City leaders cool to merging law enforcement agencies, open to sharing a building

By Chris Baldus | cbaldus@charlescitypress.com

Merging the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office and the Charles City Police Department is looking less likely. Sharing a facility, however, is still worth serious consideration, according to a Monday night discussion by the Charles City Council.

The council and the Floyd County Board of Supervisors are scheduled to meet in a joint session Wednesday night to receive the recommendation of a subcommittee that has been interviewing firms to take the next step toward a joint law enforcement facility. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall council chambers.

With the possibility of a referendum for improvements or replacement of the high school looming, the joint facility could help the city sort out space issues identified in last year’s community facilities assessments, council members said.

“City Hall is really cramped for space,” Councilman DeLaine Freeseman said referring to the FEH Design study. “We’re somewhat limited in what we can do here as far as parking and things like that, it’s not the handiest …  I wish we could look at a whole new City Hall, police, fire — get the fire station out of the flood plain — and everything else, do the whole ball of wax, but I just don’t see that in the cards with everything else that’s going on. So to me this would be an opportunity for us to possibly gain some room to possibly … create space here. We could possibly stick some money into here to make this a better fit, to make this a better City Hall.”

Freeseman opposed unifying the law enforcement agencies, which he said was borne out of thoughts of cost savings.

At the workshop Monday, City Administrator Steve Diers asked council members in a workshop session Monday about their position on the joint facility and the prospect of a unified law enforcement agency. None showed support for a unified agency that would need to be under the management of the Floyd County Sheriff because of state law.

Councilman Keith Starr said he has no interest in a unified agency, but wants to comprehensively explore the possible benefits and drawbacks of a joint facility.

This next step is a comprehensive study on making a joint law enforcement center. It will cost $15,000 and be split between the city and the county, according to Starr.

If the county and city decide after the study to move forward, the firm would make designs for the law enforcement center and prepare for a referendum vote. That will also cost $15,000.

The request for proposals the city and county sent out to firms also included language to study unifying the county and city’s law enforcement into one agency. Diers said none of the firms interviewed by the subcommittee had experience with the concept, which is rare. He said there was a community in Iowa that did it but stopped years ago.

Committing to the joint law enforcement study will not commit the city to do it, but it would give the city answers that it needs to make the best decision, Starr said. As it stands now, Starr said he is not seeing the benefits he thought he’d see and is trying to determine if there is enough value for the city.

Councilman Dan Mallaro agreed that the value is not what he thought it would be.

Councilman Michael Hammond said he’s seen this  proposition as needing to move everything to the joint facility or not at all.

Councilman Jerry Joerger said he can see efficiencies to be gained by moving the police department to a joint facility, but doesn’t think a unified agency is the way to go. The city would lose its direct control over the police, he said. Council

Mayor Jim Erb urged that the joint facility decision be made in concert with what to do with the City Hall building and the former middle school.

With the question of where the police department will be, Joerger said the city would be more able to look at options involving the school building.

The city is open minded on the joint law enforcement building and in taking a comprehensive look into it, Erb summed up the discussion.

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