Vicksburg Warren E-911 Dispatch Center director Geoffrey Greetham is expected to resign or be fired from his position today after the E-911 Commission said it found the dispatch operation was not performing adequately.

&#8220The performance of the 911 center is not meeting expectations,” said Vicksburg Fire Chief Keith Rogers, chairman of the seven-member commission after an hour-long closed session this morning.

While not specifying what those expectations are, Rogers and Warren County Fire Coordinator Kelly Worthy said the panel will advertise the position with the goal of finding someone with more experience in the public sector.

&#8220There’s no need going into that,” Worthy said.

Greetham, 53, a retired U.S. Army major, was hired in March 2005 as part of a housecleaning by the commission after personnel issues riddled the dispatch center and its previous director, Allen Maxwell.

The six commissioners who attended invoked the personnel matter exception to the Mississippi Open Meetings law to close their session. Greetham left and said personnel issues were at work again, hinting at a power play from within to force him from his post.

In the meeting room, in addition to Rogers and Worthy, were Mayor Laurence Leyens, Sheriff Martin Pace, Vicksburg Police Chief Tommy Moffett and District 1 Supervisor David McDonald. Absent was Warren County Emergency Management Director Gwen Coleman. Seats on the commission were established after the city-county venture to consolidate dispatch services was authorized by voters 18 years ago.

Part of the commission’s decision involved accepting a resignation letter from Greetham, allowing the panel to advertise for the director’s position. Rogers said the deputy director of operations, Michael Gaul, will be allowed to apply for the position.

Center personnel are in the process of moving from the Warren County Courthouse basement to the county’s building at the corner of First North and Clay streets, purchased with the dual intention of housing both 911 and the county’s voting machines. The new facility is expected to be rewired and improved, including the addition of $800,000 worth of new equipment.

An electrical engineer must be hired by June 30 by supervisors to ensure the electrical work to the building will happen this year. Spending rules prohibit county supervisors from letting such contracts across fiscal years at the end of a board administration. All five face re-election this year.

Greetham had hoped to move into the new building by mid-2008, a date already beyond original timelines. If supervisors do not meet in a special session by month’s end – the next regular meeting is July 2 – the shakeup in 911 could keep 911 in the courthouse for the foreseeable future.

Greetham has said the center takes 87,000 calls annually, about 230 per day. An increasing number of them come from cell phones, about 60 percent, a statistic that has driven the upgrades and moves in recent years by local government to lobby the Mississippi Legislature to raise the surcharge on cell phones. The move has died each time for lack of support among the governor and other legislators for raising the fees.

The center’s operation is funded by $1 per line charges for cell and residential lines and a $2 charge per business lines. This year, a local and private bill to raise the cell phone fee by $1.50 to $2 died in committee.

Since hired, Greetham has been taken to task by supervisors for inflating the budget of the emergency dispatch center, approved by voters in 1989 to pay monthly surcharges to fund then-new equipment that provided names and addresses of those who dialed 911 seeking emergency help.

Plans for the new center originally included larger break rooms and showers for dispatchers to use during longer shifts created by declared countywide emergencies. They were nixed in favor of scaled-down amenities in the new center, with supervisors citing cost concerns.

Upgrades under way pumped the E-911 budget to $1.9 million in fiscal 2006, with increased subsidies from city and county coffers to pay dispatcher salaries, equipment costs, overhead expenses and fees for use of the phone system database to pay for a third of this year’s $1.2 million budget.

As for manpower, Greetham said 15 of 16 dispatcher slots and three of four shift supervisor posts are filled, with efforts under way to fill the open positions.