Murphy – The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners’ abrupt decision to make Cherokee County 911 its own entity is not sitting well with both the outgoing and incoming sheriffs.
Sheriff Derrick Palmer and presumptive Sheriff-elect Dustin Smith said their input was never considered when commissioners voted 3-2 on June 6 to move 911 Dispatch out from under the control of the sheriff’s office by July 1.
“I don’t understand what the big rush was to do it before December,” said Smith, assistant chief for the Murphy Police Department. “I just feel like we’re going to have some issues going forward with not having a plan and not having anybody’s input. I had asked why I didn’t have any input in it, and I was told that I’m not the sheriff.”
Palmer, however, said that even as the current sheriff, his input was not taken into consideration by the board.
“I questioned them as to why I wasn’t (involved), and they never gave me a reason,” he said. “I had heard through the grapevine that there was a discussion about it, and I was invited by (County Manager) Randy Wiggins to come to the commission meeting that night and was told they wanted my input on it to have a discussion about it.
“When I got there I was expecting to have a discussion about it. The next thing I knew, they were voting on it, so I guess my input didn’t really matter because they already started voting on it.”
Commissioner Jan Griggs made the motion and was joined by commissioners Cal Stiles and Gary “Hippie” Westmoreland in approving the change. Board Chair Dan Eichenbaum and Commissioner Randy Phillips voted against it after saying they felt Smith deserved the opportunity to discuss and consider the move.
“I talked to several people, and moving 911 Dispatch out from under the sheriff’s department, this is the time to do it in my opinion because we’re getting ready to have a new sheriff in December,” Griggs said. “It’s been talked about in past years. So the intent would be to move 911 dispatch out from under the sheriff’s department because it is actually a county department.”
Griggs’ motion also made the county’s backup site the primary 911 center, while the sheriff’s office switches roles and becomes the backup facility. Her motion additionally attempted to leave 911 Director Theresa Creasman in charge as director of the new entity. Palmer pointed out that the move had to be made by Wiggins, who later did just that.
“Once the board made it known that they wanted to move it right back out from under the sheriff, it’s just a formality to (say), ‘OK, Theresa, you now report to me,’ ” Wiggins said. “It’s a simple thing, not the big deal that I think people are trying to make that out to be.”
Palmer said about 44 percent of 911 dispatches across the state are standalone entities. Smith said he simply wished the board included all local public safety entities in their decision.
“That was my thing that I had campaigned on,” Smith said. “I wanted to sit down with the fire department, law enforcement and EMS to figure out a plan going forward.
“It seems like they didn’t give public safety the chance to have any input in the decision, and I don’t know why they were rushing the decision without any input from public safety.”
Palmer said he was brought into the closed session portion of the meeting, where he had to explain to the board the official procedures that needed to take place in order for the move to occur. According to Wiggins, despite some legal changes that had to be made, the county is “well ahead of schedule” to make the move official prior to July 1 if necessary.
“You couldn’t just flip a switch and say, ‘You’ve got to move out,’ “ Palmer said. “I just found it disrespectful. With it being a division of the sheriff’s office, the least they could have done is have enough respect for me and the office of sheriff to have at least wanted my input and asked questions about it before they started making decisions.”