A Democrat's proposal to merge Kenton County's three emergency dispatch centers has drawn a harsh response from the administration and campaign of Republican incumbent Judge-executive Dick Murgatroyd.

        Democrat Patrick Hughes, the Fort Wright lawyer challenging Mr. Murgatroyd in November's election, recently issued a press release stating he will make combining the dispatch centers currently separately operated by Kenton County, Covington and Erlanger a priority of his administration.

        Mr. Hughes pointed out that an efficiency study performed by former Cincinnati City Manager Gerald Newfarmer, now a government operations consultant, recommended the merger in November of 2000. Mr. Newfarmer's report, which was delivered to the Kenton County Fiscal Court, found that “consolidation of dispatch operations within the county will provide substantial savings to taxpayers.”

        Mr. Hughes chided the current county administration for not acting on the recommendations.

        “We've had 20 months go by since the Newfarmer recommendation and no action,” he said.

        Kenton County Deputy Judge-executive Scott Kimmich, Mr. Murgatroyd's second-in-command and a key member of his reelection campaign, said Mr. Hughes is off base with his comments and understanding of the situation involving combining the dispatch centers.

        Mr. Kimmich said the idea of merging the centers has been “talked about” for 15 years. He also said that in the wake of the Newfarmer report the county has put “almost two years” of consideration into the concept.

        “Mr. Hughes has not done his homework,” Mr. Kimmich said. “This issue has not been ignored. It has been studied very carefully.”

        The county would have more aggressively pursued a merger but the cities have concerns and a lack of interest, Mr. Kimmich said. And he said while the merged dispatch centers may save the cities money, doing so could cost the county as much as $500,000 over five years.

        Mr. Hughes responded that the county has not aggressively studied all aspects of the merger and that he would bring all the parties together to get a true read on the interests of the cities and a more accurate analysis of all costs involved.

        “You have to bring people together and work hard to get things like this done, but that has not happened,” he said. “We've had no action on this and other major issues in Kenton County, and that has to change.”

        The Hughes campaign was miffed over an e-mail the Murgatroyd campaign sent to supporters after Mr. Hughes released his merger proposal.

        “We have learned in recent weeks that our opposition will misrepresent or distort the facts at every opportunity in an effort to deceive voters into believing that our county (is) in crisis,” Mr. Murgatroyd said in the Aug. 19 e-mail, which his campaign has dubbed “Murg Mail.”

        Mr. Hughes said his campaign has distorted nothing about the merger proposal or any issue. And he stressed that since he announced his campaign nearly a year ago he has offered solutions along with his criticism of the current fiscal court.

        “Since day one of this campaign I have been talking about positive approaches to county government,” Mr. Hughes said, “ways that we can do things in a new and better way. I've been talking about partnerships with our cities. I've been talking about professionalism in the management of county government, particularly in the case of our budget.”

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