Sheriff’s squad car at accident site.
The McHenry-Lake County Village of Port Barrington and the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department have apparently renegotiated their deal for the Sheriff’s providing police protection.
It must be cheaper for the 1,500 person village to buy police protection than to operate its own police department.
The Finance and Audit Committee will consider a new intergovernmental agreement at its meeting.
The memo explaining the deal says,
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with the Village of Port Barrington in past years for police services.
The partnership was described as a special detail where deputies would voluntarily sign up for blocks of hours with the village to provide police presence and enforcement.
Deputies were paid directly by the village however, and the county was not receiving any support for overhead costs.
The current Sheriff has been working with administration and the SAO to renegotiate these arrangement to allow for administrative costs to be captured and for deputies to be paid through the county’s payroll system. These details will still be based on voluntary sign ups at a rate of $45 per hour.
In addition, the Village has agreed to pay the county a fee of $5,000 annually in tow [two] equal payments for administrative overhead.
The MCSO will bill the village based on actual hours worked on a monthly basis.
I am sure there are other small villages who contract with the Sheriff’s Department for police protection.
Perhaps readers can identify others.
$10K per year for administrative overhead?
Seems light unless the county is also getting a part of the $45/hr charged for the deputy.
Who’s paying for the car, the gas, the insurance, the WC?
Definitely a good deal all around for these smaller villages (and the rest of us who must drive through them) to have well-trained, professional law enforcement officers.
This is really nothing new as the county had contractual service policing back in the early 1970’s.
Back then it was directly through the sheriff’s office and additional deputies were scheduled (at straight time) to work all or a portion of their shifts in a designated village.
The county then recouped (hopefully) all their overtime and salary costs from the village that contracted for the services provided.
Oops!
Misread that.
$5K annually is REALLY light unless the county’s other fixed costs are being covered.
We should consolidate m ore but watch the costs.
Everyone said they want less government so why should every little town have its own police, fire, school district.
By using the county the tax base is uniform also.
Property taxpayers who are obligated to pay a percentage of their home value may be paying more, (orless) for identical services.
The crucial difference is that property taxpayers on the hook for that service’s taxing body havelegal liability for unfunded pensions accruing to that service organization.
For example, Lakewood.
Lakewood found Crystal Lake Fire and Rescue service ‘too expensive’, so they obtained a contract with Woodstock Fire and Rescue.
The latest published contract between Lakewood and Woodstock Fire and Rescue District showed a discrepancy between what Woodstock residents (obligatory payers into WFRD, and also obligatory funders of WFRD pensions) and Lakewood residents pay as a function of percentage of EAV (that is how it is calculated on the tax bills of obligatory funders.
Contractual payers–Lakewood residents– simply pay contracted fees without further pension obligation).
So by that metric, Woodstock taxpayers are subsidizing Lakewood taxpayers’ fire and rescue services.
Add to that the fact that Lakewood tif district will create an unfunded mandate to supply all needed (unspecified as yet) fire and rescue services to a build out area which is 1/3 the size of current Lakewood…Woodstock residents may be paying to obtain equipment, hire personnel, AND guarantee the pensions of those new hired personnel (Lakewood residents are not on the hook remember: they simply are obligated to pay only the contract fee).
Tif districts, as everyone knows, get all their services “for free” Tif district taxpayers pay their property taxes directly to the czars or czarinas of municipality in charge. The czarina may then GIVE the tax money to whomever she chooses.
Meanwhile, all other taxpayers who pay into Woodstock Fire And Rescue or Woodstock CUSD 200 Or Dorr Township, or MCHenry County, Or MChenry County Conservation District, Or McHenry County College, or the Library District will pay the freight for all the tif district properties to get theses services for free.
McCullom lake has their own police department with office staff and 2 patrol vehicles and around a dozen part time officers.
My mistake. I’ll take it out.
IMRF pension fund (county police) is less lucrative than downstate police pension fund (city / town / village).
There are some municipalities in Illinois that will either go bankrupt or restructure their pensions, if not technically allowed, they will flat out run out of money.
It’s just a matter of time.
They cannot kick the can forever.
But they can kick the can for an amazingly long period of time, longer than what’s typically possible in the business world.
Meanwhile, the McHenry County Conservation District has their budget approved by the McHenry County Board to INCLUDE THEIR OWN POLICE FORCE!!