The city of Roanoke Rapids argues that the North Carolina Court of Appeals should reverse a superior court judge’s January ruling concerning 911 funding.
In that January 4 ruling Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Foster wrote that the city is obligated to pay a portion of the county’s personnel costs for operating the county 911 center.
Halifax County Attorney Glynn Rollins said he is currently working on the county’s brief and has 30 days from June 5, the date City Attorney Geoffrey Davis filed the city’s brief, to file the county’s.
“The court of appeals should reverse the declaratory judgment of the trial court regarding its determination that (the county) is prohibited by law from fully bearing the costs related to its operation of Halifax County's (the 911 center),” Davis wrote. “Moreover, it should also reverse the declaratory judgment of the trial court regarding its determination that (the city) is obligated to remunerate (the county) for a portion of its personnel costs for operating (the center).”
Davis argues that the trial court committed two reversible errors:
That in its order that the county was limited by constitutional and statutory law from bearing the full costs of its public safety answering point and the other that the city was required to pay a portion of the county's personnel costs for the 911 center.
“While the trial court correctly cited the relevant constitutional section and appropriate sections of the general statutes, it specifically erred in its final conclusion regarding these sections when it determined that the county's authority to levy and expend county property taxes for public safety agencies was restricted to the county's own agencies,” Davis wrote.
Davis said while the county, the city, and the other municipalities located within Halifax County have had written agreements related to the funding of the center since at least 2004, subsequent amendments to related general statutes “have rendered those agreements gratuitous on the part of the municipalities.”
Davis wrote that statutory changes weigh significantly on the issue before the court and that before a 2010 amendment public safety agencies either had to maintain their own dispatching operation for emergency calls or contract with a local 911 center for the same service. “However, after the passage of House Bill 1691 in 2010, state law required a (center) to dispatch calls directly to the individual responders in the field. This obviated any necessity for local public safety agencies to make arrangements to provide a ‘last leg’ of dispatching service to their responders, because operators of (centers) were required to do so as part of their call taking operations.”
Davis argued no provision of North Carolina law has ever existed that explicitly required a municipal public safety agency located in an area covered by an existing center to contract with that center for call processing or dispatching services.
Davis also said there is no provision in North Carolina law or North Carolina Administrative Code now or previously existing that requires a municipality to remunerate a center for services.
“In its order, the trial court notes that (centers) receive funding from the State 911 Board, but that this funding is restricted and cannot be used to cover the costs associated with providing the personnel necessary to operate the (center),” Davis wrote. “The trial court is correct in this statement. Additionally, the trial court noted in its comments at the January 4th hearing that the General Assembly creates ‘unfunded mandates’ … ‘all the time,’ and that in those situations, the state makes no provision for the costs borne by local governments subject to said mandates.”
At the time of the superior court ruling the county had invoiced the city in the amount of $203,431.50 for its share of the local cost of operating the central communications center, based upon the percentage of the calls taken and dispatched on behalf of the city in calendar year 2021.
On June 29, 2021, the city gave a 12-month notice to the county that it would cease its financial support of the Halifax County Central Communications Center effective July 1, 2022.
