News

City makes demands on county

By Scott Wagar

11/08/2011

On Tuesday morning, the Bottineau city police committee presented its portion of the 2012 city-county police contract to the Bottineau county commissioners, but the contract was completely turned down by the commissioners due to what they are calling micromanagement on the part of the city.

“I will tell you right up front it (the contract) is unacceptable,” said Commissioner Verdean Kveum to Troy Marsden, the chair of the city’s police committee. “When you (the city) entered into the contract, we agreed to provide police service. The contract you gave us is total micromanagement. The sheriff cannot operate like that.”

Kveum’s words were set in progress after the city’s police committee (made up of Marsden, Brad Gangl and Jeff Hall) sent the commissioners’ seven stipulations and conditions as part of the city contract.

The stipulation and conditions handed down by the city are as follows (it should be noted that the entire city council did not vote on or approve the stipulations and conditions of the city contract before it was given to the county commissioners and sheriff):

“The City of Bottineau agrees to contract police services with the Bottineau County Sheriff’s Department in 2012 for the sum of $215,000. The contract will begin January 1, 2012, and end December 31, 2012. The Bottineau County Sheriff will provide police protection in the city of Bottineau and will, as a stipulation of this contract, adhere to the following stipulations and conditions:

• Four Bottineau County sheriff’s deputies will be assigned full time as police officers in the city of Bottineau. The city of Bottineau assigned sheriff’s deputies are restricted to patrolling within one mile of the city of Bottineau, unless an emergency requires their services elsewhere in the county. When an emergency occurs that may require the Bottineau deputies to leave the city of Bottineau an incident report must be filed with the Bottineau city auditor, and the mayor of Bottineau. This report is to be filed at the sheriff’s earliest convenience of the incident.
• The Bottineau County sheriff’s deputies assigned to the City of Bottineau will be referred to as City Deputies. The city sheriff’s deputies will enforce all city ordinances.
• When possible, a Bottineau city representative will be present at interviews with potential new Bottineau city deputies, with the final decision of whom gets hired being left to the sheriff.
• The Bottineau County sheriff must provide the Bottineau city auditor a monthly duty schedule, five working days in advance of each month for the four Bottineau city deputies. The duty schedule for the Bottineau city deputies is subject to the approval of the Bottineau city council or may be referred to the Bottineau City Police Committee for approval. These schedules and or reports are to be faxed, E-mailed or hand delivered to the Bottineau City Auditor’s Office.
• The Bottineau County sheriff’s deputies will report to the Bottineau Police Committee and the Bottineau City Council monthly to discuss issues relevant to policing in the city of Bottineau. Each of the Bottineau sheriff’s deputies must report their past month activities, schedule, and relevant issues encountered while protecting the city of Bottineau. The four city of Bottineau deputies are to take turns attending the monthly council meetings and updating the city council of what they have been working on. There are also changes to be made to the current monthly reports being received. This will be decided on in more detail at a later date.
• The impound cars in storage at the Bottineau City Shop will be cleaned out and removed each April and October unless it is required for a specific, ongoing criminal case. The Bottineau County Sheriff’s Department will pay $15 a day for storage of each vehicle after three months of storage. Bottineau County Sheriff Steve Watson stated that the county may be implementing an impound lot of their own. If they do, any vehicles brought in from the county will be taken there. City impounds would continue to be taken to the city impound lot. (It should be noted that Kveum stated to the City’s police committee at Tuesday meeting that if the impound matter was a major issue to them, the county would work with them on fixing this issue.)
• The evidence locker at the City Armory. which the Bottineau County Sheriff uses for storage must be cleaned out monthly of all items not pertaining to ongoing criminal cases. Failure to do so will result in a storage free imposed on the Bottineau County Sheriff’s Department of $15 per day until the storage area is cleaned out.
• The chairmen of the Bottineau police committee would like to be involved in the yearly evaluation and subsequent raises for the city sheriff’s deputies. (Also discussed was the issue of the city keeping jackets/files on each of the four city sheriff’s deputies in the City Auditor’s Office within a secure place. Watson voiced concern over this stipulation for the confidentiality of the deputies’ information.)

Failure to adhere to the letter and spirit of this contract, as determined by the City Council of Bottineau, will void this contract, and all subsequent payments to Bottineau County will cease. The city of Bottineau will then provide its own police department.”

With micromanaging being the primary issue of the county not accepting the city stipulations, Marsden stated that it wasn’t the city intention to micromanage the county sheriff’s police department, but to gain better insight of what the police officers are doing in the city of Bottineau.
“The intent of our contract is to get more communication and more information as far as policing in the city,” Marsden said. “You (the county) also asked us last year to be more specific (with the police contract) and that’s what we are trying to do.”
Jeff Beyer, Bottineau County commissioner, who has been assigned by the commissioners to work with the city police committee when it comes to the city-county police contract, asked Marsden if the sheriff or county deputies attend the council meetings on a monthly basis, and if so, did the city receive monthly reports from the sheriff’s department. Marsden stated they did.

