A fee on East Baton Rouge Parish residents’ phone bills could soon be increased to fund improvements to the parish’s 911 services, officials said.
The East Baton Rouge Communications District’s board of commissioners plans to vote Wednesday on a proposal that would generate an estimated $2.2 million annually for new employees and maintenance and upgrades of the 911 system, communications district Director Jim Verlander said.
“We’re way behind the times with our equipment,” Verlander said. “Currently, we’re more at when it breaks, we fix it. But this is 911, you don’t want to have equipment breaking. You want to make sure that it’s always at its peak performance.”
If the board approves the proposal, residential landlines will see a $4.32 annual increase, business landlines will see a $5.88 annual increase and cellular lines will see a $4.80 increase. Residential landlines currently pay $7.56 annually, business landlines pay $18 annually and cellular lines pay $10.20 annually.
Under state law, the fee increase does not require authorization through a parishwide election, like a property tax. Only the board of commissioners needs to approve the fee for it to take affect, Verlander said.
Verlander emphasized how complicated the 911 system is in order to route an emergency call to the correct dispatch based on the caller’s location. Dispatchers then use computer systems to input information and send it to the agency that will be responding to the emergency, Verlander said.
That system has become more complicated and expensive since the last time the 911 fee was increased in 2005, Verlander said. New emergency notification technologies in cars, cellphones and smart watches require the communications district to upgrade its systems to be ready to receive that information, Verlander said. Some of the district’s technology is four years past its end-of-life date, Verlander said.
The volume of 911 calls in East Baton Rouge Parish also increased by 62% from 2019 through 2022, Verlander said.
A call to 911 may feel simple to the caller, “but there’s all kinds of stuff on the back end that makes it happen,” Verlander said.
The district has also been taking steps to become more independent of the city-parish government, such as doing finances in-house, Verlander said. The moves will allow the district to be more efficient and follow national best practices, but also will require new employees, Verlander said.
“This is 911. We need it to be a priority 100% of the time,” Verlander said.
The communication district’s $6 million annual budget is made up almost entirely of revenue raised by the 911 fee, apart from $20,000 in interest earned through deposits, according to the 2023 budget.
The board is made up of seven members, including representatives from parish first responder agencies: Sheriff Syd Gautreaux, Central Mayor Wade Evans, Baker Mayor Darnell Waites, Baton Rouge Fire Chief Michael Kimble, Emergency Management Services Director Michael Denicola, Baton Rouge Police Deputy Chief Myron Daniels and Zachary Mayor David McDavid.
The fee appears on telephone carriers’ monthly phone bills and is charged on a monthly basis.
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