Village explores options as sheriff’s contract is up for renewal
By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
Rising labor and fuel prices has prompted a big-picture review of Rochester’s longstanding public safety contract with the Racine County Sheriff’s Department.
As the agency customarily does around this time each year, sheriff’s officials sent the village a proposal for the 2023 contract. If the village were to maintain the same terms as previously held, it would face a 13.61% year-over-year cost increase.
Rochester this year has a $115,701.34 contract with the department, which is flat to the amount agreed upon in 2021. Next year’s proposed contract clocks in at $131,445.14, representing a $15,743.80 rise in yearly comparisons.
Village Administrator Betty Novy in a memo provided an analysis of the proposed increase and its impact on the municipal budget.
Six years ago, the village and sheriff’s department inked a $109,463.19 contract. In the ensuing years, the amount had increased by low single-digit figures.
“The overall increase is 20.1% ($21,982), making the overall increase acceptable over time but hard to accommodate in one year,” Novy wrote in a memo of the six-year span of time.
Novy said there are some factors outside of Rochester’s control within the sheriff’s contract.
“Law enforcement labor costs are determined through contract negotiation and are non-negotiable at the village level,” Novy said.
To read the entire story see the Sept. 8 edition of the Waterford Post.
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