Donley County and the City of Clarendon this past week continued their back-and-forth on a contract with the sheriff’s department for law enforcement services in the city.
The city council met in regular session Thursday, February 8, with Mayor Jacob Fangman and the aldermen saying they want to support the sheriff’s office but they have to provide other services to the citizens as well. Mayor Pro-Tem Larry Jeffers also wanted to make clear the city’s support for law enforcement.
“I think some misstatements have been going around that we’re defunding the police and I’d like to see that put to rest,” Jeffers said. “We’re doing the best we can with the money we have.”
As the discussion continued, County Judge John Howard again raised the actual cost of employing and equipping two deputies at more than $220,000 per year and the county’s desire for a $180,000 contract with the city. Alderman Eulaine McIntosh pushed back on that discussion.
“You can keep saying what you’re saying, and we’ll keep saying what we’re saying,” McIntosh said. “We’re wasting time.”
City officials asked for a commitment from the county about their annual contribution to the Burton Memorial Library. The city holds that the library used to be funded 50-50 by the city and county, but that practice ended several years ago with city funding growing past what the county contributed.
The city gave the county two proposals. A five-year agreement starting at $155,000 in the next fiscal year and going up 1.5 percent each year with no additional contribution by the county to the library. Or a five-year agreement starting at $165,000 and increasing 2.0 percent per year but with the county increasing its library contribution from the current $35,000 to $47,000 in the next budget.
On Monday, the Donley County Commissioners’ Court took up the city’s proposal and pushed back on “conflating” the library funding with the sheriff’s office funding. Sheriff Butch Blackburn asked that the library not be part of the discussion about his contract with the city.
During the county meeting, Mayor Fangman and City Administrator Brian Barboza brought up city budget issues with the mayor saying he felt like the city could get to where the county wanted them to be but that it would take time to figure out what other services the city might not be able to offer its citizens.
County officials vote to leave in place the current contract at $140,000 for the remainder of the current fiscal year and approved a proposal of $170,000 starting in October and continuing for five years with a 2.0 percent increase each year. The proposal must be accepted by the city in 60 days and is non-negotiable.
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