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Show I'ti lMtMtt I If consolidation of 0 E-911 could save, it's kept a secret ; Davis County taxpayers may be paying a lot more than they ; should for emergency services. Maybe they are not, but if some have their way, the taxpayers will never know. Why members of the Council of Governments have decided it would not be in the best interest of Davis County residents to consolidate E-911 services is a mystery. On what "facts" are " they basing their opinion? Certainly, their opinion cannot be formed from the results of " a nearly six-month long study by a committee assigned the - task of evaluating the feasibility of the suggestion. The idea - that it may be more cost effective and efficient to combine the '. county's four E-911 centers into one has been bandied about 1 for several years. It was decided by the county commission t that the best way to find out would be to look at the costs of the ; current system and compare that to the proposed combined ; system. ; Sounds simple doesn't it? Wrong. ; The 11-member committee, try as it may, could not get ex- ; act information on which to base its study. It seems the actual cost being paid for emergency services by Bountiful and Layton are just too hard to determine, and too hard to break out of other budget figures. But mayors of both of those cities are convinced that there would be no cost savings if the four combined. com-bined. How do they know? Maybe they are right, but why wouldn't they cooperate by providing the information for the committee to study? Some critics of the committee report say the cities who now have the service want to hold on to it at any cost. They say the mayors are just trying to protect their kingdoms. 1 Just the makeup of the committee is questionable. It includ ed Bountiful and Layton police chiefs, one representative each ! from the sheriffs office, and the Clearfield dispatch center, and six lay members. Some of the reasoning they based their 25-page report on was garnered from hearsay by some com- mittee members. One interested party said the group had not, in fact, studied other areas where consolidation was being considered. con-sidered. He said Bountiful Police Chief Larry Higgins told the group South Ogden would not consider consolidation in a ; million years. The committee did not investigate that claim. How can a 25-page report be based solely on conjecture? It seems the committee members might have said they could not continue without accurate information. County Commissioner J. Dell Holbrook said it well when he remarked, "If I had a ; person running a department who couldn't codify costs for me, I'd say, 'Jack, you don't belong in this position.' ' ; As it is, the county now has a 25-page exercise in futility. A ; study that was meant to answer some serious questions for ; county taxpayers is not worth the paper it is printed on. In fact just making copies of the report was a waste of taxpayers' money. It's time to stop the "dynasties that do not want to be trifled with," as one committee member said. All of the entities involved in-volved should produce accurate, unbiased information so the question of consolidation can be correctly answered. An independent committee, comprised of individuals with no vested interest in the outcome should be formed, and paid, f if necessary, to determine whether or not consolidation of emergency services would be cost effective. Too bad those who have already spent the time couldn't get the cooperation necessary to answer accurately that question. CP |