When House Bill 911 was proposed in 1987 local officials and the citizens of Ector County quickly reacted to gain support for the creation of a 9-1-1 District.  Of primary concern was the subsidizing of small, rural counties if the 9-1-1 program was administered by the Council of Governments (Regional Planning Commission) if a District was not created.

As a District, all 9-1-1 services fees collected would remain in Ector County.  As a part of a regional project, all fees would be pooled from the 17 counties and disbursed as needed to fund the project on a regional basis.  Obviously a substantial portion of Ector County money would go to other counties if we were part of the regional plan.

For the most part, the idea of creating the District to keep our local money in the county works.  However the state did eventually pass legislation that requires a small portion of  9-1-1 fees to be sent to the state to be used where needed for 9-1-1 projects.  One peice of legislation created an "Equalization Surcharge" which is calculated at one-half of one percent of all intrastate long-distance charges.  This money is pooled and shared throughout the state for 9-1-1 implementation and has been used to fund addressing projects.  (To assure accurate and uniform addresses throughout response areas.)  The other non-local portion of "9-1-1 fees" was the state's "Poison Control" fee.  This fee appears on your telephone bill as a "911 fee" but it actually goes to the state department of health to fund a state-wide poison control network rather than for 9-1-1 service.

There are 23 other Emergency Communication Districts in Texas.  The Districts cooperate and share resources through the Texas  9-1-1 Alliance.