During its regular meeting on Thursday, June 5, the Archuleta County Combined Dispatch Board voted unanimously to approve resolution 2025-01, which was presented by dispatch board chair and Pagosa Springs Medical Center (PSMC) Director of Emergency Medical Services Jason Webb.
Webb explained that the board has been discussing possible options for how the combined dispatch board would operate if it were to dissolve the current intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the county, Town of Pagosa Springs, Pagosa Fire Protection District (PFPD) and PSMC.
Webb explained the combined dispatch board had a “good discussion” during its last meeting about “trying to find ways to alter the IGA to be more fitting to what our needs were.”
Webb mentioned there was “definitely consensus of maybe we should move forward with dissolving the IGA,” whatever that process might look like.
Webb noted that information was presented to each of dispatch’s respective executive boards “to try to identify a path forward for that.”
He explained he worked with PSMC’s chief administrative officer and legal counsel, Ann Bruzzese, to come up with the resolution being presented to the dispatch board.
“Our board received the information very well,” Webb said, noting there was no “major opposition” to it other than wanting to have a clear plan going forward, mostly from the perspective of maintaining continuity of services.
Archuleta County Sheriff Mike Le Roux, PFPD Chief Robert Bertram and County Manager Jack Harper each indicated that they had also read the resolution prior to the meeting.
Harper noted that the resolution still needed to be passed onto the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) and the county’s legal counsel.
“I personally don’t have any questions about it,” Harper said.
Webb explained the idea in the resolution is the agencies agreeing on “wanting a county-based dispatch system under the sheriff’s office, which is what we effectively did as emergency action under the current IGA.”
In its last meeting of 2024, the dispatch board approved a resolution giving operational oversight of the dispatch center to the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO).
During the June 5 meeting, Webb mentioned that change was made due to difficulties with the dispatch center maintaining staff and leadership, and that the change provided support and structure needed for the dispatch center, “which we all felt was pretty needed” for success.
Webb added, “I think over the months that we’ve done that, we’ve seen very good things,” noting staffing levels have increased and there have been “less drops in service due to infrastructure.”
Webb went on to explain that the intent is to provide accountability to work through, as well as an administrative structure for the ACSO to provide service once an official date of action happens.
“They’re effectively already providing the oversight,” Webb said of the ACSO.
Bruzzese interjected, reminding the dispatch board that it is not the “decider” of whether or not to terminate the IGA, noting that the BoCC, Pagosa Springs Town Council, PFPD Board of Directors and PSMC’s board of directors are the ones who “can make that call.”
She noted that because of this, the resolution was written “intentionally soft,”with the recommendation from the dispatch board that a plan be developed.
Bruzzese also noted that the PSMC board expressed it “wouldn’t touch this for obvious reasons until there’s a very clear plan,” adding that everybody’s obligation is to ensure 911 services.
“I’m not here as the lawyer,” Bruzzese said, explaining that the county’s attorney would need to be involved.
She went on to explain that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state passed a statute that allows local governments to “impose another surcharge for 911 services.”
She explained that there is still the state 911 cell surcharge (approximately 12 cents a month), and the statute gives the ability of the local governing board to decide to impose an additional surcharge by address.
She commented that she was unsure if the county was already doing that, asking, “Are we collecting as much revenue from that source as can be done to deliver appropriate care?”
Bruzzese also commented that other counties in the state operate in a similar manner with an IGA, and that Archuleta County’s combined dispatch board is supposed to be a governing board under the current IGA.
She suggested that the resolution could be written to allow for the combined dispatch board, from time to time, to pick a user agency that would be the “managing party,” noting that would give room if in the future to change operational role from the ACSO to a different user agency.
Bruzzese explained that she anticipates statements from the other executive boards about the challenges associated with that.
She explained that the idea, as of now, is that each user agency is putting money into the dispatch center and therefore should have a “say so.”
She explained that if the dispatch center becomes a county-based operation, each user agency would lose its say so.
Webb explained that point was discussed during the dispatch board’s previous meeting, noting that members felt when dispatch needed something “there was an inability to provide support and service to the agency as needed.”
Le Roux acknowledged those concerns, adding that through his tenure with the county either as sheriff or director of emergency operations, “our contribution has been disproportionate to almost everybody else” over the years, with the exception of PSMC.
“We’ve taken an active role regardless of where the facility was,” Le Roux added.
Le Roux also commented on the issue of each user agency having a “say,” noting the ACSO consistently receives 55 to 60 percent of the dispatch center’s call volume.
Earlier during the meeting, Interim Emergency Communications Director Elizabeth Blizzard provided a communications report indicating the dispatch center received a total of 1,686 calls for service in April, with the ACSO responding to 1,010 calls.
For the month of May, the dispatch center received a total of 1,921 calls, with the ACSO responding to 1,105 of those calls.
“We are the biggest response agency. We have the most numbers and we have the most calls by far and the decision making is all equal,” Le Roux said.
He explained that there is equal decision making from the dispatch board, though “we put in the most operationally.”
Le Roux questioned if that was efficient, noting he wanted to raise that point and adding, “Certainly we’re the busiest and we’re involved the most, yet everything is equal and at no point in any incident that we’ve had has any other board member, or board of that board member’s representation, been involved.”
Blizzard also explained that the dispatch center went to the Public Utilities Commission in 2021 to raise its surcharge to the maximum of $2.25.
“They are not currently allowing a raise,” she added, noting that once another raise is allowed, the dispatch center will pursue it.
Webb explained that is not included in the resolution being presented, though it could be something for the board to explore.
Bertram noted that he did not have any concerns with the resolution being presented, other than that a contract for services would be needed.
Webb explained the resolution was written for us “to be cooperative with the county as we work through these issues.”
Webb also clarified that the dispatch board will continue to operate “as we have been operating” with holding regular board meetings, including the emergency action taken to move operational oversight of the dispatch center under the ACSO.
Bertram motioned to accept the resolution as written, which was seconded by Le Roux and unanimously approved by the board. Pagosa Springs Police Chief Bill Rockensock was not present at the meeting.
clayton@pagosasun.com
