Dane County's 911 center board on Wednesday rejected one of County Executive Kathleen Falk's proposed budget priorities for the center, which came under fire this year after mishandling a call from a homicide victim's cell phone.

Falk has proposed borrowing $163,000 next year to buy police dispatch software that would allow 911 operators to get more information from callers, send the optimal police resources and improve quality control checks on police calls.

But the 911 board, which advises the 911 director on budget matters, voted 8-1 to remove the software from next year's budget proposal and spend the money instead on replacing the center's outdated computer dispatch system.

Including the police dispatch software in the budget "feels like a knee-jerk reaction to things that happened," said 911 board member and Sun Prairie Ald. Jon Freund.

In April, a 911 operator failed to return a call from Brittany Zimmermann's cell phone around the time she was killed in her Madison apartment. In addition, 911 staff sent erroneous information to Madison police on the incident, sending them on a two-week wild goose chase.

Falk, however, isn't backing away from the dispatch software, which she touted in her re-election announcement Wednesday. She also plans to borrow $150,000 in her budget proposal to get the computer system replacement project started, spokesman Josh Wescott said after the 911 board meeting.

"Why would anyone vote against national police response standards when in fact we can do both?" Wescott said.

The $150,000 for the computer project was not included in Falk's 911 budget proposal, announced two weeks ago at the same time 911 Director Joe Norwick presented the same budget to the 911 board. Falk agreed to add the funding after hearing concerns the 911 board raised at the time, Wescott said.

On Wednesday, Madison Police Capt. Carl Gloede proposed delaying the police dispatch software until 2010 because of concerns that the $150,000 would only pay for a consultant to analyze the computer system and would still push completion of the project back to 2011.

Gloede emphasized that a 2004 report recommended replacing the computer system and the county's five-year capital plan projected $2 million for the computer system replacement in 2009 with completion by 2010. Gloede also noted the Dane County police chiefs' association has not had a chance to vet the new police dispatch software.

The software is similar to the medical dispatch software the county started using in 2004 and fire dispatch software bought last year after the local fire chiefs' association asked for it.

Dane County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Ron Boylan, chairman of the 911 board, questioned why the center would purchase the police dispatch software before replacing the computer system, which has the minimal requirements to operate the fire and medical software and has crashed on occasion as a result.

Rich McVicar, 911 operations manager, said the police dispatch software includes protocols and quality checks that aren't tied to the software but would still be beneficial before the computer system is replaced.

When pressed by the 911 board about doing both the police dispatch software and finishing the computer replacement by 2010, Norwick said the center is already taking on other major projects next year including a new $30 million countywide radio system, a redesign of the 911 center that will increase the number of consoles from 13 to 18 and the addition of nine more staff.

"To complete a (computer system assessment) is going to be tough enough," Norwick said.

But Gloede said there is an urgent need to replace the computer system first.

"It comes down to priorities," he said.