A joint recess meeting of Pratt County and city officials on May 29 centered on completing an agreement for the Law Enforcement Center (LEC) and the staffing and budget for consolidated dispatch operations.

City and county representatives said they still expect construction and a facility move-in around the start of next year but that a final timeline and formal LEC agreement remain incomplete. Officials said the move-in date will be finalized after county and city staff produce computer-aided design drawings and complete bid-ready plans for the building.

The participants reiterated that the existing intent is for the city and county to share dispatch costs. Meeting remarks identified an agreement to split salaries (each paying roughly half), and that a commissioner from each jurisdiction would sit on the LEC board, which is intended to provide oversight for facility-level decisions. The group discussed using the city’s emergency communications board for technical and 9-1-1 funding matters while reserving LEC-level discussion for building- and cost-related decisions.

On staffing, officials said the draft 2026 budget does not include a full-time dispatch director. However, the meeting record shows that interviews are scheduled for the director position (one interview the afternoon of the meeting and three the following day). Attendees said the current dispatch staff is covering significant overtime and that bringing on an experienced, full-time director could change the mix of full- and part-time positions; one staff figure budgeted six full-time dispatch positions. The meeting also referenced an approved hourly cap of up to $20 for full-time employees as a budgeting measure while salary-setting discussions continue.

Officials cautioned that numbers in the draft budget reflect last year’s overtime and are therefore only an estimate. They said further conversations between county staff, the county sheriff and newly engaged personnel (identified in the meeting as Joe and others) are planned before the final LEC agreement is executed. The group said it will likely wait until the final agreement is ready before scheduling another joint meeting, with a target of mid-summer to review and execute the document.

The meeting produced no formal vote on the LEC agreement. The only recorded formal action during the session was a motion to adjourn the recess meeting, which passed by voice vote.

Meeting participants agreed to continue technical and budget discussions and to coordinate among the sheriff, the selected dispatch director and county and city leadership before finalizing the LEC operating agreement and related budget adjustments.