The Plymouth Board of Works and Safety members discussed next year’s dispatch fee payment to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department.
Board Member Jeff Houin noted that he reviewed the contract that was approved in 2016 which set a dispatch fee for the city. Since that initial approval, Houin said the board has not reviewed the contract or made any amendments to the contract.
“I think it pretty clearly says that the payment we approved then is the contract amount,” stated Houin. “Any review has to include the City and any amendment to that has to be approved by the City. Since we’ve never approved that, my interpretation is that original fee is still in effect. It should have been in effect every year since.”
According to the contract, the city was to pay $127,987 in 2017 in dispatch and until the contract was amended by the city when discussed with the county. However, Houin said in 2018 the city paid $132,000 and in 2019 the city paid $158,111.
“The fee for 2020 should be $127,987 and we should get a credit for what we overpaid.”
City Attorney Sean Surrisi said it’s a good starting point for discussions.
“From the past couple of years with the increases – one way or another we do have representation on the advisory board and this board would have approved the payment of the claim when it was submitted for the invoice. So, someway the city has given its agreement to pay those past fee increases. As far as going forward, I would agree that we are definitely at a point where we need to do some investigation and figure out where we go from here.”
Other council members noted they’re not sure what formula is used to determine the breakdown of payments per municipality.
The board members voted unanimously to have City Attorney Sean Surrisi draft a letter to the sheriff’s department of the city’s interpretation of the contract in terms of the fee and the sheriff would need to approach the city with any amendments.
