The Marshall County Commissioners considered the intergovernmental agreement between Planning Director Ralph Booker and the City of Plymouth when they met Monday morning.
For years, the county has had an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Plymouth. The Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety recently agreed to a contract where the county would be paid a certain amount for six months in 2018 and Booker paid another amount for the same six months in 2018 for services rendered. Booker is anticipating retirement from his county position in June of 2018 and following that the entire amount would go to Booker as he tentatively plans to stay with the city as the plan director. The Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety members approved that agreement.
Taking into consideration the comments made during last week’s county council meeting concerning the need for more code enforcement, Commissioner Kurt Garner made a motion to approve the contract for the first quarter with an evaluation period to follow with the option of continuing with the contract in the second quarter. Garner was quick to say that he doesn’t believe that Booker’s work is lacking in code enforcement, but he thought that an evaluation might alleviate concerns.
Booker stated that he assists all towns within Marshall County as part of his job, but the City of Plymouth is the only entity with which there is a contract.
The amendment to the contract was approved by a vote of 2-1 with Commissioner Mike Delp and Commissioner Kurt Garner voting yes and Commissioner Kevin Overmyer voting no. Overmyer stated that the county needs to start the process of looking for new direction and begin advertisement for the position.
