The Allen County Commissioners deferred a vote Friday morning to merge the city and county 911 call centers and instead set an unofficial deadline at year's end to come up with an agreement.

The move came four days after the commissioners and Mayor Tom Henry met to announce they had reached a tentative agreement on consolidating the communication hub, located in the basement of the City-County Building. Sheriff Ken Fries spoke adamantlyagainst the proposal in that meeting, which helped him gain support from Commissioners Bill Brown and Linda Bloom, who on Friday opposed Nelson Peters' proposal.

“I'm not against a merger, but I don't want to force the sheriff into something he doesn't want to do,” said Brown, who expressed concerns about the proposal Monday.

“(A merger) should happen, but not this way and not today,” Bloom said.

Under state law, some degree of consolidation will be necessary by 2014.

Peters' proposal called for a seven-person operations board that included three appointees from the mayor and three from the commissioners. The seventh person would have been chosen by those six appointees. The group would have selected an executive director. An executive board that included the mayor and three county commissioners would have served as a tiebreaker on operations board votes, should a member abstain.

Peters expressed frustration that an agreement was not reached, especially because merging the 911 call centers has been an unresolved issue for several years.

“This is a workable idea,” he said. “We just want to bring some closure to this issue.”

Admitting his proposal was defeated, Peters suggested it be used if Fries and Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York can't reach an agreement. Brown said 60 days would be sufficient time for an answer, and he “would come knocking on the sheriff's door” if he didn't get an answer. However, neither he nor Bloom said Peters' proposal should be used if that deadline is not met.

Fries said he'd like to meet with York sometime next week. Fries doesn't support Peters' proposal because he feels it does not first address public safety.

“How can we make a seamless transition from the 911 call center to a first responder? Through that process is how we decide – do we combine, do we change protocols? There are things that I believe we should've done already.”

Fries suggested basing the externally located ambulance communication service in the city and county 911 dispatch center, which would avoid what he called “an electronic bridge.” He also suggested having a dual response from city and county volunteer fire departments to emergencies.

York said more public safety heads need to be brought to the discussion table.

“I think at some point in time there has to be a greater appetite from some parties about really wanting to do this,” York said. “And I don't see that.”

York supports a merged call center because he said it offers a single point of contact and lessens the risk of lost or wrongly transferred calls in the system.

Deputy Mayor Greg Purcell told the commissioners that government inaction was a disservice to call center workers, who are seeking answers because reshuffling and furloughing is possible in the event of a merger.

Had the county commissioners approved the agreement, city and county councils would then have to approve it. Henry has already said he'll sign off on a deal.