DRIGGS — Teton County Fire & Rescue Chief Mike Maltaverne asked county commissioners Wednesday to "amicably terminate" the 2024 dispatch services agreement between his district and the county and replace it with a multi-stakeholder advisory committee. Commissioners agreed at the table. The new committee will first draft a replacement agreement before the BOCC winds down the 2024 contract.
The 2024 agreement was the first written dispatch contract between TCFR and the county of which Maltaverne is aware. Before it, the sheriff's department ran 911 dispatch, and the fire district paid the county for the service on a handshake. Maltaverne put the relationship on paper and signed it in August 2024. He told the Teton County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) at its May 27 meeting that the paper "has not really been followed precisely" since.
Maltaverne said he had not understood the scale of one structural drag on the dispatch center until a comparison meeting with Madison County. Dispatchers in Teton County are also performing records functions for the sheriff's office and providing clerical support. Most sheriff's offices, the chief said, keep their own records employees. The Teton County dispatch center absorbs both jobs.