Madison County ETSB deals with state mandate
by Randy Pierce • As a result of legislation passed at the state level, the Madison County 9-1-1 emergency telephone system is becoming a bit more financially autonomous, in the sense of what should be specifically documented, now that its director has received approval to apply for a federal employer identification number. However, its funding, operations and procedures should remain unaffected.
The Madison County Emergency Telephone System Board addressed this complicated matter at a special meeting held late last month when Arron Weber, 9-1-1 coordinator, shared information with its members regarding a revision approved last year by the Illinois legislature requiring the FEIN procedure.
Amendments to the Illinois Emergency Telephone System Act, Weber explained, were passed with the intent to formally ensure that the applicable funds are kept separate from others the county may have but, he added, “This is something that’s always been in place and I will say, up until this point, that Madison County has been compliant with that.”
Since the inception of the county’s ETSB, there has never, Weber noted, been any co-mingling of any 9-1-1 surcharge money, investment earnings or grant funds awarded for this program with any other county fund, this having been made adamantly clear in reports completed every year by this government unit’s auditor and treasurer.
The emergency telephone system department had previously used the county’s FEIN, Weber said, but now will have to use its own FEIn related to the deposits of any money into a completely separate bank account. His assessment of the legislation being that it was “kind of sloppily written” and does not even differentiate between the definitions of a fund or account.
According to the aforementioned county treasurer and auditor staffs, Weber continued, “A fund is something different than a bank account, however, their (the state guidelines) interpretation is that the money needs to be directly deposited into a bank account,” which means the application for an independent FEIN must occur.
Weber’s take on the situation was not all negative as he noted, “While it’s been a curveball thrown by the state, it actually helps this board govern better, so it actually does create a paper trail” of various financial transactions, “So that is a good thing, a good outcome.”
Such a “paper trail,” which will be spelling out what has been done for about 30 years, it was pointed out, will be beneficial in the future when ETSB members and staff change but Weber commented that the “timing on this was a little bad because right now, we were in the process of submitting a ‘Next Generation 9-1-1 grant’” application.
A tremendous amount of time, effort and meetings had been experienced by Weber as related to this situation with his discussing it with people at the state level plus numerous county officials including the state’s attorney, human resources, the administration and others.
These consultations were necessary, he went on, because “Just on paper alone, it looks like that we’re a completely separate entity from the county which is not the intent.”
There cannot be such a separation, he stated further, because the ETSB was formed by the county so, in that respect, can be considered to be part of it. Specific aspects of the 9-1-1 department having its own FEIN include such things as payroll, auditing and paying claims.
In reflecting that “it’s been a long week,” prior to his presenting of this information to the ETSB, Weber commented that the resolution to be formally acted upon by that board at its next meeting, “is going to try to clean up the mess that this has caused.”
The money connected to the ETSB, which is spent on employees, training and equipment, is kept in a separate fund from others overseen by the county but in the same bank account.
The applicable state agency got flooded with phone calls from 9-1-1 directors, Weber said, about this with questions regarding how it was going to work. Essentially, the new process concerns banking only, as he delineated it, but more documents pertinent to this scenario for the ETSB’s consideration are expected to be forthcoming.
One of the members of the ETSB, at this meeting where Weber shared all of the aforementioned details, Don McMaster of East Alton, who also represents District 12 on the county board, commented, “It sounds like you’re really just trying to protect the 9-1-1 and keep the state’s hands out of this because you know how politicians are. They start down the road and there’s always a fear that says, ‘We really have control of it, we want this and that out of it.’”
