Marquette County’s 911 dispatch software is not Tyler Technologies and it is not Motorola Solutions. It is CentralSquare, shared with six other Upper Peninsula counties, and on August 18 the county board voted 6-0 to pay $35,306.11 to keep it running for three more months while everyone else moves off it.
That detail matters because the two local accounts of this dispute contradict each other. One report said the county is on Tyler and switching to Motorola. Another said the county is on Motorola and the city wants Tyler. County Administrator Duane DuRay’s August 13 memo to the board settles it: “Marquette County currently operates its CAD system through Central Square in partnership with the other six counties within the UP 911 Authority: Alger, Chippewa, Delta, Dickinson, Iron, and Menominee.”
What was actually approved, and when
On February 3 the county board voted 5-0 to authorize the Central Dispatch director “to begin contractual discussions, and develop proposed contract language” with the Michigan Public Safety Communications System and Motorola Solutions. The minutes record that the board chair “identified potential legal issues involving the leading vendor” in the original bid process, that an alternative came through MPSCS with Motorola, and that the county projected “cost savings in excess of $500,000.”
The vendor with the legal issues is not named in the minutes, and TV6 reported on August 18 that the Motorola contract has not been signed.
The August 18 vote bought time. The other Authority counties have signed with Tyler Technologies for Enterprise CAD and expect to change over around May 2027. The Motorola build is estimated at 12 months. Marquette County agreed to cover the three-month gap on CentralSquare support on its own. Board Chair Joe Derocha told TV6 the board “will address the CADD system issue at another time, in public, when all the true information is available.”
What the city asked for
The Marquette City Commission passed its resolution on Monday, August 31, not September 1. It urges the county to join the North CAD Group and adopt Tyler, and it directs the clerk to send certified copies to the county board, the Central Dispatch Advisory Board, the UP 911 Authority and the North CAD Group. Its text claims 14 of 15 U.P. counties are on or moving to Tyler. That figure appears nowhere in a county or Authority document. Tyler’s own April 1 announcement names eight U.P. counties: Chippewa, Luce, Mackinac, Alger, Delta, Menominee, Dickinson and Iron.
City Commissioner Cody Mayer raised a different point, reported by the Mining Journal: “we have three tribal nations, two of which are very active in Marquette County and have tribal police in Marquette County, who fall under and use the state police’s dispatch system.” He did not name the tribes.
What happens when you dial 911 in Marquette County
Two dispatch centers share one building at 180 US-41 East in Negaunee. Marquette County Central Dispatch answers 911 for the county, including Marquette city police. The Michigan State Police Negaunee Regional Dispatch center next to it handles Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, Ontonagon and Schoolcraft counties. When the county center cannot answer, calls roll to Chippewa County.
The software at issue is computer-aided dispatch, the incident record a dispatcher builds once the call is answered. The call itself routes on the phone network and does not depend on which CAD vendor a county uses.
What a different CAD changes is whether a backup center can see and work Marquette County’s incidents on the same screen, and how cleanly the seven counties share data. Dispatcher Lyn Nelson told TV6 that under the shared system a neighboring center can “do everything for that caller.” Undersheriff Lowell Larson told the board on August 18 he was disappointed the policy board was not included in the decision.
Named sources: Marquette County Board of Commissioners packet, August 18, 2026, item 10f, memo of County Administrator Duane DuRay dated August 13; Marquette County Board minutes, February 3 and August 18, 2026; Marquette City Commission packet, August 31, 2026; Tyler Technologies news release, April 1, 2026; Michigan 911 Committee PSAP list; TV6 report of August 18, 2026; Mining Journal, September 2, 2026.
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