have pre-employment background checks underway. Whitcom had nine dispatchers on staff — its lowest number — earlier this year. Lanier said it takes five to six months to train a dispatcher.

He said dispatcher duties are stressful and adding overtime hours — as many as 20 hours a week — because of the staffing shortages compounds stress.

“Being a dispatcher is a very complicated job,” Lanier said. “It’s more complicated at Whitcom because they’re regional. They encompass multiple jurisdictions and learning how to effectively dispatch for all of those different jurisdictions complicates the training program and increases the time it takes for a dispatcher to be self-sufficient and be on their own.”

He said retaining dispatchers has been difficult because of low morale and the direction of the organization was not being effectively communicated. Lanier said he has tried to keep everyone in the loop, and while there is a long path forward, he said he believes the dispatchers understand Whitcom’s direction and are on board.

“If you don’t have a positive working environment people decide, ‘I will go try something else,’” Riedner said. “That dwindles the number of dispatchers … (Lanier’s) plan is if we can get forward on solid footing in a sustainable model that it will invite the ones who are there to stay and aid in recruiting…”

The Nez Perce Tribe’s contract with Whitcom expires next June and it is unknown if the contract will be renewed. The Nez Perce Tribe pays annually about $191,000 for Whitcom’s services, which is the lowest amount among the six agencies that use Whitcom.

Lanier said at a Whitcom board meeting in May that the board should consider not renewing the tribal contract or to renew it at a higher rate.

He said that emergency calls from the tribe complicates the workload for dispatchers and it increases the geographical footprint of Whitcom by 40 percent as it encompasses five different counties. Within that area is intermittent cell coverage. Dispatchers have to undergo more training to learn landmarks and specific dispatch procedures for the tribe, he said.

Lanier said Asotin County does not have a contract with Whitcom and the two are working on a “gentlemen’s agreement” from the previous year.

Moscow’s contract expires at the end of the year and the three Whitman County agencies have different types of agreements since they are the original members.

Despite the expected budget increases, Riedner and Lanier agreed that remaining with Whitcom is Moscow’s best and cheapest option.

Moscow operated its dispatch center at its existing downtown police facility until it signed a contract with Whitcom in 2004.

“Whitcom — even at the higher rate — is still way less than any single agency could do their own dispatch services for,” Lanier said. “So it’s still a really good partnership for everybody and we want to maintain that.”

Adding an additional board member to represent Asotin County and Moscow has also been proposed. Lanier said this would allow two members each to represent Pullman, Whitman County, WSU, Asotin County and Moscow.

Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to gcabeza@dnews.com.