Sheriff Curtis Landers appeared before the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners last week to discuss proposed contracts for enhanced law enforcement services in Waldport and Yachats.
Waldport already has an agreement with the county through which the sheriff’s office provides personnel dedicated to law enforcement in the city. The proposed contract with Yachats for similar services would be a new agreement.
“There’s two contracts that would occur here,” County Administrator Tim Johnson told the commissioners. “The first would be with the city of Waldport and provides revenue up to $300,000. This would continue, and this has been a contract that has been ongoing since 1997. We have two full-time equivalent (FTE) deputies at the city of Waldport. The second is a new contract with the city of Yachats, which provides revenue up to $150,000, and it would provide one FTE deputy.”
Landers said because two deputies are already dedicated for law enforcement services in Waldport, that can just continue as is. However, the new agreement with Yachats would take some time to implement because a new deputy would need to be hired, and the department already has a personnel shortage.
An analysis of costs associated with providing the two deputies for Waldport revealed that the “up to $300,000” listed in the proposed intergovernmental agreement (IGA) would not cover the entire cost. The annual cost was projected to be $366,275, which would leave the county covering the remainder.
“One of the reasons this initially came up is because the city of Waldport was looking at cutting service completely or cutting down the service because of their ability to pay in the future,” Landers said. “So whether or not they find a way to fund this in the future and want to continue this, I think is one variable. Another is, does this work? Are the cities and us happy with our arrangement we would have, how the response is going, and how we’re providing services for the city and still providing coverage in the county?”
The sheriff’s office has a similar law enforcement agreement with the city of Depoe Bay. However, that agreement is covering the actual costs, and to enter into a new IGA with Waldport that leaves the county liable for some of the enhanced coverage didn’t sit well with the county commissioners. However, they were under a time crunch to make a decision.
“Our agreement with the city of Waldport ends on June 30 right now, so we would be pulling those deputies out if this does not go through,” Landers told the commissioners.
Commission Chair Casey Miller said, “I desire that Waldport pay the actual cost of the services. That’s where I lean, however, I am concerned about any possible gaps (in law enforcement services).”
Commissioner Kaety Jacobson asked the sheriff, “On July 1, if we don’t have an agreement (with the city of Waldport), we would need to pull deputies and we would start paying that cost?”
Landers said the county would not pay the cost for enhanced coverage in Waldport. They would stop billing Waldport for the services the deputies have been providing and “we would just provide the service there like we do everywhere else. They’re still going to have law enforcement coverage that we are required by law to provide.”
Commissioner Claire Hall asked Landers, “If we approve this (IGA) in principle, would that be enough of a commitment for you to keep the current coverage going into July?”
“I hate to just drop something without any public information going out there by the city or us,” replied Landers. “You’ve got the third and fourth coming up in Waldport, which is a very busy time. I know the city manger got approval by the city council to approve this IGA as written based on the cost of $300,000 and can move forward if you approved it. It’s my understanding that if you don’t agree with this and we go back to the current IGA, that they would have to have further discussions.”
However, there is no scheduled meeting of the Waldport City Council prior to the July 1 deadline.
“I feel really stuck here … given the timeline,” said Jacobson. Miller said, “I’m going to stay firm on the (actual) cost that’s presented to us, but we need to make a decision.”
Hall made a motion “that we approve the contract between the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and city of Waldport for enhanced patrol services at an amount not to exceed $366,275.” This would keep the agreement consistent with the arrangement made with the city Depoe Bay.
The motion was passed on a unanimous vote, and the county will now await a response from Waldport. The commissioners did not take action on the possible agreement with Yachats because there was not the same sense of urgency as with the Waldport IGA. The commissioners, however, didn’t want to wait too long to debate a possible Yachats agreement, so that discussion was scheduled for their July 3 meeting.
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