Yorkville Joins Oswego in Rejecting New KenCom Pact

Yorkville joined Oswego and Plano in refusing to sign a for 911 dispatch services through with a 5-4 vote at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Yorkville Mayor Valerie Burd cast the tie-breaking vote after the council discussed the matter behind closed doors for about 25 minutes. Also voting against the agreement were: Aldermen Arden Joe Plocher (Ward 2), Diane Teeling (Ward 4), Robyn Sutcliff (Ward 3) and Marty Munns (Ward 3).

Burd left the City Council meeting shortly after that vote because she felt ill from the effects of her last chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. She said she plans to meet with mayors of the other two cities, as well as an attorney, to discuss the next step, but the vote left the city’s status with KenCom unclear.

Munns, who is Yorkville’s liaison on KenCom’s 12-member Executive Board, said KenCom leaders indicated they’d move on without the municipalities if they didn’t want to be part of the agreement.

The agreement, already approved by the county board, mandates that all eight members of the system cover any expenses over $1.67 million, which is the current annual budget. Each entity’s share of the overage would be calculated by how many emergency calls come from its jurisdiction.

The agreement exempts the municipalities from overage payment in 2012 and starts including them in 2013. The projected payment for 2013 and 2014 would be $37,000 for Oswego, $16,000 for Plano and $22,000 for Yorkville.

Yorkville City Attorney Kathleen Orr has questioned whether the KenCom Executive Board has the legal authority to push a liability onto the municipalities without each City Council’s and Village Board’s agreement.

Burd questioned the county’s claim that KenCom needed money to purchase state-mandated equipment. She equated the county’s agreement to forcing the municipalities to hand “blank checks” to KenCom, while some aldermen questioned the financial responsibility of pressing the legal issues involved.

“I feel that we are in a weak position financially to push the envelope any further,” Alderman George Gilson Jr. (Ward 1) said. “… We will need to be a part of KenCom no matter what the outcome.”

Alderman Rose Spears (Ward 4) questioned whether other Yorkville leaders had considered the cost of providing its own dispatch services.

“I think this is a matter of public safety,” Spears said. “First of all, we’re going to sue, and then we’re going to incur quite a bit of legal expenses. Either way, the taxpayers are going to pay.”

Orr said KenCom would still be required to answer 911 calls but would route them to a different dispatch center if Yorkville withdrew from KenCom. Yorkville likely would share those dispatching services with other communities to reduce costs, Orr said.

Burd said she hoped to forge a different agreement between the municipalities and the county that gave the municipalities more control of KenCom’s Executive Board – and KenCom’s budget.

“This whole thing is a created problem that doesn’t really exist,” Burd said. “If we had a little more time, we could show them that there are other ways they could come up with the money.”

The three mayors had proposed their own cost-sharing agreement, which county board members rejected.

Under that proposal, the county would contribute $1.84 million for operating KenCom for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. That number would jump by 1 percent each year.

The mayors’ proposal would also call for the county board to seek an increase in the monthly 911 surcharge on wireless phones and landlines in a referendum, one that would, if successful, boost this surcharge from 75 cents to $1.25. If voters voted against the referendum twice, KenCom members, including Yorkville, Oswego and Plano, would then contribute funding above the $1.84 million limit.

The mayors also requested two votes for each city on the KenCom board instead of their current one apiece. This, they said, would give them more control over how their municipalities' money is spent.