Grant County, MACC at odds over money

MOSES LAKE — The Multi Agency Communication Center (MACC) board took no action Thursday on a request to pay back Grant County for a backup center remodel.

The county spent roughly $40,000 remodeling a former jail cell on the third floor of the Grant County Courthouse to act as a backup center for the emergency 9-1-1 dispatch center, when it is unable to operate.

The main office is located in the Moses Lake National Guard Armory in Moses Lake.

The MACC board decided to improve the backup center in February 2008 after the county decided on a different room to use, Dean Hane, MACC’s radio communications manager, said.

“The idea was to improve the backup (center),” Hane said. “There are a number of limitations to that facility (in the Grant County Courthouse). Power is one of them. We don’t have enough equipment over there to do a good job of backing up this facility (in the armory.)”

The county spent about $40,000 on improving the building, including adding new terminals, rewiring the room and tearing out the bars of the old jail cell.

Hane said there were also concerns about the drive for dispatchers.

“Driving down there in the middle of the night in (winter) weather, it’s a risk to our dispatchers. It’s a huge risk, so that factored into this,” he said. “

The majority of the MACC board decided to use the backup center they needed a lease agreement with the county, Hane said. There hasn’t been a lease for the 12 years the center has been located in the courthouse.

He said the backup center consistently lost space and equipment as other departments have expanded into their space and having a lease agreement would have solved the problem.

“”You need to have duties and responsibilities,” he said.

Hane said he wasn’t sure about the details about why they couldn’t come to an agreement.

“There’s been well over a year past now on trying to fix this problem,” he said. “It didn’t have to be this hard. It didn’t have to be this long. I think our board realized this is going to drag out further and further.”

Grant County Undersheriff John Turley said the county attorney and the MACC attorney couldn’t agree to terms included in the lease agreement. A term in the proposed lease agreement would have provided complete control over the backup center space to MACC and allowed them to require 24 notification hours before entering the building, even for maintenance.

“It was all about wording … MACC, according to Dean Hane, said there was an impasse,” said Turley. “We heard a figure of $3,000 was spent on (MACC’s attorney).”

Instead of going with the Grant County Jail backup center, the administrators and majority of the board members decided to rent a facility in Moses Lake. MACC paid about $11,000 for rent and property taxes for the new center.

Hane said MACC recently accepted a bid for $28,000 for additional work on the building.

Grant County Sheriff Frank DeTrolio said this was a waste of money. He said the commissioners were willing to rent the space for $1 a year, so MACC spent 11,000 years of rent just to rent a different building for a year.

“They didn’t need a lease for the 12 years they were here before that,” he said.

He said the price didn’t include any of the improvements for fire safety, security or furniture, which were already provided by the county.

“I’m guessing we’re talking about many, many thousands of dollars (for those improvements,)” DeTrolio said. “We went from nothing to many thousands of dollars.”

Turley said along with paying for the rent on the new backup center they also paid for the property tax for the owner, which was another waste of money.

“They just want to be rid of the county,” he said.

Turley and DeTrolio said there’s no problems with the existing backup center and there haven’t been any problems in the past.

Commissioner Cindy Carter said the county wants to be reimbursed for the work they’ve put into providing a space for the backup center.

“I know that was county dollars we spent,” she said.

Roger Hansen, the board chair and Grant County Fire District 5 fire chief, said he has mixed emotions about the situation.

“There was a lot of discussion, a lot of dissension, a lot of arguing, a long time rolling in the mud to get there,” he said. “It looked like a heck of a deal for free … I think everyone was comfortable with (having the backup center in the courthouse), but then it drug on for a year.”

The initial proposal was it was going to be inexpensive to fix the room, Hansen said. When he heard $40,000 was spent on the room, he was upset.

“I guess I got to ask the same question (DeTrolio) does every week,” he said. “Are you being good stewards of my tax money by spending $40,000?”

He said the county still has the room available if they want to use it.

Some of the board members voiced concern that the Grant County Sheriff’s Office might pull out of MACC. The office is the second largest contributor of user fees to MACC at nearly $400,000.

Carter said the county is now using the remodeled space to store records and she is fiscally responsible to county residents.

“Personally, I am a good steward,” she said. “I don’t like to pay taxes … Would we have remodeled the upstairs if MACC wasn’t coming in? No, it was used for storage. We do have a storage facility … I think we did it in good faith. Thinking you were going to move up.”

DeTrolio said Hane was the one who requested the improvements in the facility.

“The building was ready,” DeTrolio said. “It was ready for him to move all of his equipment in. However he failed to do so. He did not even make an attempt to move into that facility. Even though it was ready and it’s still ready.”

While DeTrolio said he doesn’t want to pull out of MACC, he feels like he will need to if the trend of spending unnecessary money continues.

Joe Gavinski, Moses Lake city manager and board member, said it would seem inappropriate for MACC to give the county money without a written agreement because it could seem close to gifting.

He said it was possible for an agreement to be drafted now, but he doesn’t sense a desire from the board to draft an agreement.

No vote was taken on the proposal.