A letter that Rockingham County leaders sent to the city of Harrisonburg back in June circulated on social media this week. In it, the county expresses their intention to terminate the legal agreement governing the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Emergency Communications Center. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
The HRECC is a 911 call center that serves the residents of both Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. On June 2, a letter signed by Joel Hensley, chairman of the county board of supervisors, and Casey Armstrong, county administrator, states that the center "is no longer able to meet the needs of the Rockingham County community," therefore, the ECC agreement would be terminated as of 2030.
Whether or not this will actually happen remains to be seen, for several reasons. First, the county and city are in the middle of hiring a new director for the center; second, the city explicitly does not want to separate the agency; in addition, based on a WMRA review of meeting minutes, the county board of supervisors did not vote on this action before penning the letter.
WMRA reached out to Armstrong for an interview. In response, County Attorney Tom Miller sent a statement which reads, "in early June of this year, after a long and deliberative process, the Board of Supervisors of Rockingham County concluded that it was necessary to issue to the city of Harrisonburg a letter of termination of the joint ECC agreement. By that agreement, the termination is effective no sooner than five years. Currently the county and city are focusing on hiring a new ECC director. The county is not prepared to comment further at this time."
MICHAEL PARKS: Certainly, we hope that we can find another direction to move forward.
Michael Parks is the city's director of communications and public engagement. He said city leadership see a number of potential harms in having separate ECCs.
PARKS: The calls have to get to the right place at the right time, and a situation where a call, depending on where it was placed in the county, may not go to the correct 911 call center and then has to be forwarded to the right 911 call center, dispatched to the right agency – every second matters, especially in a medical call. … The idea that we may have two 911 call centers in the same community, working for the same limited talent pool … does not seem like a recipe for success. … And then, there's obviously an infrastructure question.
So, where did this conflict originate? Emails between former County Administrator Stephen King and City Manager Ande Banks that were provided to WMRA offer some context. Last August, King wrote that he met with eight ECC employees who had a number of complaints about how the center was being run. While most of the names in this correspondence are redacted, some of the comments openly address the former director, Courtney Doberstein.
Some of the issues included employees' frustrations with agency leaders working remotely, taking time off, and attending conferences while communicators, a.k.a. dispatchers, worked 12-hour shifts up to two weeks straight, with "extreme cases of 16-hour shifts." Some were also upset that Doberstein eliminated three positions after taking the helm in 2020.
Later that month, Banks wrote an email to ECC staff, asking them to bring concerns or complaints directly to the city government. While the director reports to both the city manager and county administrator, the center employees are hired and paid by the city – much like how the local court and social services employees are hired and paid by the county. The city and county are each providing about $4.1 million of the center's $10.6 million operating budget for fiscal year 2026.
PARKS: When we brought in the new director, it was with the goal that was shared by the city and the county of improving the culture at ECC, and that did take some very hard decisions … and we saw a reorganization of the staffing to better utilize a modern structure for 911 call centers. … That is what Courtney was tasked with, and we feel that she accomplished that mission.
On June 6, four days after the termination letter was delivered, the city announced Doberstein's resignation, with no mention of the conflict.
PARKS: This summer, we did have a number of conversations in terms of what our organization, what the county's organization wanted to see when it comes to leadership at the ECC. …. The director at that time decided to step away to allow for those communications to continue forward.
Harrisonburg Deputy Fire Chief Ben Zimmerman is currently serving as the center's interim director.
County leaders have not announced their reasons for terminating the ECC agreement, or whether Doberstein's departure allayed any of them. Parks said communications between the two jurisdictions have focused on hiring a new director, and they're currently in the interview phase.
PARKS: We have not had many detailed conversations about the idea of separating. In fact, if that is a direction that the county is interested in moving in, certainly, we would be eager to receive more information from them.
As for staffing and its impacts on communicators' workload, Parks said that out of 56 total positions on the team, six full-time and four part-time are open, and another 11 are currently filled by temporary contract staff.
PARKS: We are not where we wish we were with staffing, but we continue to move in the right direction. … We continue to exceed national standards for call answering and for dispatch, and so despite these conversations, no one in our community right now should be worried about if the 911 call center is doing its job, because it is.
At the end of November, the city announced that the center had been awarded national reaccreditation. In 2024, according to the press release, the department answered calls within 10 seconds 94% of the time, and within 15 seconds nearly 99% of the time.
