The Emporia City Commission gave the go-ahead Wednesday to study combining the police and sheriff's departments.
The action does not commit the city to a merger. At a later date, the city and county will be asked to decide on the study group's membership, mission and budget.
The idea of consolidating the Emporia Police Department with the Lyon County Sheriff's Department has been suggested before, most actively in the 1970s. The current suggestion came out of a joint city-county committee charged with reviewing agreements between the two governments.
Although Commissioner Ray Toso voted to study the issue, he also said he thought the committee had overreached its original purpose.
"As I stated last week, the purpose of this committee was not to study city-county issues but to formalize agreements between the city and the county," Toso said. "And so far, I haven't seen a lot of what the committee was established for. ... In nine months, I would think we would have made some headway in formalizing these agreements. As far as I know, it's gotten nowhere."
Mayor Jim Kessler, a member of the committee, said the committee was formed to study the agreements and that the consolidation discussion arose in the course of that.
"It came up that this might be an opportune time," he said.
The members and process of the study group will be suggested by the committee, but final say rests with both commissions.
"The (committee) would like to put this issue to a 'blue-ribbon panel,' if you will, of individuals with expertise who can study consolidation, what it would take to do that and whether the governing bodies would want to be going ahead in that area," said City Attorney Blaise Plummer, another committee member. "This is to study, not to take action."
A small budget is possible, to cover expenses such as photocopying and stamps.
The issue was also discussed by the Lyon County Commission during the day Wednesday and a vote on the study group was expected to take place during Thursday's business meeting.
In other action:
-- The city approved a budget proposal for left turn lanes at 15th Avenue and Industrial Road that set the city's costs at $180,000. The Kansas Department of Transportation has committed to pay 90 percent of the construction costs, up to $540,000. City Engineer Keith Beatty said he was trying to get the whole budget set now, rather than get it approved piecemeal and have it come in higher than expected. The project will start in 2009.
-- Commissioners approved a change order to use 18-inch pipe in a right-turn lane project at 15th and Industrial instead of 15-inch pipe for an additional cost of $1,117. The discrepancy was due to a design error, Beatty said.
-- A bid to realign Dolly Madison's entrance to Industrial Road was awarded to APAC-Kansas Shears Division at $38,471. With administrative and other costs, the total budget for the project is $43,000. The realignment is meant to keep trucks leaving Dolly from running across the path of cars turning into the Flinthills Mall.
-- Two public seminars on tax-increment financing and transportation development districts will be held by the city on Tuesday at Flint Hills Technical College. The seminars will start at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. with the same content at each. TIFs and TDDs are indirect incentives that can be used to recruit new businesses or help existing ones.