By Sara StrongLuverne councilmen hope Rock County is open to negotiating its dispatching and law enforcement contracts.The city of Luverne pays $737,866 for dispatching and contract law enforcement.Past city councils have mentioned the high cost of law enforcement, too. The city of Luverne is about half of Rock County’s population. Residents pay 20 percent of the county taxes, based on property values. Residents then pay half of dispatching and law enforcement through the contracts the city has with the county.The county has said that city residents get almost twice the service as other county locations.City Administrator Greg LaFond said that the dispatching, in particular, shouldn’t be an extra cost to city residents."Dispatching is for all of Rock County, 24 hours a day. … There’s an inequity here that should be corrected," he said.Councilman Pat Baustian said, "The contract was written wrong, and it’s been that way from day one."LaFond compared dispatching services to road maintenance: all people pay for it, no matter how often they use the roads. Government makes some services available to everyone, he said, and dispatching shouldn’t be charged extra to some.Comparing to othersCity staff surveyed various Minnesota cities to compile information on what they pay for law enforcement and dispatch services.The survey doesn’t offer complete information or consider other contract arrangements. Luverne, population 4,618, pays $504,354 for sheriff services and pays $197,512 for dispatching. That ends up being $159.78 per capita, when the city calculates the numbers adding in the county taxes city residents pay.The fees the city of Luverne pays directly to the county are $446,852 for sheriff and $155,847 for dispatch.The council discussed the varying costs for some other cities that were presented at the meeting. The numbers were in draft form, and may not have included taxes on top of fees, like Luverne’s was calculated. LaFond and Finance Officer Barb Berghorst said they were reviewing numbers other cities submitted, to make sure they were comparing "apples to apples."LaFond said, "The very last thing I would recommend to you is to reconstitute your own police department."He also said that the city’s complaints about the amount it pays to the county doesn’t mean that it is unhappy with the service, or that the county hasn’t done an adequate job of managing expenses.He did hope that any renegotiations of contracts could include more control on the part of the city for the services it pays for. Now, it can’t influence hours of patrol, or how resources are allocated even though it pays half of law enforcement.LaFond said management reports and some input on budgetary matters would be ideal.
