Othello approves new court contract with Adams county

OTHELLO — The Othello City Council voted unanimously on Monday to renew the city’s current District Court contract with Adams County.

The contract, which expires in 2022, will cost the city roughly an additional $70,000 per year, and crease this year’s payment to the county to handle misdemeanor cases to $160,000.

The arrangement is expected to cost the city $168,000 in 2021 and slightly more than $174,000 in 2022.

“State law puts the burden of paying for misdemeanor crimes on the city,” Police Chief Phil Schenck told council members during an online meeting Monday. “We’ve contracted with Adams County for years, worked on this contract for years, and fought long and hard to get a contract which is agreeable.”

Mayor Shawn Logan said the contract renewal was needed since Othello cannot afford to create its own district court given the complexity and costs involved.

“We could not put our own court together in three months,” Logan said. “Even a year would be a stretch.”

The contract also requires 12 months’ notice by either party if they wish to terminate the contract before it expires at the end of 2022. Schenck told council members the lead time is needed because district court judges are elected and must be paid through the end of their terms even if the court district they preside over has ceased to exist.

“The judge doesn’t go away if we decide to leave,” Schenck said.

“It looks good compared to where we were,” said council member John Lallas, who was involved in the negotiations with the county over the court contract.

The council also reviewed revenue projections for 2021 as part of the city’s upcoming budget, which must be approved by the end of December.

The city is expecting 2021 general fund revenue of $5.6 million ($4.7 million in taxes), $504,000 into the public safety fund, $1.1 million for the street fund, $4.5 million for the water fund ($3.6 million from fees charged to city residents), $2.8 million for the sewer fund and $1.6 million for the solid waste fund (nearly all of that from user fees).

According to Finance Director Spencer Williams, while the figures are “a guess,” they reflect a very conservative estimate of city revenue.

“We don’t have a lot of control over revenue, not like expenses. We can always cut those,” Williams said.

However, the city finds itself facing a unique situation of being able to fund every one of its “red zone” desires – things the city would like to purchase with money left over after minimum fund balances are maintained – and therefore council members do not have to make any difficult choices as they craft the city’s budget.

Among the items the city is considering are $100,000 for a grant administrator, $10,000 for a drug-sniffing dog, $10,000 toward buying a van to transport members of the city’s Police Explorers program, $400,000 to line leaky concrete sewers, and putting aside $122,000 toward a new fire truck, bringing the amount in the fire truck savings account to around $600,000.

“The dog would be trained to help find drugs and in manhunts,” Schenck said. “It would be a pound dog, and they are often a beagle, a dog that likes to play. They find the drugs and they get to spend time with the ball.”

“If we’ve got the money, we should fund them,” said council member Genna Dorow.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].