ROCKLAND — It began in 2001 when the state decided that municipal dispatchers be combined into regional dispatch centers. In 2008, the Knox Regional Communication Center Executive Board and Advisory Committee adopted bylaws to govern itself. On Wednesday, Jan. 22, a joint meeting of the KRCC Executive Board, the Knox County Commissioners and Knox County Budget Committee determined the bylaws were outdated and needed alignment with current state statutes.

Knox RCC is located at the Law Enforcement Center at 327 Park Street in Rockland. Knox RCC services all of Knox County, including its islands of Vinalhaven, North Haven, Matinicus Island, Isle au Haut, and Monhegan Island in Lincoln County.

At the Jan. 22 meeting, County Administrator Andrew Hart explained that current bylaws addresss the role of the commissioners, the communication center, as well as the executive and advisory committees.

"There has been some concern that the bylaws pose problems as far as what is the role of the executive committee, what is the role of the advisory committee and how the members are elected," said Hart. "What you have in front of you is currently what we are operating under, but there's a good chance it could be changed drastically."

Hart explained that the executive board tried to amend the bylaws and it was fruitless attempt to do so because there were so many things that need to be changed that board members felt there was a need to start over and have a whole new set of bylaws. Hart explained the bylaws were done before the charter was adopted. The county had asked Municipal Resources Inc. to look at the budget approval process as part of looking at the bylaws and governance, specifically how other regional dispatch centers approve their budgets.

Hart explained that Linwood Lothrop, communications director, has the most scrutinized budget of any county office.

"He has to bring it before the finance directors and then to the advisory board and then to the executive board and then it goes to the commissioners," said Hart. "And then it goes to the budget committee, so it's reviewed four or five times versus other departments that are reviewed twice. It's an assessment and other counties do it as a tax, but this is an assessment based on the municipalities that use it. We also have Lincolnville, which uses it. They're not part of Knox County, but they pay to use it."

Bob Duke, chairman of the Knox County Budget Committee, said: "At the time when RCC was set up I served on the commission 1998 to 2002 and one of the first items to come upon us was this issue to create a regional communications center," he said. "Ed Sleeper spearheaded it and he basically went from town to town to talk towns into joining. We created it, we said this is how it's going to be budgeted, this is how it's going to be managed with the executive board. What you have today is probably the best communications system in the state. Am I wrong?"

Duke said he was trying to figure out what the problem was.

"It sounds to me like you guys are afraid the budget committee is going to do a slash and burn on the communications budget,” said Duke. “The days of slash and burn just don't happen anymore. We have pretty much endorsed the communications budget every year."

Commissioner Roger Moody, of Camden, reiterated that the funding for the RCC comes from an assessment and not a county tax.

"That's where our attorney said because of that, that's where the budget committee needs to preview, so we're kind of limping along trying to understand how that fits with the bylaws and your needs and the budget committee needs and ours, too,” he said. “I look at it in terms of governments are always checks and balances. And for years, as Bob just said, it went along reasonably well and now we have this technicality about what I call a funding mechanism. We should respect our mutual towns and at the county level, too, the system of checks and balances that exists in government. Not everybody has the final word, most times, in terms of what money is spent. I'm not looking at it in terms of what's right and what's wrong, but in terms of what's appropriate for our level of government."

Members of the forum agreed that the bylaws need cleaned up. Several passages were cited concerning who controlled what and who was responsible for what seemed to be debatable. Hart pointed out that the county's attorney had pointed out a strict violation of the statute in that commissioners cannot delegate policy making, in that they are the policy makers for the county.

Camden Fire Chief Chris Farley pointed out there were a number of inconsistencies and asked that the county attorney help in cleaning up the bylaws and bringing them in line with state statutes.

After another 30 minutes of debate, Moody offered a compromise to for those present.

"I don't think we should twist ourselves into pretzels too much over some of the details," said Moody. "What I suggest we do is we know some of the bylaws are outdated, we know they need attention. :et's let Municipal Resources Inc. do its work and when it comes as a draft we can look at it and see if it fits or doesn't fit. Maybe we can agree to 90 percent of it, or some other percentage."

Roger Moody was appointed to represent commissioners; Ann Matlock was appointed to represent the County Budget Committee in continuing changes to the KRCC bylaws.

Present at the meeting were: Carol L. Maines, (Chair) Commissioner; District 1; Richard L. Parent, Jr., Commissioner District 2; and Roger A. Moody, Commissioner District 3.

County staff present included County Administrator Andrew Hart, Administrative Assistant Candice Richards, Emergency Management Director Ray Sisk and Communications Director Linwood Lothrop.

County Budget Committee members present included Ann Matlack, Chairman Bob Duke, Lawrence Nash, Randy Stearns, Dorothy Meriwether, Bill Jones and Shawn Levasseur.

KRCC Executive Board members included Thomaston Police Chief Kevin Haj; Adam Miceli, Rockland Fire/EMS; Camden Fire Chief Chris Farley (and Chairman of the Executive Board); Craig Cooley, Rockport Police Department; Justin Hills, Northeast Mobile Health (EMS); and Carrie Adams, Rockland EMS.

Ray Sisk also serves on the KRCC Executive Board so technically he was there in two capacities.