By Sara QuamLuverne City Council members told Rock County Board members last week they hope to work out an agreement for the costs of county contract law enforcement. In a message to the County Board, City Administrator Greg LaFond said, "We want to come to some agreement on law enforcement."The Luverne City Council passed a resolution last week to pay one-quarter of the city’s contract law enforcement costs, $124,975. The remainder will be set aside in a special law enforcement account.Going by the contract that the city is still under, the county said it should be paid in full — as it had in years past.In total, the county asked for $669,000 for both dispatching and law enforcement. The city is out of its joint powers agreement for dispatching as of Dec. 31.Even so, it passed a resolution to contribute $20,000 to dispatching.The county rolled dispatching costs into law enforcement for 2005 in order to try to recoup money from the city’s cancelled dispatching agreement. David Hauge said, "On one hand it’s not quite what they requested, but on the other hand it shows we’ll pay something."LaFond said, "The city still has the position that dispatch was terminated and we’re not paying for it. … But $20,000 isn’t insignificant and it reflects a commitment on the part of the city."
