Victor Weighs Dispatch Money for a Radio That ICE Can Hear

VICTOR — Teton County is asking Victor to help pay for 911 dispatch at a center run by a sheriff's office that says ICE can hear its radio. At an Oct. 28 work session, County Administrator Billie Siddoway told the Victor City Council that county commissioners had created two dispatcher positions to be paid for with money they expected from Victor, then pulled the positions and withdrew job offers when the money proved uncertain. Council members said they want answers from Sheriff Clint Lemieux first, on immigration enforcement and on what his office does in Victor.

Victor set aside $125,000 for public safety in its 2027 budget after what City Administrator Jeremy Besbris's staff report calls "a late-cycle request" from county commissioners.

Siddoway had stopped in on her way home. A couple of years ago she had an accident and needed an ambulance in an area with poor cell service, and afterward "I asked if I could come in and start helping in dispatch services," she said. In her first year, a boy cut his leg with a chainsaw near Pole Canyon, "and as a dispatcher, I couldn't give medical advice on how to apply a tourniquet." He survived. Later, a person she knew well stopped breathing: "We couldn't give CPR advice, and that person didn't survive."

Dispatchers can't give that advice "without the proper certification and training," and "the whole dispatch center needs to be certified." That would cost "about $70,000 and $25,000 a year in ongoing costs" and require two dispatchers on duty. The state's 911 surcharge brings the county "about $150,000 a year," against about $800,000 a year to staff the center at the level it is aiming for and about half a million dollars in equipment.

"So the commissioners were so excited when they thought that Victor was going to allocate $120,000 for dispatchers and then additional money for this statistics software that they authorized the creation of two new positions that would be funded with that money," she said. The commissioners also found money in the county budget for two more. "So with those four new dispatch positions, that doubles dispatch." Then: "When the commissioners did find out that that money wasn't a sure thing, then they pulled those two positions back. So they're not currently funded."

Mayor Sue Muncaster asked whether the county had people for the jobs. "Yes, we did," Siddoway said. "We were interviewing people and had made offers that we have withdrawn. So yeah, we can fill them." She proposed an agreement sending Victor's money to the dispatch account for two positions, the arrangement she said the county already has with the Sheriff's Foundation.

The county's budget records don't show the positions she described. They have two new positions, not four, and none paid for with Victor's money. On July 7, the night before the county went to Victor, Commissioner Dan Powers told the Driggs City Council that "the county has budgeted in this go-around two additional dispatch positions," and that "we're using a good chunk of our property tax growth this year to fund two dispatchers." In Victor on July 8, the county asked for $120,000: "we would like that $120,000 to go to two more dispatchers."

The memo for the county's Aug. 24 budget hearing says "Two Emergency Communications Officers (Dispatcher) were added," the same two general-fund positions the July 13 and July 22 drafts carried. No vote to create or cut dispatch positions appears in the commissioners' meetings from July through Oct. 26. The only dispatch contract they approved was $24,770 a year, on Oct. 13, for Priority Dispatch software.

The sheriff's office traces the four to its own hiring. Its dispatch supervisor "found candidates to fill four new positions," the office wrote in an email, and "when she started the new hire process, she learned there were just two positions available." The office has since interviewed two experienced dispatchers "to fill the two additional positions if they get funded" and is holding their applications.

The county did tie its two new positions to outside money, but it was the fire district's. Presenting the draft budget to commissioners on July 1, County Clerk Kim Keeley listed "the two dispatch positions, and on the revenue side, $150,000 from the fire," and added, "if we don't get the $150,000 from the sheriff, we can't have dispatch, right? So those two are sort of tied together."

Teton County Fire & Rescue agreed to pay the county $150,000 a year for dispatch in an agreement commissioners approved in June 2024, and it had stopped paying. At the same July 1 session, Fire Chief Mike Maltaverne told commissioners, "we haven't paid you a penny this year," and that he was "trying to hold your guys' feet to the fire by not paying you" until the county fixed dispatch. The county's May revenue report marked the line "Contract dispute." Its year-end report, for the fiscal year that closed Sept. 30, shows the full $150,000 booked. Maltaverne said the district cut the county a check as the year ended, so it is paid up.

