Cities accepted police contract

Electric City has finally agreed to a contract with Grand Coulee to provide police services.

Its city council voted 5-0 for the contract offer, even though some of the language was a bitter pill to swallow.

Then there was an ultimatum, the tossing of the gauntlet so to speak. Grand Coulee, tired of the document bouncing around because of language changes, told the folks at Electric City, essentially, take it or leave it.

Electric City was told that if the agreement wasn’t signed by March 1, forget it.

That didn’t sit well with council members, who debated whether to schedule another meeting before March 1, and try to iron out language in the “indemnification” section of the agreement.

It was argued that two members of the council had met with two members of the Grand Coulee and made an agreement, but after that the language had changed.

Council members tried to bring up how the language could affect the city, but didn’t get any support on that question.

That’s when Councilmember Rich McGuire said the council should move ahead, sign the agreement, and then work to get any language changed.

The agreement calls for police services for two years; the first year at $125,000, and the second including a cost-of-living adjustment not to exceed 5 percent.

Instead of waiting until January 2017 to start negotiating for a contract extension, Electric City will begin much sooner.

The old contract the two cities were operating under expired Dec. 31, 2015, but there was an agreement to continue under that contract until this one was signed.