Libby approves new law enforcement agreement with county

At its April 17 meeting, Libby City Council voted to approve a new memorandum of understanding with the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office. The city council passed the memorandum unanimously, intending to ease the county's policing workload.

The county has aided the city's remaining police force, currently one officer, after the resignation of four officers and the departure of Chief Scott Kessel between November 2022 and April 2023. The new memorandum will supersede the last memorandum with the county, Mayor Peggy Williams said in the meeting.

"We have reached a point where they can no longer provide enough people. As summer comes in people want to take vacations," Williams said.

This memorandum will allow the county to continue to provide services to the city, Williams said.

During the public comment period, resident DC Orr asked the council how much the memorandum would cost the city. City attorney Dean Chisholm informed Orr the public comment period was not a question-and-answer period.

City Administrator Sam Sikes didn't provide figures, but said the city was still in line with the fiscal year 2022-23 budget.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office was trying to fill all of the city's shifts with overtime shifts, Sikes said.

"Time off is very important," Sikes said. "You can only put so much overtime on people before they literally burn out."

The county already has people on patrol, Sikes said. So, instead of paying one person complete overtime, the city will pay a wage increase for two county officers who will serve both the city and the county, Sikes said.

If the county officers need to respond to a case in the city, they must see it through to the end like a city officer would, Sikes said. When an officer is called out of the city, then they would coordinate to make sure someone replaced their patrol route, Sikes said. Still, the new system means the city will not have an officer who must always stay within the city limits, Sikes said.

"Since there are two people there, it's like they just lift the city limits," Sikes said.

To process the City of Libby cases, the officers will receive a $4 per hour raise, Sikes said. This is going to run through the end of June.

"At the end of the third quarter, March 31, the police budget was at 75% spent, which is exactly where it should have been," Sikes wrote in a recent email.

This memorandum may actually save the city a little money, Sikes said.

New police chief Cody Ercanbrack is tasked with hiring new officers.

"With the new chief coming in he will be working a little bit of overtime to get caught back up," Sikes said. "The chief is probably going to have a few hours of overtime and there are 40 hours of overtime allotted per year."

The city is unionized, but supervisory roles are not, which includes the Chief of Police. So, the chief will probably be using some compensation time, which accrues in vacation time, in addition to some approved overtime, Sikes said.

“He's got a lot coming into, rebuilding the force,” he said.

Sikes said there are about eight applications for police officers. Still, the city may try to re-advertise the position to find more individuals who are already certified as police officers, Sikes said. If the city could find certified officers, it could cut down the time between hiring an officer and that officer working in the community.

New officers must complete a 12-week program at the Montana Law Enforcement Academy in Helena.

In forming this plan, Lincoln County assisted the city and vetted it through the county attorney and other parties. The county looked at what other cities have done that are in Libby's same position, Sikes said.

"We can't say how much we appreciate the sheriff's office for all of the help they've given to the city. Shows you that law enforcement is there not for the county or for the cities, but they're here for the whole area, for all the citizens," Sikes said.