The Dane County 911 center had enough staff working when the call from Brittany Zimmermann's cell phone came in, according to a consultant who said the center was understaffed in 2004.

But questions remain about staffing levels relative to how much overtime 911 center employees work.

Robert Kaelin, a project manager for Seattle-based MTG Management Consultants, said it appeared the center had 13 staff members on duty at the time of the call, and he recommended the center have 12 on duty during peak hours.

"That's right where I would have expected them to be" based on population and call volume growth, Kaelin said.

Kaelin said his assessment did not change his earlier statements, reported Tuesday by the State Journal, that he recommended the county add eight staff to the center immediately, which the county failed to do.

Kaelin said his 2004 recommendation was meant to address the amount of overtime 911 center staff work. The report indicates the county spent $300,000 on overtime in 2003 alone, the equivalent of four to six additional employees.

Kaelin made the assessment on the April 2 staffing level Wednesday after the State Journal provided him a letter sent from Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk to 911 center director Joe Norwick on Tuesday.

"I don't know how they adjusted the overtime issue," Kaelin said. "It's not clear in the letter, and that could be a factor."

The concern about overtime, Kaelin said, was "they were burning people out because certain people were doing all the overtime. ... We were attempting to make some staffing changes so they could improve morale, reduce overtime, do the training recommendations."

Falk's letter summarized the 40 pages of findings of an internal investigation conducted by 911 center director Joe Norwick. She has emphasized the county has added six staff members since the 2004 report came out, though Kaelin recommended the county add more.

Falk's chief of staff Topf Wells said the dispatcher who handled the call wasn't working overtime on April 1 or 2.

Her staff didn't fulfill a request Wednesday to provide overtime costs at the 911 center going back 10 years but did provide overtime costs for the first four months of 2007 and 2008.

The 911 center spent about $105,000 in the first third of 2008, down from $175,000 in the same period in 2007.

Though there were many unanswered questions in Falk's letter, Kaelin said the county likely won't be held liable in the Zimmermann homicide, even if it turns out that the county didn't spend enough money on the 911 center.

"There's a large legal precedence, even if the dispatcher made a mistake, there's no liability to the county," Kaelin said.

County Board Chairman Scott McDonell said he expects more answers on 911 staffing levels and overtime costs at tonight's County Board meeting.

Falk will not attend the meeting because she flew to New York on Wednesday to attend an Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health Summit. A request from a County Board member that she be present was received by her office after her flight left, spokesman Joshua Wescott said.

However, she intended to spend the weekend in New York and is instead flying back early Friday because of the 911 center issue, Wescott said.