By Sara StrongAlthough they disagree on the numbers, representatives of the city of Luverne and Rock County both said Tuesday that when it comes to law enforcement, services take priority over balance sheets."The problem is, that you can do anything you want with numbers," County Administrator Kyle Oldre said Tuesday.County Commissioner Richard Bakken said, "I think we’ve got a scenario where we’ve lost trust so we don’t believe each other’s numbers. That’s why I don’t think we want to get into a tit-for-tat game. … It looks like we’re going down a dead end street."The Luverne City Council also met Tuesday, and discussed ways the city could save money in law enforcement and still keep service quality.Councilman Bob Kaczrowski said, "I don’t see that our sheriff’s department is overstaffed. … And in defense of the county, if we don’t give them money, where will it come from?"Mayor Glen Gust said, "We do need to work with them. The city of Luverne will be here forever and Rock County will still be here forever."The city has completed various polls of other cities, reviewing what they pay for dispatch services. The county, seeing that Luverne is questioning its cost, did its own research.The cost of doing business has come under scrutiny since the city and county lost state aid and were constrained with levy limits. The city has cancelled its contract for dispatch services, citing the fact that the city doesn’t have an obligation to pay for it, and the county does. Now, the city is also considering what it pays for law enforcement, on top of dispatching services.DispatchLuverne pays $160,220 for its half of dispatching services, under a joint powers agreement. Luverne councilmen terminated the dispatch agreement to ensure the city wouldn’t continue through the 2005 contract without resolved negotiations.Most Minnesota cities don’t pay for dispatching services.City Administrator Greg LaFond said that through a survey of 90 communities, he found 23 other municipalities that pay for dispatch services. Of those, Luverne cost the most, at about $35 per capita. Pipestone pays $23 per capita; Morris pays $22 per capita; Alexandria pays $18 per capita, for example.Cities simply aren’t obligated to spend money on dispatching. However, dispatching involves more than answering phones, and has been a key part of how joint law enforcement works.Some things dispatchers do that don’t fall under emergency services are: calls for city electrical problems, monitoring security alarms in Luverne, calls for electric line locations and reporting branches down after storms among other things.The officers also do things like lock and unlock the public restrooms in City Hall, and open the city park during the summer hours.LaFond said, "In most cases, by changing our procedures, most of that activity can be switched from dispatch to other sources."City Hall can take electrical calls, LaFond said, and the city already pays workers to be on call for after-hours problems, so they can be used for those calls.Former Luverne Police Chief Keith Aanenson was on hand to offer a historical perspective to joint law operations during Tuesday’s Rock County Commissioners meeting. "Joining dispatch was a plus from the beginning," he said. "Our records were in one place, and we could review each other’s reports."Aanenson said some people miss the activity reports the city used to get when they had their own separate police force, before joining with the county. They felt like they had more ownership over the department, he said. The county and city of Luverne dispatching agreement started in 1969 with a 50-50 split. In 1984, both the offices merged and became one unit when the 911 emergency number was established. Then, the city of Luverne paid the county half of the dispatching budget, plus $300 in utilities, and equipment and other incidentals. In 1993, a new agreement was reached where both paid into a joint fund that simplified the budgeting process. It has continued at a 50-50 split since then.The Luverne City Council says it has a problem with the even split because city residents pay for dispatching as city taxpayers, and then as county taxpayers, through the regular county levy. Other cities don’t have that obligation for dispatching.The county points out that city residents receive more services than rural residents do, so it evens out.Law enforcementThe city had six full-time officers in 1998 when the two departments merged. The county had five full-timers then.Now, they share the expenses of law enforcement and the 11 full-time sheriff’s department employees. Some numbers shown at previous meetings have calculated taxes on top of fees, but direct law enforcement fees for the city of Luverne to Rock County amount to $96.57 per capita for Luverne, according to the county, which used 2002 Census data and current budgets. Using that same formula, Worthington’s per capita fee is $176.42; Windom, $132.47; Pipestone, $102.91; Jackson, $133.24; Redwood Falls, $130.98; Slayton, $110.42 and Ivanhoe, $75.25 for other examples.The city put out some other numbers figuring in cost to residents in county and city taxes for law enforcement: Luverne, $131.60 per capita; Monticello, $94.93 per capita; Cokato, $72.15 per capita, for example.LaFond drew up a proposal for the Council Tuesday that will be forwarded to the county. LaFond says that Luverne needs the services of the equivalent of two officers’ time, within the existing department.That would amount to $276,860 annually — compared to the $536,983 city residents pay for law enforcement. (This calculation, provided by the city, includes taxes residents pay to the county. Of that total, in direct charges, the city actually pays $447,486 now. The new proposal would cut direct contribution to $122,133.)Hearing that proposal, Rock County Commissioner Ron Boyenga spoke to the Luverne City Council on his own behalf. He said, "If the city pushes for this proposal to go through, there isn’t a chance in hell that joint law will continue."Boyenga said that good will between the government bodies has come after years of working together, and that it will come at a "high price" to have to rebuild in the future.LaFond said, "I don’t deny that good will is important, but at what price? … I would like to see all these contracts continue, but on a fair and equitable basis."The council is pushing numbers at this point, and so is the county. Both are considering the cost of separating departments again, even though they don’t necessarily support separation in concept.LaFond said, "In a county this size, we don’t really need two departments and that’s the last thing in the world I would suggest."County Administrator Kyle Oldre said service since joint law has improved, but that poor city and county relations may make separation easier on the department, which is caught in the middle of a budget battle.The city is working on more proposals, that the council may send to the county.
