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November 6, 2003Suit filed in 911 dispute911 dispatch practices are under reviewByRecord-Eagle staff writer KALKASKA - A former Kalkaska 911 dispatcher has sued the sheriff's department for wrongful termination, alleging she was fired after questioning department expenditures. Margaret Bull is seeking attorney fees, back pay and wants her job back, according to the suit. Bull has alleged that some of almost $400,000 collected annually from Kalkaska County residents' monthly phone bills to pay for 911 services is improperly diverted to the county sheriff's department. Bull's attorney, Enrico Schaefer, said he attempted to negotiate with the department to get Bull's job back before he filed suit last week in circuit court. "They were unresponsive to our request to sit down and talk, and I think that's unfortunate for the parties, but also for the 911 system," Schaefer said. The suit names the department, Sheriff Nelson J. Cannon, Undersheriff Billy Spencer and Lt. Bruce Gualtiere. In August, Spencer, the 911 director while Sheriff Jerry Cannon is away serving the Michigan Army National Guard in Cuba, dismissed Bull's allegations, saying any surcharge funds used for the sheriff's department are offset by department resources used for dispatch. This week, Spencer said the department hasn't changed how 911 operates. "I haven't changed any operations, no, because I feel like we didn't do anything wrong," Spencer said. Before she was fired on Aug. 6, Bull raised questions about central dispatch at a staff meeting and at a meeting of the Central Dispatch Authority Board, according to the suit. Those concerns include: That dispatchers are forced to work as clerks at the sheriff's department, that a sheriff's road patrol sergeant is paid an annual salary of $41,239 from the dispatch budget, and that dispatchers, when working alone, are forced to abandon the phones when taking a break. Paul Rogers, chairman of the state Emergency Telephone Service Committee, which oversees the use of 911 surcharge funds, said Kalkaska's dispatch is under "review." Rogers said his committee is seeking documentation from the dispatch and sheriff's department on how funds are spent and the duties of dispatchers. The situation in Kalkaska pushed ahead an ETSC plan to randomly audit counties over how surcharge money is used, he said. In 2002, Kalkaska County Central Dispatch received $394,765 from a 16-percent surcharge on residents' monthly phone bills that was approved by voters in 1995 and renewed in 2000. The central dispatch also received $35,791 from a state fund of a surcharge collected from mobile phone users.
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