Wording difference bumps police services contract

A contract between Grand Coulee and Electric City for police services has been stalled and won’t be resolved until early 2016.

Grand Coulee’s city council voted Dec. 22 to extend its current contract, which expires Dec. 31, until new language, inserted since the council committees agreed on the new two-year contract, can be adjusted. The two council committees had a handshake agreement early in December, but after that agreement attorneys had inserted language that the two parties hadn’t yet agreed on.

Just a formality, members of the Grand Coulee council asserted.

One suggested that the two city attorneys work out any language differences so the process can be accelerated.

The contract period is for two years with the provision that the two cities would begin negotiations for any extension on Jan. 1, 2017, a full year before the contract expires. The 2016 contract is for $125,000 with a cost-of-living adjustment in 2017 of not less than 2 percent, and not more than 5 percent.

Electric City’s next city council meeting is Jan. 12.

Electric City had earlier agreed to contract for police services with Coulee Dam, then later in the year changed its mind and returned to the negotiating table with Grand Coulee.