In September the district stepped back from paying for an outside review of the dispatch center until there is "demonstrated commitment and full cooperation from all parties," Maltaverne wrote to commissioners. He said the cities have told the county they want that review done before they put in money, and that he still wants the dispatch committee commissioners agreed to in May to rewrite the district's contract.

Before Siddoway spoke, most of the council's discussion was about the sheriff. Muncaster opened by reporting that she had sent the city's Oct. 14 letter asking Lemieux to explain his office's policies on federal immigration enforcement, and had "heard back from Billy asking for some concrete suggestions on how they can better communicate." Her reply that afternoon pointed to the Jackson Police Department's online FAQ and a town hall the Blaine County sheriff held this summer. County Commissioner Ron James, she said, "has really taken this issue under his wing."

Council member Erica Linnell said the need for dispatch help seemed clear, but that "there hasn't been a big history of being accountable for the extra money" that Victor's council has voted to contribute. She asked for regular updates if the city goes ahead.

Council member Emily Sustick said, "I was appointed four years ago, five years ago, to be a point person to receive information and updates from the Sheriff's Department in terms of their operating in the city of Victor. I met with Sheriff Lemieux one time in all that time." The county's coming data dashboard did not change her view: "I think that we need that information before we can allocate this funding. That was the entire point."

Council member Amy Ross went further: "I 100% agree with Emily, except I'm not interested in being nearly as diplomatic." She told the council her two children have both been pulled over with an insurance card that was slightly out of date, and neither got a citation: "The deputy managed to look that up for my white male children. Our values are not aligned, and I am not interested in funding any part of that until we get some answers and some changes." She asked for deputy training on racism in traffic stops, "zero communication or assistance with ICE," and stop data by race. "What is it about being a sanctuary city that's so harmful?" she asked.

When Sustick said the request asks Victor residents "to pay more for dispatch" than others in the county, Siddoway answered with a personal appeal, prefaced with "I'm not speaking for the county or the sheriff's office or anyone": "When there's a need, and you have the ability to help, I think there's a moral obligation to do it."

After Siddoway spoke, Muncaster called it "an important distinction" that "the dispatch is not the same as giving this money to the sheriff." The staff report makes a related point: Victor already pays the sheriff's office "just under $50,000 per year" for enhanced service under a contract that renews automatically.

Ross did not accept the distinction, and called Siddoway's appeal manipulative: "I feel like that's really manipulative because there's also a moral obligation to the brown people in our community, and whether it's dispatch and sheriff, there is overlap there, and I still didn't hear you answer any of our questions about your relationship with ICE, your training for your deputies." She added, "I'm not really interested in funding one without hearing from the sheriff himself about the other."

The sheriff's office has issued one official statement on immigration enforcement, a written release dated July 25. It says that when federal agencies, including ICE, operate in the county, they "coordinate with local emergency dispatch" and "integrate operational communications with local emergency dispatch and on-duty officers." It quotes Lemieux: "We do not enforce federal immigration law, nor do we act as federal immigration agents." It also says deputies do not "inquire into the immigration status of individuals during routine calls for service or traffic stops," and that the office holds no 287(g) agreement or formal contract with ICE. Lemieux was not at the Oct. 28 meeting.

On Oct. 9 at 7:53 a.m., a deputy pulled over a driver in Victor for rolling a stop sign. ICE agents heard the stop on the sheriff's office's radio, arrived and detained the driver. Later, at the sheriff's office, he tried to run and was detained again. A video taken at the scene at 8:15 a.m. shows a marked sheriff's SUV among unmarked vehicles with light bars, and personnel in tan plate carriers.

Siddoway offered 10 years of raw records, with names removed. She said government officials have come to her office to go through traffic stops under a confidentiality agreement and "see if you think there's a disproportionate number of Hispanic surnames. I mean, nobody's ever found that." Ross accepted the raw data and offered $5,000 of the $125,000 for the county's dashboard: "and then I'd like to see some results."

"We're not making a decision tonight," Linnell said, and Muncaster read one of the staff report's questions aloud: "Should any funding be contingent on transparency, reporting, measurable service outcomes or a clearly defined scope?" Sustick answered, "Yes." Like the fire district, Linnell wants the need measured before the money: "data, like a study in terms of what the actual need is." She also asked for a "clear designation of what their ICE policy is."