MACC, Grant County disagree on funding

EPHRATA — Grant County and the Multi Agency Communications Center (MACC) failed to agree on how the agency should receive its money.

The discussion collapsed, with MACC Board Chair Roger Hansen walking out of the meeting Wednesday before the end and Moses Lake City Manager Joe Gavinski saying it seemed the two organizations were at an impasse.

The agreement proposals detail the method of how tax money from the county is transferred to the center. The county transfers money to the center from two taxes, a 50 cent excise tax on wireless and land line phones and a 0.1 percent sales tax.

The state auditor’s office asked for the agreement in 2006, Grant County Auditor Bill Varney said. While discussions stalled, they restarted in January.

As part of its proposal, the county wants to continue its present system of reimbursing the center for its expenses after receiving monthly reports on what was spent.

MACC officials rejected the proposal asking to have the money transferred directly to them as taxes are received.

Hansen told the county commissioners, treasurer and auditor in June, it’s not necessary for the county to review every expense from the dispatch center before the county decides to pay it.

Gavinski previously said the board received a response from the state auditor’s office, indicating their proposal was acceptable to the state if the county agreed to it.

MACC’s attorney Katherine Kenison said her impression from the June meeting was the county agreed with their proposal.

Civil Deputy Prosecutor Lee Pence said there were some issues with getting rid of the voucher process.

Gavinski said after the last meeting, it seemed the county’s only issue was receiving the letter from the state auditor’s office saying MACC’s proposal was acceptable.

“You hadn’t seen those and we forwarded those to you again,” he said. “That’s where it was left (in June.)”

Pence said the county received documents from the board.

Gavinski asked if they were the documents the county was looking for, then saying they were all the documents the MACC board received from the state auditor’s office.

“If that’s all you’ve got, that’s all you got,” Pence said. “We’re certainly not asking you to manufacture documents.”

Gavinski answered they wouldn’t manufacture documents, and they’re giving them what they have.

“We’re back to meeting with the commissioners, which is what we asked for in the first place,” he said. “You don’t have an understanding. You’re delaying and you’re trying to provide roadblocks … I don’t know why we’re here.”

Varney answered saying the commissioners aren’t meeting with MACC until he and Treasurer Darryl Pheasant and the MACC board can reach an agreement. He added he was uncomfortable with MACC’s proposal.

“The way we’ve been doing this for the last year was just fine. You’re getting your bills paid. We’re not denying anything. We have before the fact accountability,” he said. “That’s all we’re asking is that we keep doing that. We’re not going to just forward the money like it was done before based on some budget.”

Sherri Camacho, MACC’s administrative services manager, said the present system is working fine, adding everything has changed since the beginning of the process.

“Now we’ve gone through this reimbursement process, which is working perfect,” she said. “We’ve got our reporting system down to something we’re both comfortable with.”

Varney said the major part of the county’s proposal is to continue the current operations.

Camacho then said the “before the fact accountability” issue was taken up by county commissioner on the MACC board, adding they check the vouchers before they’re approved.

“What surprises me, and maybe this is irrelevant, is that for 10 years … that 9-1-1 tax went straight to MACC and nobody said anything,” she said.

Varney explained the state auditor’s finally looked at it, finding the money needed to go to a taxing district first and needed some form of accountability for how the money was spent.

Gavinski asked what Varney thought about the comments from the auditor’s office.

While Varney didn’t respond to the documents from the auditor’s office, he said he didn’t like MACC’s proposal.

“If that’s it, we may be at an impasse,” Gavinski said. “I mean, there should be an agreement, but we may be at an impasse here, and if that’s the case, maybe there is no sense in having a meeting with the commissioners. I’m running back and forth to these meetings and I seem to be spinning my wheels on this and if it comes down to, we aren’t going to agree, then so be it. We just won’t have an agreement.”