Oswego Enters into KenCom Agreement for 911 Dispatch Services

Editor's note: Article updated about 11:45 a.m. with information from Yorkville Mayor Gary Golinski.

The village of Oswego has reached a compromise with KenCom over funding for 911 services.

Approved Tuesday night by the Oswego Village Board, the agreement has the county paying $1.8 million annually and stipulates that the county will place a 75 cents 911 surcharge referendum on the March 20 ballot. If that measure should fail, the agreement states the county will try again in the next election.

Ultimately, between Oswego, Plano and Yorkville and the 911 dispatch service. The three towns filed a lawsuit about three weeks ago after KenCom leaders threatened to cut off their service Dec. 1 if town leaders didn't sign a new cost-sharing agreement.

Yorkville Mayor Gary Golinski said he wouldn't comment on the new pact until all four entities involved approve it.

"We're off to a good start with Oswego," Golinski said in an email. "Yorkville will be voting on it Tuesday."

The agreement Oswego approved Tuesday places less of the financial burden on the towns' budgets than the proposal involved in the lawsuit.

Oswego Village President Brian LeClercq cited a court gag order for not providing more specific information about the new agreement at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Asked by Trustee Terry Michels to explain the contents of the agreement, LeClercq said only that an agreement was reached.

Copies of the agreement were obtained Wednesday morning through a Freedom of Information Act request to the village.

The villages of Oswego, Yorkville and Plano will begin contributing to KenCom in May 2014 based on the portion of calls that come from each municipality.

The original agreement proposed by KenCom in November had Kendall County contributing about $1.6 million, with the towns covering whatever expenses went beyond that $1.6 million and the telephone surcharge amounts. There was no 911 surcharge referendum in that proposal.

KenCom also includes the village of Newark, the Lisbon-Seward Fire Protection District, the Newark Fire Protection District, the Little Rock-Fox Fire Protection District, the Bristol-Kendall Fire Protection District and the Oswego Fire Protection District.

A copy of the agreement is attached as a PDF file to this article.