Two weeks after the Dane County 911 Center launched an internal investigation into the mishandling of a call from a homicide victim's cell phone, the regular April 16 meeting of the dispatch center's oversight board was canceled.

The reason? The board chairman, Ron Boylan, and the 911 operations manager, Rich McVicar, agreed that there was nothing worth discussing, McVicar said.

Five members of the oversight board reached by the State Journal said they didn't find out about the dispatch center foul-up until it hit newspapers last week, a month after the operator hung up on a call from Brittany Zimmermann's phone at about the time she was being killed in her apartment on West Doty Street.

The operator said she didn't hear anything on the line, but police say there was evidence that an officer should have been dispatched.

Dane County officials have maintained that, other than reminding dispatchers to call back any time they are unable to communicate with a caller, they've made no changes in policy, staffing or procedure to avoid a repeat.

County officials were warned in 2004 to increase staffing, change procedures and put in place a stronger oversight board.

"At worst Dane County faces possible liability and the potential for a catastrophic event," according to the 145-page "strategic plan" from MTG Management Consultants of Seattle.

County officials maintained Saturday that they have acted on many of the changes — including hiring more dispatchers, giving them better training and making sure they followed procedures.

The policy of the 911 center is to call back to any cell phone caller who is disconnected or can't be understood.

The dispatcher who took the call from Zimmermann's phone intended to follow the policy but got busy with other calls and forgot, said 911 Director Joe Norwick.

The dispatcher, whose identity has not been revealed, was granted her request to transfer to another county job.

Norwick and his boss, County Executive Kathleen Falk, maintain that an internal investigation has been under way for more than a month.

Norwick has denied that he covered up the fact that there was a botched call, which came to light in a newspaper report.

Officials conducting the probe have collected information from many sources, but still need to talk to national experts before completing the investigation, said Topf Wells, Falk's chief of staff.

The internal investigation began April 3, after Norwick, a former Dane County chief deputy, met with Madison police and reported to Falk's office, Wells said.

Since then, Norwick and McVicar, the 911 operations manager, have analyzed the data from the three backup systems, interviewed dispatchers and supervisors, and reviewed working conditions and call volumes.

"That's all done," Wells said. What remains is reviewing the practices of other call centers in Wisconsin and other states.

Host of problems

The 2004 strategic plan described a host of problems at the center and predicted additional financial and staffing problems in fast-growing Dane County unless the center became independent of the County Board.

"The primary funding source is the Dane County tax base, which is controlled by the County Board," the report said.

"The board's current need to reduce county spending is, and will likely continue to be a threat to 911 Center funding."

Soon after the report came out, the County Board created a committee to review possible changes to the oversight and funding of the 911 center, but "few, if any, of the recommended changes were implemented," partly because the state Legislature would have to authorize a new taxing district, McVicar said.

Talks of restriction

The report also called for the 911 center's oversight board to have more authority and control over operations at the center.

"The (911) center board is responsible for the overall success of the 911 center but has no funding authority to ensure this success," the report said.

"This severely restricts the center board's ability to ensure that staffing and equipment levels at the center are sufficient."

The County Board added members to the 911 oversight board, though its role remains unchanged, McVicar said.

The board's 14 members are appointed by the county executive.

Sun Prairie Ald. Jon Freund, who has been on the board for about 18 months, said he expects to be briefed at the May meeting with a full report on the county's internal investigation.

"I suspect that there is good reason not to bring the board up to speed if there is an ongoing police investigation," Freund said.

Falk's chief of staff added that Boylan, a Dane County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy and chairman of the 911 oversight committee, must have been aware of the internal investigation, but that there was no reason to update the 911 committee before the investigation was complete.

Boylan didn't respond to messages seeking his comment.

Cell-phone calls

Madison Assistant Fire Chief Michael Dirienzo, a committee member for three years, also said he didn't know about the internal investigation until Thursday.

He said the board has often discussed the need for more staff in the 911 Center, especially as call volumes have increased due to the increase in cell phone usage. About 60 percent of calls now come from cell phones. That means it's more common when there's a single car crash, for example, for a flood of calls to come into the center.

One of the deterrents to adding staff, Dirienzo said, has been the high turnover rate and the length of time it takes to train dispatchers.

"The beginning phases of increasing staffing have started," Dirienzo said. "We may not be where we want to be, but we've started."

59 dispatchers

Falk noted that county has added eight staff positions to the center in her 11 years in office. That includes a supervisor, a quality assurance manager, a database coordinator and three dispatchers. A fourth dispatch position and second supervisor were included in this year's budget, but the dispatcher hasn't been added. The 2004 report recommended that the center hire an additional dispatcher and technology expert by 2009.

The center, with a $5.5 million annual budget, employs 59 dispatchers in its quarters in the City-County Building in Downtown Madison. It was created in 1988 and handled 122,000 911 calls in 1997 and 215,000 calls in 2002. Officials weren't able to provide last week how many calls were handled in subsequent years.

Reserving judgment

Falk said she didn't agree with Norwick's statement that there was no reason to apologize for the mishandled call. Police say they don't know if dispatching an officer would have made a difference.

Falk said she has reserved any judgment until the internal investigation is complete and that she has confidence in Norwick and the department.

Mark Hazelbaker, a Republican lawyer who represents the Dane County Towns Association, said solving the issues in the 911 center boils down to a matter of political will.

"I don't know if I blame Kathy Falk so much as I blame a climate in which people are afraid to spend money on vital services," Hazelbaker said.