City fires shot in turf battle
By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
October 28, 2004
Lauderdale County supervisors are concerned about the relationship between the Meridian Homeland Security Department and the county's emergency management agency.
They talked about it at a meeting on Wednesday.
What prompted the discussion was a letter, dated Oct. 15, from Meridian Chief Administrative Officer Ken Storms to the Lauderdale County Emergency Communications District commonly called the E-911 Commission.
The letter addressed an incident on Oct. 7, when Meridian police officers requested assistance from the Lauderdale County Emergency Management Agency. They were searching for a man who was lost in Bonita Lakes Park.
Out of the loop
The letter from Storms reads:
Storms has instructed city department heads to honor this request; his letter asked the E-911 office to follow suit.
The letter says that Meridian Homeland Security and the city administration did not know about the search until the next morning.
In closing, Storms listed home phone, cell phone, and pager numbers for Bunky Partridge, director of Meridian Homeland Security, and Eddie Ivy, training coordinator of the Meridian/Lauderdale County Regional Response Team.
Partridge serves as a non-voting adviser on the E-911 Commission.
County responds
District 4 Supervisor Joe Norwood asked Clarence Butler about the situation. Butler is director of the Lauderdale County Emergency Management Agency and coordinator of the county's volunteer fire departments. Butler also serves on the E-911 Commission.
Butler said he received a telephone call at home about 11 p.m. on Oct. 7, the night police were searching for the missing man at Bonita Lakes Park.
Supervisors didn't take action on the issue. The main reason for Wednesday's meeting was to extend the county's emergency declaration for another seven days to allow county crews to help clean up debris from Hurricane Ivan last month.
Butler said Storms and Partridge have both been invited to the next meeting of the E-911 commission.
John Mott, director of the county's E-911 system, said dispatchers will follow the city's request to notify Meridian Homeland Security, but he said they also will continue to do what they have been doing including fulfilling dispatch requests from various agencies, in accordance with the system's standard operating procedures unless policies are changed by the commission.
E-911 COMMISSION
The Lauderdale County Emergency Communications District, commonly called the E-911 Commission, meets on the third Thursday of each month at 1:15 p.m. The meeting place is the Lauderdale County Emergency Communications Center, 252-B 14th St.
The next meeting of the district's board of directors is set for Nov. 18. Members of the district are as follows:
For Meridian
For Lauderdale County
For Marion
Other members
Source: Lauderdale County Emergency Communications District