Commissioner Dan Marquardt, who also has been assigned to work with the city on the city-county police contract, asked Marsden if the police officers have ever failed to answer any of the council’s questions asked by the aldermen.

“It’s not that they can’t answer them,” Marsden said. “We would just like a little more information as to what they did each month. Information like what they did with traffic control, what they are investigating, information like that. That is what we mean when we say we want more detailed reports.” 
Watson stated in Tuesday’s meeting that he and his staff were also against the city’s seven stipulations and conditions because they felt the city was attempting to be authoritarian within his department.  

“The staff and I read the contract and we completely disagree with it,” Watson said. “It seems to me you want power. When it comes to the sheriff’s duties, you are trying to take that away from me.”

Watson also added that the city council members receive the same reports the commissioners receive each month, and that at times the police department is restricted in speaking about cases with the aldermen and commissioners.

“When it comes to cases, certain things, such as ongoing cases, cannot be discussed with them, because that would mean letting out evidence and tampering with the case,” Watson said. “We do come to the council and state that there has been a break-in here and break-in there, but we can’t discuss cases like those in details until after the cases have been to trial.”

With the contract in dispute, Watson stated that he is short a deputy, but he cannot hire the additional deputy he needs because he does not know the outcome of the police contract. “Until this is settled I can’t move forward because I can’t be hiring deputies if I don’t know if there is a future for them here,” Watson said.

Financially for 2012, the county wanted the city to budget $236,000 for the city-county police contract. The city’s financial committee (made up of Gangl, chair, Mayor Doug Marsden and former city councilman Andy Freeman), which was also approved by the city council, made the decision not to pay for the dispatcher fees in the 2012 contract, which dropped the budget by $21,000, granting the city’s share at a total of $215,000. (The dispatch fee is currently paid for in three ways: County pays 50 percent, 911 pays 25 percent and the city pays 25 percent. The city council stated that for 2012, and in the future, they felt they shouldn’t have to pay its share of dispatch calls anymore because “the county has to pay dispatchers fees anyway,” even though 50 percent of all calls come from the city of Bottineau.)

The total budget for 2012 between the city and county equals $451,000, with the county paying $236,000 and the city $215,000.

 Within the city’s police budget for last year, which was $222,000, the city paid for four deputies, their portion of the dispatcher fees, expenses for such items as uniforms, training, benefits and fuel.

The city didn’t (and has not) pay for the sheriff’s salary or his benefits, even though the sheriff spends a great deal of time policing the city of Bottineau; nor for county deputies that at times patrol and assist in the city of Bottineau; or such items as office and jail space, along with such items as medical, insurance and meals within the jail system.

Kveum stated that it would take around $276,000 to cover the budget properly, but over the years the county has granted the city leeway with their cost to assist them.

“If we figure it out per capita, the budget should be $276,000, or $123 a year for police protection for each person if we spread that over the townships, cities and everything else,” Kveum said. “We are asking for $236,000.”
Gangl stated that $236,000 wouldn’t work because they have already passed their budget. “So have we,” Kveum said back to Gangl about the county passing their budget.   

A short discussion was held in what needed to be done next with the contract, and both parties agreed that the city and county’s police committee members will sit down to discuss the police contract before the county commissioners meet for their December meeting.

Late last year, as the city and county were attempting to complete the police contract for 2011, the county and city agreed that they needed to work closely together through 2011 when it came to preparing the 2012 police contract. Almost a year later, LeRoy Rude, Bottineau County commissioner, reminded the city of their promise last year, and asked the city’s police committee to keep the commission’s two representatives informed about their contract meetings.

“We had a couple of guys assigned (to attend the contract meetings) and they should have been there,” Rude said after learning that the city didn’t personally contact Beyer and Marquardt about its police contract meeting on Oct. 27.

With the meeting concluding, Swain Benson II informed the city and council members that he was the city’s attorney and state’s attorney, and that if the two entities could not come to an agreement with the contract, and an impasse happens, he would have to step down because of a conflict of interest.

If Benson does remove himself from the contract dispute, appointments of other attorneys will have to be made to represent the two parties, all at the cost of the taxpayers in the county.

Both the city and county representatives stated to Benson they had no intention of letting an impasse happen and that they both wanted to come to an agreement on the contract.

As the discussion came to a close, Kveum reminded everyone at the table that Bottineau County has had a long history in having a successful city-county police contract and that he would like to see that continue.

“When we first started doing this we were the envy of a lot of towns and counties in the state because we made this work,” Kveum stated. “And, we have to make it work because it is in the best interest of the people of Bottineau County.”

Editor’s Note: On Monday evening, Nov. 7, 2011, the City Council held it’s November meeting. T. Marsden stated in the meeting that the city and two county representatives would be meeting before the end of this month to work out the details of the city-county police contract.