Taylor Council Seeks Changes To Police Service AgreementMarch 6th, 2008
By Naomi Hatch
Members of the Taylor Town Council met in a work session last week to discuss the Snowflake/Taylor police intergovernmental agreement. They expressed some concerns and asked Town Attorney Sterling Solomon to take their proposed changes to Snowflake Town Attorney Robert Hall.
Mayor John Cole said, “We had a chance to discuss this at length and I believe we reached a consensus as a council.” He went on to say that the council talked about several possible changes to the agreement and stated, “From an administrative point of view, I don’t know that they’re really feasible. In my mind I don’t know if we’d be gaining anything by trying to institute some of the things we talked about,” noting that he was just giving his opinion.
Cole said that as it is now constituted, the agreement makes Taylor about 50 percent liable, basing that on open lines of communication and input from the Taylor town manager and input from the Administration Committee.
“While I’m not fully satisfied that we have all our bases covered and that we have assurance of the ability to get the input that we need, I do think that considering the progress we’ve seen in the recent past and based on (Town Manager ) Eric (Duthie)’s dealings with the Snowflake manager and myself with Mayor (Kelly) Willis, I feel like we’re at a point where we can make progress with the current agreement,” said Cole. “That being said, I think the communication needs to remain very active and open. On that note, if we do see deterioration of that communication, then I think we have to address that expeditiously.”
Vice Mayor Jim Gibson asked if the list of things to address that the council came up with at the work session had been approached in letter form with Snowflake’s attorney.
Solomon reported that he has been in contact with Hall briefly, and felt the contract could be improved. “I think you’re going to be happier with what you have and I think the main thing that needs to be remembered by everybody is exactly what the mayor said, if the open lines of communications cease, we need to act expeditiously,” said the attorney. “That’s essentially the way it’s being drafted right now.”
Councilman Robin Palmer said he felt that the Taylor Council should have “some ultimate say some-where.” He expressed concern that when big issues arise and citizens want them to do something, they can’t. “I see it’s not feasible, especially day to day, but if it gets bad enough, I feel like we should have some say,” said Palmer. “If a member of the community has some concerns and through some other independent way of looking at it decides it’s a valid concern, that’s worth looking into.” He said he felt that a couple of people should be assigned to look into the issue, realizing confidentiality needs to be upheld.
“Part of the problem with that is, it’s not our job to investigate personnel matters and legalities, it’s not our job,” explained the mayor.
Solomon reminded the council that if there was a personnel issue involving the Taylor town staff, they wouldn’t know either. “You hired the town manager to take care of that,” he said.
Gary Solomon spoke from the audience, asking Solomon to elaborate on an employee requesting an open hearing. The attorney responded that that issue was not on the agenda and could not be discussed, but he would talk to him after the meeting.
Mayor Cole said he felt it would make things better to cooperate than to sever the relationship.
Solomon reported that he is working with the Snowflake town attorney to try to temper some of the requests of Taylor into something that is going to be feasible, something that is going to work.
Solomon noted that when something has come up, Hall has consulted with him and Snowflake Town Manager Paul Watson has consulted with Duthie.
Mayor Cole asked Solomon to continue working on the revisions.
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