Court Relieves 911 Coordinator of Duties
The Glasscock County Commissioner’s Court, in a unanimous vote, relieved Veronica Schroyer of her duties as emergency management coordinator and 911 dispatcher at their regular meeting April 10. The action, which was to be effective immediately, came after two separate incidences on April 4 and April 7 when 911 telephone calls were again unanswered.
Schroyer’s job description as emergency management coordinator and 911 dispatcher, which was dated Sept. 12, 1994, details the following responsibilities: “1) Develop disaster plan 2) Countywide addressing update for 911 3) Call in volunteers when needed 4) Answer and dispatch 911 calls 5) Keep records on all emergencies, consisting of: who, what, when, where, how long, etc. 6) Have someone available to answer 911 calls when full-time dispatcher is out of the office.”
For these duties, Schroyer has been paid $12,600 per year, according to County Treasurer Alan Dierschke.
Before voting to terminate Schroyer, County Judge Wilburn Bednar said, “We’ve dropped the ball here in the past; we’ve tried, but haven’t tried hard enough, to correct the problem. It’s apparent that the present situation is not working; the problem has gone on too long and we have to find a solution.”
Mitchell Jansa said the Emergency Medical Technicians are tired of being blamed for the failures of the 911 system, when the system itself is not their responsibility. He said, “EMT’s don’t run the system, we just respond to calls.” He said the EMT’s are ready to respond any time, around the clock, and want to remain volunteers. Regarding the system’s current problems, he said, “The 911 calls are going through; the problem is that the system is sometimes unmanned.”
Commissioner Hugh Schafer said the flack for the system not working should come to the commissioners’ court, not to EMS volunteers. “We [the commissioners’ court] are paid to make the hard decisions and to fix the system,” he said. Schafer added, “We don’t have equipment problems; we have personnel problems.”
Kathleen Miller, of the risk management pool which handles the county’s liability insurance, stressed the county’s need to correct problems, such as the unanswered 911 calls, very quickly once the problems are recognized. She said problems which recur and are not corrected, whether with personnel or other situations, can cause a huge liability for the county.
Subsequent to her termination, Schroyer sent the county a reimbursement affidavit in the amount of $78,599 for 8,291 uncompensated overtime hours during the period from April 1998 through March 2000.
In a special meeting April 13, the court voted to transfer the duties of answering Glasscock County’s 911 calls to Martin County. The changeover should take place as soon as technical details can be worked out. Bednar said Martin County will provide the service at no charge, although Glasscock County may need to purchase some updated or additional equipment. (Martin County also answers Borden County’s 911 calls for no charge.)
Until the actual change to Martin County takes place, 911 calls will be answered by the Glasscock County Sheriff’s Office on weekdays from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. At all other times, the calls will be answered by either Jim or Diane Havlak or by “Booger” or Beverly Pruit.
Bednar will temporarily act as the county’s emergency management coordinator until someone is hired for that position. Cecilia Schwartz, president of the local EMS group, explained to the commissioners’ court the need to have the permanent coordinator present at EMS and volunteer fire department meetings.
Other than transferring the 911 function to Martin County, the other option discussed for solving the problem was for Glasscock County to hire enough people to provide around-the-clock 911 answering and dispatching from a location in Garden City. That option would presumably be discussed again should the arrangement with Martin County prove unsatisfactory.
Representatives of the commissioners’ court and the EMS volunteers were to meet with a communications specialist at Terminal April 19 to discuss equipment. In addition, a meeting was planned for April 25 between Glasscock County officials and EMS personnel with representatives of the 911 answering system in Stanton to iron out details of the arrangement with Martin County.