In a rare instance of the City of Madison and Dane County not seeing eye to eye, a lawsuit resulted over their disagreements on how to handle 911 calls.
Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk recently announced that the County was seeking to implement an automated phone service to handle non-emergency calls such as parking enforcement issues.
Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz opposed this move, along with Falk's request for the city to pay the county $33,000 to continue to handle Madison parking calls. The city quickly sought and received an injunction from a Dane County Circuit Court judge to temporarily postpone the shifting of the parking calls to the city, though the judge did allow the county to begin using the new automated system.
Falk argued that the new system and shifting of costs to the city were necessary so that dispatchers were more available for emergency calls, framing the issue as one on public safety. Cieslewicz and other mayors in the county said Falk overstepped her authority in implementing the system without getting the approval of the 911 center board that oversees the facility.
The entire situation shows a breakdown in communication between the city and county. Cieslewicz admitted to the Wisconsin State Journal that the issue did not need to become a lawsuit, though more of the blame rests with Falk for pushing through the automated system without the support of the 911 center board.
Although Falk's prioritization of public safety is laudable, in this instance it appears more like a campaign slogan than an effective policy move. Her claims that the 911 center changes were personnel issues, which would allow the decision to fall under her authority, are also doubtful.
One possible solution, favored by Cieslewicz, is to create a new 311 line to handle all non-emergency calls. We support this idea as a way to keep emergency dispatchers solely focused on their top priority and still cover the necessary burden of parking calls.
Although Cieslewicz has downplayed the cost of such a service, we do think residents should know how much money such a program would require before signing up, as Falk had resisted the idea previously due to potential costs. But a 311 line is a far better solution than the current stalemate now between city and county officials.
It also needs to be pointed out that anyone who currently calls 911 to handle parking enforcement is grossly misusing the important service, though it is also possible that these same residents would do so after a 311 line was created.
This shows that any new non-emergency line would need to be well publicized before being implemented to avoid wasting the time of dispatchers who should be focused on life-threatening situations.
Residents of Dane County and the city deserve not only a functioning emergency response system unhampered from petty calls, but officials who can keep their disagreements from ending up in court. Unfortunately only one of those goals looks likely to be solved anytime soon.
