By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
With an awaited response from the Town of Waterford in mind, Village of Waterford officials Feb. 23 decided to extend their original deadline for receipts of Requests For Proposals to police the community.
The village has been in a 35-year contractual agreement with the Racine County Sheriff’s Department for policing. But officials have sent overtures to other agencies during that time frame — including the nearby town, which has its own police force.
The village had set a Feb. 25 deadline for proposals from the sheriff and town. But town officials early this month decided to form a committee and study whether or not drawing up a formal proposal to the village was a prudent use of staff time.
“If we decide to present a proposal, there are many items to assess and define,” Town Chairman Tom Hincz wrote in a Feb. 10 letter to the village.
Hincz continued, “We have to consider additional full-time and part-time officers, the impact it may have on the current union contract, vehicles and hardware, benefits, supervision, logistics and length of contract, just to name a few. Salary and billing calculations are the easy part.”
While discussing possible next steps, the Village Board decided Feb. 23 to extend the Request For Proposal deadline, giving the town until March 16 to make a decision.
The Town Board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is set for March 9, and approval from the Town Board would be needed for an RFP to be submitted to the village.
As they debated the issue Monday night, village officials decided a wait-and-see approach appeared to make sense. “We need to do our due diligence,” Trustee Don Houston said. “It would be stupid not to.”
With future personnel costs and other incidentals factored in, Trustee Ron Kluth agreed, saying, “I think we need to listen to (the town). We’re talking about a lot of money.”
Village President Tom Roanhouse expressed reservation in pushing out the deadline, in part because of the intrinsic nature of sending out RFPs. But Village Administrator Rebecca Ewald assured the board it was within its right to amend the deadline.
“We’ve got to know what we’re advertising,” Roanhouse commented. “We don’t want to put ourselves in a liable position.”
Roanhouse inquired whether any other agency had sent the village an RFP for police services. Ewald confirmed that the discussion, up to this point, has only involved the sheriff and town as potential providers.
In a separate agenda item, the Village Board discussed a possible amendment to the current contract with the Sheriff’s Office.
The amended contract covers several issues — including a deputy providing first-shift coverage on an interim basis, use of reserve deputies during special events and the use of a bailiff during municipal court proceedings.
The board refrained from taking any official action on the amended contract at Monday night’s meeting, opting to have Ewald continue dialogue with Sheriff’s Office staff to flesh out a few issues.
-
-
-
-
-
eee