The proposal to consolidate the centers has been on the table since October, when consulting firm Plante & Moran advised the Ingham County Board of Commissioners that consolidation would save money without sacrificing services.

But in recent years, both cities have been running on a deficit, said John Neilsen, Ingham County deputy controller.

“What we’ve seen in the last five, six, seven years is the expenses were going up faster than the revenues,” Neilsen said.

Operating separately, the two centers are expected to run a deficit of about $9 million during the next 10 years. Consolidating dispatch centers could save the county up to $6 million over the same period, according to the Plante & Moran study.

Ingham County Commissioner Mark Grebner said neither Lansing nor East Lansing wants to give the county full administrative control of the new center, causing the delay.

“They would like to get out of the 911 business, but they’d like to stick us the costs and the employees, and then they’d like to continue running it,” Grebner said.

East Lansing police Capt. Kim Johnson said the county has the final say in how the center is run.

“The county agreed to have one combined center, but from the police standpoint, that’s been taken out of our hands,” Johnson said.

The East Lansing center employs 17 workers and the Lansing center employs 56 workers.

Once the resolution is approved by the full board of commissioners, a steering committee will create an action plan of the major steps necessary to consolidate, Neilsen said.

Despite the slow action on the proposal, Grebner said it’s only a matter of time before Lansing and East Lansing exhaust their funds and are forced to take consolidation plans seriously.

“We are moving forward, it’s just moving forward sort of the way a glacier moves,” he said. “These things aren’t fast.”