Mayor Ryan Miller.

The Wellman city council approved a law enforcement contract with the Washington County Sherriff’s Department at a Tuesday, Feb. 16 meeting. The meeting was moved from Mon. Feb. 15 due to the observance of President’s Day.

The five-year contract calls for annual rate adjustments calculated by a new formula based on population and property valuations. The cost to the city for 2022 will be $94,675.

The previous contract was determined by the number of calls to the community and the cost of other essential services.

Mayor Ryan Miller said the new amount was very comparable to what the city had been paying under the previous agreement. The new contract starts with the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2021.

The Sheriff’s Department also contracts with Kalona and Riverside for law enforcement.

Concerning the new formula, County Sheriff Jared Schneider told council members that his department believed that the previous formula of basing the contract amount largely on calls was counterproductive.

Cities tended to price the contract by the number of calls for service, he said. In some cases, this might have discouraged residents from calling the sheriff’s department to lower law enforcement costs. Long-term, that would not produce a desirable outcome for the community.

Additionally, the law enforcement contract provides 24-hour service, every day of the year, not just when someone calls for help. The new formula reflects that level of service. The new formula is one that other Iowa communities of the same size are using, he said.

His department will add one deputy by July 1, Schneider said, and plans to add another in 2022. That would bring the total number of Sheriff’s deputies to 14.

Most Eastern Iowa counties provide 1.5 to 1.8 deputies per thousand population, he said. With a population of 14,500, Washington County currently fields less than 1 deputy per thousand residents.

Schneider told council members that his departmental cost of adding a deputy totals $130,000 when the expense of equipment and training is included.

A law enforcement contract with the county has many benefits for a small community when compared to the hire and maintenance of a city police force, Schneider said.

First, the county provides 24-hour, year-around protection which a city would find challenging with a small number of officers. Second, it relieves the City Administrator of personnel problems and retention issues. Additionally, the county absolves the city of liability concerns.

In other business, the city approved Wellman’s property tax levy for 2022 following a public hearing.