Ellington

Hinds County Board of Supervisors voted Feb. 6 to approve the E-911 Council's recommendation of an Emergency Communication system built by Motorola for the city of Jackson.

The battle over whether the city abandons thousands of dollars of investment in its current M/A-com system in favor of a Motorola system, which can communicate with many of the surrounding counties, has been raging since last year, when then-Police Chief Robert Moore fell into dispute with E-911 Council members over bringing the city into the Hinds County system.

Moore, who favored the M/A-com system, asked the commission to instead put the money slated for the Motorola system into updates for the M/A-com system, which would make it compatible with the county's Motorola system.

The 911 Council, along with Hinds County Emergency 911 board chairman Larry Fisher, was adamant that the 911 funds only be used to purchase new Motorola hardware for the city, as specified by the commission.

Motorola estimates it will cost between $8 million and $8.5 million to outfit the city agencies, and some council members complain that the switch to the county system this early is bad timing. Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett Simon said during a recent council meeting that the council was voting in M/A-com equipment and updates mere weeks ago, and pointed out that replacing the equipment would be a monumental waste of money.

Ward 1 Councilman Ben Allen says the city and the county could save money by waiting and signing on with a statewide emergency communications system in the coming months that will purchase radios and equipment for the city at no extra cost to the city.

Though bids for the statewide system are slated to begin in March, Fisher and Supervisor Doug Anderson said at the Feb. 6 meeting that the statewide system may not be up and running for many years. "It could take up to six years. That's a long time for the city and the county to not be able to communicate with each other," he said.

Allen says M/A-com has offered a patch at no extra cost to the city until the state provides its own system. "The free system will allow the different systems to communicate with one another, just like this $8 million system that the county is talking about putting in," Allen said. He also said he is looking into the E-911 fund and see how money is being spent.

"We've requested an official Mississippi Public Open Records Act accountability of the entire 911 commission, and we hand-delivered the letter at 8 a.m. this morning (Feb. 6) to the Chancery Clerk's office. We're fixin' to bust their books wide open," Allen said.

Last year, then-Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. and members of the council wrote a letter requesting details on how the 911 fund was accumulated and spent, questioning whether the "911 council was treating the city fairly in light of the fact that over 70 percent of 911 revenue comes from residents of the city."

The letter included requests for annual financial statements, audit reports and budgets for last year and previous years' budgets as well as documentation on 911 expenditures dedicated to surrounding municipalities in comparison with expenditures on Jackson and other requests. Fisher has ignored the letter.

New city emergency officials, unlike officials from the past administration, are friendlier to the idea of a Motorola system, however. Chief Shirlene Anderson and Asst. Chief Roy Sandifer are both partial to the preferences of Mayor Frank Melton, who had already said he would stand behind the supervisors' decision to go with a Motorola system.

"The Motorola system will ultimately be cheaper than to go with some patchwork," Anderson said.

"My understanding is that the system is only as good as the patch. If something happens to the patch you can't communicate at all between the two. We need to move forward with this. The chief of police favors it. The sheriff of Hinds County favors this system. Our law enforcement favors this. If that's they're recommendation, then we need to move forward with this and accept the recommendation of the E-911 council."

Hours after the Supervisors' vote Monday, Melton changed his mind on the issue. "I watched a system where (the city and county) could talk, but circumstances and facts have changed," Melton told the Council Monday.