The Emporia City Commission signed off on a seven-member task force Wednesday that will study whether to merge the Emporia Police Department and the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department.
The proposal also requires county approval. The Lyon County Commission has received the proposal and was to vote on it today.
As outlined, the task force would consist of: Julie Johnson, city commissioner; Marshall Miller, county commissioner; Marc Goodman, county attorney; Dale Davis, former city commissioner and president and chief executive officer of Sauder Custom Fabrication, Phil Winter, former county counselor; Nathaniel Terrell, Emporia State University criminology and social psychology professor; and Paul Cassidy, mayor of Hartford.
Of the seven, only Winter and Cassidy live outside Emporia. Commissioner Ray Toso said he was concerned that non-Emporia residents didn’t have a greater presence on the task force.
“I would think we would want a little more input from the area,” he said.
Mayor Jim Kessler said the point was well taken.
“I’ve had more than one person say, ‘Make sure we have representation from outside the city,” Kessler said.
The group will have a $5,000 budget, half from the city and half from the county, to cover expenses. Toso said he’d like to see more details on those likely expenses.
“I’m not opposed and I’m not even sure it’ll be enough,” Toso said. “But typically, we don’t just give someone $2,500 and say ‘Here’s the money.’”
“It’s a little difficult to prepare a budget because we don’t know what we’re doing yet,” Johnson said.
The task force is tentatively scheduled to hold its first meeting before Feb. 21. It will be asked to consider whether to consolidate law enforcement, how the city and county would go about doing it, what the budget and tax impact would be and whether it would serve the public interest and provide “adequate and reasonable” police protection.
johnsie (anonymous) says...
Once again the rural area is left without a voice. I don't know who the gurus were who actually picked this task force to study law enforcement consolidation. But I guarantee you the rural taxpayers aren't going to get their $2500 worth---as usual.
I would also like to see an expenditure sheet as this task force spends our $5000.
February 8, 2007 at 7:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )