The Flathead Emergency Communications Center Administrative Board voted in a special meeting Wednesday to hire an outside expert to examine staffing levels at the Flathead 911 Emergency Dispatch Center.

Flathead County Commissioner Phil Mitchell, a board member, said similar assessments for other communities have cost between $15,000 and $42,000.

Mitchell raised questions about the dispatch center’s staffing levels at a board meeting two weeks earlier.

At that time the board instructed the center’s administration not to hire new staff until a decision about the study could be made. The board lifted the hiring freeze on Wednesday.

Kalispell Mayor Mark Johnson, also a board member, said the study was part of finding a larger solution to funding the Flathead 911 Center.

The county and its three cities agreed to consolidate 911 services into one center in 2008. A $6.9 million bond measure to build the center included $800,000 earmarked for capital improvements, but the end of that bond issue is approaching. There is a five-year plan for capital improvements for the center but attempts to secure a funding mechanism have failed multiple times.

In December 2015 enough county taxpayers officially protested the creation of a special 911 tax district to get the measure shut down. A previous ballot measure to fund the district also failed.

Kicking the can down the road is becoming more of an issue, Johnson said.

“Each year when I get to my budget meetings, I am having more and more of my councilors who have an issue and vote in opposition to our budget largely because of one item: the 911 center funding,” Johnson said. “As we’ve discussed before, certain individuals, county residents, pay one fee. Municipal residents pay that county fee in addition to a portion of their city taxes going to the 911 center. So individuals living in the city pay more.”

Johnson said more city residents are starting to complain.

“We want something equitable that is long-term,” Johnson said. “What we are funding is really a Band-Aid.”

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry, the board chairman, said the outside study is not a reflection of the work of 911 Center Director Elizabeth Brooks.

“Certainly don’t take this as us questioning your ability to judge the center,” Curry told Brooks. “That is certainly not the intent of this board looking at a consultant ... We are all very close to this issue. This issue is sometimes emotionally charged as well and I do think it is very appropriate to get an independent person.”

Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial, who also serves on the 911 Board, said the board considered an evaluation before Brooks started leading the center.

“It is good at this time to reflect and do some evaluation,” Dial said. “I would say that we could go on fat, dumb and happy thinking that we are great, when there is some sort of neutral person looking to say, ‘Maybe you could do this better, or this different.’”

Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset weighed in that the study might not identify cost-saving measures.

“I think with our visitors, with how busy we are year-round, it is really hard to compare us to any other dispatch center,” Nasset said. “We are an anomaly here and that has to be taken into account ... With this study, I don’t know what it will reflect, obviously, but I think the board needs to be prepared, too, if that study says that we don’t have enough people. I think that could be a possibility.”

Johnson, Dial and Columbia Falls City Manager Susan Nicosia were appointed to decide which consultant to hire for the study.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.