September 9, 2012 West Haven misses sheriff's deadline By SCOTT SCHWEBKE Standard-Examiner staff sschwebke@standard.net WEST HAVEN — The city of West Haven is the only municipality currently contracting with the Weber County Sheriff's Office that hasn't approved a new agreement for continued law enforcement Seven other Weber cities accept new contract services. The deadline for cities to accept new contracts was Friday, said Weber Sheriff's Chief Deputy Klint Anderson. Washington Terrace, Huntsville, Uintah, Plain City, Marriott-Slaterville, Farr West and Hooper have agreed to new contracts, either verbally or in writing, Anderson said. The municipalities don't have their own police departments. The sheriff's office also serves unincorporated areas of Weber County. The new contracts will take effect July 1 and will be good for five years, Anderson said. Washington Terrace will realize the greatest savings among the municipalities and will pay the sheriff's office $780,981, a $53,274 reduction from its current contract. West Haven would have seen the greatest increase in its contract with the sheriff's office, going from $354,100 to $844,837. It's unclear what West Haven officials plan to do to provide law enforcement services for residents when its current sheriff's office contract expires, Anderson said. Without a contract, sheriff's office personnel will be limited to responding to only crimes in progress in West Haven. "We are disappointed they haven't contracted with us," Anderson said. West Haven Mayor Brian Melaney did not return a call from the Standard-Examiner seeking comment on the sheriff's office contract. Weber County Sheriff Terry Thompson declined to discuss West Haven's missed deadline for approving the new contract. However, Thompson said in a letter last month to the mayors of the eight municipalities that the sheriff's office has been working for more than a year in developing the contracts. "Over the last 15 months, we have worked with our contract city elected officials to explore the ethical and legal principles of law enforcement service, while trying to maintain the effectiveness and efficiency of these services to our contract cities and unincorporated areas of the county," Thompson wrote in the letter. "Our existing budget.was analyzed in an effort to reevaluate how the costs could be more equitably borne by the recipients of sheriff's office law enforcement services." Thompson also told the Standard-Examiner in July that contracts with the eight municipalities have been adjusted slightly over the last decade but haven't kept pace with service costs, population increases and a reduction in grant funds. The unincorporated areas of Weber County and the eight contract cities consume about half of the agency's services, primarily in patrol and investigations, while providing only a quarter of the funding, Thompson has said. Currently, Weber County residents who five in cities with police departments pay for local law enforcement through municipal taxes and the sheriff's office services through county property taxes. However, residents who live in unincorporated Weber County and the eight contract cities pay only for sheriff's services. Some communities pay a larger amount for sheriff's services than others on a per taxpayer or per capita basis, Thompson has said. Under state law, only those services that the sheriff's office provides to all residents should be paid by all taxpayers, he has said. The proposal for the eight contract cities and unincorporated Weber County includes a cost formula based on each municipality's population and an 18-month call history. The proposal also calls for the county to take less in property taxes from all county residents. For example, the owner of a $200,000 home would get a $24 county tax reduction annually. Although taxpayers in the eight cities that contract with the sheriff's office would have a decrease in county property taxes, they may see an increase in city property taxes based on the decisions by their city officials, Thompson has said. 83